I attend a high school in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
And I am graduating with roughly a 3.8 GPA.
I'll be attending the University of Virginia in the fall. Good news. I know.
Now, here's the rub.
In the Virginia Beach City Public School system (Which consists of eleven high schools and well over 20,000 students.) there only 47 black male students who are graduating with over a 3.0 GPA.
In Norfolk it is 17 students.
And in Suffolk it's 11 students.
Unbelievable. Absolutely un-fucking-believable.
My initial reaction (after the five minutes of "shock & awe") was to try to relate it to economic status and the educational status of most black parents (Knowing full well that a majority of black parents did not attend college and the best indicator of whether a student is successful in high school and attends college is whether the parents attended college.). However, I still found myself at a loss.
Especially considering that the high school which I attend is the wealthiest in the Virginia Beach school system, and is 15% black.
I've spent the past hour trying to find some way to rationalize this outcome, some way to explain it away. But I can't. And it worries me. It worries me to no end. It worries me that black parents are neglecting the educational advancement of their children.
It worries me that Black America is steadily moving backwards. Yes there are successful middle class black families, yes we have successfully penetrated the upper echelons of society. But we who have succeeded are ignoring the call of W.E.B DuBois. We are not helping those who are behind. And that worries me.
Edit: Man I love comments.
To clarify things a bit.
The majority of high schools in Virginia Beach have 2000 students or more. Mine has 2400 students. With the exception of one, blacks make up 15 to 45 percent of the students in each school. With a little under half being males. As far as grade distribution is concerned, I'm not entirely sure, but I do know that the graduation rate among ALL students at the high schools is at least 75%. At my school is about around 90%. Additionally, the school district either at full SOL (standardized testing) accrediation, or is coming close.
And about me being an example.
Well it's a little hard to be an example to your fellow black student, when a nice chunk of your fellow black student decries you as an "oreo" who isn't really "black" anyway.
Just so you know.