The Impact of Integration and Increasing Hispanic Population

   My opinions and stated observations, in this post, will likely foster some debate. Nonetheless, the decline in public education and the fact more and more public schools are devolving into correctional settings rift with  rampant violence, gang activity, which have forced many public schools to conduct body scans and pat down searches of their students, has coincided with the increasing number of African American and students of Hispanic descent in the public schools, especially in American urban areas, during the past fifty years.

   African Americans, particularly those of the underclass, generally have a different value system which does not embrace or appreciate the opportunity to be educated. Unfortunately, too many young African American students equate applying themselves in a motivated manner in school as being “white,” or  “crackerish,” and not “keeping it real.” Perhaps this sentiment has its origins in the black nationalism and Black Panther movements in the 1960s  America where the “establishment,” which includes the educational system, was eschewed and those black Americans who accepted “it” were branded “sell outs”?  Likewise, many students of Hispanic student often have an disdainful attitude towards school and education. This is exacerbated by the tendency of many Hispanic families in the United States not making an effort to properly become fluent or learn the English language.

   Both African Americans and Hispanic Americans also have a tendency to view the United States and world exclusively through their provincial cultural lenses. In other words, if the subject(s) being discussed or being studied in school does not involve or pertain to an aspect related to African American or Hispanic culture, then little interest is shown or devoted to that said subject. Moreover,  the value system of these two groups has gained greater public recognition and arguably public acceptance with the growing popularity of Hip- Hop/ Rap music among American youth during the past quarter century. Consequently, these value systems, which generally disavow education, literacy, and intellectualism, and conversely celebrate “bling,” power and money obsessively have influenced the values of other American young people of different ethnic backgrounds especially white young Americans from the working class and underclass.