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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?
1: I am extremely skeptical of the "role model" thing as relating to celebrities or strangers. Actual role models are people in other people's lives, and no amount of group X in job Y is going to increase that.
2: The problem is that what really does affect the life choices of underclass kids of all races is their role models in the neighborhood, school, and social circle. Who is cool, who gets dates, who is feared, who is funny etc.
For the overwhelming majority of underclass kids, they aren't one black lead actor away from a successful career in law. Their realistic options are welfare poverty, crime, or low-paid, low-status work permanently. Is it such a shock that for many, welfare and crime seem like lesser evils? It's more of a shock to me that so few take that path. The majority still take the low-paid low-status work, in most places.
If you want to create role models for poor kids with low prospects, you need jobs that bring either reasonably good wages or social status, that can be done by people in the bottom quarter of IQ, self control and time horizon distributions. And you need social change among the underclass community to value that sort of effort, rather than viewing it as an attack on their culture and dignity. White people can really only influence one of these things in the black underclass.
That does appear to be the strongest argument I’ve seen on this thread. That what really matters is local role models. But the corollary from there is that this is not an issue that is specific to the black community, but rather to those who didn’t grow up in wealthy families/communities.
However, the only thing that argument doesn’t address is that it’s black entertainers who fill that role for these kids, which are obviously not people they know from their communities. Which would suggest that they aren’t just selecting from local role models.
I think to some extent it’s simply that entertainers represent an avenue towards quick money. And athletics and rap are to some extent fundamentally of the black culture (rap in particular), so they receive a degree of elevation in the black community that enhances the degree of appeal.
There's plenty of local role models in working class white communities. I suspect that lower-middle class blacks have them available as well, and I suspect white trailer parks don't have positive role models available either.
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