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I've gotten my share of jobs with a history degree. Again, why do you insist on speaking for everyone?
Oprah Winfrey is not a stem person, and now she's a billionaire. John Legend, a musician was a former history teacher. Ditto Jackee Harry, an actress. I'd say they make more than most engineers.
There is no one solution for everyone, as we all have different talents and circumstances. You can't seem to understand that Blacks are not one size fit all robots.
Yet liberal arts professors despair that fewer people are enrolling, preferring STEM or business oriented majors as being more likely to result in a job. The exceptions being the Ivy League schools which have very strong programs to assist their graduates to find jobs. Both by massive assistance in training them in how to find a job, and also have companies recruit from those schools.
But NYwriter, most people are not going to be like you and I, with Ivy degrees, so what of them?
Note that Oprah isn't trying to get her first job out of college in 2014 so I don't see how her example is relevant. In any case I am sure that even she will tell people that following her foot steps is very risky, and she had as much luck as she had talent. Jackee Harry would emphasize that even more, given the vagaries of an acting career. John Legend, ditto. All three possess skills that few people have, so are poor examples.
The fact remains that people who lack the level of social connections, where they can call some one who knows them to get recommended for a job, cannot afford to not have a skill when looking for one. This is why immigrants, and those from lower middle class backgrounds can ill afford to be history majors, unless they plan to teach.
The public sector is not going away. Shrinking is not elimination, and I'm not even convinced it has shrank all that much. Where's the actual stats on that?
Cops, firemen, public school teachers, MTA workers, HRA workers, city inspectors, etc will always be around and will always get their retirement benefits. Clearly you hate them because you don't get such benefits. So much for doing well off.
NYWriter why don't you post statistics showing the fact that pubic sector jobs have increased since 2010.
Also making personal insults not only embarrasses you when you don't know the person, but it also undermines your argument because it shows that you lack the ability to back up your argument with facts.
No it is not what your hunch is that matters. It is what the data shows and it shows that since 2009 there are 700,000 FEWER public sector jobs nation wide, even as millions of PRIVATE sector jobs have been created.
Please I am not so fabulous that I forced these entities to write these articles.
So keep on telling blacks to focus on the public sector while job growth is in the private sector. It makes no sense to look for a job in a sector where there isn't job growth.
It has hard enough for most blacks to begin with, so they need to be better prepared than others in order to survive.
And no I don't envy civil servants. I feel sorry for them, living day to day in fear of losing their jobs, and knowing that the private sector attaches no value to their skills in most instances.
I also find it bizarre he excludes Africans and Black Hispanics in his definition of Blackness. It sounds like someone who is merely repeating the ignorance of whites who don't know people of African descent live in many parts of the world.
1. Black Hispanics normally do not include themselves as part of the black community, even when they concede that their skin color is black. They certainly are NOT included in statistics concerning black people. Indeed the normal rant I hear from black Hispanics is their objection to being included with other blacks, simply because ODR rules in the USA make them black, and indeed many deny that they are black.
2. Only you will imagine that I exclude Africans from my analysis. Put it this way, if you find blacks from the English speaking Caribbean so alien that you cannot begin to identify with them then you know full well that your views towards Africans will be even more extreme.
3. Most blacks in NYC live in majority black communities. NYC being among the 5 most segregated cities in the USA. If you feel offended by that notion I cannot help you.
This looks at the entire metro areas of cities, so encompasses blacks who have moved to the suburbs. Even when we consider this the NY area is one of the most segregated.
4. Black Americans typically have much less to do with black Hispanics than they do with blacks from the English speaking Caribbean. I can and have rolled off names of people who black Americans identify as fellow blacks and even admire in some instances, despite their PART Caribbean origins. The number of black Hispanics who make that list is much smaller.
A lot of this comes down to basic parenting and culture. While it would help, you certainly don't need all of what you wrote to have a great work ethic or to treat others you come into contact with with dignity and respect. Sadly, many blacks (I think the rate is 70% now) are being raised in single parent households,.
This is a statistic that is often trotted out.
