Would it be different if race was reversed?

[RodandStaff]

There is no such thing as "reverse racism" just racism. MHO

Totally agree! As also there is no such thing as a Hyphenated American... just American! If we keep expounding on our differences.. we will never see the vast majority of common ground we do stand on...imo.

[mojack]

This is a beyond tragic story and hopefully justice will be served cold but I here you Mojack, there seems to be a misconception amongst some that every black on white crime is "race related". This is obviously not the case as you and I know. What's making these people scream racism in this case is a sociological misconception of the word "white boy" . In our society, many blacks and whites both ignorant and non ignorant don't view the term "white boy" as a racial slur, and if you do feel that it is a "slur" than you would at least have to agree that it's definitely the least disparaging of them. I would put the term "white boy" on par with the term "black guy" in the context of which they are majorly used. Example of common use would be......

- "man did you see that white boy play? He can really play"

- "did you see the new accounting exec?", "who Todd"? "No, that one black guy."

So having said that, I am not saying that this wasn't race related by any means but like Mojack, I feel imho that until an investigation is conducted and further evidence is revealed it's a little too early to deem this a hate crime based off the term "white boy" which is universally seen in many societies not be a racial slur.

Good day to all

Now that's more Solidlogic! Well said!!!

[tarsi]

No Mo its not the suit, its whats up top, and you're not wearing a hat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[uncirculd]

Totally agree! As also there is no such thing as a Hyphenated American... just American! If we keep expounding on our differences.. we will never see the vast majority of common ground we do stand on...imo.

Oh wow! Excellent! Well Said I would plus 10 to ya but only allowed to give 1. So true my friend. I don't see color. I see people.

[WorkerBee]

Now that's more Solidlogic! Well said!!!

Nope sorry, Solid's examples were in the third person. You don't walk up to a white child and say "Hey white boy" or to the gentleman in your office and say "Hey Mr. black man".

[mojack]

Flacid attempt at trying to manipulate the original intent....... just admit that if it was w on b...... this would have been in print, on the radio, on tv and on the web everywhere.... reverse discrimination is just as real and just as wrong as discrimination in what has become the classical sense. COME ON MOJACK...STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE PICTURE AND ADMIT THE FACTS...

News hits the national stage when there is an injustice like the Jenna 6 and whether the rape actually happened by the prominent Duke Lacrosse team. These are things you mentioned in your opening post!

Now I will stop beating around the bush and tell you how the cow chews the cabbage; some folks, like yourself, are very quick to incite reverse discrimination to make a point because they have real racial issues. Not saying you don't have non-white friends etc...

Summing it up Stoney, admit to the that fact your mind has settled on an allegedly black on white crime to what may, or may not be, a racially motivated story, without first of all a suspect or an investigation, in order to create a stir that there's an injustice that national media does not cover a story you have decided as racially motivated .... Long sentence!!!! Well that's ludicrous!

Police report narrative states: "This is what you get", Mom may have added "white boy". Heck, kid may have toyed with the gas can! Find the suspects, find the answers.

I'm cautious because of stories like the black guy in Boston - shooting of a pregnant lady, the Charles Stuart story.

Nope sorry, Solid's examples were in the third person. You don't walk up to a white child and say "Hey white boy" or to the gentleman in your office and say "Hey Mr. black man".

W O R K E R B E E - Are you serious --- of course you don't! Solidlogic did not state it that way - please re-read him.

[caz1104]

Mojack-all of your points and references are well taken. To me the bigger picture is why is'nt it a bigger story? The truth will come out in time.The media picks and chooses then monopoizes on stories such as these, and yes usually even more so if a minority is the victim,they could care less about the truth at this point. The PC society we live in also comes into play with the possibility of the black on white hate crime. I hate to say it but it's true

[tarsi]

Mo.... plus 999.9 am I allowed to do that, oh well lets don't and just say we did you know a bit of cabbage, is good for the heart, you know it has a way of cleaning the arteries, maybe some LOVE can flow.... but man you make me want to jump and shout... whew!!!!!!!!! think I'm going to lay down for awhile MOJACK you are something else my man LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WorkerBee]

W O R K E R B E E - Are you serious --- of course you don't! Solidlogic did not state it that way - please re-read him.

