Something to talk about
I was having a conversation with an my mother and I asked her how many intelligent, college educated African American women that I grew up with, and we both knew, were married and had children.
We both know several women like that, but only three that we could think of were married, with one child each. My sister, for example, is 30, highly educated, not married, has no children, and probably will not ever get married and have any children, and Allah knows best.
Then, I asked my mother to think about the number of irresponsible “ghetto mammas” we know that have children.
It was innumerable as several of them had several children by the time they were in their early twenties. One of them is currently, a year or two older than me (I am 32) and is already a grandmother! None of her children were born in wed-lock, nor her grandchild. Chances are, by the time I am a grandfather, if Allah allows, this woman will be a great-grandmother, and a grandmother to several others with each generation getting progressively worse.
There is a film coming out here in America, that will try to make a point on the above. It is about an average guy (aptly named ‘Joe’) from the present who ends up 1,000 years in the future and is at that time, easily the most intelligent man alive.
A review of an early draft of the film says:
“There’s also a hilarious opening scene of the script that perfectly sets up the eventual future in the film. It deals with a conservative, smart, and well-to-do yuppie couple who plans and over-analyzes every aspect of their life, mainly that of the decision of when to have a child. Simultaneously, on the right side of the screen appears a ‘white trash’ couple who has lots of sex without protection, and over generations and generations, produce more and more dumbasses, ‘multiplying like rabbits, drowning out the yuppie couple.’
“NARRATOR: “Evolution does not necessarily reward that which is good or beautiful. It simply rewards those who reproduce the most.”
And the more stupid people there are, the easier it is for America to become, for lack of a better word, retarded. Eventually, Joe’s hibernation pod, still intact, is accidentally dislodged from a huge landfill and he wakes to find himself in a somewhat futuristic-styled, broken-down world of Neanderthal-like dumbasses, run by a WWF-themed government system and a computer network called OmniPal, “which no living human being is smart enough to maintain, repair, or even question.”
In light of the above, let’s think about the African American population.
What affect would it have on a group of people given the tendency of higher educated, more intelligent females amongst them to go child-less, while the others (including the drug addicts and complete fools) multiply like rabbits? Much less the fact that the women are more educated than the men in a given particular population.
What affect would it have on an entire generation of children if 95% of the mothers do not know how to be mothers, and nourish and teach their children properly? What about the fact that fathers are largely not present?
What affect would it have on an entire population if their eating habits are generally bad? What affect would this have on their cognitive ability considering that the brain is an organ and needs good nutrition?
What would the cumulative effect be?
Then imagine two of those people being products of all of the above getting together and having a child (out of wed-lock 70% of the time) And so on and so forth.
Could it be possible that we see a downward spiral process begin to form that actually causes the cognitive ability of the people, as a group, to begin to sink?
When looking at this, then it becomes no surprise that the African American imprisonment rate is a 33 times higher than the Asian imprisonment rate and that the US Department of Justice’s page on homicide statistics by race states:
“Blacks were 6 times more likely than whites to be murdered and 7 times more likely to commit homicide in 2002.”
One may argue that this is because of poverty, but I can counter by arguing, firstly that the poverty in Muslim countries is much more, yet the crime is much less. So, poverty, is probably one of the reasons, but not the only reason.
All of these negative factors combined may be a reason that, in spite of changing the environment of many African Americans, they still have many other factors working against them that cause them to tend to lag behind.
For example, even when African American children attend schools and live in affluent neighborhoods the gap between them and children of other ethnicities is still just as large (proportionately) as the gap between poor African American children and poor children of other ethnicities from poor neighborhoods.
One example is Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement by the Berkeley anthropologist John Ogbu, an African American, who went to Shaker Heights, Ohio, to explore why black students in an affluent suburb lag behind their white peers. His conclusion is that basically it is the African American community’s culture of under-achievement and not racism.
“What amazed me is that these kids who come from homes of doctors and lawyers are not thinking like their parents; they don’t know how their parents made it,” Professor Ogbu said in an interview. “They are looking at rappers in ghettos as their role models, they are looking at entertainers. The parents work two jobs, three jobs, to give their children everything, but they are not guiding their children.”
