No, Black Parents are not to Blame for Poor Literacy Achievement, but Black Culture IS
Allison Wiltz, let’s disagree without being disagreeable. I’m responding to your essay on why some people blame Black parents for our children’s low literacy rates. I’m probably going to lose some friends with this response and be accused of being a self hater who’s on the wrong side of blackness.
I don’t blame Black parents for our children’s low rates of literacy achievement, and I can’t argue that school systems are the ladders to success that they can and should be. Our children are definitely treated more harshly than are kids of other “races,” and schools need to recognize and remedy the ways in which they fail us. However,
I most definitely blame Black cultural traditions in child rearing as a detriment to our children’s achievement. Uh-oh. Here goes.
Individual changes in behavior won’t change Black children’s achievement levels, but group changes in our culture can. I have several decades of experience as a public school elementary teacher, and I know how the differences of economic class tell on children. Inequality begins, essentially, at conception, and it only widens over time. We can’t alleviate every difference, but there is at least one gap we can…
