Why Shakir Can’t Read
| More news stories on Black Culture |
|---|
Helen Cadogan, American Thinker, June 28, 2008
I was talking to a friend the other day who teaches at an elementary school and has a student whom I shall name Shakir. Shakir is ten, and he’s barely literate. My friend’s class is not a large one; she has five to eight students. She also has a teaching assistant, and between them, the kids receive a lot of personal, one-to-one attention. Nevertheless, Shakir still can’t read.
{snip} I think there are many causal factors for Shakir’s non-performance in school; amongst them are Shakir himself and his priorities; the instability of his family; his community culture; and, the school system itself.
{snip}
A large part of the problem is that Shakir refuses to do his bit to educate himself. Given classwork in school, Shakir engages in a series of acts of avoidance. He will disrupt, pick fights with his classmates, curse, destroy objects in his environment, sleep, declare that he will do nothing, or take the entire day simply to write his name. No amount of cajoling, promises, or behavioral modification methods can change Shakir’s mind. For him to work for a little bit, there must be some immediate object or event that he finds desirable to attain or participate in. Even then, when the gain is weighed against the effort required to work, Shakir may well determine that the work is not worth doing to obtain the prospective reward.
At the root of all his disruptive behavior is Shakir’s acknowledgment that he cannot read, his frustration with his illiteracy, and his stated unwillingness to use the kindergarten level materials that will help him to read. Shakir will neither let his teacher nor her aide help him—that requires him to work; plus, he has to represent before his peers—nor will he go to the kindergarten or the reading teachers both of whom have offered assistance. Given homework that will help him to solve his problem, Shakir either refuses to take it home or, if he does, does not return it. Compounding the problem, Shakir cannot get help at home.
Shakir’s family situation is a significant part of his problem. He is one of four children to a twenty-something mother who has three other children by three different men, and she might well be pregnant again by her current boyfriend. Shakir’s mother is unemployed and on welfare. She and her current boyfriend tend to have loud fights which can become physical, and often her boyfriend, who can be a positive influence on Shakir, will disappear for weeks at a time to avoid doing violence to her. Shakir’s father is currently in prison, scheduled to be released some time later this year; his current stint in prison is not his first, and I fear it is not likely to be his last.
{snip} Given an apartment found by the proper authorities, Shakir’s mother will not pay rent, even though she receives money to do so.
Eventually, the family will have to move to a motel, and his mother will acquire a new cell phone number along with a new address. {snip}
The instability in his home life, characterized by the constant moves and the stress under which the child lives because of his shame and fear, means that, for Shakir, education is not a priority. He has no stable home with books, magazines, or trips to the library. His mother is either a high school dropout or limped her way to graduation with a poor academic record herself. {snip}
What she will do, when school authorities call her to complain about her son’s behavior, is come to the school ready to curse and fight his teachers. {snip} Thus, Shakir has been to several schools in his district and has even gone to schools in a neighboring state. Nevertheless, Shakir still can’t read.
Community plays an important role in the behavior and priorities of individuals. For instance, if a child belongs to a community in which education is prized, then he will have an external force compelling him to achieve in some way because he does not wish to be out of step with his peers. Regrettably, in low income communities like Shakir’s, the external force compels kids away from educational achievement, in spite of the efforts of some to turn things around. For many of Shakir’s peers, educational achievement is a mark of whiteness; thus, the high achieving black kid has to deal with issues of authenticity.
If he does not sound ghetto, he experiences a loss of black identity. More than that, he will be preyed upon by the gang-bangers and thugs who will consider him easy prey. So, he has to be tough, and educational achievement is not part of the toughness.
Shakir’s peers are not focused on education. {snip}
Thus, neither Shakir himself, his family such as it is, nor his community seem to have much interested in his education, in him learning to read. So, then, what about the school system?
In the school system, Shakir, whatever enthusiasm he might have started out his school career with, by the age of ten has none. He has spent the years since kindergarten fighting, cursing, and distracting away from his reading problems. Each teacher he has encountered has made an active effort to help him. Each has been beaten by the combination of forces outside of the school system and by the child himself. Tired of his behavior, of his resistance and refusal, even when he is held back, his teachers have passed him on to the next grade where he is ill-prepared to do that grade’s work because he never mastered the content matter of the previous grades.
All across America, schools are confronted with Shakirs who either do not show up for school or who attend school but hang out in the hallways, bathrooms, and other hideaways. {snip}
What can the schools do, confronted with thousands of Shakirs all across America? Many schools are just passing the kids through, just biding time until the kids are no longer the responsibility of the school. Why Shakir can’t read is the same reason many black kids in America can’t read: the kid’s own lack of interest in education, his unstable home life with a single parent who doesn’t care, a community that regards education as being destructive of black authenticity, and school systems which are burnt out with the stress of dealing with such kids.
{snip}
(Posted on June 30, 2008)
Comments
This situation is not new. The interesting question is what does Mr. Obama think we should do about it? It sounds like a lot is being done for this child and his family. What I think will happen is more blame will be put on every one else.
Posted by Max3a at 6:13 PM on June 30
Shakir was never going to be a rocket scientist, but does anyone doubt that he should have been in a religious school that practiced corporal punishment? In prior years, plenty of neglected kids grew up well-disciplined due to Catholic schools staffed with paddle-wielding nuns. Shakir would have mouthed off to those nuns…once!
Posted by Jill at 6:47 PM on June 30
Africans are Paleolithic remnants who evolved in tropical environments where fast physical development and early and frequent reproduction were favored, and altruism and delayed gratification were were strongly selected against. The hot, tropical environment favored a strategy of expending no energy, except for the possibility of immediate gain of some current need or desire. There was little need for foresight. Physical, not mental capabilities were most advantageous. In this sense, Shakir is superbly designed for his ancestral tropical environment. His traits would allow him to be very successful in tropical Africa, with its unchanging climate and year-round food abundance. Unfortunately, he has been cast into an advanced alien European world, which he can no more understand or master than could any other African primate. He will be confused and unhappy his entire life, doing what evolution has designed him to do, in a world built by Europeans. He would be much happier if he had been born free, hunting and gathering, mating and fighting in Africa.
