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Brainstorm: Lives of the Mind John L. Jackson Jr.

CNN Presents ... Black America

Did anyone catch Soledad O’Brien’s special on CNN, “Black in America,” these past two evenings?

I watched it in a room full of academics, which probably explains why I was part of an audience that spent most of the night collectively (and very vocally) appalled by just about every single decision that the producers made: the spoken-word segues out of every single commercial break (delivered, it seems, from an indoor basketball court, no less); the under-reliance on black female talking heads as authoritative voices on the African-American experience; the too-easy partitioning of purportedly black men’s and black women’s social issues into separate broadcast nights.

Just to be fair, I should make sure to watch the entire broadcast again, but my initial expectations might have been too high, too unrealistic.

Did anyone else see it? If so, what did other folks think?

During the first night’s broadcast, Harvard economist Roland Fryer explained his oft-cited and controversial effort to incentivize academic achievement among young black kids by paying them cash to do their school work. The children and parents profiled in the piece touted the experiment’s positive impact on student performance. They believe that it has already begun to reap real benefits.

Detractors maintain that there is something short-sighted about reducing intellectual productivity to immediate monetary gain. What about teaching young people the benefits of deferred gratification? Might commoditizing test scores represent the ultimate vulgarization of public education? Do we really want an educational system that unabashedly promotes the entrenched legitimacy of materialism as a kind of normative good?

I have to admit that I find these critiques pretty compelling, even as I remember my stepfather’s monetary deal with me: a dollar bill for every 100 percent test score that I brought home from elementary school. Was that the reason why I made it out of the projects in Brooklyn and into the Ivy League? I don’t think so, but Fryer wants to prove me wrong.

Posted at 09:17:05 PM on July 24, 2008 | All postings by John L. Jackson Jr.

Comments

  1. Incentivize? Commoditize?

    — Mr. Wiki · Jul 25, 06:07 AM · #

  2. Academic neologisms. You don’t like? After you read the post, is that really where the stakes shook out for you, on a discussion about academese? I tried to provide enough context to make the terms clear and self-evident. So, the lanugage shouldn’t preclude understanding, which is the most compelling criticism, I think, against academic jargon. But I am sorry if that made the substance of the post less interesting to you. I’ll keep that in mind for next time.

    — John Jackson · Jul 25, 06:30 AM · #

  3. What a shame that someone in such an influential position as Roland Fryer is supporting the “money for grades” approach. Black youth already see enough of their role models promoting this empty and harmful obsession with money and material goods. Are we to the point where 50 Cent and Harvard economists are sending the same message? Black youth, the majority of whom are growing up in fatherless homes, are starving for guidance. Let’s exercise some real responsibility and teach them that there are many things in life that are worth achieving for achievement’s sake.

    — R2D2 · Jul 25, 07:15 AM · #

  4. My bad. Too minor a point (but meant humorously) for a No. 1 comment. Please resume serious business.

    — Mr. Wiki · Jul 25, 07:27 AM · #

  5. As regards the incentive program, I think we should wait and see how those students fare later in life (as well as look at the effect the incentives have on their current academic performance). I don’t know the criteria Fryer is using to measure outcomes, but it will be interesting to hear the results, perhaps 5, 10 and even 20 years from now.

    — Ve · Jul 25, 07:45 AM · #

  6. I periodically hear commentaries and NPR pieces on people making career changes, and one of the tropes that always appears is “you have to do work you love.”

    Well, no you don’t. That’s a privilege held for a fairly small number. Lots of people work at jobs they detest, and they don’t have the luxury of “following their bliss.” So why do they stay at WalMart or with the Sanitation Department? Money.

    Money motivates us to do a lot of things we’d prefer not to do. And for a lot of young people (and this has nothing to do with race), school is something they’d prefer not to do. I know that when I was in high school, I had very rare moments where I took an active interest in something we were doing. For the most part, though, I did it because I had to do it. It wasn’t really until I tried college the second time in my late 20s that I discovered that a school could help me learn things that mattered to me, and that faculty were appreciative when I took on an interpretive role to the material rather than just giving it back. That was the moment when formal education took on some intrinsic appeal.

