I just heard Marcus Spears give a very eloquent take on the rioting and on what he thinks black people need to do to elevate themselves. He said the way the rioters were acting was a low point in his life. It was on today's show so I couldn't find it on YouTube but its probably on the podcast. Starts with about 30 minutes left I'm the show. If anybody finds it please post the link or the video.
I dislike when people pontificate about what "black people need to do to elevate themselves" everyone is an individual and it should be looked at as such, but lets not pretend that the systems in place today are favorable for black people nor has the history of this country, I get tired of this magic stick people want to wave to forget that. Those issues and history set the people effected back, it was not equal footing and to magically believe people that is disingenuous. Now, this is no excuse of a lot of the behavior of black people, because a lot of it is self-inflicted and a lot of it is just not knowing any better from generational bullshit. I dont make excuses for ignorance, but I do try to help the ignorant.
For years, I laughed at the idea of cultural bias in standardized testing. However, as each Texas standardized assessment is ramped up and as the questions increasingly try to trick students into the wrong answers, I see that students without educated parents have a much disminished chance of passing said assessments (regardless of race; it's an educated parents vs. uneducated parents issue.) I have African-American and Hispanic students whose parents are college grads who do fine on standardized assessments. As the socio-economic status of the students at my school has evolved, our staff has studied generational poverty and its effects in great detail. One thing stands out to me strongly as a teacher. Children of poor, uneducated parents usually have fewer than 50 words a day spoken to them from 0-4 years of age. Thus, their language and speaking development is stunted greatly, and they are behind from the first day they walk into kindergarten. Educated parents speak thousands of words a day, even specifically talking to or reading to their infants, and it sets them forward on a path of educational success. Fast forward then to standardized assessments (which are the devil.) The child with the more developed language through their home environment is definitely more likely to pass an assessment that tests language skills. In Texas, even the math assessments are heavily reading based, and the test writers change up terminology from question to question. Well, that's not assessing math skills; it's assessing language skills, which puts certain populations of children at a disadvantage. Likewise, the reading assessments will be comprised of passages about travel and theater and the arts--things more privileged students have a far greater exposure to than their less affluent peers. And there it is...cultural bias, which leads to punitive measures "against" the students who fail assessments, which leads to at best an ambivalance towards education for these kids and at worst causing kids to give up on getting an education. Thus, the cycle of poverty isn't broken. And poverty is at the heart of most of the problems of the inner city.
I gotta tell you I didnt believe this before I had kids, but wow is this true. my 4 year old has been reading since he was 2 and is on a 3rd grade reading level and has been recommended for gifted and talented testing. Before he wouldnt talk much, but then I started reading with him every night and working with him before he was 2 and it was like magic, now I do the same with the 20 month old and he has started to talk non stop as before he would say a few words and not talk, they just have my personality in that regard. But I agree with everything you are saying.
What I posted was probably not a very good description of the words and context of what Marcus actually said. But it was impressive and worth hearing no matter where you stand on the issue. Marcuus in no way tried to "elevate".himself. He spoke from his heart and was very real. Even though I rooted for him as a former LSU player I had no idea what he was like as a person until he started working for the SEC Network. He is very good as an analyst and has a somewhat humerous take but what he said last night increased my respect for him 1000%.
I watched this doc last night on HBO about a serial killer known as the Grim Sleeper. He murdered about 20 black women in South Central LA, the police knew there was a serial killer hunting black women, and didn't say anything about it until 20 years later. Had the first victim been a white woman you better damn well believe the police and media would have issued a warning. That's just an example.
That's just not true. The announcement of a serial killer was made back in 1985. At that time, there were thought to be as many as 3 different perpetrators, thus some difficulty in identifying victims as belonging to one specific killer. Not to mention, DNA testing was not a factor in connecting victims as it is today. He was called the Grim Sleeper precisely because so many years lapsed between killings. By 2007 when DNA testing was available, they were able to link a new killing to those from 1985. The people who tried to keep the task force private (which means the murders were being investigated BTW) were Dem Mayor Villar and Bill Bratton who has since "left". You know who was the mayor in LA in 1985? This isn't a racial issue. As with many serial killers of women, they prey on those who live and work on the streets....homeless and prostitutes and drug addicts. That is why police around the country are often slow to respond to potential serial murder cases, they are "throw away" citizens. You'd have been more accurate to claim misogyny.
So you are saying they did tell that community they believed there was a serial killer killing black women back in 85? What about the cops using the term NHI when a hooker or drug addict was killed? No human involved.
