What can you do for yourself?

Being an African-American student myself, it’s safe to say that most of us are aware of the huge, crater-sized achievement gap between “us”—the black students who try hard to get the good grades but seem to still fall behind—and “them”—our peers who seem to be breezing through their education career without a hitch. Many of “us” have been aware of this discrepancy for a while, but could not figure it out. It didn’t seem to be linked to covert or overt racism, but were we missing something? Was there any connection between our race and our grades?
As it turns out, there is a connection. However, it’s not racism. In fact, we are sabotaging ourselves, mostly by the stereotype threat. Stereotype threat is defined as, “the fear that one might confirm the stereotypes that others hold” (Baumeister 434). Even if I happen to be the only African-American student in an honors-level course, I may fear that I’ll live up to the stereotype of black students: that we’re lazy, and because of our laziness, we’ll never get ahead in life. I might feel the pressure to perform, but as a result of self-defeating behavior—actions that cause people to fail, suffer, or bring misfortune on themselves—I might perform worse than I would have, had I known that the odds were not against me, nor for me. Even when there’s no reason I should do any worse than my White-American peers, I probably will still do worse due to stereotype threat.
So how do we get rid of stereotype threat? Easy. Here are a two very helpful tips for people who are teaching:
1. Make sure that the students know that no one has an advantage over anyone else. Okay, so this isn’t as easy as I tried to make it seem. In order for a student to believe that there are no stereotypes involved in the making or grading of a test, the student has to trust you, and your intentions. For black students, it may be something like telling them that black students score just as high on the test as white students. For girls, it could be telling them that girls have the same average on the test as boys do. It depends on the situation, the stereotype involved, and the people who are affected.
2. Three words: standards and assurance. The students under stereotype threat are less likely than other students to remember that teachers have high standards for their students, and that the teachers believe that the students can reach those standards regardless of race. Students who face stereotype threat need to be reminded of these standards, and also of the teacher’s confidence in the student achieving these standards.

The teenagers and adults at the Harriet B. Webster Task Force Teen Summit were on the right track. Unfortunately, they missed one key element: it’s not how a student dresses, but what they think others are going to think about how they dress that’s going to make the difference.