    “There are many things in life that are worth achieving for achievement’s sake.” I can’t think of a single one. We achieve things to have pride or to make money or to stay competitive or because we’re fascinated by them. Motivation is related to present enjoyment or future outcomes, and for most young people, school promises neither (particularly because, for most teenagers, the future is remarkably hazy… they haven’t limited their scope of possibilities in the same ways that adults have, and they don’t have lived access to very many ways of life that would help to inform their desires).

    Now, let’s add race back into this. If John’s thesis is correct, Black kids have grown up in a culture that constantly sends them messages that they’ll be subtly excluded and marginalized, and they have experience from their parents and other relatives and neighbors about those kinds of slights and barriers. You think those kids are likely to believe all that “gateway to the future” stuff about education? That high school and then college will lead to rainbows and unicorns for all?

    And then you put those kids into underfunded urban school districts, with increasingly diminished curricula, and union lifers at the blackboard? (I’m a big fan of unions, actually, but working with young people is not manufacturing.)

    We should pay kids TONS of money to put up with all of this.

    — Herb · Jul 25, 09:01 AM · #

  7. This was my reaction John, I was so upset and disgusted I switched it off, I couldn’t watch it. Perhaps the program will get better, perhaps there will be a happy ending.

    I switched on when the girl pregnant with twins was watching the play between her other child and its father with bovine impassivity. The CNN message was to try to stir up the fathers to face their responsibilities, but the men did nothing else except donate their seed. A lot of the pregnancies are caused through casual sex, the couple had nothing else in common. It occurred to me what a dangerous situation it could be to push the responsibilities of fatherhood on to a virtual stranger .He has no interest in his offspring whatsoever he has moved on. Imagine forcing your precious child on to an absolute stranger you know ABSOLUTELY nothing about! These children are frequently abused and neglected and sometimes murdered. The father doesn’t want the job, he is not mentally equipped for it. Perhaps the mother doesn’t want the job either so the children pay the price. The children are used as pawns, sometimes a woman has as many as five or six children to five or six different fathers.

    Anyway that is not why I switched off. I switched off because I am sick and tired of the media dwelling on problems instead of solutions. Always the lowest common denominator, the Jerry Springer and Maurie Povich shows, and these shows get huge ratings! We need to know the GOOD things the blacks are achieving, the things they are changing, the workers who are working tirelessly in the black communities to break old habits. Most of the girls come from families where illegitimacy is rife, they need to be shown a different way, they need to be shown resources. They need to see successful black people who had a similar background but have overcome it. See them at university, follow them around in their jobs, not in a preachy kind of way but in a reality kind of way. Spark the interest, so that young people can identify and think to themselves “I could do that, and I WILL”. CNN should constantly put up lists of places where they can make a start. It should be given as much publicity as the genital herpes and Monistat ads. The girls especially, should be encouraged to take a pride in themselves, and to quote Nancy Reagan, “just say No”.

    Message to CNN:- That is why I switched off.

    — Job's Comforter · Jul 25, 09:24 AM · #

  8. BOTH John Jackson and Job’s Comforter make much sense, perhaps in different ways.

    ANY individual who succeeds and any culture that succeeds know with absolute certainty the immense benefits of deferred gratification. Such people are able and willing to distinguish with sharp clarity the vast difference between one’s wants and one’s needs. This ability produces highly successful individuals and families that greatly strengthen society; most of the other ingredients for individual and societial success, including formal education, either follow along in a natural way or are unimportant to begin with.

    — James · Jul 25, 10:51 AM · #

  9. Although I thought some of the personal stories were interesting and compelling, one can find much better analyses of how our society is structured economically on “The Newshour” or Bill Moyers. That is what disappointed me once again; here CNN had an opportunity to get beyond all the personal responsibility stuff which is so easy to do and explore how complicated racial stratification and inequality is, the historical basis of it, etc. I thought the HBO documentary last year about Central High in Little Rock was much better at exploring some of those issues than what Soledad did.

    — Damon at Penn · Jul 25, 10:56 AM · #

  10. Mr. Wiki, no reason to apologize. I was being a little too defensive. MY bad.

    R2D2, James, Damon, Ve, Job’s Comforter and Herb, Thanks for your honest and sincere engagement.

    — John Jackson · Jul 25, 11:14 AM · #

  11. As for incentivizing kids, I was also paid as a middle schooler 25 cents for every score above 90. When I was in grade 12, I still got the 25 cents, but it had turned into a nice symbolic way for my Dad to say he was proud of me.

