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Originally Posted by politicophile
If you think this question is purely hypothetical, consider than many of the black students at the college I attend are from Africa or otherwise outside the United States. Yet, it seems pretty clear that black people within the United States have been more severely discriminated against by white Americans than have black people in Africa...
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I think part of the problem with the number of African-American college students is not the result of overt discrimination, but rather the result of a subculture that does not promote assimilation and education, but instead espouses "thug life".
I recall seeing two african-american men interacting a few years back. The sixtysomething was well dressed in a conservative manner (sportscoat, buttondown shirt, tie, slacks, shined loafers) and the twentysomething was dressed "ghetto", a sports jersey, sweatpants, "do-rag", boots with no shoestrings, et cetera. The twentysomething came up to him and said something like "Hey, Brother." The sixtysomething said "I'm not your Brother, and you've never been part of my tribe." I spent 45 minutes afterwards listening to the sixtysomething rant to me about the twentysomething, and how the pain and suffering the sixtysomething went through to have the right to assimilate and get a good education and succeed was being "pissed on" by kids like that. The sixtysomething had literally been through hell (YOU consider what being an african-american army officer in the deep South during the late 50's-early '60s was like) and had "made it". He'd had a successful career as a military officer, been educated, owned his own business, and was by any rational measure a success. More importantly, he viewed what he and his generation did as blazing a trail for later generations, only to have those later generations turn their backs on the path that had been opened for them with literal sweat, blood, and tears.
A few days ago, I was talking to another african-american friend about how our "group" of friends seems to be spawning at an alarming rate. He's in his thirties, childless and unmarried. He told me that he didn't want to "go ghetto" and father a child out of wedlock. What does it say about a subculture when it promotes things like the men being "playahs" and the women as being "Hos" or "Bee-yotches"?
Some african-americans are quietly still on what I consider the "path to success". They're going to college, they're getting degrees, and are moving on to conventional success as responsible buisnesspeople, authors, lawyers, doctors, et cetera. But instead of them being glorified as what they are (in my book, "good people"), they're denigrated as being "uncle toms" and "sellouts" by people who consider "pimpin" to be the highest form of success.
In my book, there's something very, very wrong with that.