September 29, 2000

Are Black Students Underachievers?

To the Editor:

John H. McWhorter's analysis of black students exhibits an appalling ignorance of how race and class have informed each other throughout American history ("A Professor's Controversial Analysis of Why Black Students Are 'Losing the Race,'" August 11). By categorically dismissing black students at the University of California at Berkeley as "among the worst students on campus," and attributing their underachievement to some fatal flaw in black culture, McWhorter draws on