Michelle Obama at Bowie State: Too many fantasize about being ‘a baller or a rapper’

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Michelle Obama encouraged the graduates of Bowie State University on Friday morning to live up to the legacy of their university’s founders and the leaders of the civil rights movement by promoting the importance of education in the black community.

“Just think about this for a moment — for generations, in many parts of this country, it was illegal for black people to get an education,” Obama told the predominantly black crowd, referring to the period in which Bowie State was founded. “Slaves caught reading or writing could be beaten within an inch of their lives.”

The creation of the small school that eventually became Bowie State University was an “eloquent act of defiance,” she told the crowd of about 600 graduates and several thousand of their supporters at the Comcast Center in College Park.

Obama encouraged the students to keep a hunger to learn, quoting abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said education “means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/michelle-obama-gives-graduation-speech-at-bowie-state/2013/05/17/81e6f9aa-bf13-11e2-9b09-1638acc3942e_story.html

[kyeshinka]

1. We've made progress!

Today, black people don't get killed for reading or writing. They just get arrested and kicked out of school for conducting science experiments. Baby steps, people.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

2. I find this posting utterly racist and horribly offensive.

To explain such a bigoted statement you would have to write a book.

[CBGLuthier]

3. Ooooh. Do Tell.

Best make it quick.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

5. Mrs. Obama needs to justify, not I.

The women is so economically disconnected with the desires and needs of the black community, then for her to broach this subject simply on the basis of her skin color???? Now that's Racist, racist and patronizing. When she and her husband open up a free college for black underprivileged kids or volunteer to work with underprivileged individuals every day I might consider her to have have an inkling. Till then she should remain free from judgements about things she can't possibly comprehend.

[heaven05]

6. ???

some people.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

8. I can't begin to imagine how I'll explain to my kids Mrs. Obama assumes

that because they are black they desire to be ignorant and superficial. Hopefully they don't hear about this.

[azurnoir]

9. seems to me Ms Obama's nice words were preaching to the choir

she missed the mark by about 16 years, it the elementary schools that need to hear this, the schools and their staff that whether well meaning or not lean on stats to perpetuate stats, perhaps she should consul her husband to kick NCLB to the curb, not just give schools (the difficult at best to qualify for) option of not following the standards, perhaps fund schools more fully, not leave it to state and local decision makers and that's just for starters

[socialsecurityisAAA]

10. Fund schools and incentivize more advanced degrees.

Eventually the standard has to be a PHd for a given subject. Elsewhere we need to look abroad for ideas on how to modernize education in America.

[Igel]

41. It's an okay place.

Michelle Obama's echoing recent peer-reviewed research.

Take the low-achieving barely middle-class kids in my neighborhood.

Each week, for 36 weeks of school, the black males and some Latino males spend 4 hours avoiding work in math or science or history class. Each week, for the 10 months when it's warm enough and dry enough, they spend 15-20 hours a week playing b-ball.

Most of the white and Asian, some Latino males are seldom seen during school nights.

Their school is failing, Title I, given extra money, and ranked unacceptable. It was built in 2007 and is a wonderful building. It's mostly black.

Imagine if they spent 15-20 hours a week doing math and science homework. This is a choice. Pure and simple.

But if they're like black males, aged 16-18, in the researcher's sample, their first career choice is NBA. Obviously, given the hundreds of thousands of black males, for it to be a realistic career choice you'd expect there to be at least 50k NBA openings a year, right? But it's not. Their second choice for career is a distant second.

Even most of the black males heading to college from the seniors in my classes are ridiculous and busily making bad choices. Many have basketball or football scholarships. And nearly every one has said they don't need to worry about academics. If they flunk out their freshman year it doesn't matter ... because they'll be picked up by the NBA or NFL. In fact, I've been told that taking time to do homework or study would reduce their chances of success.

They have learned bad information from somebody--not schools, not teachers. They've rejected accurate information when presented. Sometimes they've been trained to be hopeless and helpless. Or bitter and angry for things that happened before they were born or which were done to others. And they've made bad choices based on that bad information. Nobody's saying you have to go from deep poverty to CIT or MIT, then off to retire as a hedge-fund manager at age 35. For many kids, just making the choices necessary to keep from dropping out of high school and doing significantly better than their parents is enough.

