By John Lawrence
As a white guy, this question is still very germane for me since my grandson is an African American male. Or rather he is half African American and half European American - actually a little less than half African American with a little Native American thrown in. And he has already been placed in a tenuous position at the age of six because next year he will be repeating kindergarten.
His parents were not able to afford the level of pre-school instruction that the other members of his kindergarten class evidently received. It's amazing that now they expect kindergarten children to do first or second grade work with spelling tests and homework every day. When I went to kindergarten, the only thing expected of us was that you would learn to tie your shoes.
His case is not so much a case of racism as it is a case of being raised in relative though not extreme poverty. The only reason it wasn't extreme was that there were extended family resources available to them.
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