Modern day systemic racism, does it exist?

[Lost Witness]

black population was basically illiterate for 400 years.

The united states is only 246 years old?

 

[RDKirk]

You don't think that generation after generation of illiteracy had an effect on the kids/grandkids?

My grandmother was born in 1910, the grandchild of people who had been enslaved. She became a farm wife at the age of 15 with only an eighth grade education.

She had six children and taught them all how to read and do simple arithmetic before they started school.

In the late 50s, she taught me to read and do simple arithmetic before I started school.

I am at a wonder how schools can have custody of children for six hours a day, nine months a year, for 12 years...and don't manage to do with my grandmother using her eighth-grade education could do in a couple of months.

And to be sure, it only takes a couple of months for a native English-speaker to learn to read English. It's not that difficult.

So, why is there still illiteracy? It's not "systemic racism" because many black people learned to read even in slavery, even when it was illegal and they faced dire punishment. Racism was seriously systemic when my grandmother learned to read, and still seriously systemic when she taught her children and me to read.

It may be systemic incompetence in our education system. One writer, Frederick Pohl, asserted that the US has the kind of education system that a conquering nation forces upon its vassal states.

 

[rturner76]

The united states is only 246 years old?

Before we were states, we were colonies

 

[rturner76]

My grandmother was born in 1910, the grandchild of people who had been enslaved. She became a farm wife at the age of 15 with only an eighth grade education.

She had six children and taught them all how to read and do simple arithmetic before they started school.

In the late 50s, she taught me to read and do simple arithmetic before I started school.

I am at a wonder how schools can have custody of children for six hours a day, nine months a year, for 12 years...and don't manage to do with my grandmother using her eighth-grade education could do in a couple of months.

And to be sure, it only takes a couple of months for a native English-speaker to learn to read English. It's not that difficult.

So, why is there still illiteracy? It's not "systemic racism" because many black people learned to read even in slavery, even when it was illegal and they faced dire punishment. Racism was seriously systemic when my grandmother learned to read, and still seriously systemic when she taught her children and me to read.

It may be systemic incompetence in our education system. One writer, Frederick Pohl, asserted that the US has the kind of education system that a conquering nation forces upon its vassal states.

I think it's a factor

 

[RDKirk]

I think it's a factor

As I've noted a couple of times before, there are many factors that are just as significant affecting other than black people. We don't have a special excuse for being illiterate.

 

[Ana the Ist]

Probably because you likely don't care. I think you've demonstrated that.

When the proposed solutions involve creating obstacles for others....yeah, I care.

COuld be some do that and it could be that you have no answer for why black folks in general have a harder time.

That's a pretty general question.

So parents have nothing to do with child-rearing? If you have illiterate parents you are more likely to have illiterate children and the black population was basically illiterate for 400 years.

Uhhhh...no. The black population has not been illiterate for 400 years.

 

[rturner76]

Uhhhh...no. The black population has not been illiterate for 400 years.

It's not 400 years ago (Like the 1600's) It was 400 years of reading being illegal for black folks([unishable by death) and that had no effect on society?

 

[rturner76]

As I've noted a couple of times before, there are many factors that are just as significant affecting other than black people. We don't have a special excuse for being illiterate.

And I've noted that it is a factor even if it's among many like poverty of course. Poor people tend to be less educated and in the ghettos there is plenty of poverty.

 

[RDKirk]

And I've noted that it is a factor even if it's among many like poverty of course. Poor people tend to be less educated and in the ghettos there is plenty of poverty.

My black grandmother, an Oklahoma farm wife with an 8th grade education, in the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, right after the Tulsa Race Massacre, taught her children to read.

I don't mind calling her an outlier, but we're three generations beyond Jim Crow. Even though that transition has been gradual, the fact is that the perception of education as a worthy endeavor has decreased among black people since the 60s.

When I was a kid, the black intellectual was respected in the black community by both traditionalists and revolutionaries...both sides believed they needed intellectuals in their midst. Even black teenagers respected the smart kids.

That has changed today, and it's not white people who changed it.

 

[Ana the Ist]

It's not 400 years ago (Like the 1600's) It was 400 years of reading being illegal for black folks([unishable by death) and that had no effect on society?

It's not illegal for black people to read.

 

[rjs330]

You don't think that generation after generation of illiteracy had an effect on the kids/grandkids?

Why should it? Don't schools teach kids to read?

Who doesn't know anymore that reading and writing is a critical component to success anymore?

 

[rjs330]

Before we were states, we were colonies

Who's fault is it that black kids don't read these days? Are white people passing laws, rules, regulations against it? How long have black kids been attending schools now?

 

[rjs330]

It's not 400 years ago (Like the 1600's) It was 400 years of reading being illegal for black folks([unishable by death) and that had no effect on society?

It certainly did. Quite some time ago. But I believe it's been legal for quite some time now as well as black kids being able to attend school.

What's the reason today?

 

[Ken-1122]

So parents have nothing to do with child-rearing? If you have illiterate parents you are more likely to have illiterate children and the black population was basically illiterate for 400 years.

Not all black people were slaves ya know.

 

[rturner76]

It's not illegal for black people to read.

Right but don't you think that it being illegal for 499 years has possibly had an effect on the population?

 

[rturner76]

Who's fault is it that black kids don't read these days? Are white people passing laws, rules, regulations against it? How long have black kids been attending schools now?

Nope, they are just perpetuating and denying a racist system. You seem to like it.

 

[rturner76]

It certainly did. Quite some time ago. But I believe it's been legal for quite some time now as well as black kids being able to attend school.

What's the reason today?

You are not reading what I am saying. It is an effect from the past 500 years.

 

[rturner76]

Not all black people were slaves ya know.

Most in the south were.

 

[rturner76]

That has changed today, and it's not white people who changed it

I think that can be traced back to the single-parent issue but it was a setup from the beginning IMO.

 

[rturner76]

intergenerational trauma​

a phenomenon in which the descendants of a person who has experienced a terrifying event show adverse emotional and behavioral reactions to the event that are similar to those of the person himself or herself. These reactions vary by generation but often include shame, increased anxiety and guilt, a heightened sense of vulnerability and helplessness, low self-esteem, depression, suicidality, substance abuse, dissociation, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, difficulty with relationships and attachment to others, difficulty in regulating aggression, and extreme reactivity to stress. The exact mechanisms of the phenomenon remain unknown but are believed to involve effects on relationship skills, personal behavior, and attitudes and beliefs that affect subsequent generations. The role of parental communication about the event and the nature of family functioning appear to be particularly important in trauma transmission. Research on intergenerational trauma concentrated initially on the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of survivors of the Holocaust and Japanese American internment camps, but it has now broadened to include American Indian tribes, the families of Vietnam War veterans, and others. Also called historical trauma; multigenerational trauma; secondary traumatization.

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