Educators aim to better understand black youths

Thursday, Aug. 17, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

Mike Maxwell recently surveyed a small group of black males between the ages of 11 and 15, with questions such as, "How does a black person act white?" and, "How does a person act black?"

The answers upset him, says Maxwell, assistant middle school principal at Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.

Among the answers: "Having good pronunciation, being intelligent and careful about mannerisms was acting white."

"And I have good pronunciation!" adds Maxwell, who is black.

He thinks there may be something to the idea that black youths link academic success to being white, and that it may be one reason many don't do well in school, or drop out.

A book Maxwell read, "To Be Popular or Smart: The Black Peer Group," makes such a claim. And the survey he conducted came from the book, self-published and written by Jawanza Kunjufu. Maxwell got Roy Parker, principal for kindergarten through eighth grades, to read the book as well.

The book is not without its critics. Several academics have debunked its central thesis, with studies that show most youths - not just black - are more interested in their social milieu than in getting good grades.

More than one also questioned Kunjufu, who has a self-made business, African American Images, with more than 20 books and a busy schedule of speeches based on the books - but with little to no research.

Still, the two local charter school administrators want their staff to read the book as part of getting ready for the upcoming school year. September begins with the school's highest enrollment since opening in 2001: 530 students, about 95 percent of them black, Parker says.

According to Kunjufu, "the phenomenon of peer pressure and its impact on academic achievement has reached catastrophic proportions. It has now reached a point that to do well academically in school is to act white and risk being called a nerd or a brainiac."

Maxwell says that he saw this phenomenon growing up and has seen it as a teacher. "I remember (black) kids saying to each other, 'Why are you so white?' " he says.

Parker, who is white, says that he read the book "wanting to understand why school hasn't been a priority for some African-American kids."

Parker, starting his second year at the school, says that 65 percent of his students come from families with only one biological parent in the home. About 80 percent come from the neighborhood surrounding the school's West Lake Mead Boulevard and J Street address, which Parker says has one of the valley's lowest levels of income. Also, blacks in the Clark County School District do worse than whites on math and English tests, he says.

All this adds up to what he calls "swimming upstream" when it comes to his school's primary goal: giving minority children an education that will motivate them to go on to college.

Some experts say the thesis behind Kunjufu's book may be flawed.

Black peer groups linking academic success to being white "is a popular culture belief that I'm not sure is backed up by research," says Rainier Spencer, director of the African-American studies program at UNLV. "I would be cautious about basing something on false premises."

Another of the book's points - that black children should be taught about the greatness of ancient Egyptian culture as part of their own history - is not completely upheld by contemporary research on race, Spencer says.

William Darity, professor of African-American studies at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, has studied peer pressure in schools. He concludes that "there is peer pressure not to do well at all levels (and) kids, regardless of race, get called nerds or geeks."

He says that blacks get labeled "race traitors" when they take the most challenging courses and are grossly underrepresented in them. It "breeds animosity and resentment among the many toward the privileged few."

"I don't believe it's a cultural attitude," Darity concludes.

Exposing teachers and administrators to that claim, and not research showing the contrary view, could be a problem, he says: "If it's taken seriously, it could lead to a misdiagnosis."

Agassi's Maxwell says he's not married to the book or its central idea, and instead wants to "begin the conversation" among his colleagues about the issues his students may be facing.

"Here's a premise," he says. "Let's throw it back and forth. In most places, there isn't even a conversation about this."