Posted by at 6:50 PM on June 30
“…a community that regards education as being destructive of black authenticity…”
———————-
The black community will be responsible for the demise of their own people. I’ll be damned if I would claim kinship with any culture or community which required the sacrifice of those I love, namely my children, in order to be considered “authentic”.
If they care so little about one another, why should anyone else care what becomes of them? Survival of the fittest applies here.
Posted by at 6:54 PM on June 30
“What can the schools do, confronted with thousands of Shakirs all across America?”
Why bother with them at all? They don’t want to learn anything. They’re parents don’t care. Their “community” doesn’t care. In fact, they’re hostile to the whole concept of education, so why waste taxpayer’s money and school resources on them? Keeping them in school, inflating their grades, dumbing down the classes, passing them on just to get rid of them; it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s life in our brave new multicultural egalitarian paradise.
Posted by at 6:56 PM on June 30
Shakir’s family situation is a significant part of his problem. He is one of four children to a twenty-something mother who has three other children by three different men, and she might well be pregnant again by her current boyfriend. Shakir’s mother is unemployed and on welfare. She and her current boyfriend tend to have loud fights which can become physical, and often her boyfriend, who can be a positive influence on Shakir, will disappear for weeks at a time to avoid doing violence to her. Shakir’s father is currently in prison, scheduled to be released some time later this year; his current stint in prison is not his first, and I fear it is not likely to be his last.
*****************************************************
Either we will begin birth licensing, or this world will overflow with the worst elements of mankind and devour us all.
Posted by at 7:01 PM on June 30
Talk about a race of people going backwards!! Look at first generation Asians and others that learn to read and write english in a few short months after arriving in America. Compare that to a whole generation of blacks kids who are illiterate, suitable only for mundane jobs or gangs and crime. Really does anyone give a damn about them? Most may end up dead in an alley and just another footnote in the daily newspaper.
Posted by Chuck_W at 7:16 PM on June 30
Shakir is probably in the wrong country. There is another country where his skills would be appreciated. It also starts with an “A”.
Posted by at 7:23 PM on June 30
Public school teachers should practice the concept of triage- worry about saving only those students who are salvageable (and teachable). The rest are a lost cause and resources should not be wasted on them.
Posted by Aunt Bea at 7:32 PM on June 30
For the sake of those whom wish to have an education, we must remove all the “shakirs” from our school systems. Way too much time and money has been wasted on the “shakirs” in our school systems. Save the money for when they end up in prison. After all, we have to pay to imprison these criminals. NOBODY CAN SAVE SOMEONE FROM THEMSELVES. They must be willing to do their part. They must be taught to be accountable for themselves. Education must start at home. Throwing money at these problems hasn’t solved a damn thing. Being a dependent on the system makes a slave of you, and a burden on the taxpayers. The education system in this country has suffered greatly due to disruptive students, the NEA, and the teacher’s unions. I don’t remember the numbers, but we are nowhere near the top worldwide in education.
Posted by roller at 7:58 PM on June 30
This child has no business being in a regular classroom environment, but will not be classified as special ed because of political correctness because too high a percentage of minority students are already classified as such. More money will be spent to provide more programs and time for such a child. Money which could be much better spent on enriching the education of top performing students who can become productive adults and return something to society. In the meantime, the teachers get stressed and are chastised for not having good classroom management skills in controlling errant behavior. Furthermore, such teachers will never receive merit pay should such a policy ever come to pass. America is a nation in decline.
Posted by mf at 8:02 PM on June 30
How very fortunate we are to have millions of Shakirs here in the US. How very enriched we are by the diversity. Didn’t you just feel the enrichment, reading that article?
Posted by JustPlainMean at 8:21 PM on June 30
Don’t worry, the death rate of such young black males may very likely erase this problem. Until then just expel the little beast and put him to work doing manual labor, as he has no place in a school.
Posted by Anglokraut at 8:22 PM on June 30
“He will disrupt, pick fights with his classmates, curse, destroy objects in his environment, sleep, declare that he will do nothing, or take the entire day simply to write his name.”
Don’t worry if it takes him all day to write his name. By the time he’s in the AA program and has been awarded a college slot, edging out a qualified white, he’ll be able to write his name in pretty quick order. Of course, for the liberal geniuses that will be enough to earn his degree.
“What can the schools do, confronted with thousands of Shakirs all across America?”
I don’t understand the question. Why change a successful strategy?
The schools should do as they’ve been doing for the past 40 years and pass them all, if they attend a couple of classes per semester and don’t kill too many white people.
Maybe some of them will learn to read when they go to the prison warehouse.
Posted by ice at 9:06 PM on June 30
While I am a firm believer in the reality of IQ, I also believe children of any color are missed as being learning disabled. Exacerbating this problem is the PC drive that denies differences and problems (or tries to blame the problems on ‘society’).
Recognizing limitations is a good thing. Children can be given the education suited to their needs and abilities. Trying to make everyone the same or believing everyone can be made the same with the right teaching methods is destructive to these children.
Shakris is a tough case. With the best of circumstance, could he have made something more of himself? His problems are multilayered. Expecting him to learn in the same environment is a disservice to his needs and the abilities of the teacher educate all the children.
Stop the madness and simply recognize that there is diversity in learning abilities. Everyone IS NOT the same.
