Wow...
Dayum, so am I the only person in favor of black schools with black teachers?
Some folks say that integration messed us black folks up big time...some folks believe that when we were educating our own, thangs were better...
Me, myself, personally, I attended black public schools in a black city from K - 12 - black mayor, black city council & school board, black neighborhood...the only white folks I knew before the age of 18 were teachers (and I had some EXCEPTIONAL teachers growing up). We didn't have a lot of resources. But I know a WHOOOLLLLEEEE lot more black history than most folks my age. Shoot, growing up, we used to sing this song about Martin Luther King that I thought ALL kids learned and grew up singing - I thought EVERYONE learned Black History and had Black History Month programs...until I went to college and my white roommate said, "I know that King was assassinated, but why is he famous -I don't really understand why he got a holiday". Me, from my ol' busted ghetto girl, gangsta, 90% black, 9% mexican, 1% samoan/tongan/islander public high school...I blew up the SATs in the 10th grade, had ivy league schools hunting me down in the hood and begging me to come be their token black girl (had to pass tho - as a Cali native, the idea of snow turned a sista off). The predominantly white school that I initially attended (before transferring to an HBCU) was the first time I had ever interacted with white people my own age. And guess what? I WAS SMARTER THAN ALL OF THOSE FOOLS. Because MY PARENTS had prepared me. When they didn't have a high enough level math at my junior high school, I went to the high school across the street for math. When I finished the highest level math at my high school by the 10th grade, I went to the local jr. college and took math...BECAUSE MY PARENTS WERE INVOLVED IN MY EDUCATION. And even tho I had grown up in a black city and been around black folks all my life, I KNEW about white america - it wasn't like I was disillusioned or anything. If anything, I felt even MORE prepared to deal with white devils AND THEIR PREJUDICES.
I'd prefer my kids, when I have them, to be in a black environment with black teachers and black students. I WANT MY KIDS TO KNOW THEIR PEOPLE AND KNOW ABOUT THEIR PEOPLE AND NOT BE AFRAID OF THEIR PEOPLE!!! Yeah, I know the world is not all black - of course I'd teach my kids that. But there is NOTHING I hate MORE than seeing a black kid who has been raised all around whites, is SCARED of black folks/black neighborhoods, and thinks that "there is no such thing as prejudice or bad white folks". "We're all created equal" (said in that "brotha white boy voice)...YECH!! THOSE are the ones who go off to college and out into the world and get teary eyed when they get called "n*gga" for the first time...they are the ones who have to figure out how to deal with the fact that LIFE and MANY WHITE FOLKS AIN'T FAIR...the RUDE AWAKENING that white folks will INVARIABLY look out for their own (if you disagree with this...phew...all I gots ta say is that if you plan to remain in the world of Disney b.k.a. "FantasyLand", STAY AWAY from corporate america!!!).
YEAH, WHITE FOLKS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING OUT FOR THEIR OWN - don't get it twisted. So why shouldn't we? I say we need black schools with as many black teachers as we can find for the black students. It's the same theory as HBCU'S - and since I've been to BOTH predominantly white institutions and the nation's top black college (Tuskegee), I am qualified speak on it.
(using my ghetto girl voice) CAN'T NOBODY TELL ME THAT MY BLACK PUBLIC SCHOOL AND HBCU EDUCATED AZZ AIN'T THE BRIGHTEST, BESTEST THANG ON THE BLOCK!!! And I'll beat E'REY ONE OF Y'ALL NEGROES IN JEOPARDY TOO...BALEEVE DAT!!! LOL!!
(getting serious again) I am also an advocate of public schools. My siblings and I graduated from a public high school with one of the worst reputations in LA, and ALL of us have post graduate degrees. IT'S NOT THE SCHOOL...IT'S THE PARENTS. And since I gots ta pay taxes anyways, my kids (when I have them), will be in PUBLIC SCHOOL. And I will be WRECKIN' on that public school too, er'y day if I have to.
Reading the responses to this post have been very enlightening...I honestly would have thought that more folks would be for same race/same sex schools. Interesting.
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