Maybe you should reread what he wrote, I think my comprehension skills are still in tact. He is saying it's okay to use them when referring to someone. It is not okay to okay to use "white boy" or "black guy" when you are speaking to that person. That's insulting. But, I guess if you are going to set that person on fire, the insult will be the least of their worries.

Edited March 7, 2012 by WorkerBee

[solidlogic]

@ Workerbee....

Workerbee, that is not what I wrote at all. I wrote that it is a common fact in our society and many others that people use those terms in a non racist way. I agree it would be insulting to simply walk around calling people "white boy", "black guy" etc. regardless of context, but that's not how I presented my example by any means. Good day.

[tarsi]

You people have got to be kidding me, reverse racism, oh you mean like being forced to ride in the BACK of the bus, oh I know much like being forced to go to the back door of a public resturant and beg for a meal. No I know what you mean like not being able to drink from a WATER fountain that a white person drinks from, I'll bet its just like being HUNG from a tree just becuase they thought you looked a white woman in the eyes............... reverse racism, you people are a joke, a couple of decades of making you share, and all you can do is whine and cry about reverse racism give me a break grow up I know your not used to having to share or respect others rights as well but trust me you got a long way to go before you can earn the right to complain, no fun feeling discriminated against is it, well like you all are so quick to throw out trust forget about it and move on its no big deal................. NOT that easy is it?

[caz1104]

You people have got to be kidding me, reverse racism, oh you mean like being forced to ride in the BACK of the bus, oh I know much like being forced to go to the back door of a public resturant and beg for a meal. No I know what you mean like not being able to drink from a WATER fountain that a white person drinks from, I'll bet its just like being HUNG from a tree just becuase they thought you looked a white woman in the eyes............... reverse racism, you people are a joke, a couple of decades of making you share, and all you can do is whine and cry about reverse racism give me a break grow up I know your not used to having to share or respect others rights as well but trust me you got a long way to go before you can earn the right to complain, no fun feeling discriminated against is it, well like you all are so quick to throw out trust forget about it and move on its no big deal................. NOT that easy is it?

So these are things that happen to you......................still? Where? cause I sure as heck don't want to visit there. Now if your talking about the past,then ok thanks for info that is pretty much common knowledge. What does that have to do with today? Racism is color blind

Edited March 7, 2012 by caz1104

[0722]

Tarsi...........I am happy for you that somehow , in your mind, you have earned a poind of flesh for the past.

But that gets us no where.

Bottom line is there is duplicity in this.

your diatribe shows it cyrstal clear.

Somehow you have confused right and wrong and are wondering in the weeds of "payback"

While Mojack and I disagree on our interpetation of this........at least he had not played the forty acres and a mule card.

[tarsi]

Again as I stated you all are so quick to want to bring up forget the past...................... BUT YOU are the ones that continuesly brings it up, go back and read the post this was started on REVERSE RACISM and now who keeps bringing up the past, what this was was a very unfortunate incident that appears to have happened. By some stupid individuals to WHAT APPEARS at this point to be a innocent kid (which of course like Mojack tried to point out) we won't know until an investigation is completed, but he was attacked and NEG'd for speaking such......................... REMEMBER stonwall and others calling it REVERSE DISCRIMINATION and calling it BLACK on WHITE crime............ again like I said you people are a joke and want to cry leave the past in the past when its convienint for you, WELL STOP BRINGING IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every chance you get like you say THE PAST IS THE PAST its not like it used to be when you BRING it others will DEFEND and RESPOND, thats usually what happens IN TODAYS society others don't have to sit at the back of the bus anylonger and keep quiet FREEDOM OF SPEECH goes both ways now as much as you all hate to accept that but thats the way it is, so don't make an issue when there isn't one and then expect not to get a rebuttal. Because lets make one thing very clear I didn't bring up the past I just responded to your thinking, I know you all hate the fact that i have that right now but like you so often like to say GET OVER IT.

