Attributing Magic to a Situation DNA Explains: Black Writer Believes "Proximity to Whiteness" Required for Individual Black Success

Every so often, the truth inadvertently slips out. NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES published a long article (School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson Michael Brown beat the odds by graduating from high school before his death — odds that remain stacked against black students in St. Louis and the rest of the country) lamenting the horrible conditions of all-black public schools in metropolitan St. Louis versus the idyllic state of nearly all-white public schools. 

The nearly all-white public schools consist of individual white students who collectively produce some of the top test scores, highest graduation rates, and stunning rates of efficiency on various standardized tests and in AP course participation in the state of Missouri. 

So, white people have magical powers which liberate black people from the lack of opportunity found in areas of concentrated blackness...

Also, the quality of life these individual whites collectively create in their nearly all-white schools is reflected in the low expulsion rate and few disciplinary problems disrupting the education process. 

The nearly all-black public schools (like the one Michael Brown graduated from) consist of individual black students who collectively produce some of the lowest test scores, poorest graduation rates, and shockingly pitiful rates of efficiency on various standardized tests and in AP course participation in the state of Missouri. 

Also, the non-existent quality of life these individual blacks collectively create in their nearly all-black schools is reflected in the high expulsion rate, radical disciplinary problems disrupting the education process scaring away teachers and creating huge turnover rates.

The New York Times decided to excerpt some of Nikole Hannah-Jones work. [How School Segregation Divides Ferguson — and the United States, 12-19-14]:

ON Aug. 1, five students in satiny green-and-red robes and mortarboards waited in an elementary school classroom to hear their names called as graduates of Normandy High School. This ceremony, held months after the official graduation, was mostly for students who had been short of credits in May. 

One of those new graduates was Michael Brown. He was 18, his mother’s oldest son. He had been planning to start college in September. 

Eight days later, he was dead, killed in the streets of nearby Ferguson, Mo., by a white police officer in a shooting that ignited angry protests and a painful national debate about race, policing and often elusive justice. Many news reports after Mr. Brown’s death noted his graduation and his college plans. The implication was that these scholarly achievements magnified the sorrow. 

But if Michael Brown’s educational experience was a success story, it was a damning one. 

The Normandy school district is among the poorest and most segregated in Missouri. It ranks last in overall academic performance. Its rating on an annual state assessment was so dismal that by the time Mr. Brown graduated the district had lost its state accreditation. 

About half of black male students at Normandy High never graduate. Just one in four graduates makes it to a four-year college. The college where Mr. Brown was headed is a for-profit trade school that recruits those it once described in internal documents as “Unemployed, Underpaid, Unsatisfied, Unskilled, Unprepared, Unsupported, Unmotivated, Unhappy, Underserved!” 

Just five miles down the road from Normandy lies Clayton, the wealthy county seat where a grand jury recently deliberated the fate of Darren Wilson, the officer who killed Mr. Brown. Success there looks very different. The Clayton public schools are predominantly white, with almost no poverty to speak of. The district is regularly ranked in the top 10 percent in the state. More than 96 percent of its students graduate. Eighty-four percent head to four-year universities.

The article continued, but it for the sake of brevity, this appears to be Nikole Hannah-Jones thesis (We even Tweeted it to her!): 

Thesis: Without whites, blacks fail; without blacks, whites thrive

Hannah-Jones primarily goal with her long article, and it being excerpted at the New York Times, seems to be based on to showcase the magical properties white people have at unleashing black potential trapped if surrounded by only blackness.

She even responded to us on Twitter!:

yeah, in a system based on white hierarchy, proximity to whiteness required for access to opportunity. Duh.

So, Nikole Hannah-Jones attributes to white people magical powers that heroically liberate individual blacks incapable of flourishing if only exposed to blackness...

That makes a lot of sense!

It's truly misguided to continue and judge individual blacks by the academic standards established by individual whites, for when they are collectively aggregated we learn the truth of the racial gap in learning is embedded in the genetic code of the respective races.

No amount of magical thinking or proximity to whites can change the DNA of blacks, though proximity to blacks can negatively impact the DNA of a white females offspring...

The main question Nikole Hannah-Jones will never entertain is why, in the absence of whites individual blacks can't collectively creating the type of social capital required for thriving communities?

If proximity to whiteness is a necessary condition for opportunity, how did those black Ancient Egyptians ever build those pyramids?