The first gap is the gap between black and white children in school achievement, covered here. (I’ll likely make a pdf of it and try to remember to include it later because the link will likely dissolve within a week or two.)
The second is the earning gap between men and women covered here.
Both gaps are serious. The first gap is persistent, going back as long as data has been collected. The second is relatively recent, and is the direct result of the removal of formal and informal structures of patriarchy.
There are a couple of things that bear understanding here. The first is that these dynamics are related, but one wouldn’t really know from reading these or most other articles. I am not sure because I haven’t seen the data, but I am no longer sure that what we are looking at is a black-white achievement gap as much as we are looking at a black male-every other demographic achievement gap. The gender components of this issue are absolutely absent in favor of discussing “the racial interest.”
Similarly the dynamic that the NYT is tracing has long been the case in black communities. And I’ve written about this before. Baltimore’s top four political positions are all held by black women. Part of this is the excellent job black women have done organizing and being in networks that are easily used for the purpose of organizing. Part of this is that black men aren’t in the same corridors of power. While this story is meant to be frivolous (note that it’s in the fashion section)m, the ramifications are serious. This society is structured in such a way that it shouldn’t necessarily matter whether men or women run the show as far as the function of duties are concerned. But neither our religious institutions, our homes, our military, our businesses (our childbearing policies assume a male breadwinner), nor (interestingly enough given the article above) our schools, have prepared us for the new reality.
The second is that neither article deals with either class or politics in any depth. The differences between professional parents and welfare parents is presented as being purely cultural in the education article–as if the only real difference between a single mother working two jobs and that of a lawyer/doctor combo is the amount of words they use around their children. Note also the standard paean to black self-help (“our parents don’t seem to value education as much as [insert ethnic group here]”) that likely goes back to romantic notions of the “benefits of segregation.” Women aren’t succeeding in the workplace because of genetics or their culture–arguments that were used years ago to explain male success in fields like engineering and math. They are succeeding because of openings made possible by political organizing.
The study of these gaps bears watching because they reveal a great deal about contemporary hegemony.
The interesting question about the gender gap they’re showing is whether it’s permanent. That is, will these 20-somethings always be ahead of their male counterparts financially, or is this transitory, and the guys will catch up in their 40s or something? I haven’t tried to look at the data here, but it’s kind-of hard for me to see how that catching-up would work.
I’m also curious about the causes here. I have this vague idea that as our society has become more into credentials and more bureaucratic, people who have an easier time following arbitrary rules, coloring inside the lines, etc., seem to do better. Maybe this is harder on men than women, harder on blacks than whites, harder on lower-class people than middle-class, etc. (Or maybe this is a just-so story, and the real causes have nothing to do with this.)
You sure picked a subject close to home. I live in a black residential section of Baltimore County and I’m struck by the fact that the quality of my local public school is not commensurate to the private affluence of the surrounding neighborhood. This is a topic in which it’s all too easy to get stuck between denial and accusation.
When the local middle school was pronounced as deficient and parents were provided a forum to hear about available options, I was keenly sensitive to the divergence between the accessories of wealth such as hairstyles, clothing and late model sedans and SUVs driven by the parents and the inadequate education delivered to the children. The news coverage depicted articulate, hard working, concerned parents justly outraged at the prospect of having to bus their kids one hour away to a school near the Pennsylvania border. How can all these legit people arrive at such a sad end?
At its best, the black power movement practiced moral rectitude while advocating for social justice. I’m not discountng hegemonic influences on schools. All too often black boys have to endure emotional castration or be signified. But parents have abdicated their responsibility to the schools. By aiming the focus at outcome rather than process we settle for academic proficiency rather than developing tools that kids will need to be moral, tolerant and engaged citizens.
When I talk to other parents who have the luxury of time and money I realize how parochial they are. They’ll take their kids to see The Tansformers but not a production of The Nutcracker at the BSO. When I go to cultural events Blacks are just not present in significant numbers. How can you live in Baltimore and never visit Annapolis or DC? Even turnout for events sponsored by Morgan State and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum aren’t what they could be.
The kids adopt parental attitudes and don’t accept ownership of their education. And the introduction of computer games circumscibes the kids even more. I grew up in New York City. I never went camping or fishing; I’d been to the beach twice before going off to college and never learned how to swim. But when I had my daughter I made it a point to go out and take her for new experiences. I’m not an outdoorsman but I hope going on an overnight camping trip or learning how to skate or ride a horse will give my daughter confidence to meet new challenges and overcome natural fears. And you’d be surprised to learn that a lot of stuff is free or cheaper than the cost of movie tickets and popcorn.
Finally test scores don’t need to define us. Since the 1950’s when the Soviets beat the US in the space race, Americans have always scored lower than other industrial powers on academic tests. Nevertheless, our capacity for innovation in technology and cultural production and wealth creation remains unsurpassed. While competency is important it doesn’t determine success.
With respect to the so-called achievement gap, I have always been concerned about two things: comparisons of wealth along a “black/white” axis (not income) AND comparisons of the academic majors of parents.
The true legacy of slavery, colonialism and ghettoization has been to induce an extreme security crisis on Africans while REMOVING us from those critical academic disciplines which inhere to the nation-building/global leadership enterprise.
More to the point, I don’t expect a generation of children whose parents have higher than average INCOMES, but limited WEALTH — AND — whose academic majors are mostly qualitative (god forbid we’re talking education or sociology) to have an academic performance that tracks closely to students whose parents have accumulated wealth (usually on an intergenerational basis) and whose academic backgrounds are more quantitative and oriented toward the critical tasks of nation-building and global leadership.
