Lumberhead,

Thank you for sharing portions of this story from Vox. In my opinion, the article, read in its entirety, was interesting, but not necessarily enlightening. In fact, I think the article comes up critically short in two specific areas:

First, author Desmond-Harris comes up short in regards to the myth of ‘acting white’ by failing to include at least one specific example of a black student who succeeded despite the bullying and stereotyping she describes in the story.

Second, despite her discussion about socioeconomic inequalities, segregation, “teacher biases”, and racial stigmas, there is absolutely no use or mention of the following words or phrases: parent, parents, parenting, family, mother, father, or role model. (Maybe Desmond-Harris sequestered those issues under the umbrella of the “structural factors” she mentions in the second to last line of the story. Who knows? But they obviously were not intended to part of her analysis.)

So, in a humble attempt to correct both of her story’s shortcomings in a single example, please allow me to introduce Mr. John Urschel; first from CBSSports.com and second from Huffpo.

From the Huffpo story:

John Urschel is, justifiably, a big deal…Even as a kid, it was obvious John was headed for great things. His mother, Venita Parker, set high academic standards for her son, and John made it his mission to meet them. A first generation college graduate and single mom, Venita felt it was her duty to make sure John filled every part of that giant, helmet-averse head with as much math and science as he could. She bought math and science workbooks two to three levels above his current grade and expected him to complete the work. At parent-teacher conference nights, even with John’s 96 percent average, she complained to the teachers that she was unsatisfied and asked what John needed to do to receive a perfect score. A 96 was good, but he could do better.

…

In addition to being selected as a first-team All-Big Ten guard, he recently completed both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics at Penn State, graduating with a 4.0 GPA. As a senior, he won the William V. Campbell Trophy [considered to be the academic Heisman], presented by the National Football Foundation to the nation’s top football scholar-athlete, and this month he became the 84th annual Sullivan Award winner for the top amateur athlete in the country… If that wasn’t impressive enough, during his last year at Penn State he taught a trigonometry class to undergraduates while fulfilling all his obligations to his team and also published a paper, “Instabilities of the Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid Three Body Problem,” in the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.

…
And to sum it up:

Over the past years, as our society has put the spotlight on athletes and people like Michael Vick, the Kardashians, Justin Beiber and others who contribute the worst possible examples for our children, we should make sure to highlight and celebrate those like John Urschel who will impact our world far beyond an NFL career.