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Prison Economics


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Very critical share, Delano, thank you, information of ill-intended methods aimed to discourage and test Black resilience while simultaneously labeling Blacks as social deviants. Whether it’s a traffic ticket, breaking a meter seal to keep the family warm in winter, or arrest for sleeping on a park bench, mass incarceration of Black folk has always been to discourage upward mobility. And the new ‘broken windows’ policing policy help get it done.

 

And it works, for the most part because our reality has become twisted. I.e., (in my opinion) at each release or acquittal (if a Blackman or woman is lucky) their anger  or solution of determination always attempt to rebound by trying to line our pockets believing some money is the solution. Unfortunately, a Black person with any infraction, of any law limits options to get some money; jobs justifiably deny employment and with no means to invest Blacks are stuck, or run over in the rat race to succeed. Try stepping over the crowd, another offense!

 

One can only wonder why the media, labor department, and Government administration constantly fail to acknowledge disparity in Black unemployment numbers. Could it be 8.8% Black unemployment vs 4.5% White unemployment mean at bustling economy, or the ultimate psych-out?  While HUD Secretary Ben Carson (just purchased a $1.2 million home for less than $500 thousand) remain powerless to influence policy to help Black families, but instead helps himself and credited with demonstrating equal housing opportunities. Though he did cancel his wife’s purchase of a $30,000 table for his office under public pressure.

 

I mean let’s face it, there’s only more night on the horizon for Black folk while most Whites never have to worry about ‘daylight’ savings time. Again, pessimum totalling intended!

 

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Yeah the situation is FOBAR.  This quote, from the article is quote telling. 

 

"Over the past 40 years, the prison population has quintupled. As a consequence of  disparities in arrests and sentencing, this eruption has disproportionately affected black communities. Black men are imprisoned at six times the rate of white men. In 2003, the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that black men have a 1 in 3 chance of going to federal or state prison in their lifetimes. For some high-risk groups, the economic consequences have been staggering. According to Census data from 2014, there are more young black high school dropouts in prison than have jobs."

 

When you come from the inner city this is quite evident.  High swaths of our population are unemployed and unemployable.  This will remain the case as long as we, in the Black community, refuse to educate our poor Brother and Sisters. 

 

Clearly, the government will not do this.  Private industry will not do it -- but private industry will take money we borrow from government subsidized loans and still not educate us!

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@Troy. Clever economic strategy, wouldn’t you say? Made to withstand and time tested! Get them young, make sure they’re unemployable, use the statistic to appropriate more resources and use a small portion of the resources to underpay (only) some in low wage jobs causing frustration to turn into recidivism. While most just relinquish all hope to upward mobility making room for the next generation of social deviants. And it’s all of legal policy, just morally and dangerously unsound.  Who says ‘chaos’ is useless?

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Clever and devilishly brilliant...

 

I don't even take it personally, or believe it is racially motivated anymore.  Greedy rich people will do anything to get another dollar and to secure their wealth. They will take the food away from a starving baby if it means more money in their pockets.  That baby could be white or Black; it does not matter.

 

White people are gunned down, in mass shootings, on a regular basis.  The oligarchy wants to allow anyone to buy weapons of war without restriction just to make more money.

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@Troy. True that!! The much-ado about (actually) nothing should be celebrated by Black folk though, if for nothing more than to keep brothers and sisters minds on the Black experience as opposed to "House of Cards, Hungry Games," etc.  I think it's important to look at advantage(s) in even the disadvantages. e.g., at what point does a sleeping Black drug or alcohol abuser wake-up, at what point does a young murderer make positive focus her/his rage? If we get more Black folk talking about and rejecting white ways, simply because they aren’t Black ways raises the anger, if not personal efforts to change.  Anger, not rage is the positive emotional response we want to see take shape in our communities.  I supported the “Black Panther” by purchasing the film, even as I couldn’t stomach watching it for more than 30 minutes.

 

Brother Delano’s voice and promotion of the film attracts an interested audience, even complaints about accuracy of his depiction. I mean like, if poison kills than it does it’s job, that’s good. I’m learning that being motivated my money is a motivation, that too is good. Messing with poison and money teaches its own lessons and guaranteed to induce change. Ever see a child stick it’s hand on a hot surface twice?

 
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Besides drugs, the other major reason so many Black men are locked up in the United States is because after most of the manufacturing jobs that Black men traditionally made good money doing were purposely eliminated....most Black men of average intelligence and talent had fewwer opportunities to make a living for themselves.

This is why I don't think more education is the key.
Especially the traditional academic education that is being promoted as a solution to poverty.

Higher education is called that for a reason....because most people CAN'T achieve it.

You basically have to be smart to finish college and get a professional degree, and most people aren't "smart".....most people are average.

Sure if the average person is strongly motivated and willing to work hard enough and spend a lot of money and time and do a lot of sacrificing they could possibly achieve one...but how many people have the discipline and time to do all of that?
And more importantly, why should they?