(Sometimes my old bleeding-heart-liberal incarnation breaks out)
Posted by sbuffalonative at 9:39 PM on June 30
Despite the futility of the situation, the educracy will still try to come up with fifty ways till Sunday, costing untold billions of your tax money, to make Shakir learn how to read. Meanwhile, my mother was my first reading teacher (she had to raise me alone, I thought single parents couldn’t rear children and teach them well), and in spite of temporary hearing losses that came at critical times in my speech and language development, I was able to catch up to the point where I was going through 200-plus page novels when I was the age Shakir is now. I also learned advanced arithmetic years before my formal education introduced it to me from old 1950s/60s textbooks my mother retrieved from trash dumpsters.
Posted by Question Diversity at 9:40 PM on June 30
It all starts at home. (There is nothing to be done.)
Teachers today in public schools have to be babysitters as much as teachers.
In ‘Dangerous Minds’, Michelle Pfieffer was an involved teacher(unmarried)to students who didn’t deserve it. These kids came to appreciate what she did for them, but it was a movie. A mother of two of the students paints a more realistic view. She withdrew her boys when she found out they were reading poetry. She said she wasn’t ‘raising’ any doctors or lawyers. They had bills to pay. That mother saved everyone a lot of money and headache…..
…….From what I’ve heard of Michelle Obama, doesn’t she think that everyone should be in the best universities(like her)? She is out of touch with her race and this country.
Posted by at 10:38 PM on June 30
I got the impression from the article that little mention was made of the effect that this “student’s” behavior had upon his classmates. Only in this country are we expected to sacrifice the welfare of the majority for the benefit of an unappreciative minority. Does anyone here actually believe that the proportion of improvement of little Shakir is comparable to the lack of progress imposed upon his fellow classmates by his disruptive behavior. Is this an extreme case of affirmative action?
The post about being adapted to an African environment was well written. However, I don’t think that food is in abundance in Africa today, perhaps it once was before the indigenous population took control.
When I read the article I assumed that little Shakir was an Indian - then it came to the part about the ghetto and the different fathers and I knew. Strangely, never once, did I think that little Shakir was either white or Asian…. wonder why?
MoMo
Posted by MoMo at 10:45 PM on June 30
“Shakir is probably in the wrong country. There is another country where his skills would be appreciated. It also starts with an “A”.
I take it that ‘country’ you’re referring to is Africa, and if this is the case, Shakir is not the only illiterate here.
Posted by at 11:17 PM on June 30
My solution to failing schools is to completely overhaul them, replace incompetent teachers with real ones, and empower the school districts with police power to go after negligent parents and truant kids. Black students need something that their parents do not offer, and that is discipline. Once the bad elements are removed, order is maintained, and discipline is enforced, the blacks can achieve a level of unremarkable averageness but a level good enough to get by in the world after graduation. Also, I advocate testing all kids and to separate the intelligent ones from the not so intelligent ones. Sadly, many of non-achievers would probably be labeled retarded but it would be to their benefit to be rendered an education that is requisite to their abilities.
Posted by at 11:38 PM on June 30
Los Angeles Unified School District had 694,288 students in 2007-2008 only 9% of whom are white. A study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University in 2006 calculated that only 45% of students were graduating in four years from Los Angeles schools. The rate was even lower for Latino students, and much higher for white and Asian American students. African Americans were close to the districtwide average of about 50%.
Now tell me concerned citizens, what do you imagine those hundreds of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of latino and black student dropouts and the millions of young 20 somethings that dropped out earlier are doing right now?
Let me look out my window here for a minute and I’ll tell you *tick tock a minute goes by*. Hmm.. Houston, we’ve got problems.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 11:59 PM on June 30
Shakir doesn’t read because his personality and low IQ make learning difficult and unenjoyable to him. His aspirations are probably to be a rap star, a pro basketball player or a pro football player. If he doesn’t achieve any of his dream professions, then what does he do?
If we are going to have millions of people living among us like this boy and his family, there needs to be a place for them in society so they don’t just sit at home and collect welfare. We need to get to work and figure out how they can be productive citizens, even with very limited educations. There has got to be a solution!
Posted by at 12:24 AM on July 1
Too bad the schools are full of deluded liberals who think wasting massive resources on the Shakirs of the world will make any difference. No Child Left Behind is a farce. About 30% of the children in public schools should be left behind because any resources allocated from them are completely wasted.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 12:52 AM on July 1
As this little monster progresses in school, his behavior will worsen, of course, and much discipline will be directed at him to try to minimize his disruptions, along with other blacks like him.
Then one day up will pop reverend Al, with Jesse not far behind, loudly complaining that blacks are disciplined at a much higher rate than non-black students, and it must stop.
In response to that, the msm and the talking heads on T.V. will ignore little shkir and his fellow primitives’ behavior and toss up the topic to be discussed, “Are schools unfairly disciplining black students?”
We won’t hear of them investigate their conduct and specific reasons why they’re disiplined, just that they are, and they’ll offer examples of a non-similar thing a couple of white kids did that they weren’t disciplined for in a like manner as the blacks.
If Jesse and All are successful in terrorizing the school enough, then the administration will invoke a standard of behavior on blacks that is much lower than the other kids. In other words they will allow black discipline cases to continue to go to class, rather than expelling them, and, of course, that’s what Al and Jesse want. The black drop out rate is far too high, and their answer, of course, is not to encourage discipline by the parents, but to demand greater tolerance for violence and misbehavior of the blacks.
Woe to the country that must endure these people within their population. If blacks look back on slavery and hate it’s occurence, demanding reparations, they have to realize that they don’t hate it half as much as aware whites do, because they know how much better our schools and society could be without disruptive black elements who have no business in a civilized society.
Posted by ice at 2:10 AM on July 1
I’ll say what I said over at the American Thinker. Someday this kid will “graduate”, and so will milions like him. Then they will look to victimize us. We had better arm ourselves and insulate ourselves from it the best we can.
Let’s be honest about it. Nothing is going to be done about educating him or even improving public schools because nothing, not a thing, can be done, barring a miracle or supernatural intervention of some kind(and I gave up on that a long, long time ago).
