Now when you consider that these are the kids of some of the most economically fortunate Black folks in America, you can see how these folks might be a bit worried. I mean, even here in the inner city of Oakland, California, the numbers don't come out as stark as those. And Shaker Heights is where the Black folks from Cleveland who have "made it" hang their degrees and potted plants. There is something very wrong with this picture...

Shaker Heights school administrators are, understandably, very concerned with this phenomenon. But, according to the Washington Post story, it has also gained the attention of academic researchers from Harvard University to the University of California at Berkeley. All of this scrutiny and surveying has led these folks to two very interesting explanatory conclusions which are worth us considering here.

1. Educational underachievement among African American students may be, in part, the result of peer pressure, and
2. because of the history of racial discrimination in American society, African American students are less likely to see an unopposed link between academic achievement and the potential for success.

If true, or even partiallly true, this is very heavy stuff.

And Shaker Heights, a community which invests $10,000 per student in its educational system --- approximately twice as much as most school districts --- is certainly a good place to look for proofs of these two theories.

Let's take them one at a time.

Like most African Americans, I can certainly understand the desire to be able to hang with your crew. Growing up, the formation of identity is one of the most important experiences one undergoes. The need to fit in with ones peer group and be esteemed by them is central to the adolescent experience. If, as the Washington Post story suggests, Black students who choose to please their parents by working hard in school are ridiculed and ostracized by their peers as sell-outs, trying to please the White-society oriented teachers and counselors, and are castigated therefore as "Oreos,"["Black on the outside, white on the inside"] a disincentive for education exists. At fifteen or sixteen it is always more important to please your crew than the old fogies and your parents.

But secondly, if we as a society are sending a message to these young people that discrimination invalidates any educational merits they may have, then institutional racism has been a successful policy.

The Post story quotes John Ogbu, a UC Berkeley anthropolgist, as suspecting as much. If our students believe this double-standard in the "American Dream" will continue to exist --- as the Shaker Heights phenomenon seems to point out --- then much of the talk about eliminating policies like Affirmative Action must also resonate negatively with them.