This society isn't focusing enough on making simply well paying jobs that the AVERAGE person can easily do and make enough to support themselves without breaking the law.

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We, humans, are programmed to survive by any means necessary. Education, brother @Pioneer1 is not an easy undertaking, wouldn't be worth the while if it were. However, I'd prefer my brothers and sisters get into debt way, way over their heads in student loans than chance deviant behavior in today's America.  I recently communicated with a brother serving 12 years in a Federal USP max, he says the biggest fear the inmates there have is the possibility of the Bureau of Prisons killing inmates in time of foreign war on US soil, some standing order which I'm still unable to find. 

 

What I'm saying is, please don't knock education, it may be the last bit hope we have. While I agree that education is not necessarily a solution to poverty or other barriers to Black advancement, it is probably the only solution in the form of hope.  You know, that aspirin that temporarily alleviates certain ailments, not meant to cure or end suffering only allow some comfort.  Like, brother @Troy alluded to earlier, technology has come a long way and promises to leave the uninformed behind; that unless we are able to exercise some form of disciplined creativity there's no way to even know to where to start surviving. Disciplined creativity comes from advance information, education. I sincerely hope you don't encourage people to see education as a useless tool! 

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,

I don't discourage a person from getting a good education any more than I discourage someone from becoming a professional athlete.
Meaning......

If they have the ABILITY to do it, by all means do it.

I just don't believe most people have the ABILITY to achieve a professional degree.
So I believe it's a waste of valuable time expecting them to.

I think this society has trained too many of our youth to focus too much on the MEANS and not enough on the END.

Unless you just love scholarly work and studying for hours on end, academic education is merely a means...one of many....not an end.

The end is being able to support yourself and family, have a happy and meaningful life and accumulate wealth.

There are thousands of Black people with degrees who STILL aren't attaining these valuable goals....so what does that say about the value of higher education?

Because at the end of the day most of our educated Black people STILL have to go to White people begging them for jobs and opportunities.

Back during Reconstruction right after slavery Black people who could barely read a book were able to build towns for themselves, houses to live in, hospitals, schools, churches, markets, raise their families, and eat better than many are eating today.

Keep in mind that the same men who build the prisons are the same ones who built most of the educational institutions.....and for the same purposes....to control this society.

I say we need to stop relying so much on systems White men set up to keep us beholden to them and focus on building our own systems and institutions that will allow us to live the kind of life we want to live.

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@Pioneer1. The means, brother, is any ‘best’ option available that grants one the ability to excel beyond the ordinary. An ‘end’ is just that, the end which everyone eventually approaches. Education, unless you have a better ‘best’ option, is the most available best option where our people get the rare opportunity to face the ‘end’ with dignity and on terms other than at another’s mercy.

 

Anyone who endeavors an education to beg someone else for an opportunity, or for the sole purpose of getting rich had already lost. Thus, the term “educated fools.” No, education is the vehicle whereby we make our motion better. Make her/his actions meaningful and effective. All things considered, modernism, post-reconstruction, providing one’s own living standards; building houses, etc. is no easy feat.

 

I understand ancient African nations lived off the “fat of the land” with little more than community cooperation. But then came domestication of livestock, controlled agriculture, all controlled by someone else. Instead of ancient “hunting and gathering” on an as-needed chore. America is not Africa, and even African cannot survive by today’s standards

 

Additionally, the system you assert White men set-up wasn’t set-up by White men at all. There were over 1000 universities in Africa while White folk was still eating raw meat. And as beholden to White folk, fuck debt, try to collect it when I’m dead because my children will know how to keep you out of their pockets.

 

Institutions you claim we should establish just won’t happen without approval from the Government, I guarantee we won’t get since it is already their effort to keep us uninformed and dependent on construction jobs and in factories at non-livable wages.

 

Finally, show me a Black adult or youth person who is unable to learn, or lack the capacity, discipline to commit to learning advanced information and I’ll show a person who has mental emotional disadvantages; burdens of which are not an asset to the community. Thank God for jails, mental hospitals, and prisons that separate the sane who are awake, from insane who may never come out of slumber.

 

I refuse to believe someone who understands how to solve a quadratic equation won’t crave learning analytical calculus. Or conversing with our Black scholars won’t lead them to learn philosophic logic and reasoning. In-fact a Black person has the capacity for the sciences and academics to levels unheard of if committed to the discipline. Please, don’t mimic Gorka, Bannon, Betsy Davis and the other White ethnocentric mentalities that advocate inferiority of Black folk.

 

Change your mind about higher education!

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@Pioneer1 I do believe that the vast majority of people are intellectually capable of getting a college degree. The biggest challenge is not intellectual.  It is financial. 

 

I also believe that a high school education from 50 years ago is worth a college education today (@Cynique what do you think).  I mean many in my parent's generation had little more than a grade school education and seem better prepared for life that a college grad today...

 

Even when I was in school it was simply more difficult to do anything, writing a paper required a level of discipline that is unnecessary today.  Today you can just type all you thoughts and some program will correct the spelling, properly format it, into whatever style you want and even fix your the grammar.

