Chapter 5: Brown, Political Economy, and the Scientific Education of African Americans

Abstract

Comparing them [Blacks] by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me, that in memory they are equal to the whites; in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous. It would be unfair to follow them to Africa for this investigation. We will consider them here, on the same stage with the whites, and where the facts are not apocryphal on which a judgment is to be formed. It will be right to make great allowances for the difference of condition, of education, of conversation, of the sphere in which they move. (Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia)I am happy to be able to inform you that we have now in the United States a Negro, the son of a black man born in Africa, and a black woman born in the United States, who is a very respectable mathematician [Benjamin Banneker]. I procured him to be employed under one of our chief directors in laying out the new federal city on the Potowmac, & in the intervals of his leisure, while on that work, he made an Almanac for the next year . . . I have seen very elegant solutions of Geometrical problems by him. Add to this that he is a very worthy & respectable member of society. He is a free man. I shall be delighted to see these instances of moral eminence so multiplied as to prove that the want of talents observed in them is merely the effect of their degraded condition, and not proceeding from any difference in the structure of the parts on which intellect depends.

A Longitudinal Examination of African American Adolescents’ Attributions About Achievement Outcomes

“…A great deal of research has distinguished science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academic domains from language arts (reading, writing) domains. Group differences in performance in STEM fields have become of interest as ethnic minority and female students tend to underperform in these areas, are less likely to enroll in advanced STEM courses, and are less likely to declare majors in STEM fields relative to their White American and male counterparts (Hoffman, Llagas, & Snyder, 2003; National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2008; Tate, 2004).…”

Ethnicity, self-concept, and school belonging: effects on school engagement

“…Researchers have examined various structural, social, cultural, and psychological reasons for the consistent gap in academic achievement between African-American and CaucasianAmerican students (Chavous et al 2003;Duncan and Magnuson 2005;Ford 1996;Mullis et al 1993;Mullis, Dossey, Owen, & Phillips 1993as cited in Smerdon 1999NAEP 2008;Tate 2004). Even though African-American students start school with test scores close to those of their Caucasian-American peers, the gap between these two groups widens over the course of the school years (National Center for Education Statistics as cited in van Laar 2000).…”

Parent(s): The Biggest Influence in the Education of African American Football Student-Athletes

“…Interest-convergence is an analytical construct of critical race theory (CRT) that explains the political economics of race in America (Bell, 1992(Bell, [1980(Bell, ), 1987Delgado and Stefancic, 2005;Tate, 2005). Premised on a racial group,s "legal history,» interest-convergence describes the tensions between legal * The 2005 graduation rates as re ported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) supports this.…”