1. It refers to children born into households where their parents are not married. Many live in homes with both parents present, even if not married.
2. This implies that even non resident fathers have no contact with their children. Many maintain as much contact as do those where there is a divorce.
3. You imply that the black single parent lacks the ability to raise her kids, simply because she never married, but a divorced mother is able to do so. My experience is that the children from divorced situations are way more angry than those who never had both parents living with them, so will more likely act out.
4. You insult single parents (not always mothers by the way as about 10% of blacks kids are with single fathers) by suggesting that they lack the ability to pass on proper values. I know of too many kids from those situations who are doing fine, and indeed have tighter bonds because every one had to carry their weight in the family. I know of kids raised in families where there is a divorce where there is extreme anger and blame directed towards one or both parents.
The reality is that the % of black kids growing up with no contact with both parents is much smaller than the 70% number. Furthermore the high rate of divorce means that about 50% of US kids are NOT living with both of their birth parents, many living with a step parent, with all the problems that this might incur.
Even as the rate of out of wedlock births has grown among blacks, so have the college graduation rates, the numbers in the middle class, and the numbers in professional and management positions.
Clearly there are some single parent families which do not work. But then there are also two parent families which are dysfunctional, and I suspect where there is a divorce the biggest disciplinary problems emerge.
In any case unemployment among blacks, even those with STEM degrees, as well as advanced degrees, is higher than their white peers, so obviously something other than the dysfunction of poverty is at issue. ANY one who graduates college has some level of work ethic, discipline or ambition, so the usual line trotted out can't be the explanation.
More on the single parent issue. Not all single parents are women. Some women are drug addicts, alcoholics, sluts, have serious mental issues, etc. I have known the fathers or other relatives like grandparents to take the children away. So these single parents are not necessarily the children's biological mothers.
It's a shame that there's such a high rate of broken families among Blacks, but to make it like all women are princesses and all men are bad is a ridiculous oversimplification of the problem. For those men who apparently are players, is there a reason why these mothers seemingly cannot raise their sons better? Keep in mind you have women on welfare and otherwise local class women too.
I'm also curious as to why these women are not using birth control. The pill, hormonal injections, IUD, spermicidal jelly, implants can all be used to prevent unwanted births. So can abortion.
I am actually in agreement with you here. The point is that this issue is more complex than people imagine.
Using my (middle class admittedly) family as an example. The kids who grew up in single parent households did very well. The failures were the ones who grew up in households where there was a hostile divorce.
Moral of the story is that single parents can be effective parents. Growing up in a single parent home does not give one an excuse to fail as too many who did do perfectly well.
Your first question boils down to culture and what has become culturally accepted. I touched on how this is destructive as well. The women are not blameless. But the women don't make these children on their own. And they are, at least as a general rule, most often still on the scene, even if obvious reasons means they can't properly supervise, provide much of the direction needed, particularly to young men.
And single parent homes do include cohabiting parents outside of wedlock, but for far too many people, they mean the general absence of one parent altogether (or at least in practical terms). That certainly has a devastating impact. And, true, not all single parent households are run by women, but, at least in the black community (and to the extent that there is true parental abandonment), this is so for the overwhelming majority of cases and is not something that one needs a formal study to prove (though this pretty much has been proven); to those of us who have lived or live/work in these areas, this is evident.
the reality is that you have to break down families where there aren't two parents involved in the kids lives from those whose father was never around.
You need to explain to me why marrying the wrong person, which invariably ends in divorce is better than a woman who gets pregnant, unexpectedly, but then decided that marrying that person would be a mistake, and that father remains actively involved with the kids.
I see loads of black men on the subway on their own with kids. I hear loads of arguments on the subway from black men who are concerned about how their kids are being raised, and threatening to take the kids away.
So I don't buy the notion that 70% of the fathers aren't involved. In fact a statistic that I saw says that about 50% of black kids co-habitate within a two parent structure, quite likely a step father, or in a common law situation.
the reality is that you have to break down families where there aren't two parents involved in the kids lives from those whose father was never around.