 

I remember how frustrated I would be with a single typo-- too many and you had to start all over.  Programming was more difficult,  I won;t even talk about access to information...

 

Again we have all the information in the world at our finger tips and people are less informed and greater numbers seem misinformed.

 

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@Troy. Right brother but that’s what @Pioneer1 said. His words were “I just don't believe most people have the ABILITY to achieve a professional degree. So I believe it's a waste of valuable time expecting them to.”

 

It’s that idea ‘waste of time and other commentaries’ that compromises his position.

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I think Pioneer is right in the sense that a college education is a waste of time for some people, especially if we looked at there personalities, talents and goals.  For many college is just a rip off (but that is another conversation.

 

But ability is rarely the reason for someone not to go to college, that is were we diverge on opinions.  

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Well anybody who earns a college degree is not to be dismissed.  Those who college isn't for, wouldn't have the academic smarts to last 4 years in college and graduate.  No denying a college degree looks good on a resume, and when a job promotion is between a person who has a degree, and one who doesn't, the candidate with a degree has a leg up.  i can't imagine anyone wasting time going to college for 4 years if they felt better suited to be a plumber or a hairdresser or the owner of a rib joint.  

 

i've always regretted not finishing college, and the 2 years i spent going to one where i received the equivalency of an associate degree in  Liberal Arts and Sciences, taught me about subjects which served me well through out my life.  Education is never wasted.    

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@Troy, I agree we should disagree. Sister @Cynique is thinking with an open mind to infer we should at least always try, trying is never a waste of time even if it yields nothing in the end. As a Viet Nam Era Veteran, I can attest to the fact that a great many of brother and sisters attended colleges and universities to only get the educational benefits, we call it pimping the program. That even though many remain addicted to drugs, alcohol, PTSD, etc. they were able to stand on their own two feet; some while knee deep in debt.

 

It is almost ludicrous to speak self-independence without and believe advanced education is a waste of time. Just imagine how many of our Black brothers and sisters already really believe that. Any effort that may alleviate another generation of fools is not a waste of time!

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Troy   K2

I'm not against Black people seeking higher education IF THEY CAN.
What I'm against is Black people who AREN'T QUALIFIED just going through the motions and wasting their time and money seeking a degree they will never attain.
Just funneled through the system and being used by the university to make money off of.

Telling people who can barely graduate highschool that they should seek higher education to solve their problems is like telling people who can barely afford to keep up their house....to run out and try to buy a MANSION.

Further more, like I keep saying....it's not the education that's the problem but the LACK OF JOBS and RACISM that's the problem.
I don't give a damn HOW much education you have, if you're giving your resume to a racist who has vowed to never hire straight Black men to that firm.....you're wasting your time anyway.

 



Also, keep in mind I said PROFESSIONAL DEGREE.

Now as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out over whether most people can actually achieve a Bachelor's degree.

I suppose if you are of atleast  average intelligence, learned how to study properly, was disciplined and motivated, and had all their finances (tuition, living expenses, ect.....) squared away then maybe MOST PEOPLE could get a basic 4 year degree.
It also depends on how easy or hard the University is.

But how much is Bachelor's worth today anyway?

If you want to talk about putting your education to work for you, I'm talking about a Master's or higher in a specific field.

Now what percentage of the population...of any race...have the intellect and discipline to SUCCESSFULY (not try and quit and try and quit and stall and make excuses before giving up) go through 7 or more years of intense study and examinations?

Clearly less than 25%.

Now a days almost ALL young people are sent to college.....but most end up failing.

Look, for the VAST MAJORITY of the population to have a decent independent life weneed to push for more AGRICULTURAL and MANUFACTURING jobs that are well paying yet simple and don't demand much education or discipline.
It's as simple as that.




Now either I'm right......
Or this is all part of my BIG TRICK to talk these little negroes into dropping out of school.

Matter of fact....
Hey Troy, why don't you invite me to your class so I can speak to your students for a couple hours....lol.

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There is an ongoing education program going on America, for quite some time now; it’s called “The Hidden Curriculum,” Hidden curriculum refers to the unwritten, unofficial, and often unintended lessons, values, and perspectives that students learn in school. While the “formal” curriculum consists of the courses, lessons, and learning activities students participate in, as well as the knowledge and skills educators intended. Now, because the curriculum is unofficial there are no set standards, and States are free to implement the whatever exercise’s they want, with varied outcomes (and without Government interference, regulations), or ‘unintended lessons and values.’

 

This information is worth checking out for yourselves

 

It’s worth reading some of the sick philosophies, ideas, and rationale educators use to justify the program, including Betsy DeVos and other’s assertions that Black children are naturally inferior to other groups and lack the ability, motivation, and discipline to learn. That secondary, advanced education is a waste of time for them.