Remember, we are dealing with an average IQ of 85. That means there are those who are duller than this Shakir. Add that with a liberal/leftist mindset of public ed/public policy and you have the continual disaster that is unfolding in this nation. The current group of people running the nation have no interest in doing anything either or bringing back the social controls that used to exist. I don’t see this changing either.
Posted by KJ James at 10:35 AM on July 1
“..If he doesn’t achieve any of his dream professions, then what does he do?…”
Turn to crime and violence as so many of them do. Crime and violence directed against a ‘racist White society’, of course. As ‘Shakirs’ everywhere have little to no introspective abilities who do you think he will blame for his sorry predicament? After all, he was told repeatedly that he could ‘be anything he wanted to be.’ Certainly no blame will be placed on his mother for her slovenly habit of birthing illegitimate children that she can neither feed, clothe nor educate.
And who do you think brainwashed his little govern-less brain into believing that he is the victim of an uncaring, racist White-dominated culture, couldn’t be the schools and MSM, could it?
Also, the educational system MUST stop telling Shakir and others of his ilk that he can ‘be anything he wants to be.’ With their severely limited intellectual capacities, it is cruel to keep telling Shakir types that they can be brain surgeons, rocket scientists, lawyers—or professional athletes. The reality is most of the ones who last until graduation will read and compute at an 8th grade level.
“…If we are going to have millions of people living among us like this boy and his family, there needs to be a place for them in society so they don’t just sit at home and collect welfare. We need to get to work and figure out how they can be productive citizens, even with very limited educations. There has got to be a solution!…”
Sigh. What haven’t we tried? None of it has worked—worthless jobs programs, moving them into White communities via Section 8 housing hoping it will ‘bring them up’, busing them to White schools, affording them every opportunity, at White expense, to improve themselves—AA, quotas, un-earned college scholarships, dumbing down of the entire educational curricula, fad educational programs. The list is endless, all efforts have failed miserable, after burning up trillions of tax dollars.
At what point do we White taxpayers get to scream: Enough! We are tired of throwing good money after bad with one failed program after another with nothing to show for it.
One good solutions would be to implement Jared Taylor’s proposal:
“…anyone who is feeding at the public trough, who depends on your tax money simply to stay alive, does not have the right to bring yet more children into the world for you to house, to feed, to clothe, to try to educate. No that should not be your duty. If you were dependent on society for your groceries, for the roof over your head … no, I’m sorry. For as long as you are dependent on society’s handouts you should not have the right to have three or four more children…”
http://amren.com/features/gutierrez/transcript.htm
In the meantime, keep ever vigilant.
Joe Horn is my new hero.
Bon
Posted by BonBon at 11:36 AM on July 1
It sounds like Shakir already is in a special ed class; “My friend’s class is not a large one; she has five to eight students. She also has a teaching assistant” Since he is obviously unfit for life in an educated, civilized society, wasting all these resources on him and the thousands of others of his ilk will do no good whatsoever, beyond providing employment for two teachers to babysit him for another six to eight years till he drops out of school to hang out with his ‘homies’ on street cornerts and terrorize, rape and murder white people, who of course caused his illiteracy.
Obama has a plan to fix this problem: he’s going to PAY black men to father the children they engender—with taxpayer money, of course.
Posted by at 12:02 PM on July 1
I would suggest watching the HBO special “Hard Times at Douglass High” to get a good feel about what happens in an urban high school. Douglass High is in Baltimore and suffers a large number of ailments affecting urban education in America.
Posted by at 12:58 PM on July 1
The public schools have become little more than highly expensive daycare due to the massive number of Shakirs that the schools must house. In Los Angeles, where I teach high school, social promotion means that grade level corresponds to age and not academic achievement. So, Shakir has learned through experience that he gets promoted with his classmates every year even though he does not work, is disruptive, and has not attained any level of academic achievement. The schools cultivate this welfare mentality and attitude with social promotion because students do not associate academic advancement with effort. Moving on to the next grade is seen as their birthright if they show up sometimes. It is reflected in Shakir’s mother’s hostile attitude toward the school. She probably has the same hostile attitude toward her welfare providers as well. When you get something for nothing, you do not recognize or appreciate the value what you’ve been given.
Posted by at 1:01 PM on July 1
>>>We need to get to work and figure out how they can be productive citizens, even with very limited educations. There has got to be a solution!
Yup! There is! SEND THEM BACK TO AFRICA. Let Africa absorb the misfits, the societal drop-outs who can only live by crime and violence in our country. Who cannot or will not apply themselves to learning, or later to working for a living.
Posted by Fed Up at 1:44 PM on July 1
As self-made sociopaths, the Shakirs from cities across America naturally strive for two inevitable destinations - death or imprisonment.
The existence of any sincerely higher generous morality tortures them and only grows their hatred.
As an earlier blogger above {6:50 PM on June 30} eloquently stated: “…[Shakir] has been cast into an advanced alien European world, which he can no more understand or master than could any other African primate. He will be confused and unhappy his entire life, doing [the limited and violent things] evolution has designed him to do, in a world built by Europeans.”
Posted by Gary at 1:45 PM on July 1
“Sigh. What haven’t we tried? None of it has worked—worthless jobs programs, moving them into White communities via Section 8 housing hoping it will ‘bring them up’, busing them to White schools, affording them every opportunity, at White expense, to improve themselves—AA, quotas, un-earned college scholarships, dumbing down of the entire educational curricula, fad educational programs. The list is endless, all efforts have failed miserable, after burning up trillions of tax dollars.”
I see you are busy there, but how about trying to help some whites for a change? I could sure use it.
