Thread by @JulietteAkinyi

1. I was born in 1961 & knew how to read before Kindergarten. In the first part of my childhood, I was raised by my great-uncle & great-aunt -- a pair of blue-collar workers with high school diplomas from segregated schools. They taught me to read, write and how to do basic math.

https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1155169023039901696

2. Teaching one's children basic literacy requires no special training. What's required: that the parents care about these things.

The parent doesn't even have to be literate herself. Ask @RealBenCarson about this.

@RealBenCarson 3. His mother, who didn't know how to read, made sure that her sons learned how and, therefore, would have a better life than she did. And her efforts were rewarded exponentially.

@RealBenCarson 4. Parents who can't be bothered to keep track of the educational process of their children don't care about them.

The education edifices know this. They will keep passing illiterates through the system and keep getting paid while asking to put more money into the systems ...

@RealBenCarson 5. ... meaning, their pockets.

@RealBenCarson 6. Yes, the education systems bear some blame, but the parents are primarily at fault.

No white racist can stop a black parent from reading to his child every night or teaching him basic multiplication.

@RealBenCarson 7. It's surreal to think about the primitive 1960s tools my aunt and uncle used in order to turn me into a civilized human being.

In contrast, it's so easy for a 21st century parent to do the same.

@RealBenCarson 8. But that takes desire, time, and work. It's easier to put blame The White Man for why Jamal can't read. That takes mere seconds.

2019 CA has the same problem with black students and has for years. This was not so when I was growing up.

@RealBenCarson 9. We have regressed. But it can be halted; we can turn around and begin to walk the other way.

But first we (black Americans) have to look at what got us here in the first place: Widespread illegitimacy. Fathers absent; often incarcerated. No legal employment.

@RealBenCarson 10. And look! We have already started walking in the opposite direction! (That's a 180-degree turn for the math-challenged.)

@RealBenCarson 11. For example, black unemployment is the lowest it has been for decades.

But now we need to make sure that children are not only literate enough to be employed, but enough to become the *employers.*

That type of basis starts at home.

@RealBenCarson 12. I applaud people like @kimKBaltimore who get out and do the leg work to not only show US the rotten fruit of Democrat governance, but to show it to the constituents. What we see in her timeline is the result of long-term illiteracy, bogus education, and not caring.

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore 13. What we see there are the outer workings of an inward powerlessness -- and that power was relinquished, not taken away.

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore 14. And the shitholery we see is presided over by politicians like Elijah Cummings. It's an old story. We see it all over the country in districts like many in my state -- CA.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore 15. We all have true education and power right at our fingertips now. And no president or congressperson can take that away, at least not yet.

Parents whose children can't read are easily able to remedy that usually, and if those parents won't, it's THEIR fault.

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore 16. Not Donald Trump's or even the likes of Elijah Cummings.

If you want your children to have more power than you do, you have to want to and choose to make it happen.

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore 17. Otherwise, stop crying about "white privilege" and white supremacism and accept the subordinate role that you have chosen for yourselves.

It's that simple.

END

@RealBenCarson @kimKBaltimore ADDENDUM:

In blog form at @DaTechGuyblog attn: @OregonMuse

datechguyblog.com/2019/07/27/lit…