This shows that all of the above factors, along with the historical ones, working in conjunction may have had a degrading effect on much of the population. This is why simply working to improve one of causes (i.e., environment) while ignoring five others, is not enough to overcome the combination of all of them. Horrible as it may sound, this is something I think that at least needs to be looked into. Only an open discussion of group differences would give us a better grasp on where to look for causes and solutions.
Likewise, this is why we see so many problems amongst the African American Muslims and why they lag behind. How many African American Muslim college students are active in the Muslim Students Association nationwide? I dare say not more than a handful….nationwide! The Muslim Interscholastic Tournament was held here in the DC area a few weeks ago as of this writing. This is an excellent program, but relatively few African American children were participating. Why? The fact that African American Muslims lag behind is something many probably think about, but WHY this is, is the more intriguing question.
This is why I think the word “diversity” has in reality come to mean everyone except African Americans. This is becoming more and more apparent in our communities as America moves more toward a black/non-black dichotomy in which the non-blacks (consisting of various immigrant groups, their children, and white, Latin & East Asian converts) will be on one side (and mixing to a degree) with their own masjids and communities, and the blacks will, for the most part, be on the other mired in a permanent underclass, so far out on the social margins that they no longer identify with the larger American Muslim community.
If there is to be a rapid improvement, some form of mass movement with powerful behavioral consequences would have to occur within the African American Muslim community. Short of that, IF THINGS ARE DONE, the best we can hope for is gradual cultural change that is likely to be decades long. (But also think back to the yuppie couple in the narrative above that was drowned out)
As I, and others, have observed, we operate from the noble premise that “we are all Muslims” (of course we are) when crafting our various programs. Meaning that there is an assumption that there are no differences between any of the groups that we seek to serve. That assumption is wrong and we then scratch our heads when these programs fail to produce the desired results or when one group consistently falls short.
But more often, we just bury our heads in the sand. And those with their heads buried deepest in the sand are, in many cases, the African American Muslims themselves! Other groups may see and recognize that there at least is a problem here, but can’t quite understand it, but afraid to say so because they are not African American.
We need to start, if we could, by honestly discussing how the world works, and explore the social facts that are so obvious to most, but chose to remain oblivious to them, and use that understanding to craft programs more likely to achieve our goals.
We now have a choice to DO something about these problems, or continue either bury our heads in the sand about them, or scratch our heads as to why the situation is what it is.
America is unique from other Western countries in that there are a significant number of converts from the indigenous people. Will that be the case 25 years from now?
Filed under: Children's Issues, Convert Issues
Great post, as usual. I do not hold hopes for any community in the USA lifting itself up. All of our communities seem to be trapped in the “dumbing down” of culture.
Rich kids, white, Asian and otherwise, take on the ghetto culture for their own. I have seen white kids talking about how learning, intelligence, even libraries, are for “white people.” Intelligence, learning, hsitory, books, drive to succede are all “white things.”
This culture, as a whole, is dumbing down, and there doesnt seem that there is much we can do about it.
As Salaamu Alaykum,
Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
While I agree that something must be done to stem the tide of mis-educated Black children as a whole and Black Muslims in particular the basis your assumptions are unfounded. i.e. African American community’s culture of under-achievement.
It is a historically proven fact that in almost everything from language to customs of Blacks were adopted (sometimes slighty modified) from the southern white underclass (redneck or hick culture) with whom they associated.
So this culture of under-achievement to which you speak is an american cultural phenomena, not as you imply unique to Blacks. The only differance is that white under-achievers can still progress rapidly by simply changing clothes and adopting the prevailing genteel values.
And while we are being honest rappers and entertainers for all the ignorance and backwardness they often portray (though not all) they often seem to be the only black males that do not appear gelded. That is why young males (affluent and poor alike) look to them because they appear strong and in the neighborhood.
Whereas the so-called African-American intellectuals, the so-called talended tenth are not to be found in the neighborhood and communities of the poor for the most part.
This is why even today Malik El-Shabaaz (raheemulllah) is so revered. Even in the late 50’s it was his grassroots intellectual force that people looked to, rather than his religious teachings.
