bell hooks (Source: RGB Street Scholars Think Tank)

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I used a quote by Snoop Doggy Dog at the NYU conference on black cinema, that really meant a lot to me. He said, “I don’t rap. I just talk. I want to be able to relax and conversate with my people.” Are we, cultural workers situated in the academy, developing a jargon about cultural production that does not allow us to “conversate and cross” these very borders that we’re talking about how cool it would be to cross? If we don’t find a way to “conversate,” all we’re ever talking about is that those of us who have certain forms of class privilege can enter the low-down and dirty spaces and take what we want to get out of those spaces, and take our asses right back home.

–from “Bomb the Root: The bell hooks Interview,” Reposted on the Root.com

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Biographical Notes: Gloria Watkins (known professionally by her pen name, “bell hooks”), holds a B.A. from Stanford University (1973), an M.A. form the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. One of the most prolific and influential feminist scholars of the last 30 years, she has written and published more than 20 books and numerous articles related to Black feminism, cultural studies, and critical analysis.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

(Source: Smithsonian Institution Portraits of a City)

Kudos to TheRoot.com writer Latoya Peterson for an article that cuts through the much of the hype and spin around the “acting white” phenomenon that supposedly plagues America’s Black youth.

Peterson draws on important research and analysis by Roland J. Fryer to complicate and question the generalization that all Black and Latin American young people engage in the self-sabotaging behavior of labeling high academic achievers as traitors to their respective races.

Peterson argues that the emphasis on the myth that all Black and Latino/a youth believe that good grades and academic excellence constitute “acting white” has drawn valuable energy and resources away from addressing the issues that truly impact the achievement of marginalized youth.

You can find her article, “The Myth of ‘Acting White’ and the Achievement Gap,” at THIS LINK.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

“Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).

– from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

•Number of states in which 80 percent or more of all white students graduate from high school in the standard four-year period: 23
•Number of states in which 80 percent or more of all black students graduate from high school in the standard four-year period: 5 — Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, North Dakota, and Idaho
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of all black students enrolled in higher education in 1980 who were male: 43.8%
• Percentage of all black students enrolled in higher education in 2007 who were male: 35.2%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of white Americans who believe that blacks have an equal chance with whites to secure a good education: 80%
• Percentage of black Americans who believe that blacks have an equal chance with whites to secure a good education: 49%
(Gallup/USA Today poll)

• Percentage of white parents of preschool children in 2007 who believe that it is important to teach their children the alphabet: 66%
• Percentage of black parents of preschool children in 2007 who believe that it is important to teach their children the alphabet: 43%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of white parents of preschool children in 2007 who believe that it is important to teach their children about numbers: 62%
• Percentage of black parents of preschool children in 2007 who believe that it is important to teach their children about numbers: 43%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of white parents of preschool children in 2007 who read to their children every day: 67%
• Percentage of black parents of preschool children in 2007 who read to their children every day: 35%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Median earnings in 2006 of a white American aged 25 to 34 who held a master’s degree: $50,000
• Median earnings in 2006 of an African American aged 25 to 34 who held a master’s degree: $50,000
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of white parents whose children are enrolled in urban public schools who state that “race is not a factor in the success of children at my child’s school”: 71.8%
• Percentage of black parents whose children are enrolled in urban public schools who state that “race is not a factor in the success of children at my child’s school”: 72.8%
(National School Boards Association)

• Percentage of black public school students in the United States who attend school where 75 percent or more of all students are members of minority groups: 50.1%
• Percentage of white public school students in the United States who attend schools where 75 percent or more of all students are members of minority groups: 3.2%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Number of African Americans nationwide in 2004 who earned bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry: 67
• Number of African Americans in 2004 who earned bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry at the University of Maryland Baltimore County: 22
(University of Maryland Baltimore County)

• Median income of college-educated white women who worked full-time in 2005: $43,110
• Median income of college-educated African-American women who worked full-time in 2005: $45,273
(U.S. Census Bureau)

Posted by Ajuan Mance

(Source: Stanford Magazine)

Ernest Houston Johnson (bottom left), Stanford University’s first African American graduate, photographed with other members of the senior class intercollege football team. Johnson was a graduating member of the class of 1895. When he died of tuberculosis in 1898, he was buried with his Stanford diploma.

To learn more about his life and his legacy, follow THIS LINK.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

The following statistics, from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE), strongly indicate that in the very near future the color and gender of scholarship and leadership on U.S. college campuses and beyond in changing more rapidly than ever before in the history of the United States.

• Percentage of all African-American full professors in 2005 who were women: 36.2%
• Percentage of all African-American assistant professors in 2005 who were women: 54.9%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Number of master’s degrees awarded to blacks in 1990: 15,336
• Number of master’s degrees awarded to blacks in 2006: 58,976
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of all African Americans ages 18 to 24 who were enrolled in college in 1981: 19.9%
• Percentage of all African Americans ages 18 to 24 who were enrolled in college a quarter-century later in 2006: 32.6%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Male percentage of total enrollments at all of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities in 1980: 45.6%
• Male percentage of total enrollments at all of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities in 2005: 38.5%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of all master’s degrees awarded at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities in 2006 that were awarded to women: 72.5%
(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of white parents of fifth-grade students who report that their child does schoolwork at home five or more times per week: 44.7%
• Percentage of African-Americans parents of fifth-grade students who report that their child does schoolwork at home five or more times per week: 55.4%
(U.S. Department of Education)

Posted by Ajuan Mance

These institutions and their distinguished Black grads are the latest additions to my growing roster of Notable Black College Grads, listed alphabetically by college. If you know of anyone who you think I should include, contact me a blackoncampus@yahoo.com. Recognize any names from your college years?