Posted by LHathaway at 2:03 PM on July 1
The amazing thing to me, is that even if Shakir and others his age somehow learn to read and become somewhat educated, this doesn’t mean that the classes following Shakir’s class are going to be any better or any smarter. The reality is that the entire exercise of FORCING black kids to learn (not unlike forcing water to run uphill) would have to be repeated over and over again. The fact is, if they were going to ‘get it,’ they would have gotten it by now. Forcing little Shakir to sit in class just makes everyone miserable, and he shouldn’t have to endure it. Shakir and others like him should be diverted into apprenticeship programs suited to their skills. There’s no reason why they can’t do low skilled work where reading and thinking is not required.
Posted by at 2:07 PM on July 1
“My solution to failing schools is to completely overhaul them, replace incompetent teachers with real ones, and empower the school districts with police power to go after negligent parents and truant kids. Black students need something that their parents do not offer, and that is discipline”
My solution is to de facto segregate Shakir and his type from society. Barring returning them to Africa which would be best, but our government and people won’t do, we need to get rid of the concept of putting section 8 housing in average neighborhoods. We need to keep section 8 in a certain part of town far away, so that everyone else does not have to come in contact with Shakir’s type. We need to have “reform school” type schools in these areas of town, segregated by sex, where students wear uniforms, go through metal detectors and have armed guards and officers who strictly keep disipline and can use force if necessary if violence breaks out. These type of blacks need to be taught on their own level, just the basics and trained for a simpler vocation. There are a few smart ghetto dwellers who want to rise above it and are college material and well-behaved and these can be bussed out to other schools. Also, the reward for having kids needs to be removed from Shakir’s mom, she should be told anymore kids and no welfare increases. Also, Shakir’s mother and father and others like them ought to be given financial incentives to undergo tubal ligations and vasectomies. It would be worth it for the government to pay them a grand not to have any more kids, we’d save huge sums financially and in terms of social problems such as crime.
Posted by kc at 3:03 PM on July 1
Posted by at 6:50 PM on June 30 was an excellent synopsis of the problem, if not also a viable solution.
When it comes to blacks in general, how the hell do we propose an “event that he finds desirable to attain or participate in” that will have them frothing to go back to Africa?
Posted by Superman at 3:25 PM on July 1
Create classes that teach basic tool use. Try to bring all the students up to a 3rd grade reading level by age 16.
Instill a love for a weekly paycheck, by rewarding them weekly.
Someone has to clean out the corners when you’re digging footers.
Someone has to pound down the high nails on a drywall job.
Someone has to sweep up every job site.
Might as well be an American!
Posted by Holm at 3:42 PM on July 1
If you want to get a perfect (and typical) example of how blacks refuse to help themselves, here’s a simple experiment you can try right now. You don’t have to take Jared Taylor’s or Amren’s word for it. See for yourself. Go to Webshots and do a search for “Katrina Relief.” ( http://www.webshots.com/search?query=katrina+relief&new=1&source=chromeheader ) Now, click on the various pages of thumbnails (my count is 34,327 results) and see how many black faces you see in the thumbnails. I count at least 20 white faces to every black one. And yet we are told by the media that this was largely a black tragedy. Where are the black volunteers?
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 3:46 PM on July 1
I don’t think little Shakir would do any better in;
Afghanistan Akrotiri
Albania Algeria
American Samoa Andorra
Angola Anguilla
Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda
Arctic Ocean Argentina
Armenia Aruba
Ashmore and Cartier Islands Atlantic Ocean
Australia Austria
Azerbaijan
Dump him in the bowels of the Congo where nature intended!
Posted by at 4:10 PM on July 1
BonBon, Jared’s comment reminds me of William Buckley’s statement:
“…I think it is a legitimate concern of a country, ours especially—we have been taking in year after year 50 percent of all immigrants in the entire world—to give thought to the culture and ethos we hope to preserve. What this comes down to is a question of assimilation. The ideal of immigration is not alone to provide shelter or even economic opportunity, but to create another American. Now to say any such thing these days in the firestorm of multiculturalism is to court criticism that can be mortal, especially in academic salons. But recall that it was not so long ago taken for granted that anyone coming to America would need to learn something about American institutions and would need, if he hoped to vote, to read and write in English. That isn’t the case any more.
The pressures that were brought on immigrants, so to speak pressures to Americanize them, were so direct that during the last half of the 19th century, one-third of immigrants simply gave up and after a while, traveled back home. Immigrants were required, just to begin with, to make their own way economically. That is no longer true under the welfare state. And [they] were required to learn the language of American English, [also] no longer required. Those were the most conspicuous courses of socialization, but there were others, designed to communicate an ethos. One of them, of course, was the discipline of self-government. Self-government is very rare, and in the 19th century something of an eccentricity. And then too, the ethos in America presumed religious convictions. Ninety-eight percent of America at the time of the Revolutionary War was Protestant.
It is our contention that America, the most successful engine of assimilation in the history of the world, hasn’t got the steam needed to handle immigration at the current level, and that the burden of assimilation became more acute when in 1965 the qualifications for immigration changed so radically. Does this mean it is more difficult to assimilate Haitians and Mexicans than British and Italians? Yes. We’re prepared to go that far, wistfully hoping that this is not to earn a denunciation as racists. We really should be permitted to speak about such matters without risking the charge of un-Americanism.…” -William Buckley.
Posted by Unemployed WASP at 5:08 PM on July 1
1. Shakir will go on to middle school and high school (until he can drop out at 16) and will only suceed in distracting and tormenting other students who come to school to actually learn. The school will not be allowed to segregate Shakir from other normal students or put Shakir in a special school for other students of his ilk because of court decisions by liberal judges that prevents the schools from stopping the spread of Shakir-itis.
2. The only occupation for which Shakir could possibly suceed at, factory work, has been taken from the lower class of America and sent to India, China, Mexico and other third-world nations. There will by no jobs for Shakir because there are no tariffs preventing the import of goods from third-world nations where workers get paid a dollar an hour. The liberals who lament the plight of Shakir love the globalism that deprives him and the remnants of black families any meaningful work that fits their IQ level.