Allah swt said in the Qur’an that is not fitting for everyone to go forth, that some should stay and teach.
The fatal flaw has been to allow the myth that only through accepting the prevailing white standards and values of education can one be deemed educated. i.e. nasally accented english = grammatical correctly spoken english. And there are many more myths that could be debunked by Black intellectuals.
So what is the way out? It’s simple roll up our respective sleeves and go into the poor cities and help progressively educate the children. The have assist the have nots, that is that Islamic way, not discussing/pontificating from afar.
Thus by taking owership of progressive education and taking off the white facade that has been placed on it making it culture neutral, then you will see (as have I) how the children rush to it.
As the Prophet Muhammad (saws) did when he laid the first stone in Medina, we have to rebuild our communities from ground up educating and inviting all to Islam.
Ma’a Salaam
Akil
Brother Abu Sinan.
Unfortunately, I agree with most of what you said, however, there is something we can do about it. We need to focus on ourselves and the people around us first.
I have two little boys and I make sure I stress education and good health to them. I am very involved in their education and I always give them treats for doing well in school, completing their homework, etc. And no, I don’t give them candy or toys but hugs and kisses. I also have them enrolled in Karate classes for discipline and health.
Also, as parents we need to get involved in our kids’ schools because that is where they spend the majority of the day. We can’t just focus on our kids but the kids that go to that school as well. After all, these kids have some level of influence on our kids. We need to talk to our kids’ teachers regularly and we need to make sure that the curriculum is pushing our kids to their fullest potential. We need to build up our kid’s self esteem so that they only strive to do their best.
My kids are young and don’t know that succeeding is a “white” thing, they just know that it’s a good thing. Insha Allah I intend to keep it that way.
I agree that we need to help our own families first. I notice there are lots of Muslim Brothers who want to help the wider community yet don’t do the same with their families. So they are losing their kids to this dunya. Doesn’t the Quran tells us save yourself and your family from the fire. Which is why I am very protective of my kids. I’m very strict about who they play with and are around. I am planning on homeschooling them to ensure they recieve a high quality education without all the negative social peer pressure in Public schools.
Abu Usamah: I have to disagree, I don’t know how old you are but there is definitely a culture of underachievement in the under 35 age group. Your comment about it being a southern white trait doesnt explain why our parents and grandparents, great grand parents had a much greater respect for education then we do and a much harder work ethic than most young people today.
you said:
“And while we are being honest rappers and entertainers for all the ignorance and backwardness they often portray (though not all) they often seem to be the only black males that do not appear gelded. That is why young males (affluent and poor alike) look to them because they appear strong and in the neighborhood.
Whereas the so-called African-American intellectuals, the so-called talended tenth are not to be found in the neighborhood and communities of the poor for the most part.”
I can’t believe you said this. This is the problem and why our community is going to keep spiraling out of control. African Ameican intellectuals arent in the community. Than who is there teaching the kids, running community programs, health clinics. What about the average joe who goes to work everyday, stays out of trouble and takes care of his family. These people are in the community but thats not glamorous, thats not exciting so they look to hip hop entertainment. What do they learn from hip hop culture, education is not needed, just try to come out with an album, sacrifice isnt neccessary , what ever material want you have, get it now, do whatever it takes to get it. How many young men are out there hustling trying to live this hip hop lifestyle, so few make it. If they would just go to community college and get a skill then over their lifetime make a great living, take care of there families and bring more stabitlity to the Black community.
I just find this comment so offensive. I went to school with very high acheiving Blacks. Several sacrificed lucrative careers (engineers, lawyers) to work in education and community development/healthcare . Others are succesful but are working with community programs to mentor youth. I grew up in Atlanta where you had plenty of entertainers living. I never saw them giving up their music or movie career to get down in the trenches and help. I would love to see the charity records of most in urban hip/hop entertainment scene.
Abu Usamah said:
“he fatal flaw has been to allow the myth that only through accepting the prevailing white standards and values of education can one be deemed educated. i.e. nasally accented english = grammatical correctly spoken english. And there are many more myths that could be debunked by Black intellectuals.”
