...subtitled "Why Conservative White Guys Should Not Write About Race." It doesn't strike me like they care enough to get it right.
This is what shows up in the old aggregator:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Computing the Cost of 'Acting White'
At integrated public schools, minority students with higher grades end up with fewer friends.
So I peek behind the NY Times financial firewall to see an editorial that opens so:
Computing the Cost of 'Acting White'
By JOHN TIERNEYRoland Fryer, a Harvard economist, has done a couple of very clever things. First he devised a mathematical technique for identifying the coolest kids in school. Then he came up with a surprising answer to a tougher question: If a black student does well in school, will his black friends shun him and accuse him of "acting white"?
Yup. Roland Fryer. We have discussed this particular nonsense already. Discussed why the "acting white" termnology is problematic at best. But if Mr. Tierney had actually read and understood the paper, he might have noticed something that would make him more hesistant to raise the spectre of "acting white":
But I think that the really interesting finding, which was hardly discussed at all, is that at private schools the most popular white students have a GPA of 2.0, and as GPA increases above 2.0 popularity drops.
That's right. Rich white kids don't want to "act white." Rich white kids lose friends as they succeed in school.
Kinda reminds you of Ogbu, don't it? It should...though people will try to explain it differently, it's the same result he noted in Shaker Heights, CA. And it actually has the same reason, to wit:
(he's baaaaaaaack...)
Consider this: what does social mobility mean when you're already at the top? And would your average teenager feel they have secure or insecure relations with the (for want of a better term) power structure?
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Hi Prom,Speaking as someone
Hi Prom,
Speaking as someone who has actually taught children in these comparative demographics I have to say that while anti-intellectuallism as a social value occurs in adolescents across the spectrum some groups can better afford to indulge in this self-destructive behavior than others.
Rich white kids who want to wear baggy pants and talk like gangster rappers and earn F's and D's are at the end of the day, still rich white kids. Perhaps their screwing around in High School means they go to Notre Dame or Tulane instead of Yale or Columbia. A bright black child attending Simeon or King High School in Chicago who affects undesirable behaviors in order to " be cool" doesn't have this sort of safety net luxury.
Because he insists on NOT
Because he insists on NOT changing the name fro "Anonymous," I will point out the above comes from Mark Safranski of Zenpundit, the guy that is supposed to annoy me but somehow never does.
Correct.
I have no intention of downplaying the silliness of the response. I just need to point out that
what does social mobility
maximizing top-shelf sexual access...,
judging from the intercepted streams of my 11 year old's unencrypted text messaging, it starts in earnest in the 6th grade and is principally mediated by female valuations...,
my homeboy is a network guru and he jacks all incoming and outgoing communications and the shit becomes vastly more nuanced and fascinating by the age of 15 when the social arms race is truly on in earnest...,
academics and columnists got nothing on middle-aged hackers when it comes to solving the enigmas of 21st century parenting
There are a whole host of
There are a whole host of problems inherrent in the assumptions of Fryer's work. I would argue that "popularity" isn't so much the issue as it is racial identity. To what do students attribute their academic achievement behaviors?
Further, I would argue that the whole issue of "popularity" needs to be examined. I went to a predominantly White high school when I was teenager and while I didn't have a whole lot of friends (and I had a SPECTACULAR falling out with a lot of my peers when there was side talk about me of getting into UC Berkeley because of affirmative action), the key for me is if I had a handful of close friends. I didn't want to be POPULAR as much as I wanted a few close friends.
I think there is research out there that the main thing that's important to young kids is that they have at least one close friend. If they don't have that, they feel isolated and alone and can suffer from problems. Peer pressure does have significance, but individuals respond to peer pressure in different ways depending on their racial identities, personality types, and locus of control.
Of couse, Fryer doesn't account for the affect that teachers or school structures have on African American student performance.
African Americans have had an achievement orientation since slavery. This is documented. Racist school structures are the main culprit in this whole "acting White" bullshit.