 

Among the varies lessons in the hidden curriculum, Black are taught to never challenge authority, sit-up straight in the classroom, etc. While their White counterparts are to always question authority and to relax in class conducing to learning.  The minority groups make better laborers, unskilled workers while the other make better managers and leaders.

 

What I’m hearing in this discussion might even be construed as new rationale adding to reasons for the hidden curriculum. However, everyone has a right to her/his opinion, and often than not, it's useless to point-out flaws in human convictions and beliefs. One part of me believes all humans are doomed with no hope, another part, however, have certainly limited faith that humankind does have the ability to change beyond the ordinary. But probably never will. 

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This is such a meaty topic. It is hard to properly address all the issues being raised.

 

Look for Black people with college degrees, these degrees mean a lot means a lot less than they used to and have always meant less than they do for white people. 

 

I have typically been more educated than most of the people I've worked with (I have an MBA and a MS in engineering).  I once had a white manager tell me during our first meeting that he did not care how many degrees I had -- this coming from a white guy who had less education and I'd guess who was less intelligent as well.  But he was senior to me in his role and made a lot more money.  He also had a direct say on the size of my bonus.  When the bonus pool was being divided up who do you think got the largest shared me or his boys?  This was at Goldman Sachs.  This type of thing was one of the reasons I left.  

 

After a certain point, I determined I would rather struggle on my own than be owned by folks who really don't see me or respect me.  But that is me and I know most people are not like me in this way.

 

At a Goldman it is also not just enough to have a degree it also matters where the degree is from.  Because of this Black people are are a significantly disadvantage because we are historically excluded from the Ivies. Again, not because of ability but because of legacy, racist admission policies, etc.  

 

Of course there are other places to work, but the firms where you earn the highest wages operate the same way. 

 

Now this also excludes other whites based upon class, which have led some whites who believe "affirmative action" has given unqualified Blacks positions that they rightly deserve.  

 

The value of an education is not a simple question.  People always say. "Troy I'm sure your engineering degrees helped you create AALBC.com,"  No they did not.  The skills I use today were not invented when I got my degrees.  I learned everything I know to run this site on my own.

 

Well surely, they say, that my MBA helps me run my business.  Again, the answer is "no."  An MBA is best suited to teaching one how to work for a large corporation.

 

Sure the same ability that allowed be to earn my degrees is the same one that allowed me to create AALBC.com.  But that ability is not at all unique and definitely not sufficient to run AALBC.com. 

 

@Kalexander2's point "Black are taught to never challenge authority" resonated because this was he way I was raised.  I always referred to people who were older to me.  In my first job I found it difficult to refer to the older white guys by the first names.  My white peers did not have this problem and they also challenged the older guys ideas more freely.

 

 

 

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Well, going to college is more than just getting a degree.  While at college, i learned a lot more than what was just in books.  It was the whole college experience that also taught me lessons for life; about dealing with people, and situations, and self discipline and independence.  Of course, this was during a different era.   

 

College will weed out those who can't handle all that is required to stay there.  Those who can't cut it, flunk out.  Those who are able to cope and maintain the required grade point average, graduate. Nobody is just idling there.

 

Troy speaks from his experience in private industry.  Things are little different in government jobs and public utility ones. These jobs don't discriminate in hiring practice and anybody can apply for them and by passing a  test and getting through an interview, can score entry level jobs, where the work place is a little different from corporate America's.   Once the competition begins in regard to  moving up, everyone i know who as been in this situation has said that those who have degrees have the edge when all other things are equal.  So  no one can generalize about the situation.  Del makes a good point about how technology is replacing a lot of common labor jobs, not to mention how the wages are lower.   A college degree is a tool.  It doesn't mean that you aren't an "educated fool', or are a superior person, but it is an asset.    

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@Troy. I sustain this topic is really vegetables with a hearty healthy serving of meat, both are necessary!  is it the degree that’s less significant, or the reason people endeavor to obtain a college degree? I’d propose that the (passive) reason(s) people get a college degree is increasingly being rendered benign. There’s no denial having a college degree makes one a better earner and more in demand, extremely capable of producing. People today strive for college degrees as an avenue to get rich, recognized only when deciding who gets the job or a bonus.

 

Like it or not White folk are in-charge, they place value on a college degree as use to deny or get what they want for as little as possible in return. Which begs the question; was it your overwhelming enthusiasm and determination that allowed you strike-out on your own, or was that and the academic skills and information you got from an advanced study? Would you have been successful without the academics? I’d venture that without your academics as the foundation that took you beyond the ordinary, your success would not have had the independent creative insight to stand on.

 

You apparently started off with the hope of earning a lot of money (Goldman Sachs) but your disappointment wasn’t getting the job (BA, MBA) it was treatment respecting your skills. Would have gotten that job without your college degrees? Could you have created AALBC without computer science training, marketing, and rhetorical training? Probably not.

 

One the one hand I believe one can get the same benefits of even a Ph.D. with little more than spending several years at the local library. On the other hand, some people require personalized instruction and face-to-face classroom exposure.

