"Sonny's Corner" is a regular column in Prairie Fire, featuring commentary on civil rights and justice issues. Our friend and Omaha colleague, Joseph P. "Sonny" Foster, died suddenly at age 54 in the autumn of 2006. He left an uncompleted agenda, as did many of our civil rights and justice mentors and heroes. We shall attempt to move forward on that unfinished agenda through this column.

By Jane Erdenberger

In August a letter to the editor to a Nebraska newspaper stated that "In the Millard School District and the United States as a whole, average ACT scores by Asians were actually superior to those of white students," and begged the question: "Why are the Asians able to pass through the identical school systems that other minorities pass through and obtain such drastically higher scores?" The author of the letter (who need not be named, as he or she could be any of hundreds of thousands of Americans) concluded that at least part of the blame for low test scores should be assigned to Hispanic and black American minorities themselves.

First, we must address the author’s claim that “Asian students presumably encounter similar difficulties that other minorities do in regard to language, racial differences and culture shock.” In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the context of the U.S. census and other statistical reports, “Asian” includes Indians in addition to Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos and other minority ethnic immigrant groups. Many Asians are in America on long-term employment and education visas which, under federal law, are made available to a limited range of people who have something to “bring to the table,” such as academic, scientific or corporate skills. Asians represent less than 3 percent of the population in America. As a result, Asians do not represent a cultural or economic threat to Americans and are often welcomed into communities, as their minority status and employment demands they undertake an accelerated assimilation process. Consequently, most Asian immigrants represent high-achieving professionals who have elected to make the long-distance move to America (or were prehired by American companies) and are often from countries where education takes place year-round. As parents, they continue to emphasize the importance of education as a means of success, and as middle-income earners, they have the resources to support the academic needs of their children. The high test scores of this select sample of students is a natural result of these factors.

In contrast, Hispanic immigrants generally come to America, perhaps on a temporary basis, to make a living that is largely denied them in their home country, usually because of low skills and lack of education. (This lack of income and education predicts the inability of most Hispanic immigrants to speak English before they come to America.) Now representing nearly 14 percent of the American population, they are often perceived as a cultural and economic threat to Americans and are rarely welcomed into communities. Further, the larger numbers of Hispanics in America permit them to delay the assimilation process — or ignore it, if they intend to make a short return trip to live in their native country. The lower test scores of their children reflect a struggle with a second language, community rejection, and the depressed income levels of parents who are not college educated and do not have the resources to support the academic needs of their children.

Similarly, hundreds of years of racism (recall that the right to attend any school and to vote was not assured by law until only one generation ago) created institutional discrimination in the housing and job markets that denied black Americans the opportunity to accumulate, and pass on, wealth to their families. That racism also assured low social status and residential isolation in American society that denied assimilation into the mainstream population. Similar to the consequences felt by Hispanic students, the lower test scores of black children reflect a struggle with community rejection and depressed income levels of parents who do not have the resources to support the academic needs of their children, exacerbated by recognizing the reality that the opportunities for black Americans’ success in America have never been widely available.

Second, we must not let the author’s observation that “In the Millard School District and the United States as a whole, average ACT scores by Asians were actually superior to those of white students” go untested. Certainly, it reflects the author’s underlying racial assumption that the test scores of white students should set the standard for success. It also reflects a fatal flaw in the author’s thesis. If “average ACT scores by Asians were actually superior to those of white students,” then it is not the other minorities that need to accept responsibility for failing to succeed—it is the white students as well.

Certainly to the extent that a family or student with the equal opportunity to succeed fails to take advantage of that opportunity, blame should be assigned, regardless of ethnicity. I suggest that if blame is being distributed, a large portion should be assigned to people who fail to recognize—and address—the differences in opportunity that exist among ethnic groups in our community.