I agree with Dr. McWhorter's view that the "meme" that equates whiteness with education, learning, academic success might have originated in the 70s when schools were desegregated, sometimes by busing, and black students were not exactly welcomed by many white students/teachers, and often treated badly. He posits that as a result of this bad experience, black students got completely alienated from school and so-called "white" success. I was a white student at such schools in the late 60s and early 70s. It was indeed a pretty awful scene, and I doubt anyone who lived through it will ever forget it. At the time I didn't think about how such poor treatment might turn someone very sour on school and "white" endorsed academic achievement. But it makes sense. And yes, that was a very unfortunate "lesson," that persists. Dr. McWhorter's insight might explain an exchange with a fellow student (black woman) at our local junior college a few years later. We were chatting amiably after class one day, and I asked her something like, how did you get interested in nursing (or teaching or whatever it was she was studying). Suddenly she just kinda turned on me, and said something like "YOU people want me to go to college, you're giving me the money, but I don't care about it," and she laughed. I was taken aback, and I had no idea what to say. She seemed so scornful. I never forgot it.
I agree with Dr. McWhorter's view that the "meme" that equates whiteness with education, learning, academic success might have originated in the 70s when schools were desegregated, sometimes by busing, and black students were not exactly welcomed by many white students/teachers, and often treated badly. He posits that as a result of this bad experience, black students got completely alienated from school and so-called "white" success. I was a white student at such schools in the late 60s and early 70s. It was indeed a pretty awful scene, and I doubt anyone who lived through it will ever forget it. At the time I didn't think about how such poor treatment might turn someone very sour on school and "white" endorsed academic achievement. But it makes sense. And yes, that was a very unfortunate "lesson," that persists. Dr. McWhorter's insight might explain an exchange with a fellow student (black woman) at our local junior college a few years later. We were chatting amiably after class one day, and I asked her something like, how did you get interested in nursing (or teaching or whatever it was she was studying). Suddenly she just kinda turned on me, and said something like "YOU people want me to go to college, you're giving me the money, but I don't care about it," and she laughed. I was taken aback, and I had no idea what to say. She seemed so scornful. I never forgot it.