 

 But it is true, you can tell the winners from the losers at the starting gate, children and their annoying “why” for everything, answers of which determines their worldview.

It isn’t the methods (@Troy) of the hidden curriculum that separates fairness from equality, it’s the use. Two for me, one for you; you’d make a better worker bee, I’d be a better manager for the queen bee.

 

Education (college degree) is a viable tool to break down barriers, make one’s motion better. Wealth and prestige are incidental benefits. Our Black people, at this point in human history, require better motion (action) and means to break down the barriers our children will eventually face. You think a child is has a better chance in life with a vast inheritance, or following in the footsteps of a parent with a BA, MA, or Ph.D.? We require 'hope' as not empty broken promises, but something viable, tangible and substantive for sustainability. Do you something better than obtaining an education at the most advanced levels?

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It all feels subjective to me. Some go to college and go on to be wealthy because of it. Others go to college, Ivy League even, and can't find a job to save their life (I indirectly know a few who are in this position). Some have zero higher education and even dropped out of high school and are multi-millionaires now, others dropped out of high school and either can't find a job or live on minimum wage. It really seems to depend on the person and the situation. I hear stories on both sides of the education fence and it varies wildly. Education has helped some, it hasn't helped others. For some it hasn't helped, they have nothing. For others it hasn't helped, they are rich and brilliant beyond anything we could imagine. We each get what we get, or don't get what we don't get based on our life experiences and drive. Nothing seems hard and fast when it comes to individual experiences with education.

 

 

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@Cynique, great point, madam fact checker. I agree college will root out the disinterested on its own.

 

I’d like to disclose a (relevant to this discussion) privilege interaction I had many years ago, I conversed with a high profile African American brother named Larry Hoover considered of extreme social deviance. He displayed extraordinary intellect it was almost unbelievable. I wondered why he never pursued advanced education until it became obvious he was distracted by a character that lacking in empathy, resentment toward authority, and indifference to pain and suffering; I believe this sort of behavior is described as being a sociopath. Unfortunately, many of our Black brothers and sisters, especially White folk, are held back due to similar disadvantages.  His only concern was for the “naggers that brought me,” meaning obligation only to his crew (please excuse demeaning description).  I would learn much later, Mr. Hoover became America’s most wanted for extreme social deviant behavior considered a threat to National Security. These are the ones I refer to as educated fools.

 

I say this to point-out dangers of undisciplined, unchecked intelligence of our Black youth. That brother was more than ready for advanced education but lacked academic guidance may have transformed a fledgling sociopath a highly intelligent scholar. He lacked hope from watching, listening to the world tell him he can’t do it; it’s a waste of time, and he doesn’t have what it takes. Now, the functionalist argument would be “well his parents failed in their duties,” etc. another excuse to keep us from drawing water from the well.

 

It all feels subjective to me. Some go to college and go on to be wealthy because of it. Others go to college, Ivy League even, and can't find a job to save their life (I indirectly know a few who are in this position). Some have zero higher education and even dropped out of high school and are multi-millionaires now, others dropped out of high school and either can't find a job or live on minimum wage. It really seems to depend on the person and the situation. I hear stories on both sides of the education fence and it varies wildly. Education has helped some, it hasn't helped others. For some it hasn't helped, they have nothing. For others it hasn't helped, they are rich and brilliant beyond anything we could imagine. We each get what we get, or don't get what we don't get based on our life experiences and drive. Nothing seems hard and fast when it comes to individual experiences with education.

 

@Zaji, it is subjective sister in that its personal, and there’s nothing tangible there, but not all. A college education is as tangible as the air we breathe because it has the capability to prolong, if not save, life. We live in a world where what I call protestant ethics, mentalities rule thinking and behavior. Those who know it won’t admit and the ones who admit obscure influences do so with such conviction it’s almost like brainwashing.

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College and advanced degrees are pedigrees. It's an efficient way for their audience to recognise potentially successful individuals. 

Bill Gates is a drop out and Steve Wozniak of Apple didn't have computer degree.

 

@Troy I worked at Drexel Burnham Lambert. It was my first real job after University. I received one of the larger bonuses (boni?) but my boss looked out for me. 

 

 

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@Delano, yes brother, but they are Whites and Jews, they don’t need college degrees to achieve what they accomplished collectively. It was more than just one individual, but at least two set-up entities for monopoly by the others. Don’t kid yourself, educated minds were behind those people.

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Net-net we all agree people are better off with a college degree than without one in the current economy.

 

However having one is no guarantee of success and not having one is no guarantee of failure.

 

All the rest is a function of luck, preparation, connections, genetics, the economy, what you've studied, where you lives, etc, etc.  Too many variables to come out with a perfect formula to predict an outcome with a high level of certainty.  Again the degree maximizes your potential.

 

No I would not have gotten the job at Goldman without the degree, but I also did not come in through the normal recruiting channels.

 

Del I forgot all about Drexel.  Were you there when they imploded?

