I can't speak for all situations that face black parents and students. But, there are times when black students who excel at school are picked on or called "white" which can be very hurtful. There is some weird kind of pressure that comes with being smart. As parents we really have to make sure that we stress the importance of education to our young people and make sure we talk about the pressure of having to fit in. It is a shame that when we have so many obstacles to overcome, that one of them would be our own mindset.
Well, let's be brutally honest here. The last ten times or so that I heard the "N" word, about 9 of those times, it came out of the mouth of a person of color.
(True, Chris Rock makes up about 3 of those, but the point remains...)
I overheard a conversation once that really made an impression on me. Two young black women were sitting near me in a restaurant/pub and Tiger Woods picture came on the television. For more than 15 minutes they carried on saying things like "I hate him" "I can't stand to look at him" "He is so disgusting", etc. They never said why, only that he was a horrible person. It was puzzling because these young women were otherwise very articulate. They were students at an un-named law school in Massachusetts (one that considers itself the best law school in the world) and obviously had to be very smart and accomplished to go there.