[caz1104]

Again as I stated you all are so quick to want to bring up forget the past...................... BUT YOU are the ones that continuesly brings it up, go back and read the post this was started on REVERSE RACISM and now who keeps bringing up the past, what this was was a very unfortunate incident that appears to have happened. By some stupid individuals to WHAT APPEARS at this point to be a innocent kid (which of course like Mojack tried to point out) we won't know until an investigation is completed, but he was attacked and NEG'd for speaking such......................... REMEMBER stonwall and others calling it REVERSE DISCRIMINATION and calling it BLACK on WHITE crime............ again like I said you people are a joke and want to cry leave the past in the past when its convienint for you, WELL STOP BRINGING IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every chance you get like you say THE PAST IS THE PAST its not like it used to be when you BRING it others will DEFEND and RESPOND, thats usually what happens IN TODAYS society others don't have to sit at the back of the bus anylonger and keep quiet FREEDOM OF SPEECH goes both ways now as much as you all hate to accept that but thats the way it is, so don't make an issue when there isn't one and then expect not to get a rebuttal. Because lets make one thing very clear I didn't bring up the past I just responded to your thinking, I know you all hate the fact that i have that right now but like you so often like to say GET OVER IT.

Sad response and proves the point of the original post. Crying wolf when convienent and a blind eye when it does'nt fit your agenda. Hate sadly is a part of life but throwin fuel on the fire sure as heck does'nt help. I respect Mojack for at least trying to see both sides of an argument. Best to all

[solidlogic]

Again as I stated you all are so quick to want to bring up forget the past...................... BUT YOU are the ones that continuesly brings it up, go back and read the post this was started on REVERSE RACISM and now who keeps bringing up the past, what this was was a very unfortunate incident that appears to have happened. By some stupid individuals to WHAT APPEARS at this point to be a innocent kid (which of course like Mojack tried to point out) we won't know until an investigation is completed, but he was attacked and NEG'd for speaking such......................... REMEMBER stonwall and others calling it REVERSE DISCRIMINATION and calling it BLACK on WHITE crime............ again like I said you people are a joke and want to cry leave the past in the past when its convienint for you, WELL STOP BRINGING IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every chance you get like you say THE PAST IS THE PAST its not like it used to be when you BRING it others will DEFEND and RESPOND, thats usually what happens IN TODAYS society others don't have to sit at the back of the bus anylonger and keep quiet FREEDOM OF SPEECH goes both ways now as much as you all hate to accept that but thats the way it is, so don't make an issue when there isn't one and then expect not to get a rebuttal. Because lets make one thing very clear I didn't bring up the past I just responded to your thinking, I know you all hate the fact that i have that right now but like you so often like to say GET OVER IT.

Friend, all respect, but it wouldn't hurt you to mellow out a bit. We aren't in Jim Crow anymore. Yes there is still racism, but sadly there will most likely always be racism or some form of bigotry. In 100 years when we are all beige we'll probably bicker over hair/eye color/ or some other mundane difference, thats just human nature (thus far). That's of course just an opinion, but what is fact is that racial equality has progressed dramatically from the situations you keep bringing up. We have a bi racial president which speaks volumes about the overall sentiment. In 50 years the national population is going to look drastically different and whites may very well become a minority. Racism is racism, no guilt should be attached, and we all have a right to and should speak out against it.

[stonewall67]

News hits the national stage when there is an injustice like the Jenna 6 and whether the rape actually happened by the prominent Duke Lacrosse team. These are things you mentioned in your opening post!

Now I will stop beating around the bush and tell you how the cow chews the cabbage; some folks, like yourself, are very quick to incite reverse discrimination to make a point because they have real racial issues. Not saying you don't have non-white friends etc...

Summing it up Stoney, admit to the that fact your mind has settled on an allegedly black on white crime to what may, or may not be, a racially motivated story, without first of all a suspect or an investigation, in order to create a stir that there's an injustice that national media does not cover a story you have decided as racially motivated .... Long sentence!!!! Well that's ludicrous!

Police report narrative states: "This is what you get", Mom may have added "white boy". Heck, kid may have toyed with the gas can! Find the suspects, find the answers.

