African Americ The Fear Of Success

Although many studies have shown some of the factors that affect blacks, are for their lack of opportunities or low economic resources that is not always the case. As many people believe that ones a black family has better resources they are already out of any disadvantages and are expected to excel in their academics (Steele, 1999). Steele explains, “as for African-American students generally, negative stereotypes apply in many situations, even personal ones.” This shows that although African-Americans can be part of a higher social class, stereotypes that exist about them being negative can still affect those individuals. Moreover, as a person begins to categorize

Racial formation is a vast sum of signifying actions and social structures that clash in the creation of complex relationships and identities that is a labeled race. Throughout the history of the United States, a large array of strategies was engaged in regarding education that took advantage of nonwhites. Since policies by those who supposedly “protect our rights” attempted to eradicate social, economic and cultural aspirations, dominated groups were more often than not suspicious of the school 's interests. According to John Ogby, “children from dominated cultures often failed school because they considered the school to be representative of the dominant white culture” (Spring, 101). This portrays racial formation having an effect on equality. “Acting white” meant to attempt to do well in school because

Throughout history, African American weren’t considered the smartest race on earth. With slavery and being for bided to ever touch or learn to read a book, African American became the race that envy having an education. Education became a prime factor in the African American culture. Having an education to an African is having the one-way ticket out of the terrible streets. They believe that if they don’t know nothing they won’t get nothing. In other word, if they aren’t educated their life would remain the same. Way back to slavery, African American would be beaten if they were to open a book and dare to read it instead of cleaning it.

Less than 4% of the total student population enrolled in America’s colleges and universities (one of the smallest subgroups based on race/ethnicity and gender.) According to the Schott Foundation, the graduation rate of Black males in CT is between 51%, whereas White males in CT have an 83% graduation rate—a 32% gap. Moreover, the achievement gap between Black women and Black men is the lowest male-to female ratio among all racial/ethnic subgroups. (Strayhorn 1). The disproportionate and devastating failure of Black males in the educational system has further ramifications in our social system as black males are over-represented in the criminal justice system: “African-American males represent approximately 8.6 percent of the nation’s K-12 public school enrollment but make up about 60 percent of all incarcerated youth” (Smith 2005). In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the academic crisis of adolescent black males, one must examine the research findings surrounding the Black-White achievement gap, black male standardized test scores, black male literacy achievement, and the socio-cultural achievement barriers that obscure black males’ self-perception of themselves as readers. “According to many standardized assessments, educators in the U.S.

The first main point the authors’ introduce is to recognize black males’ lived experiences. Black males have an experience unique to just them. Black men’s experiences of racism impact their education. They even face consequences for pursuing education. Those consequences could be social, educational, and economic. To understand these key issues, you must first look at the past. Black men have always had to overcome great obstacles. Low literacy, limited employment, high incarceration rates, have predisposed many black men to never being able to escape poverty. Further, being impoverished means a less chance that these men will go into higher education. Higher education is so expensive these days, and the underfunding of financial aid and other

The successful education process starts with the family in the home and community, and continues in school and throughout life. The extent to which Black parents become actively involved in the education of Black male children is the extent to which the destruction of potentially millions of young Black men will stop. When young Black men realize they have become expendable, are we ready for their reaction? The United States does not tolerate young Black men being unproductive or counter-productive to the goals of mainstream society. Black males are suspended, expelled and failed in schools at rates that are two to five times higher than students of other races and go to jail at rates five to ten times higher than people of other races ().Jackson, Phillip. “The Massive Failure of

Students attend school starting at pre-school then kindergarten, kindergarten to first grade and leading up to middle school then high school, the classes and teachers are supposed to prepare them for the next level. With the correct preparation and tools, after graduating high school, many students have their mind set on attending college as the next level. However many African-American male students who do have the ability to graduate high school, are not prepared for their next level which is college. Due to the quality of these schools “the school districts in urban neighborhoods have fewer academic offerings, less qualified teachers, out of date materials and lower quality curriculum” (WOOD, J. (2011), results in the poor education of the minority students attending them. Also due to the different academic and environment backgrounds that white and black students come from, many teachers are unaware of how to teach black students and how to gain their attention in the classroom. Other than

In the United States alone, minorities have struggled for centuries to earn the basic rights and opportunities as others. African Americans have always worked harder and been treated maliciously just because of the color of their skin. There have been numerous movements, peaceful protests, and brutal battles by black leaders against whites for equality, justice, and a fair chance at a better life. It is safe to say that in the past, blacks were not allowed to progress or have a mind of their own. In comparison to the past, the educational sector for minorities still remains as an extreme societal challenge. For many years, African Americans have been denied educational advancement opportunities. The higher education area suffers greatly for the black population but very few people will address why this matter occurs. Do black families’ socioeconomic status affect the children’s education? The socioeconomic status is easily defined as an individuals or families’ economic and social rank based on income, education level, and occupation. The socioeconomic status of black families does affect their children’s academic success, however; it does not determine their children’s success. This educational disadvantage for black students needs to be addressed because of the lack of financial and emotional support that minority students receive due to their parents lack of experience and knowledge with higher education. Many black students become a product of their environment because