Posted by Victor Gerhard at 5:34 PM on July 1
G.H.E.T.T.O C.U.L.T.U.R.E. = “Government Handouts ‘Ebonic Talkers’ Take Only Cheapens Unmotivated Lives Ultimately Refusing Employment”
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 5:39 PM on July 1
shakir is truly one of the ‘happy sun people’ who lived in tropical climates and grabbed the lowest hanging fruit from the trees.
Posted by toonces at 7:10 PM on July 1
Shakir may be clinically depressed. I’d be depressed too if I lived in the ghetto.
Posted by at 8:55 PM on July 1
“I take it that ‘country’ you’re referring to is Africa, and if this is the case, Shakir is not the only illiterate here.”
Posted by at 11:17 PM on June 30
How about Angola?
And if the poster’s reference was to a continent, when he posted “country,” the mistake doesn’t have anything to do with literacy.
How do you account for your error?
Posted by q at 8:58 PM on July 1
“..I see you are busy there, but how about trying to help some whites for a change? I could sure use it…”
Posted by LHathaway at 2:03 PM on July 1
In these PC-paralyzing times, if I speak out openly about ‘trying to help some Whites’ I put my career, pension and family at grave risk, something I obviously will not do.
As to your snarky comment: ‘trying to help Whites for a change’ This is what I do: I donate my hard-earned money (what is left after the government has at my pay that is, giving it to un-deserving blacks and illegal aliens and organizations that support THEIR interests) to the following pro-White groups:
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/
A White South African recently sent me some information about an organization that aides beleaguered Whites in SA. I am in the process of checking out their ‘bona fides’ —I was assured that no money goes toward African blacks; enough of my tax money goes to black Africans, against my wishes, as it is.
Recently, I had the pleasure of taking my name off the organ-donation list after learning that there is now AA for precious organ allocation—with Whites on the losing end, of course.
I have also made my wishes known to my family as to the disbursement of my assets after my demise and plan to amend my will to contribute money to pro-White organizations that work in the interests of my family and children. As we here are all aware, there are many government-sanctioned, government-funded, race-based organizations that work mightily against Whites.
White organizations, working on a shoe-string budget, must beg and plead for meager donations from individuals—call up vdare.com if you don’t believe me.
Now, what have you done to help Whites?
Bon
Posted by BonBon at 9:56 PM on July 1
“We need to have “reform school” type schools in these areas of town, segregated by sex, where students wear uniforms… These type of blacks need to be taught on their own level, just the basics and trained for a simpler vocation… Also, Shakir’s mother and father and others like them ought to be given financial incentives to undergo tubal ligations and vasectomies.”
Posted by kc
I made the exact same points — even the one about tube-tying — in a posting that hasn’t shown up here. Maybe it will yet, or maybe the moderator felt my points were too similar to yours without being expressed as eloquently, I don’t know. But I do know there’s more solid wisdom and insight in kc’s short post than I’ve heard IN TOTAL from Comrade Obama since his campaign began!
“Either we will begin birth licensing, or this world will overflow with the worst elements of mankind and devour us all.”
Posted by at 7:01 PM on June 30
At SOME point, the world WILL have to discuss birth licensing as an option to control (3rd World) overpopulation. At the moment, for any politician to venture ANYWHERE NEAR the topic is to commit career suicide. But — sooner or later — our learned leaders will have no choice but to propose something along these lines.
And, as always, sooner is better than later.
Posted by at 11:28 PM on July 1
“How do you account for your error?”
Being unable to comprehend a fourth-grade geography book which differentiates continents from countries would probably be considered “illiteracy.”
Posted by at 12:41 AM on July 2
“Being unable to comprehend a fourth-grade geography book which differentiates continents from countries would probably be considered “illiteracy.”
Posted by at 12:41 AM on July 2
First of all you gave no evidence that the poster wasn’t referring to Angola. What can you provide to prove he/she was referring to the continent of Africa?
Secondly, illiteracy is defined by the dictionary as a lack of ability to read or write, and that is its accepted general usage meaning.
Thirdly, how do you know he/she can’t comprehend a fourth grade geography book, especially since he/she seems to write as well as you do?
Posted by q at 2:17 AM on July 2
“Now, what have you done to help Whites?”
Bon
I just post on here. There’s something to be said tho for being fearless. Well, I’m not that fearless, or that far removed from cowardice, or I wouldn’t still be here in this brave world of ours would I?
To be honest, out in public, I probably help non-whites more than I do whites. That’s what 99% of whites seem to do. Just getting along - going with the flow, means accepting a generally anti-white outlook. At least, ‘conservatives’ bend over backwards trying to be ‘fair’, while everyone else, just assumes that where they work or whatever supports their sick liberal anti-white male agenda. Even if you try and preserve culture, try and do what’s right, try and use loyalty, you just can’t fight against it.
There’s not much I can really do. But, hey, I’M the one who needs some help, right?
Posted by LHathaway at 2:48 AM on July 2
I take it that ‘country’ you’re referring to is Africa, and if this is the case, Shakir is not the only illiterate here.
Is this an insult?
Posted by Skip at 5:56 AM on July 2
“Also, Shakir’s mother and father and others like them ought to be given financial incentives to undergo tubal ligations and vasectomies.””
“At the moment, for any politician to venture ANYWHERE NEAR the topic is to commit career suicide”
This is true. That is why it needs to be a done in “leftist sales speak” ie. we(the government) have created a great new program to offer poor people a way out of their poverty and a chance for a better life. Leftist sales talk— we’ll offer you a great deal, one that others would be envious of, a 10,000 cash grant to help them you out of poverty along with a free tubal ligation/vasectomy, this way you would have a large sum of money and permanant free birth control. What a deal!!!! It may work because a lot of inner city blacks have very little impulse control and would only see the short-term (ie. the money.) However, halting the breeding of numerous “Sharkirs” would be priceless, both financially and socially and culturally. Of course, pushing this would not be easy.