I'm cautious because of stories like the black guy in Boston - shooting of a pregnant lady, the Charles Stuart story.

W O R K E R B E E - Are you serious --- of course you don't! Solidlogic did not state it that way - please re-read him.

Let me stop beating around the bush...... The day after the Duke lacrosse team was targeted, the story was all over national news.... yet, this story has not made national news in any way shape or form..... I am not saying that the 2 black kids involved are guilty..... I am not saying that this is without a doubt a hate crime... Both of those accusations would be premature at this point and we need to let it play out in the courts..... MY PREMISE IS THAT HAD THIS BEEN 2 WHITE KIDS SETTING A BLACK KID ON FIRE....... IT WOULD BE ON EVERY NETWORK IN AMERICA AD NASEUM!!!!!!!! My attempt is to get folks like yourself to see things from another prespective...... As for having non-white friends..... Let's see..... my college roomate and best man at my wedding.... my co-leader in bible study.... my small group study on wednesday nights are made up of 3/4 black teen boys.... I could go on..... Racist I am not.... Realist I am....

[stonewall67]

You people have got to be kidding me, reverse racism, oh you mean like being forced to ride in the BACK of the bus, oh I know much like being forced to go to the back door of a public resturant and beg for a meal. No I know what you mean like not being able to drink from a WATER fountain that a white person drinks from, I'll bet its just like being HUNG from a tree just becuase they thought you looked a white woman in the eyes............... reverse racism, you people are a joke, a couple of decades of making you share, and all you can do is whine and cry about reverse racism give me a break grow up I know your not used to having to share or respect others rights as well but trust me you got a long way to go before you can earn the right to complain, no fun feeling discriminated against is it, well like you all are so quick to throw out trust forget about it and move on its no big deal................. NOT that easy is it?

Did these things happen to you personally Tarsi??? Did you have to ride in the back of the bus, did you have to find a different water fountain? I have a sneaking suspision that you are propbably a mid 30's or under guy who NEVER faced any of this....... The Nazi's persecuted my family and my people, maybe I should take the same stance you do against all Germans...... Oh wait, they didn't do that to me personally, just to my grandparents and although what they did to them was horrific and wrong...... Life goes on and hate destroys so why let hate destroy me????? Grow up and stand on your own!!!

[pureau79]

i dont think you have to bring race into it. my question is...why has it not been picked up by other papers country wide? it happened here in florida and it was in the news for quite a while. things like this make me think that an uninhabited island should be found and drop people like this on it with no means of escape. let them fend for themselves instead of them getting food and shelter in the current prison system.

...but the point is that race IS injected into every circumstance where the crime is perpetrated against a black American by a white American. It is also the case that any crime against a woman, a homosexual, a transgender, or some other politically correct group is dubbed a hate crime, but here you have a clear-cut case of a racially motivated act and the media sweeps it under other headlines. The teenagers responsible allegedly stated that the boy got what he deserved because he's white. We do not know if this is true but it would not have mattered to a media run amok if it had been white on black. This is the society we live in; one where a select groups crime is justified because of the past. To hell with that! Two wrongs don't make right and truth is truth...

Wake up America, before it's too late.

[pureau79]

Again as I stated you all are so quick to want to bring up forget the past...................... BUT YOU are the ones that continuesly brings it up, go back and read the post this was started on REVERSE RACISM and now who keeps bringing up the past, what this was was a very unfortunate incident that appears to have happened. By some stupid individuals to WHAT APPEARS at this point to be a innocent kid (which of course like Mojack tried to point out) we won't know until an investigation is completed, but he was attacked and NEG'd for speaking such......................... REMEMBER stonwall and others calling it REVERSE DISCRIMINATION and calling it BLACK on WHITE crime............ again like I said you people are a joke and want to cry leave the past in the past when its convienint for you, WELL STOP BRINGING IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every chance you get like you say THE PAST IS THE PAST its not like it used to be when you BRING it others will DEFEND and RESPOND, thats usually what happens IN TODAYS society others don't have to sit at the back of the bus anylonger and keep quiet FREEDOM OF SPEECH goes both ways now as much as you all hate to accept that but thats the way it is, so don't make an issue when there isn't one and then expect not to get a rebuttal. Because lets make one thing very clear I didn't bring up the past I just responded to your thinking, I know you all hate the fact that i have that right now but like you so often like to say GET OVER IT.

