There’s a universally accepted truism in the black community that African Americans have to “be twice as good to get half as much.” This perception is evidenced by the obvious fact that some non-black people receive perks and benefits that black people with similar qualifications do not. African Americans are not alone in this perception of the treatment they receive, women and other minorities have expressed similar complaints about their positions in American society.
A paper by Abigail A. Sewell in the Journal of Undergraduate Research, March, 2005, seems to highlight this phenomenon:
Being overworked and undervalued occurs in high-status occupations as well as low-status occupations. While Black Americans have touted education as the key to gaining equality, today many educated Blacks find themselves in jobs where they must meet expectations far above those of their co-workers to prove their competence.
Yet every coin has a flip side. In the case of the “twice as good/half as much” coin, the reverse is the “curse of lowered expectations.” This is a documented reality, black school children and workers at every economic level feel that they have been victimized by the fact that people in authority often view them as being limited in their ability. The Daily Pennsylvanian shares this from a freshman panel discussion on multiculturism:
Another theme in the discussion was the often presumed lowered standards of minority students. Many students said the stereotypes of minorities as beneficiaries of affirmative action quotas and sports recruiter’s influence are ever-present on campus.
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“People assume you must play a sport and that you don’t belong here,” Mobray added. “I believe teachers very often share this low expectation of blacks, but how can you expect people to excel if you don’t expect the high standards that you expect from others?”
Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu says this is especially true of young black males:
The unfortunate reality is that many teachers lower expectations based on race, income, gender, appearance, parental involvement and education. Therefore, if a child is African American, low-income, male, poorly dressed, and parents are not involved and do not possess a college degree, there is a strong probability that the teacher will lower expectations.
We’re all aware of the effects of lowering expectations in children. This is the reason we do not call our children “stupid,” for fear they will become what we expect them to be. Interestingly, if we do have relatively low expectations of children, we tend to be overly excited about those who perform above our prejudice. Therefore, an average child might develop an inflated self-image due to being overly praised for less than praiseworthy accomplishment, while those truly gifted could almost be considered freaks.
