Closing the Racial Academic Achievement Gap
Free Black Thought | Michael H. Creswell
Creswell asks (and answers): Who is responsible for closing the racial achievement gap? In a powerful piece that implicates universities in perpetuating inequities, Creswell puts the responsibility to achieve on individuals. According to Glenn Loury: “Wonderful essay. Should be required reading everywhere!”
“Colleges and universities have figured out how to close the gap by making what amount to only cosmetic changes to the campus environment…[they] don’t actually know how to close the gap, or else they would have done so long ago,” Creswell argues.
“Even though college and university administrators and faculty want blacks to do well in school, this desire is conditioned upon doing it a certain way. Unfortunately, that way is the easy way: avoiding difficult conversations, lowering academic standards, engaging in wishful thinking, caving into student demands, and then taking credit for being so tolerant and open-minded. It is a play that has been run repeatedly, despite never reaching the goal that colleges and universities supposedly seek: closing the achievement gap…”
Creswell argues that this cosmetic, self-congratulatory, “easy way” is not only ineffective, but harmful.
“Lowering academic expectations for black people is one new change that goes beyond the cosmetic, and it is a regressive one. It fosters the notion that blacks are intellectually inferior to other groups and simply can’t cut it when it comes to academics. This practice sends precisely the wrong message…What’s worse, this condescending attitude directed toward blacks can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy…”
“Ceding to others responsibility for one’s own future is a reckless strategy. It breeds a sense of helplessness and nourishes the self-defeating ideology of victimhood…”
Creswell goes on to recommend specific, important steps students need to take in closing the gap. “The true change must come from black society itself. There is no other way to achieve tangible progress.”
