The Men of the Tenth Inc.
May, 2012
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Penn State or The State Penn What minorities must do to avoid prison.
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Jail Is Not The Place To Be There is something inherently depressing about jail, especially when one is confined to his cell‌Jail is depressing because it shuts off the world. It leaves one caught in the dull monotony of sameness. It is almost like being dead while one still lives. To adjust to such a meaningless existence is not easy. The only way that I adjust to it is to constantly remind myself that this self-imposed suffering is for a great cause and purpose. This realization takes a little of the agony and a little of the depression away. --- Excerpt from The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Men of the Tenth Inc.
May, 2012
Penn State or The State Penn By: LaVon Williams In 1994, rapper Notorious B.I.G. said “ the street are a short stop, either you selling crack rock or you have a wicked jump shot.� For many young Americans Notorious B.I.G words are a reality. In 2008, the Bureau of Justice statistics suggests that the prison industry has far to many minorities in jail than college graduates. This result may be from the effects of the American educational system, socioeconomics, family upbringing, and lack of self-confidence. Regardless, what you may identify as the reason, there are to many minorities that do not enroll in a college like Penn State; instead they enter the state Penn. Many minority teenagers would rather learn on the streets then in the classroom. They would rather learn how to behave from Worldstarhiphop.com then from a book. They would rather learn from a music song than from an academic lecture. Why does this happen? Is it the educational system? Is it the teachers and administration? The answer is curriculum
relevance . Many minority students are not interested in the American education system because it was not designed to educate anyone who is other than white. Professor, Ronald Takaki refers to this form of education as the master narrative. The master narrative revolves around an education system that supports white supremacy. In fact, the master narrative would have you believe that minorities are incapable of learning. However, if teenagers can learn how to play Xbox, walk it out, Harlem shake, do the Dougie, and write raps; they are definitely capable of learning. The main reason minority teenagers do not see the purpose for an education is because it is build on lies. The American education school system teaches lies like Christopher Columbus discovered America. This type of lie effects minority students (partially boys) because their lessons do not speak to their
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The Men of the Tenth Inc.
May, 2012
hearts and minds. This is a major issue that is continuously overlooked. Most minority teenagers learn and follow the street lifestyle culture because it consists of more people that they can identify with. These teens view the streets as a reflection of them, which makes an education from the American school system obsolete. However, to break this mirror of negativity an individual must be hard as a rock. The individual must be able to brush off the broken glass and avoid collecting harmful cuts and bruises. This is the only way minority teenagers will be able to make it in America. Teens must educate themselves outside of school, and avoid the streets. They must learn their cultural history and follow the paths of the wise men and women before them. They need to take control their lives, teacher themselves, because our current education system will not. Therefore, a teenager must read to gain knowledge and lead others to colleges like Penn State. As a result, less of our future will end up in the state Penn.
The Justice System According To Dubois There can be no doubt that crime among Negroes has sensibly increased in the last thirty years… . For such dealing with criminals, white or black the South had no machinery, no adequate jails or reformatories; its police system was arranged to deal with blacks alone, and tacitly assumed that every white man was ipso facto a member of that police… . For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply of criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of reenslaving the blacks. It was not then a question of crime, but rather one of color, that settled a man’s conviction on almost any charge. --- Excerpt from The Soul of Black Folks
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The Men of The Tenth Inc.
May, 2012
Hip-Hop Quote of The Month See I ain't dead or in jail, I can't complain --- Young Jeezy from Real As It Gets
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