School equality: a black responsibility?

Boston Globe ^ | May 31, 2004 | Cathy Young

[Cincinatus' Wife]

White panelists talking to a mostly white audience about the need for the black community to fix its problems risk coming across as offensively patronizing. But the message of responsibility was most powerfully articulated by a black speaker, Vanderbilt University law professor Carol Swain.

Swain identified a number of cultural factors that may hold black students back, including "dysfunctional abusive homes," "lack of parental involvement in the schools," and "negative peer pressure about learning and about high achievement as evidence of one's `acting white.' " Better schools may provide some solutions, Swain said, but there must also be cultural change, and "middle-class minorities must take a leadership role in this area." On an even more controversial note, Swain identified affirmative action as currently practiced by universities -- lower admissions standards for blacks and Hispanics -- as part of the problem. These policies, she said, have "created a negative incentive structure for African-Americans who have either internalized societal messages about inferiority or have chosen an easier path of not exerting themselves too vigorously" since they don't have to meet higher standards.

Swain's message was made all the more powerful by her personal story as one of 12 children in a poor rural home in Virginia. None of her siblings finished high school. "I was by no means the smartest," said Swain. "By the grace of God, I was the one who managed to escape."

In a later e-mail exchange, I asked Swain if she was concerned about being used by conservatives who have their own agenda. "Do liberal blacks worry about being tokens for the status quo?" she replied. "I doubt it. I call things the way I see them."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

A cry in the black education wilderness

[risk]

bump

[Joe Boucher]

There are a whole lot of "black leaders, and civil rights champions that make large livings by making sure that there is a permanent lower class of blacks. Mr. Jackson.

The American govt. can and has given poor and blacks for decades to their detriment. Until and unless these people start doing for themselves and stop having children they can't afford we are just throwing good money after bad.

Take personal responsibility.

[hershey]

Wonderful post, all the more amazing that the Globe printed it. The fact is there are millions of black and Hispanic families who want their kids to succeed. Most have a single parent desperately trying to keep a roof over their heads. The witch's brew: Rebellion as a natural part of adolescence, kids' identifying with their peers, mostly in poor neighborhoods with no adults around to supervise behavior, PC/secular humanism, God and personal responsibility/morality/integrity removed from school and society, enshrined victimhood, and cultural/language divisions (thank you bilingual education), TV, movies all promoting the wrong message. Plus RATS who've kept poor black kids in what amounts to ghetto schools by stonewalling voucher plans. It's amazing kids succeed at all, minority or not. Parents who persevere in the face of all this deserve a sainthood badge.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Take personal responsibility.

God and personal responsibility/morality/integrity removed from school and society, enshrined victimhood, and cultural/language divisions (thank you bilingual education), TV, movies all promoting the wrong message.

Learning gives you freedom while ignorance enslaves you.

[shrinkermd]

"What's more, Thernstrom added, differences in socioeconomic status account for only about a third of this gap. The rest is due to a variety of cultural factors -- some of which can be overcome by a concerted effort to provide better schooling. Thernstrom cited exceptional inner-city charter schools that seek not only to educate children in a safe, orderly environment but also, unabashedly, to impart "middle-class" cultural values such as discipline and responsibility."

I suppose it makes no difference but in ordinary, middle class families socioeconomic success is found to be 25% differences between families and 75% within families. In addition, rather small differences in "g" result in big differences in any number of outcomes including social class, health and so forth. Indeed there was a recent article in Forbesthat documented the difference in health outcomes between SES is really a divergence in intelligence and willingness to follow directions not a lack of opportunity for health care.

Looked at dispassionately, 100 years of IQ research also answers much of disparity issues in academic and economic achievement.

[risk]

Looked at dispassionately, 100 years of IQ research also answers much of disparity issues in academic and economic achievement.

I know of no physiological evidence to suggest differences in raw potential between the races. If anything, Stephen Wells' genetic geography research (and others) show that the outward differences among the races are quite superficial, and take relatively few generations to become visible. So it's not useful to talk about measured IQ in terms of understanding why there's a disparity in income, health, and other outputs. We're talking about culture. And in terms of IQ, tests are inherently cultural. Under those circumstances, these self-criticisms are on track for moving black culture in the right direction. In the long run, we'll end up with a synthesis of Anglo-Saxon and African American culture; we'll have the proverbial best of both worlds.

