Study explores how black men find success in college

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

James Wanda, a senior at Pennsylvania’s Lafayette College and one of two black computer science majors in his class, says at times he has felt pressure to succeed not just for himself, but for his entire race.

“I realized if I fail, in some ways, it means that people might take that as either confirmation that other black students will fail, or as a sign that they might fail,” said the 21-year-old from Arlington, Va.

For black students – especially men – at many mainstream colleges, these pressures, racial slights and other negative interactions can push them to transfer or even drop out. A new study in the Harvard Educational Review is highlighting how some black male college students are overcoming those challenges, and the reasons for their success.

Shaun Harper, a professor and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, surveyed more than 140 students at 30 predominantly white public and private colleges.

Among his findings: While high-achieving black male students aren’t immune from racial stereotypes, they have found a way to push back against them – often through taking on confidence-building campus leadership roles that can change perceptions of them among their white peers and faculty.

“White students get to be students and learn; students of color have to deal with racial stress,” Harper said in an interview. “As they become more skillful at not internalizing low expectation, it frees them up from this distraction.”

Columbia University psychology and education professor Derald Wing Sue has researched the stress-producing slights and insensitivities tinged with bigotry, or microaggressions, cited in Harper’s study. He said the positive responses outlined in his research are a kind of social activism that gives black men a feeling that they have the ability to impact their environment.

Many of the black male students surveyed got their start as campus leaders through involvement in predominantly black organizations before taking on such roles in more mainstream school groups. As they became involved on their campuses, they said, their days were more structured, they were more focused and their grades improved.