    — Frank · Jul 25, 01:21 PM · #

  12. I think the main issue here is that for many students coming from more “advantaged” circumstances, achieving well academically results in lots of self-administered social reinforcement, and reinforcement from others. That is, they have learned that such achievement is highly valued by their teachers, parents, peers, etc. However, when a child is in a context in which the primary concerns are getting enough to eat, having heat in the winter, decent enough clothes, etc., such social consequences may not acquire much reinforcing power. Therefore, it may become important to use other consequences (e.g., money) that WILL have substantial reinforcing power for the children involved.

    — Rob O'Neill · Jul 25, 03:07 PM · #

  13. I think the punishment and reward system is good. My parents had a chart on the wall, I was awarded merit and demerit marks. Merit marks black, demerit marks red, (easier to see). If I had a whole row of merit marks in a week I got a gold star and a reward, (small gift) my punishment was my demerit marks unless I had done something REALLY bad such as answering back, then I had to forfeit something as well. Trip to the park, my weekly comic, something like that. I was never bribed with money to get higher marks at school, I was actually never paid for doing tasks around the house either, it was just expected of me. I got a weekly allowance (pocket money) which only varied when I asked for a rise periodically as my friends at school kept me informed of the going rate.This system was dropped when I was about 8 or 9 but by then I knew what my parents expectations were of me. It kept me on my toes when I was very young competing with my sister but I don’t think it had anything to do with my getting a place at university.

    — Job's Comforter · Jul 25, 04:38 PM · #

  14. I certainly think there are differences between black and white society, but I don’t think the real issue here is race. It’s poverty. I’m white. And I was raised by a single mother, on food stamps and welfare, in a public housing project. Besides being white, I suppose the other big difference is that I grew up in a small Midwest town, not in an urban setting. I’m a business school professor now. But most of those around me, poor white kids being raised by a single mother, a grandparent, and sometimes, a drunk abusive father or boyfriend, did not succeed. Again, I don’t want to belittle race issues, but I don’t think we should forget that these problems are common to people of other races who just happen to be poor and have poor role models.

    — Mike Barnett · Jul 25, 05:48 PM · #

  15. I just had the opportunity to watch John’s appearance on C-Span Books (online — I don’t have cable TV, so I miss all of this stuff on CNN and so on). It’s quite wonderful and I’d highly recommend watching.

    One of the things it raised for me is the degree to which we feel invested about certain forms of injustice, and how, at least for me, they have everything to do with my own lived injustices. I’m very much invested in class issues, having grown up in a working class family and community but having left that for the academic world. Class matters to me, and I’m always frustrated when we either don’t talk about it or talk about it poorly (class=income).

    Likewise, I’ve spent all of my research life working with teenagers and the ways that both the physical settings and the cultural institutions of their communities help to marginalize them. We actually produce almost all of the “adolescent behavior” that we say we wish didn’t exist. (I won’t elaborate on that here — that’s why I wrote a book.) So I’m very invested in age-related bias, and I’m always frustrated when we either don’t talk about it or talk about it poorly (adolescence=hormones).

    For gender and for race, I have to make more of a leap, because I’m on the upper side of the power divide in those two arenas. I don’t have a lived experience of exclusion and diminution to draw on — my case studies are all second-hand, and don’t have the same power in my imagination that age and class do. I have to make a leap to enter that dialogue, and as John suggests, I’ll occasionally say dumb or awkward things when I do.

    In his talk, though, John suggests that the ability to have these uncomfortable dialogues rests on our willingness to value our larger social membership above our identities in smaller sub-groups. I have to believe that being American means more to me than being male or white or heterosexual or college-educated or a political progressive. And that’s really, really hard. Hard individually because of my own experiences and comforts, and increasingly hard because of the array of micro-media that lets us only talk with and hear from those people most like us. I love watching Bill Moyers; the few times I’ve heard Rush Limbaugh, I’ve only been able to stick with it for a few minutes at most. How can I gain enough faith to want to engage in those riskier dialogues?

