Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the famous basketball player and best-selling author, says public schools have failed minority students, leading to further segregation.
“I don’t think the soft expectations have benefitted minority communities very well, I think we still suffer from that,” Abdul-Jabbar said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. “A lot of people seem to be able to accept it and understand it because they know how terrible our public school systems are, and how they have failed, in many cases, to educate the students in their districts. And I think that that failure has led to a lot of these problems and has given rise to a segregation of schooling, where you have private schools that are for wealthy white people and the public schools that have very poor teachers and very bad facilities that’s for everyone else. We suffer because of that.”
Abdul-Jabbar was speaking in an interview with economist Tyler Cowen, who hosts the Conversations with Tyler series in which he interviews public figures, such as PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel or cultural critic Camille Paglia.
Given his answer about school segregation and the poor quality of public schools, Abdul-Jabbar was then asked for his thoughts on public charter schools.
“Charter schools are an attempt to stem the flow of that dynamic and I hope that they get something done,” Abdul-Jabbar said. He noted that the elementary school he attended in Manhattan, formerly a Catholic school, is now a charter school. “That seems to be the trend,” he added.
Cowen quoted a passage from one of Abdul-Jabbar’s books where he says Republicans are indifferent to hardships, but he agrees that handouts don’t solve anything. Abdul-Jabbar said he still believes that, “But [Republicans] have to be open to the fact that the solutions that they have put forward haven’t worked. I am still anxious to hear from some of the conservatives what the conservative solution is for underemployment and the failure of our education system. We need a solution for that. Why haven’t the conservatives come forward with solutions? They seem to think that they have the answers.” He suggested some conservatives may be indifferent to poor people of color.
Cowen also asked Abdul-Jabbar for any solutions he had in mind to limit poverty in the United States. “I don’t know how we’re going to work on the poverty situation unless, again, the educational system is up to speed,” Abdul-Jabbar replied. “You can’t escape poverty given that you can barely read and write, that’s not going to work.
Without a proper education, Abdul-Jabbar said, “You can get a job lifting things.” Alternatively, you can work for the rest of your life if you memorize eight words: “Welcome to McDonald’s, may I take your order?”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
