This week, the NNPA News Service completes the last of a three-part series on racism on predominantly White college campuses, written by Washington Correspondent Hazel Trice Edney. Judging by the comments of many of the students interviewed for the articles, we adults have failed to pass along many of the lessons of the past.

As Frances Crest Welsing observes: “During segregation, our ancestors would say you have to be 10 times as good [as Whites]. This still applies today.”
My parents put it another way: You have to be twice as good to get half the credit. Whatever the number, the point is the same.

With almost 86 percent of our students attending predominantly White universities, coupled with the end of de jure segregation and our expanded ability to live beyond the railroad tracks that once separated Blacks from Whites, we have failed to remind our young that being equal to Whites is not good enough.

No one says it’s fair–it’s not–but that’s reality. It was a reality during the days of rigid segregation and it’s a cold reality today. In order to get ahead, it is still necessary to be better than good. And we need to tell our young people that long before they get slapped in the face with that reminder.

Perhaps we’ve failed in another way as well. As a community, we are proficient at pointing out the inequities in society. We do not spend enough time, however, emphasizing to our young people that despite racial discrimination, despite sexism, if they are prepared and determined, they still can overcome roadblocks. That’s the story of Africans in America–overcoming the odds.

This is not to say that we should abandon our efforts to remove institutionalized barriers to progress. Rather, it is to argue that while taking on important causes, it is equally important for us to challenge our youth to become successful, to remind them that there are no excuses for nonperformance. Too many of our ancestors, with far less, have accomplished far more. At minimum, we should build on that legacy.

Interestingly, teachers in our old, all-Black segregated schools demanded that students excel and did not write off those who were performing poorly. They had high expectations and students, eager to please their teachers, tried to meet those exalted expectations.

Today, it is not a matter of just preparing students with the skills to be successful. It is important that they be able to withstand the mind games that can sidetrack them. For 25 years, I’ve told some of my high school journalism workshop students: “Someone, somewhere is going to tell you that you can’t write. First, make sure that they’re lying. Second, don’t let anyone deter you from reaching your goals.”

Unfortunately, one of my former colleagues at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch never learned that lesson. When I was a reporter at the newspaper in the 1970s, I met a young man who was inexperienced but extremely talented. One of the editors told him that he couldn’t write – and he believed it. Consequently, he left journalism and the last I heard, he had become an alcoholic. That was a loss to the young man’s career and a loss to the profession.

Our challenge as adults is similar to the mission adopted by many historically Black colleges: We should be most interested in influencing the student who has not met his or her potential. It’s easy to latch on the A and B students who are likely to become successful with or without our help. But the measure of our effectiveness should be based on our ability to rescue the wayward or underachieving student. Let’s skip all the “at-risk” labels and take the risk of saving these students.

Years ago, we relied on the U.S. Army to “straighten out” rebel students. Today’s Army is smaller and more selective. So, we must mobilize our own army to reclaim our youth.

Another way to focus on what students can do regardless of the racism they will face in life is to do the down-and-dirty work of meeting students where they are and helping them to improve. That may mean participating in or establishing a Saturday School, tutoring or conducting self-esteem workshops.

Community Network Inc., a nonprofit group in Tuscaloosa, Ala., my hometown, has a program that focuses on students who do not graduate from high school because they have failed mandatory skills test. According to Reginald Kennedy, its director, over the past several years his group has stepped in to work with those students at the nadir of their life. As a result, 100 percent of the students receive a diploma once they have been tutored.

The National Urban League and its affiliates have an initiative that recognizes and rewards academic achievement. The NAACP has its ACT-SO program that showcases student talent. Other groups have special programs for teenagers.

Our civil rights leaders should continue to keep pressure on America to have its behavior match its ideals. However, they should spend at least an equal amount of time showing our young people that they can succeed -- in spite of racism.