My conclusion is that culture is much more interesting than we've been led to believe by the cultural relativists. Western civilization is more advantageous than the average linguistics professor would like to admit.

[mhking]

Swain identified affirmative action as currently practiced by universities -- lower admissions standards for blacks and Hispanics -- as part of the problem. These policies, she said, have "created a negative incentive structure for African-Americans who have either internalized societal messages about inferiority or have chosen an easier path of not exerting themselves too vigorously" since they don't have to meet higher standards.

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[shrinkermd]

I am sorry you believe and feel as you do. There is no question that "g" predicts academic success. It also varies according to race with the average IQ of Jews and Asians being higher than Europeans and all being higher than Hispanics and African Americans.

I realize anyone who thus quotes the literature is considered by some such as yourself as bigoted and prejudiced. This is unfortunate. The problems are real and are not going away by blaming others.

Please see The Bell Curveby Herrnstein and Murray (1994)as well as the editorial published shortly after this in the WSJ signed by 200+ leading academic psychologists defending the assertions in this book. The only people of repute differing with this position are in the modern language or sociology departments of major universities. Postmodernism decrees notwithstanding intelligence is a crucial variable in understanding societal failure and problems.

[risk]

No no, you've got me wrong. I just don't draw the same conclusions from the literature as you do. I see IQ as a raw output. Its inputs include culture and physiology. Does the Bell Curve address physiology at all? How does it treat the issue of culture? In other words, does it follow any twins that were adopted by different families? For example, what happens when a Jewish family adopts a black child at infancy?

[Smartaleck]

First Bill Cosby, now this lady. Maybe some are catching on?

[shrinkermd]

Your questions are good ones, but the biggest argument that "g" is a biological finding is that it correlates well with tests using evoked potentials (no psychological variable needed) and general response time. Some entreprenurial type made an "IQ" tests requring only that one look at a red dot. Seemingly, this test should have been a success, but no one would buy it because most are touchy about "IQ." Tom Wolfe wrote about this in, I believe, Hooking Up.

If "g" correlates about.70, then the inheritance factor is about .50. Also, remember that the .50 is a group statistic meaning that one does not inherit 50% of his potential IQ, but, rather, 50% of the variablity in "g" is due to genetic inheritance. In other words, for some the inheritance could be 0 and for others 100% but in toto on a group basis it would come to 50%.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maybe some are catching on?

There are a lot who voice this opinion. I've linked many articles at the LINK in Post #1.

[risk]

Another study I think would be useful is to compare groups of people from several races who have already tested at a certain superior IQ to find out how they aquired it.

In any case, why discourage people with theoretical data that in no way eliminates culture? You absolutely must eliminate culture from any research that tries to show that there are physiological differences, otherwise you're wasting everyone's time.

In the long run, it's each indvidual's potential and his will to accomplish it that matters.

[PallMal]

In a later e-mail exchange, I asked Swain if she was concerned about being used by conservatives who have their own agenda

I don't get it. Can someone tell me what this "conservative agenda" is supposed to be? I heard the same thing stated concerning Bill Cosby, i.e. his words serve the "right-wing agenda", now it's here too.

Why not ask about the "left-wing" agenda? It's the left who has controlled the black communities, not the right. It's the left who have stood by and have these problems proliferate, not the right.

[lonestar]

Walmart would be a good place to study differences between the races--obese, lazy Whites and Blacks riding electrical carts to shop for their latest hoard of junk foods.

If ever there was a level playing field, that's it! Walmart!

[risk]

Elite researchers don't want to work in Walmarts, though. They prefer steel and glass towers with A/C and giant LCD computer screens with ultra high-speed network connections and the latest electronic toys.

[reg45]

Maybe she (Carol Swain) should go on tour with Bill Cosby!

[gitmo]

The fact is there are millions of black and Hispanic families who want their kids to succeed. Most have a single parent desperately trying to keep a roof over their heads.

Are most of the hispanic families in the US single parents? That doesn't appear to be the case here in NC. (You don't identify your home state in your ABOUT page.)

It looks to me like there is a distinct difference in the black and Mexican cultures. If the cause-and-effect patterns we are discussing are true, I think we will quickly see the hispanic populations surpassing the black populations in the social, education, and economic spheres.