You need to explain to me why marrying the wrong person, which invariably ends in divorce is better than a woman who gets pregnant, unexpectedly, but then decided that marrying that person would be a mistake, and that father remains actively involved with the kids.
I see loads of black men on the subway on their own with kids. I hear loads of arguments on the subway from black men who are concerned about how their kids are being raised, and threatening to take the kids away.
So I don't buy the notion that 70% of the fathers aren't involved. In fact a statistic that I saw says that about 50% of black kids co-habitate within a two parent structure, quite likely a step father, or in a common law situation.
Joel kotkin had revealed data about something similar that poor urban youths do have access to their fathers and that dead beat down thing is really kind of false. But I do have to agree though that a child does need a father in their lives regardless of married, separated or via break up. Common law situations in nyc do not last long with 75‰ local native women primarily in in low income areas like upper Manhattan, the Bronx and most of Brooklyn. But in truth plenty of youths do have access to some sort of father figure whether positive or negative.
Last edited by Bronxguyanese; 09-01-2014 at 04:22 AM..
Joel kotkin had revealed data about something similar that poor urban youths do have access to their fathers and that dead beat down thing is really kind of false. But I do have to agree though that a child does need a father in their lives regardless of married, separated or via break up. Common law situations in nyc do not last long with 75‰ local native women primarily in in low income areas like upper Manhattan, the Bronx and most of Brooklyn. But in truth plenty of youths do have access to some sort of father figure whether positive or negative.
I do know a lot of married people and long term common law situations in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. It's something of an exaggeration to say most of these kids don't know their biological fathers.
Women, whether they are married to the kids father or not also know how to sue for child support. If he's paying child support on the kids, he is already taking care of them financially so the father is likely to spend considerable time with a child in this situation.
NYWriter why don't you post statistics showing the fact that pubic sector jobs have increased since 2010.
It has hard enough for most blacks to begin with, so they need to be better prepared than others in order to survive.
And no I don't envy civil servants. I feel sorry for them, living day to day in fear of losing their jobs, and knowing that the private sector attaches no value to their skills in most instances.
Where did I say that public sector jobs were increasing? I said no such thing. I said the public sector wasn't going to be eliminated, and that in some capacity someone will always have to do those jobs.
With that said, I do agree with you that given the hardship's in the current economy Blacks will have to prepare well to even get very basic jobs, much less more lucrative private sector jobs (or even higher level public sector jobs).
the reality is that you have to break down families where there aren't two parents involved in the kids lives from those whose father was never around.
You need to explain to me why marrying the wrong person, which invariably ends in divorce is better than a woman who gets pregnant, unexpectedly, but then decided that marrying that person would be a mistake, and that father remains actively involved with the kids.
I see loads of black men on the subway on their own with kids. I hear loads of arguments on the subway from black men who are concerned about how their kids are being raised, and threatening to take the kids away.
So I don't buy the notion that 70% of the fathers aren't involved. In fact a statistic that I saw says that about 50% of black kids co-habitate within a two parent structure, quite likely a step father, or in a common law situation.
The funniest case I ever heard of a Black man threatening to take his kids away was at the dentist. His ex girlfriend was always asking for money, and one day he left her have it . He told her you got a dude coming over banging you and you got no food in the refrigerator. You diot, he told her, what kind of dumb ass woman gets banged by a dude who can't even give her food. LOL. He then called her an unfit mother and informed her he would be taking her to court for being unable to feed their child and he would seek primary custody.
Another case I know in which a father (Black) took the kid away was this. The mother had a drug problem and was on SSI. She had her kid taking medication so he could get SSI for mental illness . The father thought this was unnecessary and had his son independently evaluated. Nothing was wrong with him. He took his son away from the mother and raised him. His son got a degree and works on Wall Street now.
So as noted, some of these single parents are FATHERS. Some of these single parents are aunts, uncles, grandparents, older siblings who took a child in when the mother lost primary custody.
Some of these kids live with both parents who never got legally married. In other cases, sometimes the biological parents get married after kids are born.
Obviously not every single mom or single dad raises bad kiss.
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