So... Do you intend to say that because black Americans suffered social injustice that white Americans don't have a legitimate claim to decry an equally unjust circumstance? Is it your contention that we should sit down and shut up because we're now getting what we deserve? Are you truly so shallow? Wrong is wrong. I have never personally hated another person because of race, but every time I see or hear of someone attempting to justify bad behavior by a terrible past it makes me wrestle with negative emotions because no matter what happened in the past to anyone it still very simply comes down to individual responsibility. One is not a product of circumstance, but one is a product of choice and an individual refusal to do the right thing because it is right.

[mojack]

Let me stop beating around the bush...... The day after the Duke lacrosse team was targeted, the story was all over national news.... yet, this story has not made national news in any way shape or form..... I am not saying that the 2 black kids involved are guilty..... I am not saying that this is without a doubt a hate crime... Both of those accusations would be premature at this point and we need to let it play out in the courts..... MY PREMISE IS THAT HAD THIS BEEN 2 WHITE KIDS SETTING A BLACK KID ON FIRE....... IT WOULD BE ON EVERY NETWORK IN AMERICA AD NASEUM!!!!!!!! My attempt is to get folks like yourself to see things from another prespective...... As for having non-white friends..... Let's see..... my college roomate and best man at my wedding.... my co-leader in bible study.... my small group study on wednesday nights are made up of 3/4 black teen boys.... I could go on..... Racist I am not.... Realist I am....

Not asking you to qualify yourself Stoney, I also have skin in the game; wife, in-laws, other relatives and other associates.

Putting a pugnacious spin on these types of subjects only incite thoughts of racism. Frankly, I don't know if you can cite the complete timeline of the Duke incident in order to make these accusations.

That's why Tarsi have such a strong reply to your expression of reverse racism. If it's not mentioned, it's a mute situation and people will focus on the suspects instead. Freedom of speech affords you the privilege but you'll have to prepare for rebuttals, both strong and weak. A Note: When racism is mentioned, some blacks can't help but to reflect of the very bad times first! We are the first generation of blacks since the civil rights laws! Think about it - FIRST! Actually born a few years prior, so we do have some colorful memories. (No pun intended)

Understand the procedures of the broadcasting media and you'll find the answers you pretend to seek. I had to say pretend because you're imminent on the study of B on W crime.

Edited March 7, 2012 by mojack

[stonewall67]

Understand the procedures of the broadcasting media and you'll find the answers you pretend to seek. I had to say pretend because you're imminent on the study of B on W crime.

No pretend....here's my summation: We have cowed down to the victim mentality to such an extent here in this country that we have in fact done an injustice to those who are claiming victim status. My premise is the same as before..... Liberalism and PCism have done more damage to hold down the Black American over the last 40 years than Jim Crow did for the 60 prior...... As an small example of this, please read this article by Walter Williams:

The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year."

I graduated from Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High School in 1954. Franklin's students were from the poorest North Philadelphia neighborhoods -- such as the Richard Allen housing project, where I lived -- but there were no policemen patrolling the hallways. There were occasional after-school fights -- rumbles, we called them -- but within the school, there was order. Students didn't use foul language to teachers, much less assault them.

How might one explain the greater civility of Philadelphia and other big-city, predominantly black schools during earlier periods compared with today? Would anyone argue that during the '40s and '50s, back when Williams attended Philadelphia schools, there was less racial discrimination and poverty and there were greater opportunities for blacks and that's why academic performance was higher and there was greater civility? Or how about "in earlier periods, there was more funding for predominantly black schools"? Or how about "in earlier periods, black students had more black role models in the forms of black principals, teachers and guidance counselors"? If such arguments were to be made, it would be sheer lunacy. If white and black liberals and civil rights leaders want to make such arguments, they'd best wait until those of us who lived during the '40s and '50s have departed the scene.

