Just last week I was talking to a girl who is a senior in high school and making plans for college. She wanted to talk because she was scared that maybe she wasn't cut out for college and that she wouldn't make it since she's 'not smart like the whites and asians.' (She is Pacific Islander. and she is plenty smart.) This broke my heart. We are surrounded with these messages...
Can you point to those messages and tell us where they are coming from? Are they from outside the community or from inside it? It seems like an assumption that she has to have been given a message and couldn't reach a conclusion on her own. Other kids are scared that they may not be cut out for college and that they may not be as smart of theother kids but just don't frame things into racial groups - is it possible that there is no message other than she see's her world through skin color?
Told that golf was a test of 'natural athletic ablity' white golfers golfed much worse than when they were told nothing, but this did not happen for African American golfers. Told that golf was a test of "sports strategic intellegence" the African American golfers golfed much worse than when told nothing at all, but this did not happen for the white students. When the stereotype was indirectly suggested, the golfers unconsciously confirmed the stereotype.
That shows people perform worse when they think they are being evaluated on something they believe they are less well suited for. It's interesting but I'm not sure exactly what point is that you are trying to make from it. There are lots of studies of people that have shown people change behavior when being studied.
All this discussion seems to focus on the belief that "no one has ever had it as bad as african americans". No wonder people have no belief.
Wouldn't it be better to say "you know what? some other people had it bad too at different times and for different reasons - but they transformed their lives and we can too!".
It seems almost a competition to have "suffered the most". Isn't that a psychological effect that can have an impact on people's lives or does that not count?
Try and have a discussion about how to make a metter future for black kids and it always ends up with a debate about the past. Maybe that is part of the problem? You don't have to win the "worst past olympics". At some point it goes beyond having a sense of history and drawing a determination from the past and becomes almost reliving or wallowing in it which I'm sure studies will show is not good.
The message from the civil rights era was being able to overcome adversity and move forward. That seems to have given way to a negative view that is always looking backwards.
