I've read several times in this thread about an "unwillingness to learn" that pervades black culture. There is no such thing. Sure, there are always some who give up on school, flunk out, drop out, etc. But there are people like that, people with an "unwillingness to learn", in every race, in every culture. It's not unique to black culture, nor is it disproportionate among blacks.
I know my posts in this thread have consisted almost entirely of anecdotes, but just bear with me this one last time. This "unwillingness to learn" isn't something you can document in any empirical form.
As I've said before, I go to a predominantly black school in a predominantly black neighborhood. My school is different than most inner-city schools, however, in that it is a college prep school with a college prep curriculum. If you get lower than a 2.5 GPA, you're out. We're the "cream of the crop", as our administrators love to remind us. The majority of the graduates from my school go to college. Most of the people in my grade that I regularly talk to plan to go to college. There are several that don't; I know quite a few people who plan to join the military; a couple want to be rappers. But the rest want to go to college.
One of my best (female, black) friends lives in a terrible neighborhood. On New Year's Eve she had to be home at eleven o' clock, "before the shooting starts". When she found out that the school installed security cameras all across the building over the summer, she started a Facebook group called, "31 cameras and no new textbooks". She hates her neighborhood.
She wants out. She's
willing to learn if that can help her get away from her poverty-stricken and crime-afflicted home.
Another (black) friend of mine and I were discussing where we might go to college. When I told her I wanted to stay in Kansas City, she said, "Why? So you can get shot?" She, too, lives in a bad neighborhood. She, too, wants out. She, too, is
willing to learn.
The truth is there is next to nobody who doesn't want out. Some might be more motivated than others. Some might have better luck (and luck it is when you're 50% less likely to be hired for a job than a white man with the same qualifications). Smearing all blacks with the label "unwilling to learn" is just a way for white conservatives to pass on blame from themselves, when really it's
their fault blacks are in this predicament, regardless of how willing they are to learn. Even if blacks
were lazy and unwilling to learn, it would
still be up to whites to help solve the problem they created. I know it hurts, but it's the truth. Get used to it.