CNN Asks Why Black Men Are Not Graduating From College
 

Hmmmm...looks familiar...

By Dr. Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 5th 2010 4:24PM


Richelle Carey at CNN Headline News recently reached out to me to find out why black men aren't graduating from college. I've written on this topic on a few occasions and also in my book 'Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about College.' The segment is here if you'd like to watch, and you can tell in the segment that I am angry.

I was angry during the interview because the lack of educational and economic achievement of the black male, along with mass incarceration, has continuously threatened the strength and stability of the African American family. I was angry because most of us, as Americans, have not had a sense of urgency when it comes to resolving these disparities. Some black men are too busy learning how to become thugs, and white America is too busy perpetuating racially imbalanced institutions that keep Jim Crow alive in America. Many black women are busy blaming every social ill on black men, which is equally problematic. At the end of the day, all of us are wrong, and we all have the ability to work together to solve this problem.

First, universities must stop making excuses for not hiring black professors. When I opposed the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan, one of the reasons I stood against her is because during her tenure as dean of Harvard Law School, she didn't hire a single African American faculty member (out of 29 total tenured and tenure-track appointments). This problem is all too common, as many universities get applications from solid black professors and find some ridiculous, ambiguous and often secret reason to turn them down. The result is that many students go to college for four to 10 years (adding in graduate school) without having any black professors (except in African American studies, where they allow us to teach). That was my experience, as well as the common experience of many other black men who were educated at predominantly white universities. My hurdles in higher education led me to feel like a fish out of water, since there was no role model for me to look up to – I always felt like I was swimming upstream. Universities have to stop making excuses for not diversifying their faculty with underrepresented minorities; they must also stop hiring black professors for temporary jobs only, and start giving permanent positions to black faculty so that black students can have role models, too. A case in point is my brother's recent graduation from the business school at Cornell University. I saw only one black professor out of dozens on the stage. The same was true at my sister's graduation from medical school, where there was not a single black person in the entire group of faculty. Such outcomes should be appalling and unacceptable to all of us.

Second, black males must raise their expectations. Being a baller or a rapper is all fine and good, but it takes far less intelligence to be a doctor or lawyer. In fact, I earned good grades by studying four to six hours a day, which is less than the amount of time I would have spent on my job at Taco Bell. If a man can "slang" fast food for 10 hours a day, then he should be able to study for half that time. It's time for black men to stop pretending to be stupid. Of course, this doesn't include the black male soldiers out here who are already hustling to do the right thing. The truth is that black men are proud, strong and capable, and if we choose to dominate academically, it is fully within our ability to do so. In fact, if we were to take as much pride in our academic achievements as we do our athletic ones, we would be world-leading intellects. We would also have a lot more money in our pockets, since professional sports leads to more busted dreams than fulfilled ones.

Third, universities should realize that black men can do more than play basketball. I find it ironic that many campuses (i.e., the University of Kentucky, my alma mater) will claim that they can't find enough qualified black males to admit as students, yet they always seem to find a way to get a pack of black men onto the basketball court. I also find it interesting that campuses feel it is essential for black students to learn everything a person needs to know about Ben Franklin but don't require white students to learn much of anything about Malcolm X or the great civilizations of Africa. Perhaps if universities made a greater effort to diversify their curricula, we might find that black men are more interested in what they have to say.

Amen and she's saying the same thing that has been said for well over a decade.

I want white people in general (in the case, CNN) to know that this isn't a new topic and they don't need to think that the media (or the election of Obama) is the instrument that is shedding light on this issue. It has been discussed from different angles by social activists and scholars for a long time.

Not to mention this gets trotted out when....? Right around graduation time.

Thank you CNN

OMG, at college graduations across the country, Black males were hardly anywhere to be found. OMG, we're so shocked that the Blacks who graduate from PWIs and HBCUs are predominantly Black women. When did this begin? How do we address it? Haven't "they" learned that staying in school is cool since Obama is the PREZ-a-dent?! Do we have time to tackle this huge generations-long topic with the BP oil spill?! :eek:

Why are underprivileged white men not graduating from college?

Someone should do a study into it.

I will take "Because the numbers of them vs the numbers of black men are not as high?"

for $500, Dick

Certainly.. let's end racial discrimination with more racial discrimination. That'll work!

I never had a black professor in college or graduate school. I always thought it was because there weren't really a ton of blacks in architecture, and not any systematic attempt to keep black people down. Even now I've never worked with another black architect.

It's "Tha Man's" fault! HA!

At a national level, they are graduating from college.

Efforts (particularly by public institutions) to reach students from lower socioeconomic status have been quite successful. Interestingly, despite the high correlation between social class and race (to the point that they are almost synonymous in many instances), outreach to poor whites (including white men) has been more successful than outreach to Black males across social classes.

This is pretty much the worst possible article in every possible way. It relies on racial stereotypes and gross generalizations to basically state that black men should "stop rapping and playing basketball" to "start 'hustling' as doctors and lawyers."

