Perhaps we can look at black culture a little bit, in the context of that article. I have black students, future black engineers, who are mocked by their friends because they like school. Being called an "N" is inexcusable, but being called an oreo by people in your community is probably just as bad- and why are you called that? For doing well in school.
As I've said, I don't think this is a good time to discuss black culture because, occurring in the context of the Ferguson issues read nationally, it comes off as blaming the victim when deadly force is used against unarmed black males. Which is the item on everyone's mind.
Having said that, I can, as you know, not resist the temptation to offer my view. Stories like that are quite common in a large variety of groups. The classic examples in sociology come from work groups in which members are discouraged, sometimes subtly and sometimes openly, from working faster than the norms. I can recall dumbing down classroom work in middle school and high school so as not to stand out. My wife told numerous stories of pushes to dumb down (which she ignored) from classmates and her grandmother (less she never find a husband).
So, while this is obviously unfortunate, it's hardly unique to black culture. Just a fact of much of group life. |
