In the Black urban culture, it’s cool to be a fool.

But the fact is, there are a lot of factors in our society that influence many different cultural behaviors.

It’s only human nature to attempt to devalue something that is perceived as a weakness to us.

If we’re not good at sports, we tend to devalue the importance of athletic accomplishments.

If we have a hard time getting good grades in school, we tend to devalue the importance of educational accomplishments.

If we have a hard time fitting into the definition of being successful in our society, then we tend to gravitate towards an oppositional stance to that culture, or a counter-culture.

Josie Harvey, of The HuffPost website, reports that, during an appearance on ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ conservative commentator Heather Mac Donald blamed ‘Black culture’ for the academic achievement gap, and says race and gender diversity goals are blunting the nation’s ‘competitive edge.’”

Okay…, Black culture may be responsible for an academic achievement gap…, but what factors are responsible for this “Black culture” to begin with?

In my opinion, the root of the problem is that the Black family structure was attacked by liberal policies which began in the 1960’s, which rewarded fatherless families, thus redefining the societal role of Black males.

Black fathers, in this urban, socioeconomic environment, were devalued, making them unaccountable and irresponsible.

We also have to consider the downward spiral of educational adeptness as generation after generation suffered incrementally from their own lack of education.

In other words, how can these families be expected to support a student at something they have had no success at themselves?

Take a moment to consider and compare the support and expectations of the typical urban, Asian-American family to those of a typical urban, African-American family.

The cultural values here are at different ends of the spectrum…, regarding the acceptance of government dependence, family structure, the importance of education, the ability to support the children, and their visions of a desirable society and goals towards being successful.

The generalizations I refer to here, of course, do not apply to EVERY family of any race or culture…, only a majority of them.

“’The College Board’ (An American not-for-profit organization, representing over 6,000 leading colleges, schools, and other educational organizations, that was formed as the ‘College Entrance Examination Board’ to expand access to higher education.) announced on Tuesday that it was withdrawing plans to introduce an ‘adversity score’ on test results, a measure intended to address inequality in college admissions for those from varying socioeconomic backgrounds.”

Antonia Blumberg, also of The HuffPost website, reports that, “The College Board said Tuesday it would not move forward with a planned ‘adversity score’ intended to help level the playing field for students of diverse social and economic backgrounds who take the SAT admissions test.”

Is that really the intent of an SAT score?

What good is an SAT score that can’t stand on its own?

I mean, either you answer the questions correctly, or you don’t, right?

The College Board also stated that “The ‘Adversity Score’ reflected the ‘privilege’ of other students.”

I’m not sure if I would refer to the situation here as the “privilege” of others, but I suppose that’s another way of looking at it, if you’re looking at the situation from a victim’s standpoint.

And I’m not inferring any negative connotation on the term “victim” here.  In many cases, many of these students are victims of their circumstances.

“The company, which administers the admissions exam, said its attempt to address inequality in college admissions through a single score was a mistake.”

‘“The idea of a single score was wrong,’ David Coleman, College Board’s chief executive, told The Associated Press. ‘It was confusing and created the misperception that the indicators are specific to an individual student.’”

I’m not exactly sure what he is trying to say here, but I’m glad he at least acknowledged the whole concept was a bad idea.

‘“An updated [software] tool will include detailed high school and neighborhood information to admissions officers as separate data points so they can fairly evaluate each student,’ The Board said.

“In 2017, white students scored an average of 177 points [11%] higher than Black students and 128 points [8%] higher than Hispanic students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.”

The highest possible composite score for the redesigned SAT is 1600. The average score is 1000. The “section scores” are the individual scores for the two main sections of the SAT: reading/writing and math.  Each of these sections is scored out of 800, and they are added together to get your overall score.

‘“There are a number of amazing students who may have scored less [on the SAT] but have accomplished more,’ Coleman told The Wall Street Journal in May.’”

Really, Mr. Coleman?

You mean we just can’t start issuing paychecks based on our SAT scores?

Thank you for that bit of insight, Mr. Coleman.

‘“All of this tinkering with meritocratic admissions in colleges and throughout the economy, frankly, is all driven by one fact, which is the persistent academic achievement gap,’ Heather Mac Donald went on to say during an appearance on ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight.’”

‘“If Black culture or the rest of culture could close that gap, we would be back to a colorblind meritocratic system, but the College Board is trying to give colleges an excuse to continue to give preferences to under-prepared Black students, to catapult them into academic environments for which they are not prepared,’ she added.”

If we REALLY wanted a “colorblind” system, we wouldn’t ask the students what race they are when they take the test.

Just sayin’.

 

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