oprah's south african girl's academy and comments on african-american youth

over at "zaneland" blog, they had a bit of controversy about oprah's recent announcement concerning her building a $40 million dollar academy for the education of economically disadvantaged girls with leadership potential in south africa .

readers' comments were divided pro and con --more concern towards oprah's comments about african -american kids not valuing education than readers' comments about her "helping kids over there when there are kid's over here needing her help ."

as deskRat has said many times , all of the children of the african diaspora , should feel that we have the duty to help each other regardless of which side of the ocean we
are on .

other groups help one another --the Us --through the marshall plan --helped rebuild a devastated europe after the second world war.

it was common sense on the part of the european diaspora of america to help rebuild their european homeland .

just as also , it is common sense for the african diaspora --the "children of africa" as deskRat fondly calls us-- to develop our own "marshall plan" for africa and the diaspora to rebuild and repair the devastation done to us these past five hundred years of internecine warfare , slavery , colonialism -- chaos and decline that we have seen .

when i saw an article at the turn of this milennium saying that the asian 'tiger' economies had already spent 2 trillion dollars worth on building modern economic infrastructure to secure their place in present and in the future , i speculated that the children of africa would have to spend about one trillion dollars in order to jumpstart the economy of africa and the diaspora .

--i speculated that we needed a sort of marshall plan for africa and the children of the african diaspora .

if a trillion dollars seems an impossible amount to some , we need not mention that statistics tell us that african-americans already spend $650 billion to 1 trillion dollars each year . the funds to economically jumpstart africa and the diaspora are already available --just the will and fiscally responsible logistics are needed .

we are reminded of the words of theodore hertzle --the father of modern zionism and the father of the modern state of israel , speaking about the year 1900 --"if you build it -- then it is no legend !"


so i applaud oprah's efforts , though , i would probably do things a little differently .

as far as her comments on african american kids , here are hers and then mine follow .

Monday January 1, 07:13 PM
New York, Jan 1 (ANI): Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey has hit out at people who have criticised her decision to build a 40 million dollar school complex in South Africa, saying that unlike kids in America, children in the African nation yearn to learn.

In an interview with Newsweek, Winfrey revealed that she had been "frustrated" by the way American inner-circle kids did not appreciate the value of a free education, and thought the money would be better spent on kids who had a burning desire to learn, but did not have the means.

"I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there," the New York Daily News quoted her, as telling the publication.

"If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school," she added.

Oprah's said that though she understood that many Americans feel as if she's going "overboard" in funding the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, those are feelings she can live with.

"I understand that many ...feel that I'm going overboard, and that's fine. This is what I want to do".

The talk show queen, who has given millions of dollars over the years to educate impoverished kids in the US through the Oprah Winfrey Scholars program, has handpicked 152 girls out of 3,500 applicants to attend the school.

All the girls, Winfrey says, have that "it" factor that will help them make a difference in the future.

"I wanted to take girls with that 'it' quality and give them an opportunity to make a difference in the world," Oprah said.

ok , when i do my little part to help africa and the diaspora , i will see HOW MANY schools $40 million will build rather than building one state of the art school .

also , i would determine what "it" is and clone "it" for the rest of the diaspora .

helping 150 girls already blessed with "it" is cool , but they are probably the type who would be successful no matter what --what about the rest of us mere mortals ?

--oprah knows enough about psychology to know that --"it" , is now clonable --don't leave nobody out--africa and the african diaspora suffer too much from various forms of "elitism" as it is .

that being said --

oprah is only one person . what will the rest of the "children of africa" on both sides of the atlantic do to save the children of africa ?

it is no accident that on both sides of the atlantic , that those of african descent are in the terrible conditions in which you find us .

i've volunteered for years , tutoring our kids --and it is the little kids from africa --especially war refugees from liberia , sierra leone , cote d'ivoire ,or nigeria , even our western hemispheric kids from haiti and jamaica that in comparison , ALWAYS have more respect for adults and more desire for learning than our african -american kids .

i have seen our african-american kids literally walk on top of a brand new $55 science textbook that another kid dropped on the floor and just left there.