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@Troy, what exactly is your definition of success and failure, earning money, learning to stand on one’s own two feet? Luck is too subjective to bring into discussion, instead, let’s call ‘luck’ opportunity. Connections are iffy depending on what you propose to bring to the employer’s table. Genetics, genetics, genetics! Intelligence or ability is not inherited nor something in our blood; it’s ideas, distinctions in genetics that create xenophobia, ethnocentrism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. The economy is the distraction that keeps people focused on one target, which not necessarily the goal.

 

I submit that studying anything at an advanced level will give a person the tools needed to survive no matter where they live. In spite of all the scenarios, the goal is singular and uncomplicated, survival, the ability to overcome obstacles and intelligence to convert disadvantages into advantages.

 

Indeed, the greater the potential the better use of empirical experiences, every little bit is an asset to survival. Remember humans used stone tools that encouraged technology we use today. Those skills were passed along from the ancients.

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"Success" is purely subjective, but I think the ability to live on one's is a good indicator. But again it depends upon the individual.

 

Luck is subjective but it belongs in the equation.  There are thing that happen to us like being hit by another car while sitting a stop light or catching a stray bullet watching TV in your home are things that impact our chances of success that we can't control: luck.

 

Connections are not iffy in fact I'd argue that they are one of the most important things as far as a career is considered.  Most of my opportunities have come from people I know. 

 

Genetics (do I wanna go down this road again?).  There is a genetic component to intelligence. Since there is no such thing as race there can not be a genetic component as it relates to race. So all this stuff about "xenophobia, ethnocentrism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide" are arguments made by people who don;t understand genetics. 

 

There is no one gene for intelligence and of course environment plays a factor as well, in terms of how genes are expreseds and our potential.

 

The economy is absolutely a factor.  If there are no jobs opportunities are limited (why do I have to explain this?)

 

People can do everything in their power to achieve success but at the end of the day there are many things one can not control.  Of course we do our best to overcome these obstacles and do the best we can with the cards we are dealt.

 

 

 

 

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@Troy, yes, success, however, is the unpredictable result for which we gamble and, as you point-out it depends on the individual. Taking it a step further, it depends on what the individual has; no information, no exposure, misinformation, and not money if properly addressed greatly increases the probability in one’s favor. Would you agree that ‘luck’ is germane to intangible ‘hope?’ Expectation, anticipation, and optimism for something only possible with opportunity.

 

We all hope we’re not ever hit by a car or catch a stray bullet while sitting at home. We hope to never die. But the precautions we take that allow us to walk among vehicles without getting hit, sit at home without catching a stray bullet. The better we’re equipped to prepare the better chance at urban survival. Again, unpredictable results we gamble on; but it’s no reason to give-up efforts to change, be better than ordinary.

 

You are fortunate to have had viable ‘connections’ most people do not. I didn’t, my employable skills were convenient to employer’s needs, if for nothing more than to fulfill their affirmative action requirement quota. When manual position labor positions are filled, to capacity, only skilled work is available. I believed @Delano alluded to this.

 

Correction, sir, I beg to differ as to intellect is in the genetic code,it is a bi-product cognition, what is there is ability to learn (in all DNA code, there is also DNA code that produces anti-social behavior called the warrior gene) in any case DNA sequencing is still quite young as there remains much to be identified. But cognitive abilities are not inherited, does not lay within the DNA string along with hair color, skin color, etc. What you are right about is ‘race’ being relevant to culture or ethnicity, it’s invented.

 

Furthermore, people’s fear of things not like them or the unknown, superiority to other being’s, and survival of fittest mentalities is more than an argument. Its real, brother and doesn’t have to be tangible to be felt or otherwise experienced.

 

Again, I agree State economy is a factor, but when factored into the equation of human goals, emphasis takes from the view of the big picture. Simple survival, without the giant screen television, Bentley, or the mansion. The economy is not the absolute, or absolutely the factor when discussing opportunities, limited or otherwise.

 

The only undeniable factor in everything is death. At some point in each of us, death is imminent. The goal is to climb as far up the mountain as possible (strive), beat your chest if you make it to the top (a truly meaningful life); but eventually everybody starts that downhill slid (was it worth it?), take your time coming down off your mountain (pretending all is well).  But in the short-term most is going to forget where you’re buried or not care about where you’re buried anymore.

 

Human power is unlimited while you’re alive, life itself is limited and prolonged by the ones who know not how to live but in understanding life itself.

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@Troy I was temping there in the Autumn  of 1986. That Christmas the company gave a 30% of base pay bonus to their 10,000+ employees  on top of that there were merit bonuses. That year Michael Milliken was paid  $500 million in bonus. I was there for the market crash. When I left they were being investigated. I saw Milliken twice he seemed really intense. I also saw Reggie Lewis and said hello. 

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When I was in Flint a couple years ago working on my project I had an opportunity to meet with the City council and I did a little survey and found that most of them had a Master's Degree and higher.
Infact, Mayor Weaver herself has a DOCTORATE and is a Psychologist!

