As a 42-year-old African-American working to make a name for myself, I found Leonard Pitts’ May 14 column, “White men can jump, so why do black kids come up short?” inspiring and, I hope, enlightening to some self-perceived victims.
My parents raised me to “expect to win” and demand fairness at all times. These expectations stretched from my home to the classroom and onto the playground (and later into organized sports). I find it quite perplexing that many self-perceived victims who share the same racial heritage as I do feel as though the world owes them something or that it’s their God-given right to excel in sports, but then not attack academics with the same tenacity–or even worse, say that test scores aren’t fair. The argument can’t be made that kids from inner-city schools automatically should have lowered expectations in testing. Why are there kids from these same schools every year who are A+ and B+ students who go on to college based on their academic aptitude rather than on their athletic prowess?
