Phillip Jackson, Executive Director of the Black Star Project, Chicago, IL, published an op-ed in the Chatanoogan.com last March that was picked up by the Villager this month and harshed on pretty bad by Prometheus 6 in a post titled “I Call Bullshit.” Charles Follymacher pointed to that post. I followed his link then wrote a brief post of my own titled “No easy answers, no simple truths.” P6 read my piece and called bullshit some more. And that’s the story so far.
I said,
The source essay from the Electronic Village that Prometheus 6 analyzes may have some factual errors, and it may perpetuate some myths. But the last part of the essay is an imprecation for us to help each other, for black people to help get the young men in the community a hand up in terms of educational success.
P6 was on me like — well, like white on rice. He said,
My problem here: MAY HAVE factual errors? MAY perpetuate some myths?
Take a stand. Does it, or does it not, contain factual errors? Does it, or does it not, perpetuate some myths? And is it ever acceptable to promote factual errors and myths?
No. And allowing it lets you “get beyond” the issues without correcting them, thereby allowing one to reach conclusion you would never, ever reach when considering the whole truth.
P6 has a lot in common with me. We’re both heavy into truth and justice. Trouble is, he wants me to accept the strength of his convictions without testing my own against the truth that I find. And he’s a persuasive writer selecting facts and data that make it appear like Jackson indeed was laying out bullshit. But I don’t think it’s that cut and dried. Quoting from the Schott Report, Jackson says only 35% of black males graduate from Chicago High Schools. P6 says bullshit. Nationally, 55% of black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort. That phrase, “with their cohort,” is important because it limits the assessment of black male educational achievement to the young men who move from K through 12 and graduate without any interruptions. P6 is right about that. But he’s wrong to tie national data to Jackson’s argument, since Jackson was talking about Chicago schools where, according to the report, only 35% of black males do graduate with their cohort.
But let me get beyond nit-pickery nonsense here. I think this country is so far down the path to ruin that it’s unlikely we’ll make the changes necessary to assure compliance with the US Bill of Rights and with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in my lifetime.
Article One of the UN Declaration says: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. So rather than calling bullshit on each other, it might be better for us to agree on what we can agree on, try to share perspectives where we have strong convictions of the truth, and respect that everyone is on her or his own path. Allies are better than onlookers in this struggle, so I’m not jumping down Phillip Jackson’s throat any more than I’m getting up in P6′s face.
How did we end up with so many black men in jail? How are we going to get them out and get them home? How can we pout an end to the “Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” right now?
What the hell is the “war on drugs” and how do we put an end to it?

8 Comments
That is an unfortunate statement. When you explained in my comments that your “may” statements weren’t definitive because you hadn’t fact checked them yet, what was my response?
And I quote: “Fact check away.”
Frankly, I find you want me to accept the strength of YOUR convictions without YOUR having tested the facts at hand. Meanwhile, I’m actually living with the people under discussion, simply reporting what I see. That, and a sprinkle of social science research when absolutely necessary.
I think I can help resolve some of this. The EPI took a good look at graduation rates.
The apparent low graduation rate is the result of:
It’s entirely possible for someone acting in good faith, using currently acceptable sociological methods, to come to conclusions that are off base.
Absolutely true. And for the record, if I doubted the assumption of good faith between us as a starting point I couldn’t have the discussion.
Nevertheless, it is an error with consequences. Why would the general public worry about education for Black children if only half of them graduate? It’s an error at the heart of “the soft bigotry of low expectations.”
And I would accept that everyone has their own path but at some point in the real world you’re going to have a vote on issues that affect me.
To clarify, I came into this seeing good faith between you and Frank. My end sentence in my previous comment was intended to refer to the methodological errors in the Schott report, as an explanation of what wrong with their research, but not as an excuse for them. As you say, this is something that it’s vital to get right.
Here’s what I get so far:
Meaning no disrespect, I’m reminded right now of that merry band of truth seekers on the Yellow Brick Road, each of us with our own perspectives and needs, arm-in-arming it as we set off to see the wizard. Only we have the benefit of having seen the movie and we know that if the wizard’s there at all, he won’t have any better answers than we ourselves can provide.
For all the current data and sophisticated trend analyses and what-not, the situation may also be seen as a clash of narratives. P6′s conscious use of “The War of Northern Aggression” underscores this, and his link to the WaPo’s article on a recent Pew push poll that fed “white values” as the proper answers delineates two competing perspectives.
Fair summary. And I confess to crafting my responses for maximum impact.
One can’t freely choose a narrative on issues that physically impact you. We reason forward using our non-fiction narratives. Living the wrong narrative is like trying to use a New York City subway map on the D.C. Metro or San Francisco’s BART.
Most people use analysis to justify, rather than reach, their conclusions. I believe Mr. Jackson started with a gut perception of what he wanted to do and backed into the essay. He could not reach his essay with accurate, documentable fact as his starting point.
Good on ya, Frank, Scruggsy. P6 as always holdin it down. Ah, narratives. S’funny, I been readin up on novel writin lately. Today I learned that a plot is the same as a story but with explicit causalities. Next up, viewpoints.
I am Phillip Jackson. My numbers were extracted from the Schott report. I did not make up the numbers. You can read the report and get numbers for yourselves. Many Black people are in denial. They think that it is a bad reflection on them that we, as a race, are doing so poorly. They are right. Their inactivity and passivity has led us to the brink of extinction. We live in an “Educate or Die” world. And over time, either we will Educate and Live or we will continue along the road we are on and perish. In the 1960′s and 1970′s, we use to say, “They don’t have enought jails to hold all of these Black men”! We were wrong. I hope that we are not wrong again about our staying viable on this planet.