What!!! That is so tired. Nobody cares if you have Black accent or not. People just want you to be able to speak English and write intelligibly. Have you ever been around a Black child that cannot speak English. It is just horrible to hear and see that this child grew up in this country, went to public schools and cannot hold a simple conversation in standard english. How are they going to be able to get a job without knowing how to communicate with the masses of people in US?
As Salaamu Laykum,
Anonymous,
While I applaud you in taking care of your own children yet this should be something that should go without saying. Pardon me but saying you are taking care of your children is like saying hey “I’m Muslim and I pray five times a day” it’s all obligatory
As Muslim men we are obliged to do more for the community as a whole. Multiple times in the Qur’an, Allah mentions the duty to help the orphans and the needy. We have allowed the self centered american society to impact our collective vision, creating a myopic view which does not reflect the real world.
Where are our children going live? Whom are the going to marry? If we don’t foster an environment that reflects our Islamic values yet all children can benefit from?
Our individual families do not exist in a vacuum, as Muslims if one part is feeling pain we should all feel something and do something to relieve it. I agree it begins at home but this is simply not enough.
Umm Abdullah:
Forgive me, if my comments offended you as was not my intent to endorse entertainers and sports stars nor was it my intent to belittle the contributions that are being made by the non-celebrities that are active in their community.
Be that as it may, the things I wrote are true and platitudes about past importance of education won’t change the fact the psyche of young Black males is in dire need of repair and the only way it’s going to be repaired is for Black Men who have been able to navigate this society — without losing a sense of self — to teach others how to do so.
While I don’t expect you understand my appoach, the irony is that I myself went to community college before obtaining an advanced degree, so I’m not against matriculating in american colleges, I’m against our children being indoctrinated to the point where they become useless to the communities from which they came.
One minor correction, while I don’t want the disscussion to digress to the topic of how dialects obtain social value, but there is simply no such thing as a “Black accent” please understand that written and spoken “american” is different from “english”. I agree that it should be learned and mastered yet, it’s mastery or lack thereof is not what is holding our children back.
I submit to you that I work with numerous people with multiple degrees who have no mastery of english (american or otherwise) all non-Black who can barely speak discernably yet they are all well paid.
Ma’a Salaam
AssalamuAlikum,
My comments are directly addressed to issue of “Black English”. The issue is not as simple as holding a conversation because “Black English”/ Ebonics according to some linguistcs is a complete variant form of english with proper grammatical rules. so perhaps these children grew up speaking that english, it is perfectly fine. as you know there are tons of englishes out there, some times a person who knows “standard english” can not understand somebody with a cockney accent. as for children who lag behind in written english, the blame partly goes to educators and the school system in america. Right from the start, it is assumed African American children are going to lag behind. The teachers are usually white middle class who have no idea what sort of homes these kids come from, and thus bring their own notions of succes with it and start getting frustated when the kids underachieve. there is inherent racism in education, i mean common in a country where prision population is estimated by the numbers of kids that dont make it in impovrished areas. Once again you can not assume, that society can reform itself in a day because the whole system is designed in a way to keep you repressed.
Abu Usamah: What is progressive education? Are you a teacher because I’d be curious to see what methods you think will work to reach these young brothers. I personally think our whole school system is totally outdated. These kids need to be learning real world skills around 14-15, strong vocational training, and I also think going to school until 12 th grade is a waste if the child is not college bound. Let them go out and learn a skill and get to work if thats what they want.
Personally I think teachers can only do so much. If the parents don’t teach respect for authority, education etc at home then I dont know what the schools can do. Which is why I maintain that you must get you own house in order first before going out to do community work. I just hate to see Brothers who are Imams or community activist and their kids are totally neglected, running the streets or leave the deen (Wa nauthubillah) . First step in turning things around is parents taking their jobs seriously and giving their kids the attention they desperately need.
Aboo Talha: I think the racism arguement is losing steam now. I mean most the kids doing the worst in school go to Black school with most Black teachers. You are right about low expectations. That is a huge problem that kids are not expected to learn the basics. The lack of high standards perpetuates the cycle of underachievment.
Abu Usamah:
I agree with what Anonymous wrote about encouraging the children to learn. Yes, it may seem like common sense, but this is exactly the message that we need to hear in our masajid and Islamic Centers that we are not hearing.
