obviously i'll have something to say about this...

Boobie -- I guess my question is -- when do we start to expect more from the Whitlock's of this world? When do we start to hold their feet to the fire and say -- OK, we know you think a big problem is the "prison culture" and gansta rap -- we get it. How about now, instead of just writing about what's wrong, writing about how to make changes. Where do you start? Are these changes individual then collective or vice versa?

I think it is too easy to hail some of these columnists when they stir shit up and "make us think" but to me it is the height of irresponsibility if you spend your entire time pointing fingers and passing blame and never once say -- here is how we could go about starting to fix it.

That is much harder because it requires a lot more than a few cleverly constructed phrases to achieve.

 

We take children in poverty-infested neighborhoods riddled with crime, violence, gangs and hopelessness. Many of them come from homes where one or both of their parents don't give a shit, are strung out on drugs or have to work so many long hard hours just to make ends meet that they aren't able to be around in a supervisory role.

We add to that so-called community leaders, many of whom receive government grants for pscyho-babbling programs that are geared towards, well making sure they have enough clients, and they do their best to advance their agenda's by pushing school boards to make awful decisions about counseling and/or guidance programs as well as methods of discipline that aren't in the best interests of the kids.

They also find new and creative ways to make it damn near impossible for school's to discipline the really bad kids and/or hold kids accountable and you can just forget about finding ways to seperate the disruptive and or troublemaking kids, the drug dealer and gangbangers, because that's just racist or plain unfair.

We then add to that teacher's unions which have their own agenda, some of it good, some of it that's not in the kid's interests, and also making sure it is damn near impossible to raise the level of the bad teachers, even if it is by helping them out with more education and/or other forms of structured discipline.

We then add on top of all that the fact that many of the parents who do give a shit nowadays are convinced little Johnny is an angel and will burn up the phone lines to the principals in order to complain every time they feel like their child didn't get a fair shake or was "unfairly" disciplined or didn't receive the grade they "deserved".

We throw all this together and call it our inner-city school systems and then expect our teachers to have a fighting chance to succeed and criticize them when they don't?

I have to be honest with you --- that saying about making chicken salad out of chicken shit certainly applies here.

There are many reasons for our children's failures in education and in life, I don't consider teachers to be one of them.

 

So because you don't like the messenger, the message can't be worth anything?

Guess that pretty much renders any of your messages on these boards as worthless as Confederate money.

 

Your overinflated checklist of inner city problems aside, considering school crime in the inner cities have dropped year by year since the early 90's as well as graduation rates increasing steadily, I find a huge problem with many hard working kids who are handed their HS diplomas while being barley literate.

That has everything to do with the effort put forward by many of these so-called teachers.

 

i've been writing about changes. check aolsports.com. people aren't digesting them because they're so caught up in the fact that i questioned vivian stringer. i missed the memo that vivian stringer is more than just a typical basketball coach. i didn't know she was above criticism. does anyone have a copy of the memo that states vivian stringer is nelson womandela? i'd like to read it. did nabj nominate her for this position?

 

Why resort to hyperbole?

Exactly WHAT about Vivian Stringers words bothered you?

And please, if I want to hear about change in the African American community, it wouldn't be by anyone who admits to not following politics, writes poorly researched articles, and subscribes to talk show journalism.

 

Big Chee

The victimization and the dishonesty (players scarred for life, season ruined) bothered me greatly. The ranting about people not knowing the "Rutgers story" and how they rebounded from a 40-point loss and overcame "mighty Duke" or whatever. It was a mistake to parade the young women out to an hourlong press conference, especially one in which you were going to act like a 66-year-old shock jock had just set race relations back 100 years by uttering words that are common place in our community. The whole thing seemed staged and a grab for attention. It in no way came across as someone trying to improve an overall situation.

Again, I'd like to know what makes Vivian Stringer above criticism? She's a basketball coach, and I've yet to meet a coach who isn't attention starved.

 

There's a difference between criticism and legitimate criticism. You admitted to knowing little about her, yet summed up her character as being something less than stellar. To me and many of us in here, its that type of criticism that lacks merit smartguy, because its baseless.

Also, hearing the eloquence coming from the mouths of some of the African American members of the Rutgers basketball team was refreshing and a far cry from the Monique and New York's of the world that flood the media.

And you actually believe that was a mistake?

Incredible.

 

I got to Page 7 on this thread before I couldn't take anymore of this huge bitching fest. A few things I learned:

1) Jason likes getting attention. Nothing wrong with that, and once in a while, he'll stick his foot in his mouth doing so. It happens to everyone, so let's try not to make him out to be the most misguided journalist in the past 30 years.

2) Sportsbruh is a stupid clown that should save his comments and name-calling for the playground. Grow up, son. If you don't like the man, try to use grown-up tactics and a little tact.

3) Everyone has there own opinions on this whole Imus/Rutgers/Stringer fiasco. It seems like little in this saga was handled properly and no one will ever be satisfied with anything that comes out of it.

4) Publicly calling a fellow writer mediocre or average is treading on thin ice. Nothing wrong with expressing your opinions about your colleagues, but if you don't want to get roasted on an open fire for your comments, I'd try to phrase it in a way that most people would understand where I'm coming from.

I'm not jumping on the anti-JW bandwagon, Jason, just telling you what I think of all this. Enjoy the Royals!

 

Holy fucking shit. I'd never thought I'd see the day where I'd say that was a nicely written article by Screamin' A. The guy still is a bigger attention whore than JDV & Whit combined, but I thought that was a solid article.

 

i never summed up vivian's character. i wrote about what i thought of her handling of the imus situation... also, i was not amazed that a group of black college students knew how to speak proper english. i wasn't amazed by their "eloquence." i expected it. the black women i went to college with could all speak and write. i'm not trying to be sarcastic, but no one gave an "i had a dream" speech. all of this b.s. about how "eloquent" the players were is just that, b.s. they sounded like typical college students. what did you expect?... now i didn't get to see all of the question-and-answer segment. the last thing i remember seeing was one of the young women making the point that the meeting with imus "was important to the state of new jersey." i damn near fell out of my chair and wondered who had told these women that the future of new jersey was riding on their meeting with a shock jock.


can someone tell me why vivian stringer is above criticism?

 

she's not.