Over the past couple of decades, I've attended neighborhood reunions. I've asked whether any of us recall classmates who couldn't read, write or perform simple calculations, and none of us does. Back in those days, most Philadelphia school principals, teachers and counselors were white. At Stoddart-Fleisher junior high school, where I attended, I recall that only one teacher was black, and at Benjamin Franklin, there might have been two. What does that say about the role model theory? By the way, Asian-Americans are at the top of the academic ladder, and, at least historically, they rarely experience an Asian-American teacher during their K-through-12 schooling.

Many black students are alien and hostile to the education process. They are permitted to make education impossible for other students. Their misbehavior and violence require schools to divert resources away from education and spend them on security, such as hiring school police and purchasing metal detectors, all of which does little for school safety. The violent school climate discourages the highest-skilled teachers from teaching at schools where they risk assaults, intimidation and theft. At a bare minimum, part of the solution to school violence and poor academic performance should be the expulsion of students who engage in assaults and disrespectful behavior. You say, "What's to be done for these students?" Even if we don't know what to do with them, how compassionate and intelligent is it to permit them to make education impossible for other students?

The fact that black parents, teachers, politicians and civil rights organizations tolerate and make excuses for the despicable and destructive behavior of so many young blacks is a gross betrayal of the memory, struggle, sacrifice, sweat and blood of our ancestors. The sorry and tragic state of black education is not going to be turned around until there's a change in what's acceptable and unacceptable behavior by young people. That change has to come from within the black community.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

What we now have are mass numbers of folks who think they are owed something...... We have removed accountability and we removed the drive to better one self because we fear the victim mentality and must remain PC...... The story of the white teen getting set on fire is just a small example of the larger problem....

Edited March 7, 2012 by stonewall67

[willy1der]

Again as I stated you all are so quick to want to bring up forget the past...................... BUT YOU are the ones that continuesly brings it up, go back and read the post this was started on REVERSE RACISM and now who keeps bringing up the past, what this was was a very unfortunate incident that appears to have happened. By some stupid individuals to WHAT APPEARS at this point to be a innocent kid (which of course like Mojack tried to point out) we won't know until an investigation is completed, but he was attacked and NEG'd for speaking such......................... REMEMBER stonwall and others calling it REVERSE DISCRIMINATION and calling it BLACK on WHITE crime............ again like I said you people are a joke and want to cry leave the past in the past when its convienint for you, WELL STOP BRINGING IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! every chance you get like you say THE PAST IS THE PAST its not like it used to be when you BRING it others will DEFEND and RESPOND, thats usually what happens IN TODAYS society others don't have to sit at the back of the bus anylonger and keep quiet FREEDOM OF SPEECH goes both ways now as much as you all hate to accept that but thats the way it is, so don't make an issue when there isn't one and then expect not to get a rebuttal. Because lets make one thing very clear I didn't bring up the past I just responded to your thinking, I know you all hate the fact that i have that right now but like you so often like to say GET OVER IT.

was an investigation completed when our president stuck his foot in his mouth which led to the "beer summit"? It made national news, they ran with it. How much did we see on the networks other than Fox news with the new black panthers waving a night stick calling white folks names tarsi? you and a few others would have a little more credability if you would comment on both sides of issues. the past brought up here have been recent issues which are very troubling to have this take place. as caz1104 stated, racism is color blind.

[mojack]

No pretend....here's my summation: We have cowed down to the victim mentality to such an extent here in this country that we have in fact done an injustice to those who are claiming victim status. My premise is the same as before..... Liberalism and PCism have done more damage to hold down the Black American over the last 40 years than Jim Crow did for the 60 prior...... Statistics PLEASE. As an small example of this, please read this article by Walter Williams:

The Philadelphia Inquirer's big story Feb. 4 was about how a budget crunch at the Philadelphia School District had caused the district to lay off 91 school police officers. Over the years, there's been no discussion of what has happened to our youth that makes a school police force necessary in the first place. The Inquirer's series "Assault on Learning" (March 2011) reported that in the 2010 school year, "690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were." The newspaper reported that in Philadelphia's 268 schools, "on an average day 25 students, teachers, or other staff members were beaten, robbed, sexually assaulted, or victims of other violent crimes. That doesn't even include thousands more who are extorted, threatened, or bullied in a school year."