Frankly, comparisons of income and parental education level are scratching the surface and hardly provide useful information for a poorly studied area.
Afta while, shit gits annoyin’ – ya dig.
There are two real-world applications of concern – one anecdotal, one empirical. Anecdotal first: In New York City, Black children are NOT educated in schools with MATH or SCIENCE labs at the middle school level. Even charter schools which are able to sock away as much as $2 million in cash (that’s right – 2 miyun!) do not have science and math labs of any consequence.
Public schools in wealthy, majority white districts do. Period.
Empirical…Poor students in high-need districts are 30 times more likely to be taught by a non “highly qualified teacher” in science than students in low-need districts. 30 times…not twice…30 times.
It is almost a certainty that Black students in New York City, with all the big budgets and rhetoric about funding equity will NOT learn the critical science and math skills from a solid teacher during middle school or high school – and if they don’t do that…they’re preparing to be employees – wage slaves if you prefer.
Hey Lester.
Just wanted to peek in and give you a shout. Good to read and hear you again. I’ve been outta commission for the past few weeks (nothing serious, just life and re-tooling) but I hope to be up to speed again soon.
Easy.
Temple, I feel you. The difference in wealth is certainly a factor but I wonder if that also applies to immigrants. Another thing is that I’m not sure that the ‘gap’ adequately tells the whole story. According to a footnote in The Shape of the River by Derek Bok, Martin Luther King, the greatest American orator of the 20th Century, had a quite mediocre verbal score on his graduate school entrance exam. Ability and skill may not be reflected in test scores. And because of stereotype threat talented blacks may be particularly prone to underperforming on high stakes tests. Rather than the relentless focus on test scores I would look to parental and student satisfaction with the school. If attendance, graduation rates and the numbers going on to college are high then I’m not all that concerned about the gap. My focus is directed at highly functoning folks similar to the visitors of this blog who live in secure middle class black communities that are underserved by local public schools and can’t, don’t or won’t do what their white counterparts do in their communities. Jonathan Kozol has detailed how parents in white schools have created ‘mandatory’ donations to hire extra teachers or provide enrichment courses in the arts. Why aren’t middle and upper income blacks in Baltimore County doing this?
“The gender components of this issue are absolutely absent in favor of discussing ‘the racial interest.'”
I don’t understand that sentence. Could you break it down for me a bit?
Temple3…
“Black children are NOT educated in schools with MATH…”
Funny I had a discussion about this yesterday.
As you know, I’m a former South Bronx Middle School teacher who taught math (algebra) to special ed kids despite the opposition of the school administration.
I’ve come to the following conclusion.
The deliberate failure to teach math and the obfuscation of math via the language of math is a deliberate policy to keep black children from thinking LOGICALLY.
Math is actually the simplest subject on the planet. It also is the only one which is both impervious to racism and the gate way to liberating thinking.
Once you can think in mathematical terms, you can figure out anything.
No question.
I’ve maintained that as a people, we need to do three things – be better at math than other groups; be better at science than other groups; live/learn/love/invest in our culture…
And everything else will take care of itself. No people can hope to sustain wealth, health or power without establishing a dominant position in math, science and culture.
Miseducators know the importance of keeping Black children and their parents focused on read herrings. One of the bigger red herrings now is the focus on literacy. Schools are acting as if it takes children years and years to learn how to read – but not a single school that I’ve been in gives children dictionaries or focuses on vocabulary and grammar.
They have kids reading bullshit books provided by bullshit white-owned education firms. Those firms are peddling products which, when subjected to scrutiny, do not positively correlate to reading – let alone accelerated comprehension. Schools are making children stupid by dragging shit out that should take a third of the time.
All their doing is reading, reading, reading, reading…and still writing and comprehension are in the basement. Children have no command of the language because they are not being taught to master the language. You will NOT master English without a dictionary and a command of grammar. Also, from a developmental standpoint, I’d prefer their thought processes flowed from math and science rather than English. This language, in many respects, is counter-intuitive and bass-ackwards – and that holds for all so-called Indo-European languages…but that’s another topic for another time.
In the article I cited there is no discussion of how black boys are really at the low end of the totem pole. I haven’t seen all of the data, but I’m pretty sure that this isn’t a “black” issue as much as it is a “black male” issue. Specificity is important for theoretical and practical reasons.
And your conclusion is on point.
From my observations, as early as kindergarten, many teachers demonstrate a deep and pervasive fear of Black boys. As such, all manner of “behavioral interventions” are utilized to encourage Black boys to approximate the behaviors of white women.
This should be fairly obvious. The effects, of course, are damaging. For example, in a class of 20 or 25 students, teachers may be sure to set aside one table for four or five of the most normal Black boys – the ones with energy, vitality and enthusiasm which far exceeds the sterile environs of the building. Those boys are tabbed as behavioral problems. In fact, it’s the teacher and the principal with the behavioral problem. They’re seeking to graft a prison-industrial-niggerfication curriculum down the throats of children who intuitively reject it for the bullshit it is.
Detention, time outs, trips to the principals office, etc., etc. Social control and slave-making gets subsidized by public funds; endorsed by the teachers union; and enthroned by the Democrats. It’s a nasty business. Black parents don’t know the half…
And I haven’t even BEGUN to talk about the fiscal side of education. Grimy, grimy, grimy.
From the Archives: Two critical gaps http://t.co/FgzEhl1G