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by Dr. Boyce Watkins
When you think about Oakland, California, you might not have the best image in your mind. The black community of Oakland was hammered by drugs and violence, a great deal of which was brought in by outside forces. The additional challenges of joblessness, educational inequality and the prison industrial complex have all but decimated the hopes and dreams of far too many of our kids.
But there is always good news if you are willing to find it. This week, 34 black students from the Oakland Unified School District were awarded for earning perfect test scores on either the Math or Science portion of the California Standardized tests.
“Tonight we celebrate the beauty and the brilliance of our children,” said Christopher Chatmon, director of the African-American Male Achievement Initiative in Oakland Unified Schools. “This is one of the few school districts in the nation that created a place and a space for African-American boys to (be encouraged to) achieve. We are in the vanguard for African-American male achievement in the nation.”
While test scores for black students still show a gap with those of white and Asian students, the gap is slowly closing. Also, considering the number of obstacles that many of these students must overcome, it’s that much more astonishing when they are able to reach their goals. Universities that sometimes consider affirmative action programs to be an undeserved handout to unqualified students should take a second to realize that when a student emerges from a community that has had its wealth and opportunities stolen for the last 400 years, this achievement is nothing short of extraordinary.
When I appeared in the Janks Morton film “Hoodwinked,” along with Professors Steve Perry, Jawanza Kunjufu, Marc Lamont Hill and Ivory Toldson, our goal was to highlight the strengths and capabilities of African American boys and men. The potential of our community has no limits, and while the last 30 years have set us back, there are numerous signs that black America is repairing itself. But before we can heal economically and educationally, we must also heal psychologically and spiritually. The latter is just as important as the former.
The healing process is one in which we remind ourselves of the value of loving and supporting one another, and the importance of being strong for our children. We can’t allow cycles of violence, abuse and addiction to continue to cripple our families, and we must fully embrace the value of education.
The battle is going to be long and arduous, but we are destined to win. There is an army of intellectual and spiritual warriors who are in this fight with both feet, ready to do what is necessary to save our children. This is a battle that we CANNOT afford to lose.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. He is also the creator of the Building Outstanding Men and Boys Family Empowerment Series. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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sandra
November 16, 2012 at 11:34 pm
This is what I like reading about, and I’m certain there’s many many, more similar stories,nationally, , if these students scored high on fighting each other, etc, it would go viral! Lets hear more of these stories, replace the reality shows with real feel good reality, it would be fabulous!
ST
October 25, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Thank you for this, Dr. Boyce. Our children ARE amazing. As an educator, I understand that we must use the educational system to get through to our children, rather than simply getting them through the system. When we do that, we see just how amazing they truly are.
Yvette brown
October 24, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Lizzy Lester,
The last time I looked at primates they had straight hair and blue eyes. No one in my family looks like that. Can you say the same?
Yvette brown
October 24, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Lizzy Lester,
The last time I looked at primates they had straight hair and blue eyes. No one in my family looks like that. Can you say the same?
Yvette brown
October 24, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Lizzy Lester,
The last time I looked at primates they had straight hair and blue eyes. No one in my family looks like that. Can you say the same?
peppi Rose
October 24, 2012 at 11:09 am
Education in Oakland. Has always been a best kept SECRET.
Blakkchild Armanicode
October 24, 2012 at 11:06 am
I would love be in one of your black communities cos we d**n stuck here with no employment. a help from you please
Lizzy Lester
October 23, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Another “we’re narrowing the achievement gap!” HOAX.
Hoax like :
Madonna CONSTANTINE. (fake noose at Columbia U)
Tawana BRAWLEY. (fake rape in Da Bronx)
…and the list goes on. (See: http://takimag.com/article/my_10_favorite_hate_crime_hoaxes_gavin_mcinnes/print#axzz2A8jSZHFR)
African Americans with their tiny semi-simian hybrid brains that weigh 120 grams on average less than other races’ brains on average (the One Banana Difference!), as per Dunning Kruger, are simply too dim-witted to understand that the whole Victimization thing, the whole Cry Wolf Whitey Be Bad thing… is no longer working!
People both white and black are catching on, alas.
So please, Black America, give up the whining already. You are not as smart as people of other races. Period. Never will be, at least for about fifty thousand years. Asians are smarter than whites. Who are smarter than hispanics. Who are smarter than blacks. Who are smarter than apes. Who are smarter than monkeys. Who are smarter than dogs. Who are smarter than squirrels.
Get it?
Why? you ax?
Because your ancestors took longer – over tens of thousands of years – to divorce themselves from the monkeys and other primates of Africa, that we all evolved from. In a word: your ancestors mated with primates, and that is why you have a facial angle of 72 degrees, compared with 85 degrees for white euros, and 60 degrees for a common orangutan. See erectuswalksamongst.us to cross reference.
Please keep in mind also that when European explorers first showed up to explore Africa, not a single European had ever seen a gorilla, a monkey, or a baboon. In Africa these creature were relatively plentiful; as a result (See David Brion Davis’s “Of Inhuman Bondage” ) white Europeans understandably tended to associate Negroes with primates. Or rather, white Euros failed to comprehend the distinction between the two.
Also: When European explorers discovered Africa and its peoples for the first time, they had never up until then discovered a human-like population that was so primitive that said population had never invented the wheel, or a written language; or a numbers system; or a system-wide religion. And the list goes on.
Look at the facts, folks, before you start calling me a terrible anti-african racist. I am NOT.
-Lizzy Lester