Dear Mr Ten Percent,

As I have listened to you rail about what’s wrong with our community from your perch far from it, I have started to see similarities between you and other racists. Yes, I accuse you of racism. I have no choice but to do so. By definition, that is what you have become. You spew the same prejudicial and demeaning rhetoric as any other racist there fore I see no need to exclude you from their rote. In fact, I attribute the recent increase of racial attack and intimidation to you. You have opened the door to such hatred by expressing your ignorance and disdain for your own people. I care not where you came from Mr. Ten Percent, you are now so far removed from us that you are no longer part of our solution. I’m not sure you ever were.

I do not begrudge you your personal success. I am thankful and grateful that you have found your own way up and out of poverty. I appreciate the hard work it took to educate yourself in a system that fought you every inch of the way. I even admire your ability to refuse to accept defeat, leap over obstacles, and to persevere through all adversity thrown in your path. I just resent your absolute refusal to see that you are still in the minority. I am ashamed that you would attack the least of your own as if it’s their own fault that they haven’t been properly educated, in many cases, from the elementary level. I am appalled that you hold your own people to a higher standard as if they have the resources to make change without YOUR help. It sickens me that you behave as if they are solely responsible for all that is wrong within the community. I am absolutely disgusted by your refusal to reach back with anything other than harsh words and fury. We don’t need another hero to berate us. We need a debriefing. We have been the casualties of war in this country yet we are treated as criminals for being shell-shocked. Anyone that looks upon the behavior seen in our community with impartial eyes would see that many of our people are walking wounded in need of attendance. They need medical and psychological assistance as surely as any refuge from Iraq or Afghanistan does. Unfortunately, you are not equipped to provide that service because you are still in need of debriefing yourself. You are just as wounded as the rest of us… you just fail to see it from your own personal piece of the dream.


How dare I judge you? I dare as you dared. I know you well. I almost became one of you. I’ve sat wit you on panels but couldn’t get you to visit a middle school in the neighborhood. I’ve spoken to you in planning sessions about the mistrust that our people have towards the very institutions that you insist must be the playing field for all possible interaction between you and the rest of us. You set us all up for failure then rail at our laziness for not being able to get things done. You limit free forums to a few hundred seats knowing that a few thousand are not nearly enough. You refuse to even promote these forums on a large enough scale because “they won’t come anyway”. Lastly, you allow these forums to become whipping posts for these that do dare to show their faces, the disregard, disrespect, disdain for their lives, and struggle so palpable that it assures that those few that have managed to attend will not return to any other offering of a “community resource” forum. I call you to task for offering help with a sledgehammer. I judge you for that.

I understand that you are angry. You have a legitimate reason to be so. You are just directing your anger at the wrong people. Be angry about the school systems that graduated legions of children that can barely read and write. So much so that graduates from certain school districts are automatically placed in remedial courses when they enter college. If they enter college at all. Be angry that hundreds of children across many states failed the graduations tests in math and science, not because they were lazy or cut classes, but because those children were never taught what the state considers standard. The fact that our children are being penalized for the failure of their educators is revolting. They don’t need you to tell them they are lazy and ignorant on top of that! Have you ever witnessed a child’s pain at learning that they have both the grades and more than enough credits to graduate but can’t because a test tells them they don’t know enough information? I have. I cried right along with them not knowing what else to do. This is the same thing they did to my generation and the one before me. In trying to gain answers, I discovered that I couldn’t pass the test either. I was also never taught what I needed to know by the current standards and I never cut school a day in my life. Another kick in the head, many educators failed the test as well. That’s right Mr. Ten Percent. The teachers failed it too! Please tell me how it’s possible to teach what you don’t know. Yet you blame parents and children.

I am also very angry. I am just angry with the right people. I am angry at a system that failed to properly educate generations of children. I am angry that their failure is being listed as my own. I am angry that all I got in response to the revelation was a mere and insincere apology. I’m angry at myself for not being able to do something about it. Lastly, I’m angry with you for not caring to even find out what is really happening here before you went on your rampage of words.

We are sending our children mixed messages. We tell them to take personal responsibility but we reward them with the same attitudes we have for those that don’t do a damned thing to better themselves. No wonder so many are stuck. They are damned when they do and damned when they don’t. With odds like that, what difference will anything you or I say truly make? Only when we can answer that question, and present a viable and realistic alternative, can we truly help our people make some real progress.


Are you willing to do that or are you just speaking for sound bites?





Sincerely,


Neccessary Brown