Race and the Schooling of Black Americans by Claude Steele

During the civil rights movement there was a lot of change socially in America. Schools were being integrated at a time where African Americans were discriminated against. One famous case of integration in a school was the integration of Little Rock Central High School, in 1957. Nine African American high school students were enrolled in an all white high school. Each day, these students were constantly faced with being verbally and physically abused by crowds of protesters. Many students found it hard to focus on school, because of all they went through. Today, all schools across the nation are integrated. But, in some schools the ratio of blacks to white is small. Even though, these students don’t face the same troubles faced by those nine black students in Little Rock, they still experience silent racism. Claude Steele, in “Race and the Schooling of Black Americans”, talks about a number of experiments and theories that proved her argument that stereotype threats are the reason for the underachievement of some African American college students. Because of the racial perceptions of African American youth, it is apparent that stereotype threats place pressure on African American college students, inhibiting students from academically succeeding above standards of white students.
Several black students feel that they have a racial disadvantage when it comes to education. Many young black students have poor motivation and low standards. In some black public schools, students are not taught a quality education. This problem is not because the teachers are not qualified; it’s because these schools lack the proper technology and tools to ensure a quality education. “In recent years this debate has acquired a finer focus: the fate of middle-class black students. Americans have come to view the disadvantages associated with being black………..and the assumption behind it is that surely in today’s society the disadvantages of race are overcome when lower socioeconomic status is overcome.”(“Race and the Schooling of Black Americans” Claude Steele ,Paragraph 7) . In this paragraph Steele talks about how black students associate there future success with there social and economical disadvantage. African American students sometimes feel that their socioeconomic status limits their opportunities to succeed. This can lower their confidence and cause them not to try as hard. Society has placed a stereotype on African Americans that says that they perform below the standard. Presenting these stereotypes to African Americans student can discourage or stress many students out.
African American college students feel an added pressure to be the opposite of all negative stereotypes that they are faced with everyday. Sometimes they feel that they have to represent the black race to show that the negative stereotypes are wrong. So they try hard not to make any mistakes in front of white people, which add a pressure on top of the pressure they have from school. Steele performed numerous experiments where she tested the theory of stereotype threats affecting black college students and shows that they perform poorer on test when placed under this pressure to disprove stereotype. In the experiment black students were told that the test weren’t race-fair. These students test scores came back low compared to students not told that the test wasn’t race-fair. “According to the theory, Black students internalize negative stereotypes as performances anxiety and low expectations ……Which of these two process, then, causes the results of our experiments?”(“Race and the Schooling of Black Americans” Claude Steele, Paragraph 14) Meaning that at a young age, youth often are at the stage where they are worried about what people think of them. George Herbert Mead believes that when they are faced with negative views, it will cause low self-esteem and self-hatred. This issue has been around for a long time, leaving many to wonder if it can ever be solved.
Claude Steele also talks about many different ways of reducing Stereotype threats placed on African American. “What did cause the level of black students’ performance to that of equally qualified whites was reducing stereotype threat-in case by explicitly………And when they didn’t feel trust, no amount of bolstering of self- confidence helped.” (“Race and the Schooling of Black Americans” Claude Steele, Paragraph 28-29). In these paragraphs, Steele talks about different ways to lift the pressure off of black students. She talked to the students to raise their confidence, ensuring them that the test was “race-fair”. She discovered that when the students felt trust, they performed well even if she weakened their self-confidence before.
Claude Steele, in “Race and the Schooling of Black Americans”, talks about a number of experiments and theories that proved her argument that stereotype threats are the reason for the underachievement of some African American college students. She goes on to say how several black students feel that they have a racial disadvantage and feel an added pressure to be the opposite of all the negative stereotypes that they are faced with everyday. After concluding this, Steele describes the solution of raising the students’ confidence and getting the students trust that something is racially fair. Because of the racial perceptions of African American youth, it is apparent that stereotype threats place pressure on African American college students, inhibiting students from academically succeeding above standards of white students.