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I've frequently heard that a big problem, and part of why so many young black kids look up to rappers and athletes as role models, is that there just aren't many good role models for them to look up to. And that was a point I'd previously conceded. But when you think about it, that doesn't actually make sense. It's true that black people should have more equitable representation in positions of power, but there are some that exist in positions of power and they don't seem to be regarded as role models within the black community - at least not to the extent that the issue actually seems to be a lack of black role models to choose from. Like there should be more black CEOs and scientists, but there are enough out there to serve as role models, but they simply don't seem to be regarded in that way. There has obviously been a black president and there are many black members of congress. It's not like there is such a paucity of them that the only possible person a young black kid could look up to is someone like Future. It's true that only 6% of CEOs in the US are black, but I'd bet good money that the average black person can't name a single one (and for the record neither can I), and the same is true for the six black CEOs that head fortune 500 companies. If there is such a demand for positive black role models, why are none of those six executives widely regarded as such?
I guess my question is to those who say that the only role models available to young black kids are entertainers, what do you mean? Why do the above examples not suffice to the point that there are just no role models for young black kids to look up to?
I totally think Black scientists and CEOs are great role models for Black kids from the same social class.
Thasunda Brown Duckett went to an unremarkable high school, to an unremarkable university, got an MBA from a better university, but still not one of the top ones and still became a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. She's a great role model for a middle-class Black student who can't get into an Ivy or another prestigious uni.
But she's a terrible role model for a working-class Black student that goes to a ghetto high school. A ghetto-to-NBA or a ghetto-to-Grammy success story is much more plausible than a ghetto-to-C-level one. What is missing is a ghetto-to-suburbs success story for those who can't play sports or perform. A small-scale story of how Shawna or Trayvon worked hard, went to community collegee, got a salaried job, found a stable partner, worked even harder, got enough raises that allowed them to get a mortgage for a house of their own, and now they have two kids that go to a nice school and might even think of Ms. Duckett as their role model.
When everyone in the Black community will be able to point at someone they know who took this path to get away from the MLK Drive, then it will work as a decentralized role model.
So are you saying it’s more that they don’t know people in their personal lives and community’s to look up to as role models? I can see the merit in that, but at the same time by virtue of the fact that rappers and athletes are often who fill that gap it doesn’t seem like the issue is a lack of local role models, as most black people don’t know, or even know anyone who knows, Lebron or Future.
Not exactly. A celebrity is a celebrity, they have global appeal. A single rapper can grow up in South Side and be a role model for Black people countrywide. A man from South Side who moved to a middle-class neighborhood in Chicago is not a celebrity, someone from East St Louis won't be moved by a story of his life.
To rephrase my idea, two things are mandatory:
relatable origins
total change in the quality of life
So, if some community organizer starts turning lives around in one specific location and, say, 250 Black families end up with $200000 of assets each, then it will be comparable to a single Black man becoming a celebrity worth $50 million. Actually, it'll probably be even better than one Black family becoming middle-class in 250 different towns.
So would a CEO/politician/scientist etc. that grew up in similar circumstances not fit that criteria?
I think it also gets back to the issue of this not being specific to the black community, but rather any community that is either middle class and below or lower middle class and below, in which case, while this is going to be a more common phenomenon in the black community owing to their lower share of wealth, it is being unnecessarily racialized.
My primary view of these issues is that they are not necessarily grounded in race and are, therefore, not mostly the result of systemic prejudice, but rather they are largely a function of growing up in a poor socioeconomic environment. And because black people disproportionately grow up in poor socioeconomic communities, there is a tendency to attribute race as the cause, as opposed to race existing adjacent to the cause.
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