Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:38:21 +0000

On March 4th 2010 there will be a cause of GLOBAL ACTION against the budget cuts within higher education in the public sector. Many of the proposed budget cuts that sadly seem inevitably unbreakable in some districts will directly impact those who are apart of the working class, and predominantly those who are of color. It is indeed a very sad day in America when our government literally seeks rationalize the act of theft against higher education. Essentially, by choosing to cut funding from higher ed our government is thus stealing from the minds of current students as well as those students who will be forthcoming. Intellectual theft is one of the harshest crimes against humanity. A person who is excluded from being able to think, learn, and interact intellectually, is a indeed of victim of a vicious system of forced incapacitation, greed, and the worst of all hatred known to man. This very same act can be reviewed by looking at the educational system in America prior to Brown v Board of Ed (1954). It was a systemic achievement to blockade young people of color from achieving their highest potential academically. Forcing them to be satisfied with a low quality education, while whites went on to private or higher leveled public institutions, which gave them preferential treatment over children of color. Sadly, this pattern of degradation that Brown v. Board of Ed (1954) clearly exhibited infected institutions of higher learning as well, and thus the existence of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) started to proliferate around the nation. This gave off a clear indication that blacks were not willing to sit down and allow whites to tell them they cannot learn, however, disparities in funding between predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and HBCUs were instant and inevitable, this can still be seen today.

The fact is simple, there is a war going on against Public Higher Ed in America. There is no longer a need by politicians to invest money into the leaders/scholars of tomorrow. As a result, those who have more to lose oftentimes will be hit the hardest. Private institutions will continue to receive funding although they will indeed most likely remain the highest priced schools. However, when the price of a public institution is nearly as high as those that are private, that should be seen as a huge disservice to the public and especially to the working class people who work extremely hard to achieve academic and economic success. The only thing I can conclude from the budget cuts is that we are slowly but surely slipping back into de facto segregation similar to times reminiscent of Jim Crow and prior to. People of color who are underrepresented as it is with degrees will begin to drop out, as their need to work more to pay for competing bills will become more important than continuing on with their education. The lack of good dedicated professors will begin to diminish, since talks of eradicating tenure from out of public higher ed is also said to be on the table in several states. Parents will have to file for bankruptcy as a result of paying for their children’s education and threatened with the possibility of being induced into homelessness. All of this while banks flourish in profits and while private institutions continue on to receive private and public grants over public institutions due to the eventual inability for public schools to compete. Overwhelming class sizes and lack of one on one time with professors will also diminish the capacity of public institutions to produce quality programs and students. Again, this is all reminiscent to the educational system my ancestors had to endure, being black in America before Brown v Board (1954). The question must be asked to all people in this day and age; were their marches in vain? Were their giant efforts in ensuring equality for all nothing more than a contract that would end in 2010? On March 4th 2010, it is time for everyone to stand up and have your voice be included. Say no to the privatizing of essential university functions! Say no to those politicians where our words fall on death ears!! Say no to the banks that are looking at a lovely pay day as a result of higher tuition!! Say no to the military and prison industrialization complex. Above all, say no to de facto segregation in Higher Ed!! The revolution has been initiated by the other side, what says you?!

There’s a commercial airing as I write these lines, that says it all: Mom and Dad racing each other through the city streets in order to be the first to get a red box of McDonald goodies to their waiting son.  Completely out of breath, the father gets there first, only to see the boy look beyond his father to his mother, and say, “Thanks, Mom.”

For a long time now—generations in fact—, the media has orchestrated what seems like a calculated devaluation of fathers, of men.  It was obvious to me even during the thirty years of research that I poured into my book on the impact of television on the American psyche: Remote Controlled (Review and Herald Publishing, 1993); it is blatantly obvious now.  It is a moot question whether or not we men deserve it—it is a fact of life that men are consistently portrayed as being clueless about life; and women as those brave souls who sacrificially (and sarcastically) spend their lives mopping up behind their bull elephants. Watch virtually any sitcom, any movie, any commercial, and the trashing of men is obvious.

The price?  Last week’s blog addressed it.   The price is that men have come to believe the continual devaluing of their species—even to buy into it.  Quite likely, a man may even have written the McDonald commercial.  Just watch them: men are portrayed in the million plus commercials each child is exposed to during his/her growing up years, as bumbling klutzes, incompetent, inane, with the constancy of a rabbit; interested only in sloshing beer, couch potatoing in front of TVs during 24/8 sports (vicariously, of course), and so on.  Is it any wonder that so many boys are growing up effeminate, unsure of what it is to be a man, a father?

And because of our skyrocketing divorce rate, the norm today is no longer the nuclear family, but single-parent families.  Because the media devalues marriage itself, over one-third of all children are now being born out of wedlock.  Not surprisingly, given that it’s almost impossible for one parent to be equally effective in both mother and father roles, to say nothing about trying to do all this while also keeping a roof over their heads, working around the clock at several different jobs, shuttling the kids from one activity to another, at a near frantic pace—the children get shortchanged on all levels.

I spoke at a grandparenting conference not long ago, and was stunned to discover that today one third of all children in America are being raised by their grandparents!  The same percentage as out-of-wedlock children (with tragically obvious implications).  I interact with such grandparents a lot, and they are overwhelmed at having to be the primary care givers twice in life, when they no longer have the energy or emotional reserves for such a demanding role.

So, it’s no wonder boys are falling between the cracks.  For, in single-parent homes (the vast majority of the primary care givers being women), there is no dad to play ball with when the boy comes home from school; no dad there to mentor him, to teach him tough love, to build up his self-worth, to enforce behavior limits, to help steer him away from substance abuse, to show him what it means to be a father, a husband (99% of how we treat our spouses as adults is predicated on how our parents treated each other)—and, not coincidentally, to provide enough family income so the boy can feel a college education is part of his birthright.

I am not discounting the valiant efforts so many fathers who share joint custody of their sons make to compensate for their absence in the boy’s primary home, but it is not the same—it is not the same.

The strength of a nation is not money, prestige, possessions, or military power—it is the home.  Around the world, emerging powers such as India and China are flexing their muscles, and investing billions in higher education so that their children may grow up to help dethrone America as the world’s superpower.  Already, in areas such as engineering (traditionally a male preserve), the balance of power is shifting east away from America.  More bad news for the untold thousands of American men who have doomed themselves to minimum wage jobs by their failure to value higher education.

We cannot retain our world-wide leadership without once again valuing our boys as much as we value our girls.

But I’ve only addressed the tip of the iceberg so far.  Stay tuned for next week.