::::::::
A conversation between a single mother and her black son. The date is January 10, 2025.
Colin: Mom, I’ve about finished my applications to Morehouse and Howard but I’m really worried that I might not get in.
Mom: Listen Colin, we’ve been through all this. You’ve got nearly perfect SATs. You’ve never gotten a “B”. Your extracurricular activities are out of this world. If you’re really worried, add another Ivy as a backup.
Colin: Thanks, mom. I’m just so discouraged because it’s so darned unfair that all the good schools hold places now for white boys.
Mom: We’ve talked about that too, son. It’s called affirmative action and long before they had it for whites, they used it to promote blacks.
Colin: No, mom, that’s not really true. We learned about that in history class. With the old affirmative action you had whites that started off in advantaged positions. Then there were spots reserved for sons and daughters of all the people who had gone to the college, legacies they were called. Of course, all the legacy spots were filled by whites anyway since it was their forebears who had been at the colleges. Then they had other white affirmative action for rich kids whose families they hoped might donate buildings. Professors’ kids, white again, usually, got breaks. And there were a whole slew of bogus sports like lacrosse, crew, and squash that only white kids played, so they got special attention there too. Some black kids got in but by and large most of those affirmative action spots were taken by whites.
Mom: Well, honey, you’re probably right, but that doesn’t change the fact that those white boys need breaks now. You know there was a time when black people were down and out. Then those black psychologists, Kenneth and Mamie Clark, did that doll experiment and showed that even little black children preferred playing with white dolls instead of black dolls. Then Thurgood Marshall used that experiment to help convince the Supreme Court to integrate the schools.
Colin: Yeah, I know mom. And I wish they had never been integrated. You know in Condi’s class now the teacher puts at least one white boy at all the tables when they do cooperative learning so he won’t feel stupid.
Mom: Now Colin. You know what former President Obama said in his famous “not on my watch” speech. “Not on my watch will we go back to a segregated society where we assume one race is inferior to another.” Those boys aren’t stupid. They just don’t have all the kinds of role models you’ve had. It was for that reason that President Obama promoted not just obviously capable blacks and women, but some less qualified white men too. There’s something else too, Colin. Another black psychologist, Claude Steele, began some work at the end of the last century on something he called stereotype threat. He found that when certain stereotypes were activated before kids took a test, the kids performed worse, probably because they were trying too hard not to conform to that stereotype. That’s one of the reasons why for many years there was such a large achievement gap between the races in the schools. Black kids, believe it or not, thought they weren’t as smart as white kids. All that began to change when President Obama was elected and black kids saw they could do anything white kids could do. Now, do you think that maybe those white boys lack the kinds of role models like former President Obama or Madame President Clinton?
Colin: I suppose that makes sense mom. After all, what kind of role models do those white boys have? Men that started wars and ruined economies. Anyway, if I have to go to Harvard or Yale I will. Oh, and mom, Condi and I already have our permission slips signed so we can miss school next week for your inauguration.