I screwed up my career path. Several times. Each time I suffered as a victim of my own choices.

Sometimes the hardest victimizer to shake is yourself.

[azurnoir]

42. well thank you for an 'enlightening' dissertation concerning Black males

albeit I am not sure DU is quite the place for it however your dissertation here seems to center on secondary students as I said it should start much earlier

[heaven05]

11. no

justification needed. If FLOTUS has one of those graduates go back into their community and take that message to the elementary schools, community action group ect, then she has done her job as far as I am concerned. Racist and patronizing? Geez, she is at least starting somewhere with people who hopefully will have close interaction with community kids who are at risk. I applaud her.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

16. Wishful thinking.

Anyway I'm not arguing her motives, although has she been in the poor area lately cause I haven't seen her, I'm arguing accuracy. My kids and their friends don't want to be ballers! They want to earn a livable wage and be treated with dignity. One of my girls is obsessed with Moliere right now! She doesn't want to be a damn baller, she wants to be a therapist for children of addicts.

[heaven05]

18. good

for your kids. Yet your kids ARE NOT all kids. You just might be a good parent and your children are better because of that fact. There are kids at risk though and I repeat, I hope some of the graduates take her message to the ones that DO want to be ballers. They have learned from all type of sources that this is cool behavior. Hell I've got a youngster in my neighborhood that just today was running about with a plastic toy gun. Mimicking putting it in his trousers, pulling his shirt over it to hide it, as I've seen plenty of movies where the ballers did the very same action. If he is reached by a caring adult, maybe one of those graduates, before that behavior becomes him, maybe, just maybe he'll be ok. Maybe! Don't fault our FLOTUS. At least she is saying something that does cover a lot of at risk behavior IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY. Have a good one. I'm though with this.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

20. She isn't saying anything relevant.

She is mistaking an issue of poverty with an issue of race. After two glasses of wine I'm finding it difficult to convey how obstructive such a mistake is without taking it personally. OK let's say for one second she is being altruistic. Do you really think kids desire to be "ballers" or do you think its a consequence of being underprivileged, the same as stealing bread because your hungry?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. A woman who grew up in the south side of Chicago? Yeah, she's out of touch!

[socialsecurityisAAA]

14. She is, without a doubt.

[BeyondGeography]

30. Her father put a sheet up in the living room

So she and her brother could have separate bedrooms.

http://www.urbansplatter.com/michelle-obamas-underprivileged-childhood-home/

Shut up.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

33. WHICH MAKES HER VILE RACIST HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPES EVEN MORE VILE!

She should know better, and someone in her position should have more tact than judging and labeling an entire ethnic group as ignorant and superficial! Most children are the same, no matter what color their skin is! You and Mrs. Obama need to learn that. She is taking a poverty issue and making it racial. TO FILL YOU IN, POVERTY DOESN'T DISCRIMINATE! Often the most poor have the highest aspirations.

Shut up????? Try reading something, or talking to these kid's instead of forming assumptions from a comfortable distance. I can guarantee you this, black kids don't appreciate it when people assume they all want to be "ballers" and "thugs", that is for sure! This has nothing to do with realities in the black community and EVERYTHING TO DO WITH PAMPERED ATTITUDES ABOUT THOSE LESS FORTUNATE, attitudes and assumptions that don't come from knowing the people YOU wish to judge!

[BeyondGeography]

35. Feel free to disagree with what she said, but calling Michelle Obama ignorant

about growing up in challenging circumstances is total, unadulterated bullshit.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

37. She is ignorant for perpetuating A RACIST HOLLYWOOD STEREOTYPE.

You are being EXTREMELY MANIPULATIVE by claiming that I implied she was ignorant because she grew up in a poor household. Read my posts! QUOTE WHERE I IMPLY THAT!
Exactly why is it that she should be immune from criticism after saying such vile things?

[BeyondGeography]

38. Yeah...nice new pile of non-responsive bullshit there

Have a good day.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

40. Instead of showing us you aren't able to have a discussion without being manipulative and using

profanity, why don't you justify your accusation?

WHERE'S THAT QUOTE?

[Doctor_J]

45. Her husband was a Community Organizer in South Chicago

When she and her husband ... volunteer to work with underprivileged individuals every day I might consider her to have have an inkling

Thanks for the Daily Duh

[heaven05]

7. ???