the kid that walked on the book won't even bother to look down to see what he or she has just stepped on .

i will save my criticisms of the africans from the homeland for another post , but OUR kids are fucked up little individuals , who as oprah said , in general DO NOT value education .

yesterday at the after school program , i gave a mock quiz that i call "our daily math quiz" .

they know to expect it everyday they show up --but still , only three out of 15 in my group--they are grouped by age --
have any clue as what to do when doing simple multiplication problems .

simple problems we took from the SAME textbook they use in school .

i checked with their teachers so i know that they have been working on multiplication
for the past month --so this is nothing new to them --THEY JUST DON'T CARE .

when i first noticed their difficulties , i did a diagnostic review to determine where the difficulty lies --to find what , in their skills base , is missing .

it was the same thing in just about each kid --they don't know their times tables.

the first instance i ever witnessed of something like this , i could not believe it , because i was under the impression that times tables
are mastered , beginning back in third grade --ALL OVER THE WESTERN WORLD-- but when i checked with their teachers , they confirmed it .

you have to fight our kids to memorize times tables --when the SAME kids
can repeat from memory , word for word
every lyric to every popular hip-hop song out there .

so we tried flash cards , we tried multiplication games--games that they get mad at , catch an attitude , and refuse to play anymore when they don't remember the multiplication facts --we tried those cuisinaire blocks and 'manipulatives' , these kids DON'T want to learn it. they will not practice the times tables on their own --and practice is the root to mastery .

it's more fun to CONSTANTLY pick at and make fun of other kids for not knowing the same math facts that they don't know--a case of the ignorant , calling the ignorant "ignorant" .

it's more important to interrupt the tutoring by yelling out examples of pure ignorance like :

"so and so need some deodorant --an some new sneakers , an some roach spray for his house too."

which then provokes "so an so" to yell out something equally ignorant like :


" well at least my mom ain't smoking crack !"

and then it continues :

" bitch , who mom be at the park suckin dicks for crack money ?"

"that's why yo bald head mom so dirt-black , bitch ! "

" you can't beat me tho , can you ? "

"pussy , i kick yo fuckin ass right now ! "

"do it then , bitch ! "

and then it takes the next fifteen minutes to stop the fighting , stop the arguments , stop the insults flying back and forth , stop the laughter
and equally rude remarks from the rest of of the 'audience' .

we get back to work until the next interruption --which predictibly occurs within FIVE minutes --i've seen it too many times for it to be anything otherwise --they will look around them , realize that everybody is quietly working , learning , making progress--and they will call out something like --"it's too quiet in here !" and get that little devil --self destructive -- look on their faces --AND THE SAME SHIT WILL START ALL OVER AGAIN --it is as predictible as nightfall .

i agree with cosby , i agree with oprah --our kids do not value learning . our kids have no manners . our kids behavior is a disgrace. getting a group of our kids to cooperate is like herding a group of spoiled-brat divas.
herding cats is nothing compared to getting our kids to work as a group.

i've said it many many times before-
parents need to turn off the tv , turn off the hip-hop , turn off the computer games , turn off the internet --AND ONLY LET YOUR KIDS VIEW AND HEAR ON THESE-- INSTANT ROADWAYS INTO THEIR BRAINS-- , ONLY WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO SEE AND HEAR--ONLY THE THINGS YOU WANT IMPRESSED INTO THEIR YOUNG BRAINS .
only let your kids watch and see what YOU know is good for them .

and no child under age three should be viewing electronic screens anyway because their young developing brains get hooked on the stimulation from the constant movement on the screen and it becomes like a drug their brain chemistry craves .

when that same electronic-screen addicted toddler goes to school --school and learning from doing things like-- reading books just seem too slow and too boring for these tv/ video-game babies.

bored by books and innundated with thug-madness , they end up as uninspired , interested only in 'bling-bling' know-nothing individuals .

well dressed barbarians who think farts and making jokes about who farted , are more important than what's in a book .

to be honest , we are raising young people who , "act like savages" , as one teacher remarked .