Are Black Parents Supportive (Enough)?

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(ThyBlackMan.com) I went home to Columbus, Ohio this past weekend and learned a little more about my hometown. You see, I went to a high school football game with my friend to support her little brother. Let me paint the picture for you:

Team 1: Suburbia

Team 2: Inner-city

The game was at home for the inner city school; my friend and I were on Suburbia’s side (as we previously attended that high school). As the game progressed, my friend made an observation.

“Look at the home team’s stands,” she looked across the field. “They’re empty.” And, sadly, they were. Compared to Suburbia’s side, the support for the home team was a disgrace. The number of supporting parents and/or relatives on “Inner City’s” side wasn’t even one-third of the blue-and-gold signs waving on “Suburbia’s” side.

And, if you haven’t put two-and-two together by now, Inner City’s football team (and supporting side) was majority black and Suburbia’s side, with the exception of a few minorities, was predominantly white.

Why the discrepancy?

My friend wondered if Inner City’s lack of support reflected on the team’s performance, and conversely, if the masses of parents and family members who showed up at an away game to support Suburbia led to the team’s 13-6 victory.

It also made me wonder: Do black parents adequately support their children, inside and outside the classroom?

Using this game as an example, I had to consider all the factors:

Inner City was located in a low-income area (and school district). This may have an affect on transportation for both students and parents.
Minorities make up the majority of Columbus City Schools, the city’s “urban school district”, enrollment. Minorities made up 75 percent of the student body population at the high school I graduated from (I transferred from Suburbia my senior year). And, unfortunately, minorities (especially blacks) have a high percentage of children born into single-parent homes. This means the parent or provider of the households could be working 2-3 jobs and is unable to attend after-school functions.
Suburbia has a higher percentage of students coming from two-parent homes, meaning even if one parent cannot make an after-school function, another is available. It could also mean these students’ parents aren’t forced to spend their evenings working extra jobs to make ends meet, therefore freeing up “support time.”
The game started at 7pm, so perhaps Inner City’s “support” was either still at work or caught in traffic.
Also, this was a freshman high school game, not varsity. Most people don’t regularly show up for freshman games. Yet, my friend pointed out she’d at least expect a fuller crowd for Inner City because it was a home game.

In his book “Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail,” Reginald Clark says working mothers, broken homes, poverty, racial or ethnic background, and poorly educated parents are the most common reasons given for the academic problems of lower income/poor urban children. But Clark claims a student’s academic success or failure is more so a product of his/her family’s culture (or lack thereof).

He claims things like when parents are actively involved in with a student’s school instructional program, there’s a greater likelihood of students becoming academically successful. He says if parents visit schools more often they’ll gain a better understanding about their student. With this knowledge, parents can assist the school with helping students to the fullest, Without this knowledge, parents and teachers may be at cross purposes or may each deal with the student in ignorance of the other setting (p.205).

Haven’t we all seen this before? A parent is ignorant to what’s going on at school so he/she tells a child one thing (how to act, what this means, etc.), and a teacher, ignorant of the student’s home life, tells him/her another.

Clark also says that the “supportive” or sponsoring relationship of parents to students is important for educational success. When parents provide high levels of support, guidance, and protection, the student’s educational pursuits become more manageable. And this stems from the parents’ understanding how their roles are “determinate entities” in their child’s academic progress. Without that support, students have an increased chance of failure (p.206).

Think about the changing dynamics of the black household; are more and more of black parents really becoming less and less supportive of their children? Or do the often socioeconomic statuses of most black households hold these parents at a disadvantage?

Staff Writer; Shala Marks

Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/shala.marks

Service is her passion, writing is her platform, women and the Black Community are her avenues. Shala Marks is a writer, editor and soon-to-be author. Through her work, Marks aspires to demonstrate “The Craft of Writing, and the Art of Efficacy.” She has a B.A. in journalism from ArizonaStateUniversity. Connect with her at http://www.sisterscanwespeak.tumblr.com.

NorthernMagnolia says:

September 19, 2013 at 2:27 am

It seems that in this self-centered age, the sacrifice required to be a supportive parent, particularly under strained circumstances, is no longer common. It glares in our community because of the not-too-distant history we have of Black elders who sacrificed tremendously to give their children a better future than they enjoyed. It seems that the momentum has stopped, largely — and we are the people who can least afford such failure.

toomanygrandkids says:

September 17, 2013 at 12:47 pm

No, not all of them. Football games back in the day usta be packed w/ folks. Back in the late 80’s and 90’s our football team had some pretty decent players who went to the pros, if not for a little while. They very rarely visited once they made the big-time. And they didn’t support their hometown. Over the years when I just happen to ride by a game, there aren’t many cars and the stands are bare. The ppl who I saw were whites on one side and blacks on the other. The seating arrangement was always like that though I never understood why. Anyway there are more whites in the stands nowadays. There are fewer blacks. For years now, black males haven’t had much support at home games, let alone away games. There seems to be more ppl at the younger team’s games than the high school. But at those games where the parents are 30- and 40-years old, everybody’s on cell phones either talking or texting. Football games have changed a lot over the years. The support of parents and community isn’t there.

Julie says:

September 16, 2013 at 10:16 pm

I completely agree with you Robert. It really moves me what you wrote because my late father was a physician and he never realized that it would have meant the world to me if he read me stories when I was a child. He was super smart and sometimes I wonder if it would have been better for me to be home schooled. I remember when I was 6, he had once to tickle me to encourage me to wake up before I went to school. I didn’t feel like going because racist kids used to beat me up. I was not masochistic so, of course I didn’t feel like going to school sometimes. When I think about all of this I wonder if it was worth it to be for too many years in a hostile environment outside of my home!!!

ROBERT says:

September 16, 2013 at 9:27 pm

THE game changer for we black AMERICAN’S today is technology we can simply educate our children at home or in our sanctuaries; we are not as depended on other people to educate our children as in the past.

ALL study’s have shown that home school children are far more advanced than public school children plus it’s a lot cheaper and take far less time.

OUR children are our most valuable asset and to freely give them over to other people to educate them is unforgiveable; we should do what the most successful group’s do in AMERICA and that’s JEW’S and ASIANS who for the most part educate their own children ;it’s the sign of a intelligent people!

Julie says:

September 16, 2013 at 7:15 pm

Everything starts at home. I know parents (even well-read people like physicians) who do not even read to their children or don’t buy books to them. If kids do not learn at home the importance of education, it will be very difficult for them to understand this outsite of it.