To Be Popular or Smart: The Black Peer Group (1988) | Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu

Video Lecture/ Companion to the million selling book by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, author of Countering The Conspiracy to destroy Black Boys. All of Dr. Kunjufu's books and videos are available for purchase at http://africanamericanimages.com Books can also be ordered through Amazon.com To book Dr. Kunjufu for a speaking engagement, email customersvc@africanamericanimages.com

Shared for historical purposes. I do not own the rights.

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"The phenomenon of peer pressure and its impact on
academic achievement has reached catastrophic propor-
tions. It has now reached a point that to do well academical-
ly in school is to act white and risk being called a nerd ora
brainiac. For males, the peer pressure is so great, you may be
called a sissy. Can you imagine the ancestor’s children, who
built the first civilization and taught the ancient Greek
scholars, attributing academic achievement to being
White? Please do not discern this solely to integration.
There are schools that only African-American students at-
tend, there are no White students, and they still say to be
smart is to be white.

Our students go to many kinds of schools. Some attend
all-Black schools in low-income neighborhoods, others at-
tend all-Black schools in middle-income communities,
others attend integrated, elite, magnet high schools where
admission is based on a test, some attend integrated schools
in the suburbs, and lastly some attend coed, homogeneous,
private schools. This book is written for students in all five
circumstances. In Philadelphia, the audience described ex-
periences from all five settings. They were surprised that in
the latter three environments—magnet schools, integrated
suburban schools, and private schools—negative peer
pressure still existed for their children. Many parents work-
ed very hard to live in more affluent neighborhoods and pay
tuition so their children could be ‘‘inspired”’ by a positive
peer group. Other parents like Namorahor my wife and I
were able to have our children admitted into elite magnet
schools, only to find this silent killer there too."

Jawanza Kunjufu is the author of over 25 books including national bestsellers, Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys, State of Emergency: We Must Save African American Males, Solutions for Black America, Keeping Black Boys Out of Special Education, Raising Black Boys and his most recent, 200 Plus Educational Strategies to Teach Children of Color. His work has been featured in Ebony and Essence magazines and he has been a guest on BET and Oprah.
He has been guest speaker at most colleges and universities throughout the US, and has served as a consultant to most urban school districts. He has preached in numerous churches and taught seminary for eight years to doctoral students at Union Theological Seminary.

His other books include Black Students: Middle Class Teachers, Satan, I’m Taking Back My Health!, Developing Strong Black Male Ministries, An African Centered Response to Ruby Payne’s Poverty Theory, A Culture of Respect.

Kunjufu attended both the Morgan State University and the Towson State University exchange programs from 1972 to 1973. He went on to Illinois State University where he earned his BS in 1974. He went on to get his PhD from Union Graduate School in 1984.

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