"Orleans Parish public schools, which had something like 95% black enrollment for years and years before Katrina?"

"how many years after Brown vs. Board of Education?"

95% black enrollment? What do you think Brown V. Board was all about?

That's beside the point, though. The point is that you think 40% of the adults in Orlenas Parish are functionally illiterate because the vast majority of blacks think learning and academic achievement is a "white" thing, and we reject it because we're "rebellious" and "disrespectful" toward authority, and that "authority" is...white people. I get it. I've heard it all before.

There are different types of guilt by association. If there's a real association, guilt by association can make some kind of sense. Obama and Wright have a very real association, and questions about whether Obama agrees with what Wright says, or at least thinks that Wright's views are acceptable, are fair questions. Is it fair to assume that Obama agrees with Wright? Of course not, but the association does raise legitimate concerns. Linking to a post on Blog Z written by blogger X, however, does not constitute a real association with a blogger Y who also posts on Blog Z. For that matter, it doesn't even constitute much of an association with blogger X. And before someone says I'm missing the bigger picture and all you're trying to show is that he's in the mainstream because a well-known blogger linked to his thoughts on Easter, just because a well-known blogger links to something doesn't necessarily mean it's not obscure and unread. All you've managed to prove in this post is that there is still one honest-to-god bigot left in America. If he 'exemplified' anything, you'd think you'd be able to find more non-obscure examples of stuff like it.

First of all, Sharpton and Jackson don't proclaim to "speak for all of the Black community." The MSM proclaims that. Since Sharpton and Jackson get lots of money and media exposure from that view, they play along. Indeed the fact that we often get ONE view and voice on racial issues in the MSM regarding a group of people that number in the billions says it all. Not to mention that the last time I checked people like Sharpton and Jackson are INDIVIDUALS who can speak for themselves. They are not broken robots that "we" (as Black folk) are obligated to control nor out of control pets that "we" are suppose to use the choke chain on when they mess up on the carpet. If you're wondering why "we" don't keep tighter rein on certain "troublesome" Black figures, it could be because "we" naively keep hoping that dumb white people stop thinking that "we" are like the Borg collective. Sheesh!

I meant every "successive" generation not successful...although maybe we are or will be successful too. One can always hope. And I just thought of this: condemn the sin and not the sinner. My father has a PhD in theology and I grew up with a lot of church. So it seems to me that by Christian standards at least, the religion that Obama adheres to, he did exactly the correct thing, spiritually, in condemning Wright's words, but not Wright himself.

I just thought of that.

The way you have stated your case the explanation for poor performance by Orleans Parish public schools can only be one of two things. It is the Black parents and community’s fault because they had more than enough money to build good schools or the psychological situation, drugs and poverty this black community is challenged with because of a history of racism and oppression is to blame. Have you worked among these inner-city communities as I did in Chicago for fourteen years in a social service agency? Are you comfortable with putting most if not all of the blame on those blacks who can’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps like all our other immigrant groups have in American history? Have you lived under institutional and personal discrimination all your life?

I am not saying that it is all the white man’s fault or that the black communities in trouble don’t share in the responsibility to improve schools. I am saying that you have made a very one-sided argument that says to me that you lay most if not all of the blame on blacks. If you are not saying that, what are you saying?

Mayor Daily and the current superintendent of New Orleans schools started out in the early ‘90s to improve their failing schools. They were able to stop social promotions rather quickly and have made significant improvements up until today, but it has been extremely difficult and a lot more needs to be done. You make it sound like it is so simple. I can assure you, it is not.

Thanks. That was an excellent post and I'm glad you wrote it before saying good night.

AKA: I have no problem with your support for Hillary and it is entirely up to her when and if she decides her quest is over. I do have a problem with her allowing her staff to stick to the old style politics of almost anything is fair in love and war. Haven't we seen enough of that style and is it really serving the election process or feeding into the M$M nonsense?

I agree with doloresflower that Hillary would have been better served if she would have stopped listening to all her advisers and be more herself and show us who she really is like she did in the New Hampshire coffee shop. If Hillary would have selected less of an attack approach, I think she may have been able to sustain her lead. Her unwillingness to admit her Iraq vote was a mistake was also a major political blunder. She might have been better served to tell the truth instead of giving in to a campaign tactic of trying to prove a woman can be as tough as a man as commnader-in-chief.

Like you, I will most definitely vote for either Dem candidate.