People are throwing these things out the window. African-American Muslims should be teaching their children that they will have to work 5 times as hard to make something of themselves and to keep Islam in the family.
makes me think of a book i read called the cross time engenner where a polish engeener is thrown 500 years into the past and while modernizing poland discovers how quickly everyone catches on to the math and engeenering principals that he teaches them realizes excatly that that we have been becoming dumber.
My wife and i both graduated from college and we have three kids most of our friends from college are either not married or have no children, now some of the idiots went to high school with got four or five, still are not married. ok now i am scared.
Salam alaikum
Thanks for your comments Um Abdullah, very on point.
Abu Usamah, if you truly believed in the lack of a “black accent” there would have been no need for you to say the following
“prevailing white standards and values of education can one be deemed educated. i.e. nasally accented english = grammatical correctly spoken english. And there are many more myths that could be debunked by Black intellectuals.”
And sorry but it is mastery of written and spoken english that is holding people back. generally all americans cannot cope with a level of english higher than the seventh grade level. Add to that the peer pressure that surrounds a vernacular which is grammatically correct and powerful in its vocabulary and ostracization ensues. Add to that the concept of being labelled as “acting White” and see how many people pursue it.
We should never force our children to live up to our false standards of manhood and “Blackness” because we think that they are acting “White”, true all children of Adam have distinguishing traits specific to them (both + and - ), yet we should not reiterate differences that will only reinforce sterotypes and feed on the Machismo found in our communities, which will only lead our children to failure and in ability to function in society.
Both spoken and written english are definitely assets if combined, but at least one is needed to get by in the world. when our children lack both, expect trouble. Those whites you described are probably not the most elequont, but may have good writing skills.
Um abdullah said well when she said:
“That is a huge problem that kids are not expected to learn the basics. The lack of high standards perpetuates the cycle of underachievment.”
A culture of degrading those that achieve by exclaiming them to be “House niggas” those that underachieve as “Dumbass Niggas” and anyone else as “Just anotha Nigga” is amazing to me.
How is that, as presented in both popular culture and among the 35-below bracket, African Americans are one of the only ethnic groups that pride themselves on ignorance?
Again I qoute you:
“prevailing white standards and values of education can one be deemed educated. i.e. nasally accented english = grammatical correctly spoken english”
White standards? So if our kids are failing and cannot reach a desired skillset and objective list, we ethnicize the debate and make up our own standards? We need to realize there are social norms were ever you go, and like it or not they must be lived up to to be able to succeed.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Ebonics as some dubbed it is fine, but if the job call for standard english, we better be able to meet the mark, because they only legal means of profitting off AAVE maybe popular culture, which then only degrades African Americans even more, and throws another generation into the frying pan, making 5-times harder to achieve just as Tariq said.
Allah knows best, May he heal our hearts and minds.
Amin.
Salaam ‘Alaikum
//How many African American Muslim college students are active in the Muslim Students Association nationwide? I dare say not more than a handful….nationwide!//
My personal experiences with MSA is that it is generally ethnocentric… now this is probably a chapter-by-chapter thing, but just from where I was in college, Blacks (either from Africa or American born) simply were not made to feel welcome in MSA — neither were White converts! It was existing as a Muslim outside of the MSA culture, their activities, etc… Muslim on your own, sort of environment. But this is different, altogther, than an abence of Black Muslims in the MSA b/c they’re not in college to begin with.
Two parties are to blame for the underacheivement of African Americans. One is the slave traders and slave holders and their descendants who perpetuated the oppression of us. The other is our own party, who have adopted and perpetuated self-oppression by calling achievement “white”. Blame both.
But it always goes back to some non-Black who is either greedy or racist or both. The rap industry is an example. I’m still looking for their names, but two Jewish-American record executives were responsible for promoting gangster rap music at a time when rap was becoming more politically conscious. Then, our culture took it on and then promoted it, more so than the withes who were paying more to own copies of the same music! NWA went through the roof! And then after them, a rapper with a political message could not make a dime. It’s always the same pattern…. the slave master starts a problem, and we perpetuate it.
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