IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that alot of the problems we see as it applies to the black people in America stems from a lack of education, or educational funding. I think this is not an issue of race or racial bias, as it applies to anyone who has not received a proper education, but more so one about classism. But, with this first day of school boycott in Chicago and all, I decided to look into this as it affects the race. I was also motivated to do this after a conversation I had with my younger brother, who is currently in medical school. This past weekend, I asked him about the numbers of black students he encounters while doing his clinical rotations at the hospital. He told me that there were not that many. Matter of fact, he said that in his group, there are 3 black students including himself, with 2 being from Jamaica, and Haiti.

I asked him his opinion as to how come more black kids aren't becoming doctors. In his opinion, he thinks that black kids are more concerned with the bling and getting it all now, and not thinking long term. I thought his answer was quite cynical, but I felt that there could possibly be some truth to it. Upon investigation, I found out that only 4% of the doctors in this country are black. Now remember, black people account for 14% of the population as a whole, so you can see how startling the numbers are. I hate to admit that my brother is right, so I had to look into this from another angle. I decided to go back to where this all starts; the public school system.

Here's what I found in my research....

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 1994, 17-year-old black students are 3.4 years behind 17-year-old white students in mathematics, 5.4 years behind in science, and 3.9 years behind in reading. As of 1998, the average black child attends school in a district that spends as much money per student as the average white child's district. As of 1999, 7% of black children in public schools score higher than the national average on standardized tests.

Then I found this information....

A study published in 1999 compared the math scores of black students in public schools and Catholic schools in Washington, DC. The study controlled for factors which included the education of child's mother, the child's family status (one or two parents in the home), the availability of reading materials in the home, and the median income of the neighborhood in which the child lived. The study used data from 1996.

The results are as follows: The average black eighth-grade student who attends Catholic school has math scores better than 72% of comparable students in public schools. The effect of attending a Catholic school has a greater positive effect on mathematics achievement than the effect of reducing the student to teacher ratio from 25:1 to 15:1. The effect of attending a Catholic school has a greater positive effect on mathematics achievement than the effect of a student's mother having some college education. The effect of attending a Catholic school has a greater positive effect on mathematics achievement than the effect of living in a two-parent family.

So as you can see, its easy to conclude that the problem lies in the public school system. The upcoming boycott in Chicago is in protest of the underfunding of public schools in the city. If only it were possible for us all to be able to afford for private schools. If we were able to, things would probably be better. As a matter of fact, I'd suppport a gov't program (be it federal or state) that offers more vouchers for education. We'd probably have more black doctors, scientists, astronauts and such. I don't know about you guys, but maybe Obama's faith based initiative isn't a bad idea. Spending $500 million a year in summer learning programs to decrease the educational gap between the poor and wealthy is a good move.

But what are our kids to do? We live in a society, where we idolize and make the professional athlete a God. We sit in our homes, and "wow" at these guys on MTV Cribs when they showoff their extravagant homes. Before "Cribs" it was that fat guy on "The Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous". Look at professional sports, most of them are dominated by black athletes. And yet we champoin the advances of black people in this arena. Barry Bonds breaks the homerun record and he becomes a hero. While most of our black kids don't even know about acheiving using their heads. I'd hate to think that The Notorious B.I.G. was right when he said "the ghetto is a short stop, the only way to make it out, is if you sling crack rock, or have a wicked jumpshot." But, his reality, tho not far from the truth, is pretty sad.

And who are we to blame for this? We can't blame the white man. Hell, through affirmative action they've been trying for years, to increase the number of black doctors. For every 100,000 black people, there are 73 doctors. That just shows that we do a great job at rearing kids who are physically superior rather than intellectually to make that phat paycheck and buy momma a house (its really no different than slavery, except for the fact that momma wasn't gettin any new house back on the plantation).

I'm willing to bet that you probably didn't know that Cuba...

yes Fidel Castro...

offers a scholarship for black kids graduating high school to attend medical school in Cuba...FOR FREE.

Yeah, its exclusive for black kids and he foots the bill. And you probably think that Cuba is backwards as hell when it comes to medicine....wrong!! Look it up for yourself if you don't believe me.

What we have done in effect, is accepted the dumbing down of our kids. We only encourage them to do only so much, to get that athletic scholarship. Or applaud the fact that they finished high school like its a MAJOR accomplishment. But hey, maybe it is since the rate of graduation for black kids sits at around 50%. I know back in the days it was against the law to teach a slave to read, but damn, why must we still act like we're still picking cotton? Oh well, at least they're more black doctors on TV than I'll ever encounter in real life. Hell, white people are smarter anyway.

I'm done for now...

The Dream Team is about to play on TV at the Olympics.