A substantial amount of educational and psychological research has consistently demonstrated that African American students underperform academically relative to White students. For example, they tend to receive lower grades in school (e.g., Demo & Parker, 1987; Simmons, Brown, Bush, & Blyth, 1978), score lower on standardized tests of intellectual ability (e.g., Bachman, 1970; Herring, 1989; Reyes & Stanic, 1988; Simmons et al., 1978), drop out at higher rates (e.g., American Council on Education, 1990; Steele, 1992), and graduate from college with substantially lower grades than White students (e.g., Nettles, 1988). Such performance gaps can be attributed to

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

Similar to how there are prosperous programs, there are also unsuccessful ones. As some schools are beginning to take the first step and are including Black programs as part of their curriculum, some are starting to cause chaos between Whites and Blacks, crumbling along the way, portraying Black programs in a negative form. One example can be seen in how “Harvard’s Black Studies program has already crumbled”(Drimmer 440). Harvard’s little success demonstrates that it is not the school’s excellence that matters but how well the program is able to accommodate with its surrounding. The program’s surrounding determines the level to which discussions lead as well as the students’ involvement in them.To help alleviate this issue, a unconditional positive regard environment will provide greater results than a tense enviroment, making students feel “free to try things out and make mistakes” (McLeod para 23). This can be seen in Crestwood high school’s Black Culture Reading Program that has brought immense progress. In just the first week the library reported a “circulation of 1,000 books on Black Culture; and interviews with 12 visitors from other schools and the public who were interested in a Black

therefore it cannot be totally revolved unless their mindset has changed. According to another research done in the past, in the 1880, fully 71 percent of all black male in the range of 10-14 were illiterate. Another problem of illiteracy rate among African-American is the low involvement of parent’s in their children success. Children of illiterate parents are more likely to drop –out of school and more likely to not be able to read or write if parents are not so involved in their lives. Many actions and efforts have been taken in place to improve illiteracy among blacks. Although nowadays, libraries have become associated with technology and non-print resources, scholars, teachers, librarians and other academics recognize the importance of

During the years of 1860-1877 sacred improvements brought about a transformation for blacks. The south was irritated at the Blacks since they had picked up their opportunity against the will of numerous southern white men. African American had their opportunity again at the same time, they needed to battle to pick up suffrage and social liberties. December 1865 imprints the most critical crossroads in history for all African American in the United States of America. Black people was free once more. They were free from bondage be that as it may, the excursion to discover their character and to get themselves were restricted. After subjugation African American were upbeat to be free in any case, they were all the while attempting to discover approaches to approaches to enhance their lives and to make life less demanding for their kids. Most African American still worked for the whites, the vast majority of them were poor and under educated. African American attempted in each and every approach to regard white southerner with the expectation that they would receive the same appreciation consequently and be dealt with similarly yet, history had taught us that African American needed to battle for all that they needed, have and seek. The African American have had a great deal of extraordinary leader who help fought for equality. Every generation and era in the mid 1910 to 1960 got change its own rights. Every leader fought for equality with enthusiasm, passion, love and dignity

Success comes easier to a student’s if they are in their comfort zone. students who feel at ease with their environment, have a higher tendency to achieve success in college, for example studies have shown that African American students that attend predominantly white universities are more likely to either have lower grade point averages or drop out at higher rates than their white counterparts and African Americans at historically black colleges. (Allen, Epps & Hanuf, 1991; Braddock & Dawkins 1981) This is a common example of how change could affect a student’s ambition unconsciously. Studies have shown that students who attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities are more likely to have higher self worth, positive self images, strong racial pride, and higher aspirations, opposite of black students on white campuses. This is true for almost all commonalities: race, gender, age, and even backgrounds. Students that feel more “at home” will more than likely receive higher grade point averages.

Now, there are several salient points that can be made about Symoné’s comments. Symoné’s concern with her inability to accurately trace her African roots is reminiscent of the Pan-Africanist point of view. In this interview, Raven is privileging the Pan- African point of view, deciding that her blackness cannot be validated unless she can show a clear connection to Africa. The Pan-Africanist point of view came about during the time of 18th century slave revolts and continued throughout the 19th century abolitionist movements and the rise of new antisystemic movements in the 1960s (Lao-Montes 311).