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It's been long understood that black boys are not doing well in the school system. A recent article by the New York Times shows that the situation is worse than previously thought. According to a study by the Council of the Great City Schools, black boys are in horrible shape when it comes to education. The New York Times laid out the following facts:
"Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys. Also, young white male students who are in poverty do as well as young black male students who are not in poverty. In high school, African American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys, and their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower. Only 5 percent of college students in 2008 were black men. At the same time, black men were incarcerated more than any other demographic group -- at 6.5 times the rate of white males."
Obviously, these results are alarming and another sad reminder of the state of affairs for black boys in the school system. If we don't find a way to save our black boys, we will never be able to save our black families. These boys who are not being educated by the school system grow up being unable to compete in our economy for jobs and opportunities. They are then more vulnerable to the mass incarceration problem, which plagues our nation, and are at risk of becoming unfit husbands or fathers.
Most of these boys are being raised by black women. Therefore, it is critically important that every black mother in America make it her duty to help protect and uplift her sons and the sons of others in a world that is designed to destroy them.
Also important is that black men be pressured into remembering the responsibilities that come with being good fathers. Having a pile of baby's mamas and not supporting your kids is unacceptable, and we all need to acknowledge that fact right now.
All the while, the mothers of these children must find more plausible and productive ways to open the door for fathers to be involved with their kids. This means accepting the idea that parenting is a partnership and not a dictatorship, as father's have rights too when it comes to raising their children.
Most of us know of at least one man who wants to be involved with his kids, but his kids are being made unavailable to him or the mother feels she has an overbearing right to dictate every aspect of the father's involvement. Enforced alienation of the other parent is just as bad as flat-out abandonment. Nobody's innocent in all of this.
At the end of the day, we have to take care of our boys as part of the village. That village is a place where our love and attention is critical, and protecting our children in a brutal educational system is an important part of our community's survival. Going to PTA meetings and parent-teacher conferences is a must.
Emphasize education to your children as much as possible. Set high standards and stop allowing our boys to grow up thinking that it's better to be a great athlete than to be a great scholar. We've all got to play a role in solving this problem and it starts with educating us all.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 
Comments: (126)
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By: Tired of Poor ME attitude on 11/10/2010 2:17PM
THANK YOU for not blaming it on White People.
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By: clarke on 11/10/2010 2:37PM
SHUT THE HELL UP DUMB ASS.
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By: tiredtoo on 11/10/2010 2:48PM
@clarke LOL!!!
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By: vdog on 11/10/2010 7:20PM
SISTAS who are raising boys need to pick up COUNTERING THE CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY BLACK BOYS by JAWWANZA KUNJUFU. He talked about this DISTURBING TREND and how to COUNTER it YEARS AGO.
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By: stere k on 11/11/2010 12:45PM
You all have the same thing in you'll family that we have in ours . So stop trying to put every thing on our race , AS YOU USUALLY DO .
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By: Frank Talk on 11/18/2010 11:34PM
THIS IS NOT BY ACCIDENT. READ THE WILLIE LYNCH LETTER: BLACKFEMALES
TAKING OVER MOST PROMINENT POSTS IN SCHOOLS ARE NOT PRODUCTIVE FOR OUR
BOYS.
SINCE THEY FEAR AND HAVE A BRAINWASHED ANGER THAT WHTE WHITE MALE
WON'T LIKE AN OPEN-MINDED, BRAVE, LITERATE, INTELLIGENT, B/BOY, THEY
SHUN THEM INTO SPECIAL ED., IGNORE THEIR TALENTS, AND BREAK THEIR
AMBITIONS.
UNTIL B/FEMALES ARE RE-REMOVED AS PRINCIPALS, UPPER GRADE TEACHERS AND
SINGLE-PARENT MOTHERS, OUR BOYS WILL BECOME GIRLS, SENSITIVE, "SOFT,"
COWARDS, SELF-CENTERED, ATHLETES, "GOLDDIGGERS" TO FEED PROMISCUOUS
FEMALES, "MOMMA'S BOYS," AND TRANSSEXUALS.
B/FEMALES ARE SCARED OF WHITE PEOPLE TO PRODUCE MLKJ'S, "M-X'S,"
MARCUS GARVEY'S, LOUIS FARRAKHAN'S, DR. HARRY EDWARDS, REV. JESSE
JACKSON'S, JEREMISH WRIGHT, KHALLID ABDUL MUHAMMAD'S, ETC. B/FEMALES
IN AUTHORITATIVE POSITIONS ARE FORMS OF IZOLA WARE CURRY (LOOK HER
UP!), AND COMMUNITY AND FAMILY MANCHURIAN CANDIDATES. THEY ARE
MENTACIDAL MANIACS.
ONLY RE-SEGREGATION AND JESSE JACKSON'S SUGGESTION OF A "MARSHALL
PLAN" TYPE B/REPARATIONS--FOR GIVING WHITES AND JEWS ALL THEY
HAVE--WILL SAVE THE B/RACE.
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By: Jo Ann on 11/14/2010 8:04PM
Yes You Are To Blame! - Own It and take responsibilty. I'll blame it on White people and it ain't a "poor me" syndrome or attitude. What, do you think institutional racism has disappeared? Not! I'm sick of White people not owing up the the BS that they shovel, blaming Blacks for their inability to keep up in the classroom or in the job market - are you blind. Stop blaming Black people, it's like blaming a rape victim - Whites need to open their eyes and own up the the Bull you all are shoveling. Until White people stop acting like they are in this America by themselves, like they built it - because we all know that is not true, provide same standard funding for all school districts, include all the people in the planning processes this nation will continue to go to hell in a hand basket - God has truly damned America - the world sees America for what and who she is. Yes, White America you are to blame.
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By: alie on 11/10/2010 2:57PM
There is a programme in the uk called blackboys can here is the
website:http://www.blackboyscan.co.uk/index.php
If you haven't got one set up do it urgently, they need fathers around marriage plays a key in the structure of the family, but we had fallen so far behind anyway, look at the amount of black men running wild without fathers and locked up in prison.
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By: Pointe Noire on 11/10/2010 3:42PM
Good analysis Dr Watkins the problem is within!!!
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By: vdog on 11/10/2010 7:16PM
We can START to chang this by telling STOP telling OUR boys that they can become RAPPERS and BALL PLAYERS INSTEAD OF PURSUING A GOOD EDUCATION. Time to CUT THAT BULLS&#* OUT!!!!!
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