If it ain’t White (Part II – Education)

Hello friends, where were we...oh yeah discussing the things in life that we now have access to, but are sucking ass at getting. Here we go, Education...

EDUCATION: There was a time when we were not allowed to read. We would be whipped or worse just for having a book and now Black people want to act like education is something to toss away! Do you know how many times as a pre-teen I was told I talked white because I spoke proper English? WTF is wrong with society when talking like you have some sense is equated with being white? So, essentially you Black person are saying, "Hey, if you sound like you have some sense you are talking white because us Blacks we no talk no good." Seriously did I say WTF already? This is like some psychic group low self-esteem we're talking about here when a race decides that being smart is something for other people and not us.

Here are the depressing stats:
· In 2005–06, less than half of all African American male students received diplomas with their cohorts.
· The rate at which African American males are dropping out and being placed in special education far exceeds the rate at which they are graduating and reaching high levels of academic achievement.
· The graduation rate for African American male students for the nation as a whole in 2005–06 was 47 percent. ****

So, less than half of black males never even graduate high school, no wonder the number of black males in college is abysmal! How abysmal? 28.2% of black males have an Associate degree or higher compared with 32.2% of black females.

The average rate for all races is 42.5%, for whites it is 54.1% Female/43.8% Male. As a whole males within each race/ethnicity are less likely to gain access to college, more likely to drop out of high school, and less likely to complete college than their female counterparts. In short, women are driving the college completion rate of the entire nation, and men are detracting from the ability of the nation to reach the goal of once again becoming the educational leader in the world.*****
As of 2008, only 41.6 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the United States had attained an associate degree or higher. More alarmingly, only 30.3 percent of African Americans and 19.8 percent of Latinos ages 25 to 34 had attained an associate degree or higher in the United States, compared to 49.0 percent for white Americans and 70.7 percent for Asian Americans. ****

In 2010 between the ages of 16 -24 there were a total of 12,423 students enrolled in college, of that number 1,721 were black. That means we make up 14% of the college going population. However we make up 20% of the total of those in that age range not in college.
Now, I'm not saying college is for everyone. For some it is not their thing and I hope that they are learning something through a technical school and/or entering the workforce.

SOULUTIONS: My main suggestion is mentoring. For the Black Males out there who do have a degree (and even those that don’t) mentor a young Black boy and stress to him the importance of education. Sadly, even in a majority Black area the number of Black male mentors is LOW. IMPO, I think a lot of Black men that are making moves think that they don’t have time to mentor, but by doing that you may in fact just save another Black man’s life. Mentoring is not only helpful to increasing the number of Black males that enroll in college, but in teaching the next generation how to be men. More black males end up in prison or dead (combined 42.5%) than enrolled in a two or four year College or University or even who go on to be in the workforce.


Researchers took note of the six pathways that minority males take after high school graduation. Some (33.4 percent of African American males ages 15-24) enroll in a two or four Year College or university, enlist in the armed forces (0.9 percent of AA males join the service), join the US workforce (21 percent). The rest are among the unemployed in the US (34.4) while an overwhelming percentage are sentenced to prison. Among 18-24 year-olds, 42.2 percent of the imprisoned are African American men while 29.7 percent are white. The final pathway African American males take after high school is death (0.3 young adult black males). ***



Next Week we'll be continuing the series with If it ain’t White Part III - Voting 


SOURCES:
*** http://www.huliq.com/10178/researchers-say-black-male-college-graduates-deserve-national-priority
**** http://naacp.3cdn.net/e5524b7d7cf40a3578_2rm6bn7vr.pdf
***** I didn’t say it; I’m just repeating it; take it up with them:  http://youngmenofcolor.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/downloads/EEYMC-ResearchReport.pdf