    — Herb · Jul 26, 10:36 AM · #

  16. As an African American female, I was disturbed by the rehashing of stereotypical images of blacks. I felt that people walked away from the episodes not really understanding African Americans. I would have liked to see more of a focus on African American belief systems, values, etc (which, by the way, are not all that different, if at all, from majority culture beliefs and values). For example, discussing the role and importance of the Black church; Blacks views of sexuality, Black-on-Black violence, teen pregnancy, etc. I think mainstream Americans would be surprised to see just how conservative in many ways the African American community sometimes is and how many of us support Bill Cosby and Barack’s message of responsibility because it’s not a new message to us— we hear it regularly preached on Sunday mornings, we talk about it amongst ourselves, how we are sick and tired of “ghetto” and “black” being synonymous.

    CNN could have also focused on the disconnect between the Civil Right’s generation and the “Hip Hop” generation. Or perhaps discussed the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the importance of Black fraternities and sororities, etc. I just felt as though the CNN broadcasts didn’t delve deep enough.

    I also didn’t like how CNN only showed the extremes-blacks are either poor, single Mamas/Daddys living in the ‘hood, or upper-middle class suburbanites. What about the average, middle-income black family just working day to day in regular jobs? CNN depicted us as people either to pity or praise. I’d just like for us to be seen as people with lives that EVERYONE can relate to in some way or another.

    — Tracy · Jul 26, 01:09 PM · #

  17. Sigh. I obviously am not a scholar of this columnist’s caliber, (yet) but I thought the show did a good job of showing all segments of Black America ( come on John, how much can you do in 4 hours? Would it have been better to have not had it on at all and have you decry the dearth of coverage of the plight of African Americans?). I watched it and was gratified to see that young men would work hard to take care of their children and not desert them like the guy who was fighting eviction and the other young man who continually dressed in suits each day just to get a part time job. Mercifully he got a full time job three months later. There were many positive stories and facts in this telecast. Perhaps you and your friends could come up with better solutions to the issues than Pryor and launch them into action instead of picking him a part. Look at where Pryor came from!!! From him to advance from that and to launch a program to help kids albeit it controversial is commendable. Listen to the children and their parents talk about the impact it has had. My parents gave me money for my good grades as an incentive. What is wrong with that?
    I commend Soledad for her effort. I am waiting for your show and your solutions John. I believe Pryor will prove you wrong. By the way I am an African American assistant Comm professor in Georgia who reads your columns religiously. But one thing I really get tired of is hearing the blacks who have made it to the other side deride those who are trying to show how we can help others make it to the other side. Her show might have been too simplistic for our “great minds,” but you must remember her challenge of trying to reach a broad audience and talk about things that you and I may know a lot about but others of other backgrounds did not.Her show started some great dialogue that I hope will continue.

    — Liz C · Jul 26, 01:10 PM · #

  18. I am an African American male professor (teaching philosophy) who appreciated CNN’s handling of the topic Black in America. I only watched one night of the special but I could relate to the difficulties involved in searching for a job when one is a black male. I am a well educated person with an undergraduate degree and two graduate degrees from recognized academic institutions, yet I still have trouble landing full-time work in Academia. I enjoy what I’m doing now; however, I am not making enough money to support my family. I have almost lost my drive to apply for any other positions on the collegiate or university level. Work outside of the academy looks more appealing in view of the prospects and pay rate. Is my job search more difficult because I am black? I will not blame my inability to find adequate work in my field of choice on my skin color. I simply want to make it clear that I understand what other educated black males are experiencing as they search for gainful employment. If for no other reason, I appreciated Soledad’s work.

    — Anaximander · Jul 26, 05:25 PM · #

  19. Actually, the incentives scheme was far less disturbing than this:

    O’BRIEN: Harvard economist Roland Fryer agrees. But he argues that those
    disparities don’t fully explain why blacks don’t live as long as whites.
    On average, blacks die about five years earlier.

    Fryer believes the answer may actually lie in the twisted legacy of
    slavery and the grueling trans-Atlantic voyage or Middle Passage of black
    slaves brought to America.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in Switzerland and I’m reading this history book.
    And there’s this beautiful illustration of a slave trader licking the
    cheek of a potential slave to get on the boat. And I thought for a minute,
    what the heck is he doing? And then it occurred to me that he might
    actually be trying to check the saltiness of the potential slave’s skin to
    see if he could actually make the voyage across the Middle Passage.

    O’BRIEN (on camera): What does salt have to do with being able to make the
    voyage?

