They are not the absent father without the heart to care for his child, nor are they the could-be mentor down the street who chooses not to spare any time showing a kid how to lead a positive life.

They aren't the broken-windowed neighborhood whose residents would rather keep to their own affairs than risk their own necks to wrest an adolescent off a wayward path.

As of the past few years, NCCU has refocused on seeing these young adults through till the end, but, again, they can't be everything.

More than 1,000 freshmen come to the historically black university each year, and less than half earn a degree four years later.

That's appalling.

But it's not really the school's fault. It's our fault. And by "our," I'm mostly talking to black people.

Yes, we are to blame for this.

The path to graduation starts long before those students even set foot on campus.

And, frankly, we do a horrible job of putting them on that path. For decades our community has forsaken its responsibility to educate our youth and embraced this sort of urban know-nothingism that teaches our kids how to rap but not how to read.

Have I offended you yet? If so, ask yourself: Should I be more offended by this guy's words or by NCCU's graduation rate?

And then ask yourself what that graduation rate says about us.