A well-documented cause of underachievement in black students is the “acting white” phenomenon. Black students who excel at academics are considered to be traitors who are trying to “act white”. I’ve witnessed this first-hand multiple times, and it’s a real tragedy.
Interestingly, the evidence shows that this phenomenon started right when black separatism began to take hold. Prior to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers, black educational achievement was lauded by other blacks. As separatism took hold, educational achievement soon became identified with “being white”. In my experience, this antipathy towards education was not official, since children I knew of committed “Nation of Islam” (Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan’s organization) members would often be high achievers. Unfortunately, the separatism was interpreted by the common man as an antipathy towards intellectual achievement.
In reading Bobby Seale’s “A Lonely Rage” many years ago, I was struck by the parallels to American Fundamentalist separatism. But the leaders of Young Earth Creationism are even more damnable than the leaders of Nation of Islam, IMO. They officially preach an anti-intellectual and anti-science agenda, and smear anyone who dares to attain scientific achievement. If you study evolutionary biology, geology, or astrophysics, you are a traitor to fundamentalism, and guilty of trying to “act scientific”. Considering that fundamentalism began it’s existence in a commitment to Scottish Common Sense Realism and Baconian empiricism, the current climate is especially tragic. Separatism becomes idolatry, and when this idolatry is officially endorsed by the leaders, it is shameful indeed.
No Comments