Yet with all that education and all those letters behind their names, those negroes STILL couldn't even provide clean water for their city and had to beg half-educated tobacco chewing White men in plaid shirts and jeans who could barely read,  to come in and re-do the water lines and provide cleaner water for the city!

Most Black people.....degreed or ignorant....can't even fix the pot-holes on the street the live in!

This makes me ask:

Is all this "education" actually teaching Black people how to build and maintain their own communities?

Or does it really just teach them how to "fit in" to societies that White people have build for themselves?






 

Del

What jobs will remain after technology is steadily making various jobs obsolete.


The jobs that will remain are the jobs that AFROAMERICANS make for themselves!

As long as we rely on White people to create the jobs, we will alway have to settle for "whatever is left".

But if we establish our own little "micro-economy" withing the larger American economy like the Chinese and Arabs are doing and like WE DID 70 and 80 years ago...we'll be fine.

Remember the Great Depression and how those connected to Wall Street lost all their wealth and were jumping out of windows?
Guess what.....
Most of those living out in the country were fine and ate well because they never depended on Wall Street to begin with.

We should take a lessen from them old-timers...lol.





Troy


After a certain point, I determined I would rather struggle on my own than be owned by folks who really don't see me or respect me. But that is me and I know most people are not like me in this way.


I know how you feel.
Once I learn how to do something...I usually excell at it and I don't like to be MICRO-MANAGED.

But imagine someone with your independent attitude but WITHOUT your education and skills.....that would be me.....lol.

I don't know about most women, but I've noticed that MOST MEN after a certain age don't want to be told what to do....but few have the balls to throw off the yoke and be free.


Higher education is good to show that you are intelligent enough to learn and disciplined enough to stick to something, but as you know it's ON THE JOB where most of the real learning begins.
 

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@Delano, excellent point, brother. Donald Trump is considered intelligent because he has billions when you factor in the fact it was all misappropriated his so-called intellect is transformed into social deviance, or simply a high IQ, a trait which contrary to intelligence. Often, professionals compromise their intellect by their social behavior. 

 

Dr. Robert Plomin, a deputy director of the MRC, genetic and developmental psychiatry at Kings College in London has it that any "one person's intelligence might be blown off course from its genetic potential." I as one doubt intelligence is in the DNA, but with a limited argument.

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@Pioneer1, yes, but they are surviving, though it’s at the peril of children’s lives. In your assertion you acknowledge the value of college degrees; what people do with advanced knowledge is a matter of moral conduct; survival of fittest, dead by sleepless nights or a guilty conscience. Maybe? Social deviance of the sociopathic kind.

 

In reply to you question, yes education teaches everybody to be selfish, arrogant, and disingenuous whenever necessary. Isn’t that fitting into society’s norm.

 

Remember the phrase ‘soul brother’ and ‘soul sister,’ remember what it used to mean to us? What happened to the attempt to disavow ourselves from White thinking, whites without a soul, influence of which we noticed had great material benefit, so we mimicked. Not at all encouraging, you say, how’s all the material and money the world going to save us at the peak of climate change (global warming), or in a national epidemic pandemic crisis.

 

These are not encouraging scenarios because there’s nothing anyone can do, willing to do. We’ve become just as our oppressors, struggling for our turn to oppress. We hope, with the hope of our children (their academic exposure) will do something different and better, in time to save whatever is left.

 

Again, education is to make our motion better, not get rich, or enjoy material accumulation, those are incidental benefits; I hope people will use not in a deviant manner.

 

 

 

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@Kalexander2, if intelligence is not inherited then surely you believe that if we all just studied we could be as smart as WEB Dubois, George Washington, Carver, Imhotep, or Einstein.  If we just hit the books we could be as smart as Louis Latimer or Stephen Hawking.  Do you believe this is the case? 

 

You know there are people who could pick up SPSS in no time, effortlessly?  Why do you think that is the case?

 

@Pioneer1 I'm sure if you looked at those degreed politicians incentives, you'd see that their brains and degree are being out to use.

 

@Delano MIchael Milk'em look was probably stress. 

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Brother and sister is also a amicable greeting. Which is ironic in that you've been a unifying element through your character observations. You act more like a strict father than a brother. I am making a observation sbout your lack of awareness of your environment the people in it and your persona. I am not attempting to either educate you or inform you. That is a thankless job without pay. so on both counts it is of no interest to me. You are a welcome addition. You add a certain , I don't know what to the proceedings . Pardon my French.

 

 

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@Delano, you think I aim to greet whenever I use 'Bother' or ''Sister"?  Little is further the truth. I'm old school and my use of those terms is personal, my way of personal connection with Blacki folk; not to gain trust or approval. And here I was thinking my loving, magnetic personality was the unifying element!

 

Not a strict father at all, not even a father, and not because I see children messy, noisy, and expensive, I'm just me; take me as I am or reject me. Everyone else and that I truly love.

 

And, among languages I speak, French is one of them. You are not speaking French.

 

Well, okay, whatever!