I graduated from Philadelphia's Benjamin Franklin High School in 1954. Franklin's students were from the poorest North Philadelphia neighborhoods -- such as the Richard Allen housing project, where I lived -- but there were no policemen patrolling the hallways. There were occasional after-school fights -- rumbles, we called them -- but within the school, there was order. Students didn't use foul language to teachers, much less assault them.

How might one explain the greater civility of Philadelphia and other big-city, predominantly black schools during earlier periods compared with today? Would anyone argue that during the '40s and '50s, back when Williams attended Philadelphia schools, there was less racial discrimination and poverty and there were greater opportunities for blacks and that's why academic performance was higher and there was greater civility? Or how about "in earlier periods, there was more funding for predominantly black schools"? Or how about "in earlier periods, black students had more black role models in the forms of black principals, teachers and guidance counselors"? If such arguments were to be made, it would be sheer lunacy. If white and black liberals and civil rights leaders want to make such arguments, they'd best wait until those of us who lived during the '40s and '50s have departed the scene.

Over the past couple of decades, I've attended neighborhood reunions. I've asked whether any of us recall classmates who couldn't read, write or perform simple calculations, and none of us does. Back in those days, most Philadelphia school principals, teachers and counselors were white. At Stoddart-Fleisher junior high school, where I attended, I recall that only one teacher was black, and at Benjamin Franklin, there might have been two. What does that say about the role model theory? By the way, Asian-Americans are at the top of the academic ladder, and, at least historically, they rarely experience an Asian-American teacher during their K-through-12 schooling.

Many black students are alien and hostile to the education process. They are permitted to make education impossible for other students. Their misbehavior and violence require schools to divert resources away from education and spend them on security, such as hiring school police and purchasing metal detectors, all of which does little for school safety. The violent school climate discourages the highest-skilled teachers from teaching at schools where they risk assaults, intimidation and theft. At a bare minimum, part of the solution to school violence and poor academic performance should be the expulsion of students who engage in assaults and disrespectful behavior. You say, "What's to be done for these students?" Even if we don't know what to do with them, how compassionate and intelligent is it to permit them to make education impossible for other students?

The fact that black parents, teachers, politicians and civil rights organizations tolerate and make excuses for the despicable and destructive behavior of so many young blacks is a gross betrayal of the memory, struggle, sacrifice, sweat and blood of our ancestors. The sorry and tragic state of black education is not going to be turned around until there's a change in what's acceptable and unacceptable behavior by young people. That change has to come from within the black community.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

What we now have are mass numbers of folks who think they are owed something...... We have removed accountability and we removed the drive to better one self because we fear the victim mentality and must remain PC...... The story of the white teen getting set on fire is just a small example of the larger problem....

Okay - well that's a separate subject. I'm just short of saying all public schools have their own police force (predominantly White or Black).

I recall kids that couldn't read or write on their age level in the 70's and 80's and eventually dropped out. I'm sure he can't mean these things in a blanket manner. One stroke of a brush, one speech, will not suffice here!

There's no doubt that segregation negatively influenced black businesses from what I have read and stories I have heard. Competition became larger. Jim Crow economics had a large influence.

Edited March 7, 2012 by mojack

[stonewall67]

Okay - well that's a separate subject. I'm just short of saying all public schools have their own police force (predominantly White or Black).

I recall kids that couldn't read or write on their age level in the 70's and 80's and eventually dropped out. I'm sure he can't mean these things in a blanket manner. One stroke of a brush, one speech, will not suffice here!

There's no doubt that segregation negatively influenced black businesses from what I have read and stories I have heard. Competition became larger. Jim Crow economics had a large influence.

I don't find them to be seperate.... I find them both to be symptoms of the same desease...... As for "all public schools having their own police force".... Not so.... As a matter of fact, most schools do not.....

I will find more speeches to hlep drive my point home....