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you’re very salt-sensitive, it means you hold on to
    your salt and you can live in conditions very hot, very humid, little
    water. So being salt-sensitive is great for long boat rides in horrible
    conditions, absolutely terrible for hypertension. And that’s the irony of
    this.

    O’BRIEN: The people who could best survive a slave voyage… to America

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.

    O’BRIEN: … to America are going to, generations later, be some of the
    people who are most likely to get hypertension.

    UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. And that’s a theory that’s out there.

    O’BRIEN (voice-over): Many doctors and researchers say the problem with
    the salt sensitivity theory is that there isn’t any medical proof to
    support it, arguing that chronic diseases like hypertension and heart
    disease are just too complicated to write off to genetic predisposition.

    But Fryer sees the possibility of a powerful genetic link. What he’s saying is that blacks in America may actually be biologically different than whites. It’s a controversial idea to say the least.

    — Proudhon · Jul 27, 12:14 PM · #

  20. Why is it so scary that blacks and whites may be biologically different? Men and women are biologically different, duh! Its interesting, and as far as medical science is concerned could be an important discovery, (if true) but we all have the same body parts, we all function more or less the same. Our diet has a lot to do with medical conditions, put blacks on a low salt diet and their blood pressure goes down, (as it does in whites too come to think of it).

    Too much emphasis is put on our differences instead of our similarities. Re: Message 14.

    — Job's Comforter · Jul 27, 01:02 PM · #

  21. Why is it so scary?

    It’s called eugenics. Or that little episode from a decade ago known as the “Bell Curve.”

    — Proudhon · Jul 27, 01:18 PM · #

  22. (AH ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ISSUES-A BLACK PERSPECTIVE, PP iv)

    A RETIRED BLACK MAN IS A PITIFUL ANIMAL!!!

    The first thing a Black man loses when he retires is his parking space at the agency. If he lives any time beyond his retirement date the next thing he loses is his legs. And if he is stubborn and still refuses to pass on to his rewards, the next thing he loses is his Jones but Lucy is still on his mind. White folks call it an Erective Dysfunction!! Then your new lady friends threaten you with death in sex and let you know that you are not a “Trophy” any more!! You are now burdened with high anxiety! Your doctor says that it is mostly mental. So now we are mental cases! Oh, Whoa is me! How much are we to bare? What is we to do?

    Dead Man Walking,
    Scruggs
    2007

    http://franklyspeaking.info

    — Dr J Alva Scruggs · Jul 27, 04:15 PM · #

  23. Genetics and eugenics are not synonymous. Don’t throw the baby (e.g., research on sickle-cell anemia and hypertension in African-Americans) out with the bath water (Jim Crow, etc.)

    As for The Bell Curve, although the controversy has died down, the jury is still out. The American Psychological Association’s task force on the book reported: “The differential between the mean intelligence test scores of Blacks and Whites (about one standard deviation, although it may be diminishing) does not result from any obvious biases in test construction and administration, nor does it simply reflect differences in socio-economic status. Explanations based on factors of caste and culture may be appropriate, but so far have little direct empirical support…At present, no one knows what causes this [racial] differential.” Although the book received much more criticism, scholarly and lay, than praise (the columnist Bob Herbert deemed it a polite way of calling someone a n****r), the book’s main sin seemed to be bringing up the volatile subject of race and IQ in the first place. (If I recall correctly, Asian-Americans finished above whites.) My own inexpert opinion is that IQ is too general and malleable a metric, and race—especially as regards African-Americans—is hardly sharply defined enough to come to any reasonable conclusion.

    But there are, apparently racial—more properly, genetic—differences in people other than physical appearance. A while back a study that discovered the most of the premiere sprinters in the world were fairly recently descended (i.e., within the last couple of centuries) from West Africa, where people have a much greater-than-average ratio of “fast-twitch” muscles to “slow-twitch” muscles. I gather that nobody was particularly insulted by that study, although I may have missed scientific criticism of it hitting the news.

    — Just Passing Through · Aug 1, 07:10 AM · #

  24. John, or any other critic of Roland’s, what are you doing to help close the achievement gap seen in our low income African American students? Until you are doing something, outside of just sitting at one’s desk, feeling blessed that you made it, please don’t critique those that have dedicated their lives to the education movement…

    — real quick · Aug 14, 12:00 PM · #

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