Posted by kc at 7:49 AM on July 2
“He would be much happier if he had been born free, hunting and gathering, mating and fighting in Africa.”
If there’s ONE government spending progrm I would approve of, it would be Marcus Garvey “Back to Africa” movement. Heck, I would even give them $50,000 a person to leave, payable upon renounciation of US citizenship. To me, that would be an INVESTMENT in the future; to use Jupitor’s wording, their “American”-born gene line would be cut off, and they could restart their African gene line, thus bringing to fruition Jesse Jackson’s cries of “EQUALITY” of results!
Posted by at 12:50 PM on July 2
To be well educated, you must WANT to learn. And these “Shakirs” clearly do not want to.
So why should we even shed tears and throw out more money for them? They don’t want to amount to anything.
Posted by at 4:10 PM on July 2
So the poster made a slip — substituting a continent (Africa) for naming a specific country. No, that does NOT make the poster illiterate. Simply guilty of a careless error. So let’s lighten up. We’ve ALL made occasional slip-ups, me included.
Focus on the real perceived problems… like our dysfunctional sociopathic failed race, Africans, or in OUR case, Afro-Americans. And the tidal wave of criminal illegal aliens scurrying over the border like a plague of cockroaches.
Posted by Fed Up at 5:12 PM on July 2
What do we do with Shakir?
In the US, its usually pass him eventually up each grade, regardless of whether he’s earned it, make him feel high-self esteem while simultaneously teaching him to hate whites by filling his head with Afrocentric and Multicultural lessons, then foist him off onto welfare when he’s old enough to drop out of school, where we pay his way for him until soon thereafter, he decides to take even more from the world by burglary, selling drugs, raping white girls, etc and winds up in jail, where we furnish him with tvs, video games, weights, and white boys to rape. We even allow him conjugal visits, which of course leads to Shakir,jr. thus perpetuating the cycle- on our tab since of course the mother would rather smoke crack and watch Oprah than work to chip in covering for herself or her baby.
Why do anything with Shakir? He provides a convenient tool for the elite liberals to extract more shame money from white America, while destroying their nation.
Posted by Student at 5:56 PM on July 2
Only a Lad, by Oingo Boingo. Very fitting for this article:
Johnny was bad, even as a child everybody could tell
Everyone said if you don’t get straight
You’ll surely go to hell
But johnny didnt care
He was an outlaw by the time that he was
Ten years old
He didnt wanna do what he was told
Just a prankster, juvenile gangster
His teachers didnt understand
They kicked him out of school
At a tender early age
Just because he didnt want to learn things
(had other interests)
He liked to burn things!
The lady down the block
She had a radio that johnny wanted oh so bad
So he took it the first chance he had
Then he shot her in the leg
And this is what she said
Only a lad
You really cant blame him
Only a lad
Society made him
Only a lad
He’s our responsibility
Only a lad
He really couldnt help it
Only a lad
He didnt want to do it
Only a lad
He’s underprivileged and abused
Perhaps a little bit confused
His parents gave up they couldn’t influence his attitude
Nobody could help
The little man had no gratitude
And when he stole the car
Nobody dreamed that he would
Try to take it so far
He didnt mean to hit the poor man
Who had to go and die
It made the judge cry
Only a lad
He really couldn’t help it
Only a lad
He didn’t want to do it
Only a lad
He’s underprivileged and abused
Perhaps a little bit confused
It’s not his fault that he can’t behave
Society made him go astray
Perhaps if were nice he’ll go away
Perhaps he’ll go away
He’ll go away
(repeat chorus)
Hey there johnny you really don’t fool me
You get away with murder
And you think it’s funny
You don’t give a damn if we live or if we die
Hey there johnny boy
I hope you fry!
Posted by Anglokraut at 10:58 PM on July 2
“So the poster made a slip…”
Unfortunately Fed Up; it’s more than that. I make mistakes also, but I work in education in a city that is about 2% black and I’ll tell you, I can only wish it were just a slip.
As far as I know, blacks were no more intellectually challenged 100 years ago than they are now. That did not stop our ancestors from building the greatest society ever known to man. It could have never happened with today’s whites, and I say this as a Junior College professor. I get white kids, many of them, who have graduated high school AND CAN’T READ OR WRITE!
I am saying this literally, not figuratively. The pass rate for our 11th graders on the ‘no child left behind’ science exam was THIRTY-FIVE PERCENT! And this is in a town with very few blacks.
I think that’s the thing that bothers me about our poster above. Shakir is not really our problem because he’s been here for 400 years. The problem is that at the rate we are going, we will, someday make fine maids and butlers for the Asians.
Posted by at 1:00 AM on July 3
It is not only in the US, but also Canada and the UK where diversity in the classroom drives down standards. I am an old Luddite, when I came to Canada and saw what was on TV, considering I had children growing up I did not allow it into the house. Still don’t. My daughter grew up reading, at the age of 10 her favourites was Maugham and Maupassant. Did not go to many movies either, but saw every Stratford production. When my daughter entered high school, the set work for English was some badly written cliche’ ridden cowboy book. Had a bitter argument with the head of English, went as far as the minister of education, who quite agreed with me but claimed to had to cater to the lowest common denominator. I pulled her out of school, sent her to France, good catholic nuns and from being top of her class had to repeat two years to catch up. A German friend of mine had her daughter get a B.A. degree at York University, she wanted to do her masters in Germany, they evaluated her there and deemed the B.A. the equivalent of high school.
Posted by ciccio at 11:51 AM on July 3
It seems to me that if we liberated the Blacks and Mexicans back to their respective homelands, we’d be able to clean up our own, White messes in short order. Without the ghetto mentality being held up as a model before our own young people, if worthlessness were publicly scorned instead of applauded, most White kids would catch the drift and pull their pants up and put their figurative hats on straight.