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K2

Donald Trump is SOCIALLY intelligent.

He knows people and how to deal with people, which allowed him to be so good in business.




 

In your assertion you acknowledge the value of college degrees; what people do with advanced knowledge is a matter of moral conduct; survival of fittest, dead by sleepless nights or a guilty conscience. Maybe? Social deviance of the sociopathic kind.


Most of the college degrees that Black people are getting allows them to FIT INTO a system that White men have already built.
But it doesn't teach them to build one for themselves.

I'd go so far as to say that outside of mathematics much of what is taught isn't really KNOWLEDGE but INFORMATION.
And the students who can best memorize that information and give it back to the professor the way he wants it on exams are the ones who get the best grades.

With good grades they are allowed to pass through to a career where THEN they will receive the actual KNOWLEDGE through practical application.


 

 


Again, education is to make our motion better, not get rich, or enjoy material accumulation, those are incidental benefits; I hope people will use not in a deviant manner.


Well you must understand that my moral standards are different than most people's.
Every behavior fits into the positive, negative, or neutral category.

I don't have a problem with people wanting to get rich.  I don't even see hoarding money and being selfish or greedy as being "immoral" in and of themselves.

They are not good or bad actions....they just are NEUTRAL neither helping nor harming others.

Infact, for the person getting rich and stacking up dough.....if that's what they want to do it's actually GOOD.


Now when you use your money to actually HURT people or if you steal money from others, NOW that's crossing over into the negative territory.

But I don't hate on people for being greedy or wanting to get more and more money as long as they aren't directly hurting others in the process.

There is evidence that Christianity purposely introduced the concepts that greed, selfishness, and the accumulation of riches was somehow "wrong" or immoral in order to discourage the masses from seeking to enrich themselves and thus threatening the wealth of those in power.

 

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1 hour ago, Delano said:

You add a certain , I don't know what to the proceedings . Pardon my French.

 

What is the translation of je ne sais quoi. So I think this is  a good point to end. Since you and I don't communicate well, and it takes too much effort to explain things. I ask you what schools you went to and you post the abbreviations, one of which I couldn't find. So why I am working hard to understand a person who in your words doesn't care to be understood.

@Kalexander2

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@Troy, not just study at universities, those individual’s empirical exposures in life complimented, helped develop their natural intelligence. Yes, absolutely, anyone can develop her/his intelligence with proper exposure to advanced information. Do you have the same intellectual capabilities as Gates, Job, Zuckerberg, etc.?

 

SPSS, I didn’t imply I haven’t learned it yet. But it has been a selective effort on my part.

 

@Delano, do you think intend to greet whenever I use the term ‘Brother’ or ‘Sister?” I assure that isn’t the case. I’m old school and those words genuinely, to connect with a Black person, it’s personal and has greater meaning for me. Not gain trust or approval! And here I am thinking my loving, magmatic personality was the unifying element here!

Not a strict father either, my household is double incomes without children, and not because I see children as messy, noisy, and expensive. Love them but the content I don’t any is a relief

.

And, among the languages I speak, French is one of them. You are not speaking French. Or did mean foreign or ‘manner’ of speaking which is not gibberish but not worthy of critical speculative thought either.

 

Okay, well, whatever.

@Dalano, take that back, maybe it is gibberish. OH, UAS University of Alaska Southeast. 

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@Kalexander14  Attitude is a factor in swaying my opinion and your playful attitude makes you easy to digest even if i don't always agree with you. I find it hard to swallow the swill of wanna-bes like pioneer.  

 

BTW, you mention Larry Hoover, a notorious figure from Chicago.  Are you from the chicagoland area?  

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@Cynique, sister @Pioneer1 isn't a 'wanna-be anything, nor does he need to be, he just is; a person! I learned long ago to not expect much from people it only adds disappointment to frustration  There is something to gain from even unscrupulous persons. I say that reluctantly because he seems to have principles, although a bit distorted.

 

Yes ma'am, sister, born and reared in Chicago North and Southside. Although I prefer to describe Mr. Hoover as 'high profile' the brother is known to be notorious. I was associated with a group there polling public opinions concerning my aunt, not  Angela, Charlene (Michell) Alexander, my father's older sister. You may be familiar with her, she is actually the first woman to ever run for president of the US., (1968) certainly the only Black woman, Independent Party ballot as a Communist Party candidate.

 

Of everyone here, you are the most interesting, tough and principled needing no one's validation. You see  I have five sisters myself and a mother with spirit as you display.  And I can still feel the slaps to the back  of my head to proof it.

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Verrry interesting.  i am from Maywood, Illinois, the home town of martyred Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton.  

 

In my internet encounters with "human" entities, very often their personalities transcend their words. some people i instinctively like; others I don't.  C'est la Vie. 

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Charlene (Michell) Alexander, my father's older sister. You may be familiar with her, she is actually the first woman to ever run for president of the US., (1968) certainly the only Black woman,

And all this time I was thinking Shirley Chisolm was the first.

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