In Charles Barkley's book "Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man", Barack Obama recalls a few college professors asking him, "Man, why are you pretending that you're not smart?" Obama continues, "And coming from black professors, especially, that was important, because I couldn't throw back at them, `Oh, you don't understand.'"
Looking back at his own educational experience, Obama concludes, "That's a big part of the reason it is so important to have black teachers, especially black male teachers. I'm not saying exclusively, but in many situations you need someone who can call you on your stuff and say that it's not `acting white' to read a book." I asked the teachers and the students at our all-black school if they believed there were fundamental differences between white teachers and black teachers. Complete article and comments: Understand? - Nicholas D. Kristof - Opinion - New York Times Blog <http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/understand/?ex=1195275600&e\ n=477eb28f0bd4a473&ei=5070&emc=eta1> ================================================================== Food. For thought, this time.
