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Congrats to this brother and also: these viral feel-good stories always have glaring omissions of context
Like, how is it that a school in OAKLAND that’s been around for 100 years has never had a Black valedictorian? https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1385684908480335878
Like, how is it that a school in OAKLAND that’s been around for 100 years has never had a Black valedictorian? https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1385684908480335878
Also, one way you know it’s almost May is that the exceptional Black kid who got accepted to a bunch of elite university stories are all dropping
(Or the perennial story about UP in Chicago and their “100% college acceptance rate”) https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/He-s-Oakland-Tech-s-first-Black-male-16118790.php
(Or the perennial story about UP in Chicago and their “100% college acceptance rate”) https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/He-s-Oakland-Tech-s-first-Black-male-16118790.php
I dunno, man. These stories make my antennae twitch.
What work are they doing?
What work are they doing?
Aside Re: @IBJIYONGI’s point about “the ruling class,” there was a version of this from 1990 in the NYT when a big-eared law student became the first Black editor of the Harvard Law Review. (He pointed out the broader context that shapes “firstness.”) https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/06/us/first-black-elected-to-head-harvard-s-law-review.html
“But it's important that stories like mine aren't used to say that everything is O.K for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent....”
(Funny bc he became shorthand for “racism is over.”)
(Funny bc he became shorthand for “racism is over.”)
