From: sfsmith@pennsas.upenn.edu (Sandy F. Smith, Jr.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: That book about "A Better Chance"...
Date: 31 Aug 92 21:26:15 GMT
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

Some time back, I posted an article that referred to a sociological study of
students who participated in the "A Better Chance" program, which placed
talented minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds in elite prep
schools.  I have been off the net for the past couple of weeks (on vacation
from work), so have not had a chance to follow that post up (or answer a
question in response to it) until now.  Anyway...

The book is _Blacks in the White Establishment?_, by Richard L. Zweigenhaft
and G. William Domhoff (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).  The authors
conducted numerous interviews with ABC students from the program's early years
(~1965-1969) to answer questions similar to those they asked in their earlier
work, _Jews in the Protestant Establishment_:  How do elites accommodate
people from backgrounds different from their own as they rise in status?  How
do these "newcomers" deal with this environment -- do they adapt, does it 
adapt to them, or both?  They also sought to answer questions specific to
this program, which was one of numerous upper- and upper-middle-class white
attempts to respond to the challenge of the civil rights movement:  Did the
ABC program succeed at its intended goal?  Did those who passed through it
gain full acceptance into the "establishment"?

On those last two questions, the authors conclude that it did, and that the
students who participated in it gained valuable social skills and connections
in addition to a good education.  However, there were some limits to ABC'ers
ability to become fully integrated into the "establishment" -- placed there
largely by the establishment culture.  Nonetheless, the authors feel that
programs of this type are valuable tools both for the students and for the
"establishment", and express some dismay that due to severe cutbacks in
funding, the program now serves as little more than a referral service that
funnels the children of the black middle class into better schools.

As for the "character types", of which I only cited one, some correction and
clarification is in order.  These three broad groups described how ABC'ers
functioned *after* college (virtually all went and graduated).  There were
"stars" -- the most ambitious ABC'ers, who have risen to highly influential
or visible positions in a short time; "professionals" -- those who have
settled comfortably in the "new black middle class", and (here's the correc-
tion) "hidden ABC'ers" -- those who, for one reason or another, felt they
failed to live up to the program's expectations (even when by other yard-
sticks, they might be considered successes, as was the case with the one
such student profiled).  The few students who dropped out of the program
entirely or who did not graduate from college fall into this category.

But as for Edmund Perry, his story (the authors cite Robert Sam Anson's
book _Best Intentions_ at several points) is *not at all* typical of the
ABCers' trajectory.  As they make clear, the "culture graft" these students
received took, and they in turn made the most of what they learned in school.
___________________
Sandy F. Smith, Jr.
Graduate Division, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
16 College Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6378.  (Opinions mine, not Penn's)
Internet: sfsmith@pennsas.upenn.edu
 
"The God I serve don't make no trash!" -- Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, Mayor, City
of Kansas City, Mo.
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