Charles Barkely (not the buffoon some claim he is) said, "... poor black people have been voting Democrat for 60 years, and they're still poor..."
Personally, I like to see successful black people. Why? BECAUSE THEY DID THE SAME THINGS SUCCESSFUL WHITES DID!... stayed out of gangs, resisted the temptation to "just hang out and get by while collecting a government check", went to school, learned a little math (which teaches you to think and solve problems), learned English and how to communicate well. You want to "make it" in America, black or white?.... THAT'S what you do!
And the blacks... STUPID, STUPID BLACKS... they have the way PAVED for them with Affirmative Action laws/policies.... yet they don't make the effort to take advantage of them. How can you feel sorry for someone who has opportunities handed to them yet they don't bother to take advantage.. and choose to piss-and-moan, "life ain't fair", my station in life is "somebody else's fault"?
I hear you. Sure, there is still racism ... but it's a 2 way street. I don't think we need the constant press, such as the photo op the 1st lady shown here. I've seen firsthand how young people respond to poverty and many of them having a crappy home life. In my 13 years volunteering with elementary school kids I've worked with white (5%), black (88%) and Hispanic (7%) mainly. Observations, and no bias based on race, but the black kids are on average the worst behaved and the Hispanic probably the best. No idea how many are illegal versus legal but many truly want to learn. Regardless of race probably 50-60% of these kids are on meds. You often hear that inner city, high poverty schools are crappy. I don't tend to agree. Facilities may be worse than more affluent areas but the dollars per student spent are more, plenty of tutoring available. Biggest issue is crappy home life and most of the time a single parent (or grandparent) household. Rarely does the parent/guardian come to a parent-teacher conference. Transient kids .. they just up and disappear from school, apparently moving yet again. Plenty live in fleabag motels. However, there are a very small percentage who actually get it that education is their ticket out of poverty. But no one can go through life bitching and moaning about the bad hand they've been dealt .. they have to find a way to move past having parent(s) who often don't care. So to Michelle Obama I say .... "we don't need constant reminders of how schools were 60 years ago". And as far as her implying some schools are heading back to being segregated maybe she needs to think about the fact that people who can move to the suburbs, or away from high risk areas, are doing so and unfortunately that often leaves a mainly African American community behind.
Cooperation is our future. The children of our "black" and muslim engineers, draftsmen, and bean counters are going to college--they will outdo their parents.