Biden's 'record player' answer was right. Social workers and parenting changes can shrink the racial

[Skya Rhen]

Last edited Fri Sep 13, 2019, 09:47 PM - Edit history (1)

gap.

[Cha]

1. Thanks, Skya..

On its face, Biden's answer sounded strange, but there is a grain of truth to the notion that parental involvement, including the bit about the record player, improves the odds of children's success in life.

[StarfishSaver]

12. Yes, parental involvement helps all children. It's not the answer to racial disparities

That's like saying that we can reduce discrimination against women in the workplace by showing them how to work more efficiently. Yes, being more efficient at work improves any employee's chance of success, but it doesn't address the gender discrimination that women face that disadvantages us regardless how efficient we are.

His answer was weird.

[loyalsister]

2. It gets tricky

If that is something that is truly valued, why get up in arms about the possibility of poor families that needed welfare assistance staying home with their children? Wouldn't someone who thought kids needed their parents to be there to help with homework fight to make sure they didn't have to work outside the home?
The contradiction of putting the blame on parents, then making it more difficult for them to spend time with their kids is a problem.

[Blue_true]

10. Parents don't have to help kids with their homework.

One of the unfortunate outcomes in our society is that we have ghettorized Black people that are on housing assistance and welfare, putting them in "subsidized" housing complexes. Some Black families succeed despite those inherent drawbacks, but not enough are. Biden has a good idea, use the housing patterns that Blacks have been forced into to get social workers and tutors to those families. It does not matter that a parent is dog tired after work, as long as the parent has set an expectation for his or her children that they do their homework and finish it within x time each day, and go to the tutors that are available in Building Y if they have issues.

[melman]

3. Tiana Lowe is a right winger

https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/tiana-lowe/

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. The word gap is based on ONE very old study

That followed 10(!?!) poor families.

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/01/615188051/lets-stop-talking-about-the-30-million-word-gap

Also, good job linking to a right wing source.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. Biden's response, besides incoherent, was paternalistic racism

You've got some guts linking to a RW rag like the Washington Examiner...

[Thekaspervote]

8. Hummmm ... thought about it... nope non of the above!!

[Voltaire2]

6. Lulzd.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. "To focus on the most noteworthy line, we have to translate septuagenarian speak into modernity."

Well, that certainly bodes well for his presidency.

[Blue_true]

9. I agree with you.

We are about 2.5 generations beyond segregation, but institutional racism took over (Blacks and brown Hispanics are more likely to go through the criminal justice system, even for things that Whites do and walk free of). So fewer Blacks get to reach levels of higher education, that creates a gap in the expectations that Blacks on average set for their kids in school, and that gap has stubbornly persisted.

We need to shake things up and Biden, even as he hashed it up, presented a plan that can work. We focus on the Black family in poor areas, from conception of a child until that child has finished college or trade school. Social workers can look at things like nutrition and study policies that parents set, my argument is that getting those right dramatically changes the game.

[StarfishSaver]

11. The racial gap in America isn't caused by lack of social workers and bad parenting

Racism creates conditions that lead to situations that require social intervention, not the other way around. But the argument that the answer to racism in America is more social workers and better parenting is a paternalistic right wing trope.