Posted by Schoolteacher at 2:05 PM on July 3
Shakir doesn’t want to learn to read. SHakir wants to wander the halls of his school and to spend more time looking for copulation opportunities than to learn anything. Shakir knows that the Administration and faculty of his school are totally intimidated by him and his ilk and will do nothing more than to pay lip service to its discipline policy while coming down hard on infractions by WHite kids. Shakir will walk at his graduation to the high pitched screams of his “family” and friends as though he had actually accomplished something in his four years of High School. He did. He probably racked up a record of inseminations of his classmates.
Posted by at 11:35 PM on July 3
I can only wish it were just a slip.
Shakir is not the only illiterate here.
“Being unable to comprehend a fourth-grade geography book which differentiates continents from countries would probably be considered “illiteracy.”
Good grief! I am the original poster of the comment that caused such a fuss. It now appears that as a result I am aligned with the likes of Shakir. And Shakir receives a pass because he has been here for over 400 years (must take his vitamins). Once again we are back to why the White race is in such dire straits. More negative attention is brought to bear on the White poster (who tried to be clever at 5am and missed the forest for the trees) and a pass is given to our Shakir. And I could try to defend myself by mentioning that I gave most of my life to the military and graduated Cum Laude while attending college at night. Except this would be meaningless because I couldn’t figure out the name of Johnny’s mother’s third son (hint: The first two sons are named 1:00 AM on July 3 and 11:17 PM on June 30). I am certain that the above written contains numerous grammatical errors, I did not reference Shrunk & White because my brain is shrunk and white.
P.S. Don’t vote for Obama, he is illiterate and thinks we have 57 states!
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/05/09/obama-i-want-to-be-president-of-all-57-states/
Posted by Johny can't rite at 7:51 AM on July 4
Something tells me “Shakir’s” real name is “Shakur”, named after the rapper thug Tupac Shakur….. who is now deceased.
Posted by White is Beautiful Robert at 11:11 PM on July 4
“Only a Lad, by Oingo Boingo. Very fitting for this article:”
I’m sorry, I’m white, finishing a Doctorate in Music, and this says NOTHING to me.
Again, the culture has been de-Caucasianized, and no one told us this was ‘the will of God.’
Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Rachmaninioff,Elgar,Bruckner, Dvorak, etc. speak to me.
This does not. And that is ALSO why we have the “Shakirs” failing.
Culture, Intelligence, Civilization, America-
“It’s a WHITE thing, you wouldn’t understand.”
Posted by AlmostMusicPhD at 9:59 AM on July 6
Uh huh, I studied the clarinet for 16 years and the flute for 14 years, and I’ve studied the music of the Three B’s and the Russian Six, just as I’m sure you have.
But unlike you, I discovered music that was written by LIVING white men. If you actually put any research into your reply, you would have learned that Oingo Boingo was fronted by the very white, very flame-haired Danny Elfman, with a band that was also white. As to how you could not understand the relevance of the lyrics to this article, that is beyond me. What didn’t “speak to you”
And as someone who has been posting here for five years and counting, I don’t see how my whiteness can be brought into question-I would post my picture here if I could. YOU however, don’t have nearly as much site-credibility, so you are either a troll or a lurker: neither are really worth my time, but you got lucky, as you insulted my whiteness, my intelligence, and my taste in music.
“Only a Lad, by Oingo Boingo. Very fitting for this article:”
I’m sorry, I’m white, finishing a Doctorate in Music, and this says NOTHING to me.
Again, the culture has been de-Caucasianized, and no one told us this was ‘the will of God.’
Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Rachmaninioff,Elgar,Bruckner, Dvorak, etc. speak to me.
This does not. And that is ALSO why we have the “Shakirs” failing.
Culture, Intelligence, Civilization, America-
“It’s a WHITE thing, you wouldn’t understand.”
Posted by AlmostMusicPhD at 9:59 AM on July 6
Posted by Anglokraut at 12:22 AM on July 7
AlmostMusicPhD,
You sir are trying to sow the seeds of discontent. After reading your post about de-Caucasianized I believe you are the same poster that was calling people illiterate. You have the odor of the elite in your writings. Perhaps you are a professor or schoolteacher and they think you so wise? Ah, but you shall not affect change. We await the call of the Great Simplifiers.
Posted by at 5:52 PM on July 7
Thank you Bonbon for posting a reminder link to that debate Jared Taylor had with that Guttierez character.
http://amren.com/features/gutierrez/transcript.htm
I just read the whole thing and HOLY TAMALES I was blown away by how stupid the guy Jared Taylor was arguing with sounds. When he couldn’t make a cogent point to counter Taylor’s non-stop cogent points, the idiot screams - what else? - “racist!!”.
I got the feeling that Taylor was debating a mentally retarded person, that’s how different their reasoning is. How can you have a debate when such a huge IQ chasm exists between the debaters? Is it even possible? Might this not be the whole source of our dilemma?
Imagine this type of professor teaching the shakirs of this country.
To borrow from another regular poster’s byline: God help us all.
Posted by at 7:15 PM on July 7
I taught school in Black ghettos off and on for years. Compton, South Central, Watts, Lynwood, you name it.
I did teach elementary for a while. This behavior is typical of many Black boys his age. Some of them are actually quite intelligent. I got to the point where I having them get up and “rap” performance their assignments. I am trying to think here. Wondering if there were any Black kids in my elementary classes who were actually doing work. I guess there must have been, but I can’t recall. There is constant noise and chaos in such a classroom. Blacks this age cannot sit in their seats. You want to tie them to their chairs. They are always jumping up, yelling, fighting, arguing, playing. It’s like PE but it’s indoors.
I also taught junior high in a middle class Black school and it was more or less the same, except less destruction, violence and fighting. Same thing, can’t stay in a seat, won’t do any work. This was a good neighborhood, Black but very middle class.
Posted by Robert Lindsay at 11:19 AM on July 8