[NaturalHigh]

12. Eye of the beholder and all that...

I knew somebody would be mad, though. It's all the fashion. We must always be absolutely, 100% pissed off all the time to be with the in crowd.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

28. Only when wealthy ignorant women voice racist stereotypical opinions

Of me and my own.

[Capt. Obvious]

17. Either you're slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot

[simpify]

26. Not bigoted at all.

Maybe she could have been more tactful but her point is 100% valid. Its sounds like you're out of touch with the community.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

27. While she is chatting and dining with the rich disconnected.

I'm in therapy ALL day with the kid's she pretends to have a clue about. It's unfortunate to see so many on this website supporting Hollywood stereotypes about MY community. Fortunately those commenting don't have a grasp and my kids are doing fine and have higher aspirations than being a "baller", regardless of how disconnected people view them!

[Beacool]

31. I'm not AA, but I thought that she meant well.

Her advice could apply to any young people. She's telling them to aspire to more than being a jock or a rapper. Education is the best way for people to leave poverty, regardless of race.

I work for a Fortune 100, I notice how little the young new hires know about general culture. Kids nowadays are bombarded with information, unfortunately most of what they get is junk. As a society we have become less educated, rather than more so.

Trying to encourage kids to learn seems a good idea to me. I'm trying to understand, why did you find her remarks so offensive?

[socialsecurityisAAA]

34. "Her advice could apply to any young people." And that is how it should have been delivered!

[alp227]

44. Barack Obama has made similar statement.

Pres. Obama stated in his 2009 address to the NAACP 100th anniversary gala: "[linK:http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2009/07/obama-our-kids-cant-all-aspire-to-be-the-next-lebron-or-lil-wayne/|They might think they've got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow, but our kids can't all aspire to be the next LeBron or Lil Wayne]."

Also, see Bill Cosby's "Pound Cake speech" he made before an NAACP event.

[Myrina]

4. Well, considering those are pretty much the only ways to make any serious money, anymore ...

... if we paid teachers and civil servants commensurate with their worth to society, as opposed to throwing billions at 'celebrities', maybe more youngsters - of ALL races - would aspire to be such.

But when the only way you can see out of poverty/near poverty for you & your family is stardom, the military or prison ... well, what do you THINK they're gonna pick?

[revolution breeze]

32. I was talking to one of my daughter's former teachers at graduation.

Her daughter always wanted to be a teacher, like mom and grandmom. But they both have talked her out of it, not only because of the low pay, but the enormous amount of pressure to get kids to pass standardized tests, the administrative paperwork, over and above regular teaching duties. She has her degree in psychology and is joining Americorp for four years, then will probably go pursue a career in working with at trouble children. And, by the way, she is AA.

[Pterodactyl]

15. Interesting Quote from Michelle

“Please reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white,” Obama said. “In short, be an example of excellence for the next generation.”

[Nye Bevan]

19. Wise advice there (nt)

[daleo]

21. Never heard the term baller before

Learned something new.

[Delphinus]

22. Yeah,

going to have to look that one up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. Me too; Urban Dictionary definition

May 28, 2006 Urban Word of the Day

A thug that has "made it" to the big time. Originally refered ball players that made it out of the streets to make millions as a pro ball player, but now is used to describe any thug that is living large.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=baller

[simpify]

29. That's a bad definition

It has nothing to do with 'thugs'. It originally was for ball players like the definition says but now its used to describe people who flaunt status symbols like jewelery, flashy cars, chicks or just spending money lavishly. It could be a regular dude, a rapper, athlete, business owner or drug dealer.

[jessie04]

23. I still want to be a rapper.

I'm just not good at it.

[Sunlei]

24. Mrs. Obama, another great 'uplifing' address at Bowie State University

[Doctor_J]

36. I dunno. When I was a kid everyone on my little league team dreamt of playing

for the Yankees. These kinds of aspirations are common and not necessarily ruinous. Most of us do it WHILE going to school, and then at some point we realize it isn't going to happen (I was 2nd string on the HS varsity), due most of the time to limitations beyond our control. But she is spot on that the youth should not shoot for the NBA at the expense of an education

[flamingdem]

43. She has guts for poking a hole in media stereotypes

and challenging her community, which she knows better than most of us.

That said, whew, that was quite a comment