I love the lazy ass values "argument". Gee, let's ignore everything that has occurred in the inner cities for the past 40 or so years and pretend that if poor blacks just said no to, for example, the rampant materialism that's affected EVERY other social and racial group in the country, then eveything would be okey dokey. All you need to do is "believe in education". Simple. No messy complexities, no history, no thought. Loosely translated the values argument is "if you goddamned poor niggas would "behave", then everything would be fine."

"(p.s. -- for those with minimal experience in urban education, it is extremely common for the middle school/ high school transition to be a very big deal. all students must apply for their high schools, public and/or private, or risk being sent to whatever neighborhood hell-hole is closest to their mailing address. regardless of who they are, their socioeconomic status, their race, their creed, or where that particular mailing address is located.)"

In other words, folks must apply to the schools they want their kids to get into even if those schools are in their neighborhoods? So, a parent who wants their kid to go to a better school than the neighborhood one he/she is assigned to has to apply to that school as well? If so, that sounds about right. Btw, your hell-hole drama is a bit much. The only risk for our white hip-hop kid under discussion would be that if, as a kid from a good mailing address (heh), he didn't get into his/her good neighborhood or other school and risked being sent to the "hell-holes" the kids from the not so good mailing address get sent to all the time.

You're right that it's not right, but, I guess it really doesn't matter so long as your kids or the author's kids or the kids of anyone you care about aren't sent to those violent holding pens...err, I mean high schools, right?

On another note, if I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion to the author. Get past the occasionally fun but tiresome bling rap and the typical teeanged embrace of stuff that annoys their parents and focus on a couple of the following suggestions that might give you insight into where you son's head is -as someone mentioned earlier Tupacs's "Dear Momma" which expresses a son's deep love and appreciation for his flawed mother. There's a line that goes "Dear Momma...Even when you were a crack fiend, you still were my Black Queen...Dear Momma..." I mean, damn that's love. Someone loving you when you're down and out and almost gone. To complete the analogy, although you may have cancer, you're still his Queen.

The other song is Biggie Small's "Things Done Changed" which is an expression of rage and fear of, for lack of a better term, elder abadonment and, in his case, someone who was forced to grow up too fast and violent. After detailing a litany of "Back in the Day" changes, he ends with the angry, "My Mother got cancer in her breast, Don't ask me why I'm motherfuckin' stressed, THINGS DONE CHANGED!".

Food for thought? I hope it helps. Good luck with your recovery.

"News flash: well over 99% of the population leaves no historically significant legacy behind except for their offspring."

Well, actually the "New Flash" should read that 99.9% of the population leaves no historically significant legacy behind including their offspring. The notion that having kids, in and of itself, ensures that one leaves a "historically significant" legacy is absurd. You're confusing existence with meaning. Also I don't think that anyone implied that having kids wasn't a "worthy goal" for women. I think they're just saying it's not the end all and be all of their lives and that if some guy wanted to judge whether or not they were "worthy" of his favor based on their ability or desire to produce then he's a fool who's not worthy of their attention.

"We are screwed alike in the final analysis. We are the children of one of the most bankrupt cultures in human history. Spoiled rotten from birth - whether we know it or not - we have come to expect the best of life as a matter of course. We are all in for a nasty shock.

-- I Am, Of Course, Anonymous

PermalinkTuesday, November 29, 2005 6:37:00 PM"

"Clearly, Mr. Ross HAS hit a nerve...

...and, if I recall correctly, "you only touch a nerve by telling a truth."

Right?

-- Anonymous

PermalinkWednesday, November 30, 2005 2:27:58 AM"

No, that's not right.