Lets not forget that this is a race that has been enslaved for hundreds of years, suffered segregation for at least another hundred years, and is just now being allowed to advance into the American middle class. Black standards of living and rates of education have dramatically been increasing -- the only thing really slowing them down at this point is the government-run schools.

I prefer this wording.

It is a combination of the proportion of architects who are Black and discrimination (based on outcome and practice even if it isn't their formal intent). Colleges and universities with faculty diversity initiatives know exactly what to do if they want more female, Black (and other racial and ethnic minority--that includes HBCUs that are increasing their nonBlack faculty and staff), and/or bilingual faculty.

Then you would just hate the decades of articles and books written on this topic. Have you read any of them?

Black folks don't need a sob story. This is about a combination of institutional practices and personal accountability. I pity the fool who is waiting for all the -isms to subside before they can work toward personal and professional success.

And please don't call Black people "them."

Link?

Link?

Look, I get it man, you're a racialist. That's fine. Alot of the white nationalists I know are too.

The more important thing in this situation (and in most situations) is class rather than race. I would guarantee that white Appalachian poor trash kids would get along much better with urban African-American poor than a African-American doctoral student.

Walter E. Williams cited a study done in his book "The State Against Blacks" which showed that a middle class white resident would rather have a middle-class African American move into their neighborhood than a poor white person. Something to think about.

Actually, the one making the original claim is the one who must cite the source. Where did you get that poor and working class white men are not graduating from college at the national level?

This claim is different than the widely given notion that the underprivileged (across race and gender) have a harder time affording, matriculating, and graduating from college.

Who was the originator of the post who made the original claim?

Hmm, yes.

Was this your question or did you get it from the original article?

Did I miss where the original article or someone in this thread stated this?

(I don't know what you mean by "get along much better with." Someone can be really nice to you and "some of my best friends are Black," but call you n*gger if they think their father lost his coal mining job to your Blackass father. And try to find ways to re-align the poor and working class white man's status quo. That perceived sense of group racial threat is what racism and discrimination are about. It isn't about prejudice and who gets along with whom).

So, in general, you would be sadly mistaken because this is about something more substantive than poor Black people and poor white people listening to rap, playing basketball, and speaking slang together. Ya know, the stuff that white Appalachian "poor trash" (stupid phrase) and poor urban Blacks could potentially have in common.

What Engels and Marx (and others) predicted regarding substantive class alliances that supercede race never happened.

His book didn't "show" that as a definitive statement. That isn't the intent of such research. It sparks discussion and debate and offers different explanations. Either way, Walter E. Williams is a celebrated scholar but he is part of a longstanding debate among scholars regarding this topic. His books and other research are to be placed within their proper contexts. Dr. Williams knows that. Among the context for "The State Against Blacks" is that his book was written in 1984 by an economist (big surprise that an economist believes and therefore "found" that social class has greater standing?) with a particular sample.

Similarly, whenever people cite William Julius Wilson's "Declining Significance of Race" as proof of anything, I ask them whether they actually READ it and any of Wilson's other research. If they had, they would see that Wilson wasn't saying that race was less salient but instead that social class was increasing in significance. Social scientists already knew that because race and social class are highly correlated (there's no coincidence that Blacks are disproportionately poor and undereducated).

Actually, if it helps you sleep tonight, I don't agree with the article...maybe if you read my comments after the post, it would dawn on you that it's a bullshit article trotted out at this time of year to make people think that something is going on.

I agree with the article.

The only thing that I really disagree with is the statement that Black men are learning to become thugs and Black women are busy blaming Black men for stuff. He began with that sensationalized for media consumption ridiculousness that is common for Black people writing about race.

and that is where I disagreed with it and it feel a lot more like someone is trying to place blame instead of taking responsibility.

I mostly disagree with it because as we stated earlier is that this is nothing new and the timing for this is per usual.

Interestingly, in my Occupational Therapy program, which was very traditionally female (1 of 200 students in the 4 cohorts I knew was male) and very traditionally white (no African Americans in those 4 cohorts) had an African American male professor (1 of 5 professors for the program). He had been an OTR in the Army and was retired..he was a Colonel.

Hopefully the tide will change and there will be more and more. I do think it's important to have role models/mentors that a student identifies with.

BORING!

Now get off GC and continue watching interracial porn. You know you love it.

Oh, that's rich.

At this rate, you'll be working for my kids some day.

Yeah, because kids who are Ivy League legacies on both sides of the family collect welfare all the time.

Move along now before you're deleted again. Shoo.

Shoo.

no feedz the trolls.

Also quoting the troll means that his words live on when he gets banned.

No, I'll delete or edit my posts when he's gone. :)

Medicine for one.

http://afam.nts.jhu.edu/bin/l/u/carson.jpg

There's delicious irony in this kid's favorite team being eliminated from the NFL playoffs largely on the back of the white MLB and white members of the offensive line being either hurt or terrible.

Looks like you could have used a few more high-performing black dudes for your personal minstrel show, you tardbox.

*snicker*

This post (singular) will keep me laughing for hours (plural).