DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed by the, “Angry Black Man,” are those of him and him alone, and do not represent WHUTUPDOE.COM or its staff… what the fuck do you expect? He’s an angry black man!

Detroit Public Schools – its way too much I could say on this subject. Being a DPS grad, and a proud one, I am annoyed by what is going on with the schools. I believe it’s just another victim of the failings of Detroit, its political system, its economics, and its people. Its way too much to say and much too many that could be used as a scapegoat so let me get started by playing the blame game.

Banks
The banking industry has a prime opportunity to help with all public schools. It is actually in their interest to help the public school system. Now you’re probably thinking, “Banks are all about a profit, why would they, and why should they, help schools?”

Good question. Let me break it down for your Sherlock’s:

A. Banks are about making a profit. A good portion of this profit comes from mortgages.

B. Mortgages are done by the amount a property is worth, i.e. Property Value

C. The worst schools are in a particular area, 9 times out of 10, the higher the crime rate and the lower the property value.

So by doing the math one could see that a section with poor schools tend to have higher crime rates and lower property value rates, lowering the amount of money a bank could make on properties. If you doubt me, look at 8 Mile. Take a house on the south side of 8 Mile then find another house equal distance and about the same size, on the north side of 8 mile and then check the property value. When you are done, check the crime rates.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

It’s pretty simple. But it just goes to show banks do not care about people, they only cares about the bottom line – which is kind of ironic because if they did care about people they would probably make billions more than they do now.

Local Business
This may surprise some people, but not people that know me. Let’s think about this for a moment. Without consumers, businesses wouldn’t last. So it is in the local businesses interest to keep consumers around. How could you do this? A few simple ways would be to give something back to the community that supports you. Adopting a park, or local area to care for, would be another way.

Though it is a part of business to keep consumers coming into the store, another part of it is to keep consumers around so they want to come into the stores. Businesses spend so much on marketing to keep people coming into their stores, but do so little to keep people in the communities that their stores serve.

Parents
Oh yes, the parents. In the words of Riley from, The Boondocks, “At what point does personal responsibility come in to play?”

The main cause of blame in this debacle are the parents of the children that receive these failing grades and test scores. It’s always been my understanding that parents want their children to do and have better than what they did. Each generation is supposed to progress, then care for the previous generation as it raises the next. I guess this philosophy is part of a forgotten era.

Parents are the main people to blame because no matter what school a child goes to, no matter how good or bad a teacher or school is, it is up to parents to check on their child(ren) to see what they’ve learned. Children should educate their parents on new things they are learning and seeing in class.

Sadly, most parents could not name their teachers, or even tell you what type of students their children are but it is easy to say the schools are failing our children. It’s always easy to point the finger and say, “It’s not me.” But the sad part is that it really is you. Instead of saying it’s not you and looking for someone to blame, parents need to start taking part of their children’s education. And yes, that means doing more than just going to a sports game.

The people of Detroit
I had to save this one for last, that way people can’t say that I feel I am without blame. I feel I am partially to blame for this problem. But then again we all are. As a society we are to blame for the failings of Detroit Public Schools and Detroit as a whole. As a veteran of the Armed Services, I am privileged to have seen another world. People often ask others why they re-enlist and stay in the military and the common answer is, “because I love the lifestyle.” Being in the military is interesting in the fact that it is so far from civilian life. Military families actually care about one another, even when they are total strangers.

Rarely do you see people walk up to total strangers and strike up a conversation with them. This is something that current military, veterans and military families do very often. The United States Military is a family that tries to support and help each other. This seems to be a rarity in civilian life. People don’t care about others that don’t concern them. We turn a blind eye to family and neighbors that could use our help.

Detroit Public Schools are in the situation they are in because people have just turned a blind eye. A blind eye to the corruption that takes money from our children, to the need for quality teachers, to far too many issues to even go into (yes I’m trying to keep this light). People don’t care. They don’t want their children to go to poor schools. So instead of improving the schools, they will just move their children. That does not fix the problem. That is just ignoring the problem. Unfortunately not everyone can move their children to other schools so the poor suffer. They suffer from people simply not caring.

You don’t really care, so nothing gets improved. I’m not trying to say that no one cares, but not enough people care. Not enough to make a good change. I guess it’s easier to just ignore an issue than to actually do something about it.

And people wonder why I’m so fucking Angry.

Blue O’Reilly.
angryblackman@whutupdoe.com