Why are black guys so ignorant?

Answer 1

Overall, they are not. That said, when it does occur, it is a combination of lack of educational opportunities, legacy, peer pressure, and local culture.

For years, African-Americans were denied educational opportunities. There were even laws forbidding teaching African-Americans how to read and write. When education first became legal for African-Americans, the schools were unsafe, and often of lower quality than schools where Caucasian students attended. Segregation kept Black students out of higher quality White schools.

As the fight for civil rights developed, some people of color equated education with "acting White." African-Americans who could speak clear English using proper grammar were viewed with suspicion and considered sell-outs. Even today, African-Americans are physically attacked on occasion by other African-Americans because of their intelligence and ability to verbally express themselves. Males face this pressure more than females.

Now, the question is particularly about males. Somewhere along the line, education and Caucasian culture became associated with effeminacy or weakness in the minds of some African-American men. Book smarts became known as something that people who are not street smart do because they are too weak to do otherwise. The struggle to survive in a tough, racist world devalued education in their minds. Some even began to connect intelligence with gender or sexual orientation. The more intelligent and self-empowered someone is, the less sex they might have have with members of the opposite sex. Since reproduction means creating more people who are similar to you and loyal to your cause, then those who didn't reproduce were seen as sell-outs or traitors in a day that equated sex with fighting racism.

Even today, there is incredible peer pressure among African-American men, and such men living in tough environments still put much more emphasis on physical strength and survival than on intellect. They have more education than those who came before them, since more educational opportunities are available, but they might not value education nor have as much desire for it as they could have. These lingering attitudes seem to partly explain the gender divide and why Black women are more likely than in the past to date other races. They lack the pressures that the men face and look to men who have attitudes and values closer to their own.