People point out the fact constantly that asians have high college graduation rates and good standardized test scores, but I was just reading an article on another (albeit unlikely) ethnicity and background with similar acheivement: Africans. Not African-Americans but Africans. Due to the cultural (and economic) barriers erected around african-americans it harms their overall acheivement levels, but Africans have no such barriers and theirs is a culture that values education highly as well.

http://www.blackwebportal.com/wire/DA.cfm?...?ArticleID=1206

I suppose this disproves theories of "black inferiority" and "black underacheivement" but rather "undersacheivement" is more cultural than genetic. African-americans seem to look at acheivement as "white" and look down on their peers who do well in school. For africans and carribean immigrants (by the way the Bahamas has one of the highest GDP's in the western hemispere http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/1857.htm) it is seen as the ticket to a higher-payer job and a better future for themselves and their progeny. I say it is good to see these people doing so well in america and educating themselves, and I'm sick of the tired old racist theories suggesting the inferiority of one group to another. People are people. Culture as much as anything is a real determinant for where you are going in life. For the majority of Asians and African immigrants, it is a culture of success and the value of eductaion.

I've read about this before. I've also read articles about how immigrants from Caribbean countries (such as Haiti, Trinidad, and others) who are of the same genetic stock as African-Americans frequently outperform even whites and Asians in some of the schools they attend.

Anyone who would claim a racial superiority is just ignorant. It is culture more than anything else. A big reason Asian-Americans have a good deal of success in the classroom is that for many of us, our parents were either middle-class and educated themselves, or came from a culture where education was valued and respected as a means to a better life.

In contrast, the majority of Hispanic immigrants to this country are not of the educated classes, and as such, education is not as valued in most of their mindsets. As a result, getting good grades isn't quite the mandate in such households as I'm sure it is in many Asian-American households.

I think I might know why this may be. Africa & most Carribean nations are poor & they know what a TRUE struggle is. Their family situations are different from our (Afam) situations because they are on the outside looking in. Africans & Carribeans see the opportunities that African-Americans either don't or won't take advantage of. I think that this is why they start off working 2 menial jobs (i.e. as janitors at night & cooks during the day), but end up becoming doctors, professors, or entrepreneurs! In fact, here at St. Louis University Hospital, Dr. Okuno is one of our top doctors & he comes from Uganda!

When all you have to go on is the hope that hard work will get you far, that's exactly what you do. Keep in mind that these are only coming from my point-of-view & bear no truth whatsoever.

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Mmmkay needs a reality check. If his profile is true that he's Asian then he is an outsider looking in. How dare he have the audacity to say that African Americans don't value education whereas Africans and Carribeans do. In reference to African Americans teasing others who do well academically those are only the hoodlums who are ignorant and stupid. All races have such ignorant individuals but Mmmkay shouldn't generalize and say that African Americans as a race don't value education. We all work hard in this country and the only thing that Mmmkay is doing is perpetuating a very painful and slavery- old stereotype that Black Americans are dumb and lazy.

Shame on you Mmmkay!
May you become educated (socially) yourself !

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I also have something to say to Eclipse. Obviously you're black but surely you have no real recognition of the African American community nor can you separate between individuals and a whole community. Shame on you for supporting Mmmkay and his stereotype. Where do you get the gaul to say
"Africans & Carribeans see the opportunities that African-Americans either don't or won't take advantage of."?
Who says they don't take advantage of them?! There are whites, Asians, Arabs etc who "don't take advantage" of education in America but they aren't typcasted because the media is always busy blasting black students and chooses to ignore those that are doing well but doesn't have a problem praisng White and Asian students! And what on earth do you mean by a "TRUE struggle." Are you denying that African Americans have struggled in White America? Are you aware that they are still struggling and always have more than Asians? One of the biggest things African Americans have to combat are these false brutal stereotypes (more brutal than Asian stereotypes) but the most painful is when ignorant AfAms like yourself turn around and betray your community by trying to confirm them! Eclipse you are no better than narrow minded whites and Asian Americans who look down on blacks plus you are ignorant of the reality of your own race who has ALWAYS made great strides in education and in the world. (And don't make a comeback saying that those who are successful are a few within the AfAm community)

Eclipse you really sound like an Uncle Tom!

well, i'm late on this, but....

awed, at least eclipse said that its based on what SHE sees. that's a fair statement.

i've worked with poor black kids, and i grew up a middle class black kid in a black suburb in chicago. there IS a difference, and it IS based on culture.

my dad was a world war 2 vet, and had started college before he was drafted. after the war, he used the GI bill to finsih his undergrad and masters. he had been turned down for jobs once they realized he was black (his and my name aren't 'typical' names and he didnt sound 'black' or 'southern' on the phone). he put up with a LOT of racist stuff. my mom went to junior college and then northwestern over a period of 8 years, working full time while going to school full time.

thus, EDUCATION WAS KEY to my sister and i. we couldn't half step. my dad checked my homework religiously until highschool, when i was on autopilot. he told me that my getting a masters wouldn't be a big deal to him, because he got HIS in 1952, at a time when americans, overall , weren't necessarily finishing highschool. "wanna impress me? get a PhD". of course, he was proud when i was on course to graduating (he died a year before i got my b.s.), but mom mom was proud of my getting an MBA.

all that to say, my immediate family, my cousins and all the black folks i went to college/grad school with HAD that desire to learn and get an education. it was PRESUMED we'd get at least a b.s./b.a. there simply wasn't any question.

however, poor blacks don't have that history. in fact, poor blacks/hispanics/whites (in appalachia) simply look at what's around them. the poor of any race in this country are marginalized. the police can mess with them because our society doesnt CARE (as a whole) about the poor, as long as they arent in our neighborhood.

the poor black kids i worked with were simply operating with a completely different set of mores and values than i grew up with. i was BLESSED with my background. they weren't as fortunate. even then, many of these kids had the desire (the ones in the program i worked with) to succeed. out of 60 kids, 59 went to college. again, the culture of THEIR homes, even in the public housing they grew up in, was one for success. parents might not have made it, but they were going to make sure their KIDS made it.

so, it is culture, not race.