Eastern Michigan University

Judge Mathis (Bachelors, 1983 — led the “Free South Africa” and voter registration campaigns on campus)

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Emory University

• Judge Glenda Hatchett (J.D.)
• Sanford Bishop, D-GA (J.D., 1971)

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Fisk University

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Florida A&M University (FAMU)

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Fordham University

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Fresno State University

• Lee Brown (B.S., Criminology, 1960)

<Posted by Ajuan Mance

Commencement day at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), 1917.

(Source: BlackPast.org)

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Just as each generation of teens and young adults needs to distance itself from the values and culture of the previous generation, so too does each generation of mature adults — 30-somethings, 40-somethings, and beyond — need to amass “factual” information to support its perception that today’s young people are dumber/lazier/more apathetic/less ambitious/less curious and generally worse (at everything)  than they were when they were young.

The latest round in this cycle has appeared in the form of a recently completed study described in U.S. News and World Report (USN) and other media outlets. In an article headlined “Today’s College Students More Likely to Lack Empathy: Generation Me’ Tends to Be Self-centered, Competitive, U.S. Research Shows,” USN quotes the University of Michigan’s Susan Konrath who explains, “College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait.” Konrath was the lead researcher in this study.

Her findings are based on a review of 30 years worth of scholarship on college students and empathy, which seems to be a broad enough scope for any study of changing attitudes; and yet I remain skeptical.

Aside from the existence of studies indicating that today’s students are “more globally aware” and “less materialistic” than previous generations of undergraduates (see The Chronicle of Higher Education), more willing to date other students of different races (see The Daily Orange), and more willing to date across religious lines than previous generations (see Knox, Zusman, and Daniels), my own observations as a person who has spent the last 26 years on college campuses is that today’s students are considerably more tolerant and even celebratory of all kinds of differences than they were in the mid-1980s. Maybe Konrath’s notion of empathy has nothing to do with students’ acceptance of racial, gender, class, and sexuality differences. Personally, I can imagine no greater test of empathy.

Or, maybe, the question of empathy is the wrong one to ask in the first place. Maybe today’s students are less empathetic and more self-centered than previous generations. But maybe students’ ability to walk in another students’ emotional shoes doesn’t matter in the way that Konrath and her colleagues assume it does. In terms of one’s ability to create community with others, to support social justice-based ideals, and to create a better world for all people, maybe today’s generation is able to be generous to others, to treat others equally and with respect whether they can imagine what things are like from their perspective (Konrath), or not.

In addition to embracing difference with greater ease than previous generations, today’s students are voting at a higher rate that students have in decades; and they are interested in and involved in social-justice-related activities at greater rates than their predecessors, as well. If this is self-centeredness, then bring it on!

Posted by Ajuan Mance

Statistics from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE):

• Percentage of African Americans over the age of 25 in 1940 who were high school graduates: 7.7%
• Percentage of African Americans over the age of 25 in 2009 who were high school graduates: 84.2%

(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of African Americans over the age of 25 in 1940 who held a four-year college degree: 1.3%
• Percentage of African Americans over the age of 25 in 2009 who held a four-year college degree: 19.4%

(U.S. Department of Education)

• Number of African Americans enrolled in degree granting educational institutions in 1990: 1,247,000
• Number of African Americans enrolled in degree granting educational institutions in 2008: 2,584,500

(U.S. Department of Education)

• Black percentage of all students enrolled in degree granting educational institutions in 1990: 9.0%
• Black percentage of all students enrolled in degree granting educational institutions in 2008: 13.5%

(U.S. Department of Education)

• Percentage of whites who earned doctorates in 2008 who had a father who was a college graduate: 63.4%
• Percentage of African Americans who earned doctorates in 2008 who had a father who was a college graduate: 33.4%

(National Science Foundation)

• Percentage of white Americans who earned doctoral degrees in 2008 who had a mother who was a college graduate: 54.5%
• Percentage of African Americans who earned doctoral degrees in 2008 who had a father who was a college graduate: 37.2%

(National Science Foundation)

I am especially heartened by the comparisons between the percentage of white earned doctorates whose parents graduated from college and Black earned doctorates whose parents graduated from college. These numbers indicate that family education history is not destiny for U.S. Blacks. Indeed, it never has been. Denied access to most colleges and universities until the rise of HBCUs during the Reconstruction era, Black college students at all levels are usually the first-generation in their families to enroll in degree programs. The challenge for post-secondary institutions of all types is to provide the necessary mentoring for Black student to succeed regardless of family background. Even in the absence of such support, Black students have somehow seen their way to achieving degrees from the A.A. to the Ph.D., and in steadily increasing numbers; and yet those numbers could be better, the graduation rates and G.P.A.s higher, and the years to degree shorter for African American students from all backgrounds. As colleges and universities become more effective at helping students of all classes and races reach their peak potential, we will likely see African Americans join the ranks of many other U.S. ethnic groups in making up a disproportionate number of U.S. college grads. I look forward to that day.

Posted by Ajuan Mance