This only happens to those kind of people who attended those other schools.
Where is my grey poupon?
and her mother. Eric Botcher (Gordon Tech) was marginally better. Thrown at after freshman year - 69/70. Shoplifted a 27" tv from the floor at robertsons. Went to a dance and stole the bands amps while they were on break. Was very brazen and would react with violence if confronted. Was murdered before he murdered someone.
her mother
All committed some pretty serious crimes.
legal representation.
That's the 40 year decision.
is also another example. It's about him along with other players talking to kids about growing up. Justin was made fun of because he excelled at school.
thing among many young black teens when I was growing up was to be stupid (and it's still that way to a certain extent today)!
being smart and "cool" don't often go together, for whites and blacks. Hence the nerd/geek/dweeb monikers. The smartest kids in high school are often (certainly not always) alienated by their peers.
I don't think its hard to figure out why though. Most people are of (by definition) average intelligence. If you are very intelligent, you are in the minority. People tend to alienate those that are different from them. I think it's a natural reaction by people who are of average (or below average) intelligence to respond to "smart" people by treating them badly, making fun of them, etc - out of jealousy/insecurity.
achieve academically, it is acceptable. I mean cool sports, like football or basketball. Tennis or golf aren't going to help a smart teen gent with coolness.
It's okay for chicks to be smart - does not affect social standing.
Shades of Adolescent Psychology 140. Or whatever the number was.
OK, I made that one up.
It's to not conform to "white culture" which happens to promote education upon education, degrees upon degrees.
I don't think black male teenagers see high school as teaching them anything worthwhile or with a valuable end to achieve.
everything and reversed it. For example, words... if something was hot, it was "cool"; if it was good, it was "bad". It was cool to be stupid, uncool to be smart. It was hip to talk "ghetto" (e.g., he do, they does; those damn double negatives that drive me crazy, etc.) and lame to speak proper English. Criminals were the good guys while cops were the bad guys. Since normal clothes were acceptable, to be "in" you wore outrageous clothing (those stupid looking pimp outfits). You still see this mindset today and in some ways, it is far worse, e.g., the normal way to wear pants is up so the gangsta style is to wear them down so that their drawers are showing. All this seemed stupid to me growing up and seems even more stupid to me now.
education is seen as "wimpy" by many in the black community. We've seen some recent examples of how anything viewed as less than manly and masculine is treated by some black athletes. As well, too many whites also hold this particular view. I know many and am related to a few. One would think that by 2013 these people would at least see higher education as a vital part of securing a decent lifestyle but I am shocked by the number of people I know who simply do not push their kids to education beyond high school. Retail sales jobs for all... And don't get me started on what they think of anyone who is childless beyond age 21... I weep for the future of this planet.
There is no real threat of starving to death as a consequence of failing to be able to provide for yourself as an adult. When you know you can count on the federal government to bail you out with food stamps, section 8 housing and welfare checks, there isn't any real downside to not graduating from high school.
To people on this board, we view that lifestyle as being below our minimum standard of living -- we wouldn't be happy with living life at that income level. To a lot of people, it is a perfectly good lifestyle and the effort to graduate from high school, work for minimum wage for a few years, work your way up the ladder, etc is total nonsense because the federal floor we've created is good enough for them.