Most would agree that a key element of success in any venture in today’s complex and constantly changing world is education. A quick view of the statistical success of college graduates versus high school graduates without a degree makes that fact undeniably clear. So when we find that 19.5% of black adults lack a high school diploma (as compared to 7.9% of whites) and that only 17.8% of blacks aged 29 and over possess a college degree (versus 34% of whites), it comes as no surprise that black men face a bleak prospect for success (Education Attainment in the United States, 1). But who is to blame for the rarity of highly educated blacks? It might be easy to blame blacks themselves. After all, most people tend to see success in America as something to be attained by due hard work and persistence, and in a completely free society where everyone has equal access to the resources necessary to make that hard work pay off, that would not be too far fetched. But ours is not such a society, and there is no such equal access to these resources for blacks. “Historically, it was long considered rebellious for African Americans to obtain education. It was argued that they had no need for any formal education to work out in the fields, which was their rightful place” (Walker, 79). Even as recently as the 1960’s, there was a flagrant refusal by whites to allow blacks to enter college, and even today it remains questionable as to whether black students are truly given an equal opportunity to receive higher education. Even if any direct intervention by whites is ignored, it cannot be questioned that the economic status of poorer blacks living in urban areas often forces them to send their children to sub-standard schools, while wealthier whites ship their children off to illustrious private academies or some of the more well-respected public elementary and secondary schools, which are usually found in upper-class neighborhoods. For such disadvantaged black students, any equal opportunity for college education is an almost guaranteed impossibility. This is part of the social “package” of black “anti-business persona”. Nagel describes ethnicity as being a social device; she asserts that “the boundaries and meanings attached to ethnic groups reflect pure social constructions” (259). So the social conditions of poverty and discrimination that exist for blacks help to form their ethnically ascribed lack of education.

While education is important, it is not the sole constituent of success; neither is it the only thing that whites have sought to exclude from blacks. Equally important is self-confidence. It has long been a basic tenant of white enslavement tactics that if you can take a man’s self-confidence from him, you can subjugate him. Nagel explains: “The expropriation and subversion of negative hegemonic ethnic definitions and institutions is an important way that culture is used in ethnic mobilization around the world” (257). Once again, hegemony is in effect here. And as always, hegemony signals a shared blame. Although it is widely known that a systematic attack on an individual’s self-confidence is one of the most difficult forms of psychological manipulation to overcome, the systematic attacks have greatly subsided and largely ceased entirely. So there should ideally come a point in time at which a group of historically oppressed people no longer under direct oppression should begin to recuperate, if not rebound. But apparently many blacks lack the resilience to challenge any remnant notions of inherent black inferiority. Walker affirms this hypothesis: “Many African Americans today still accept the antiquated notion that black people were never meant for business. It is no accident that minorities today make up the majority of trade school enrollment” (227). As it always the case with hegemonic domination, the oppressed people eventually learn to accept their roles in society, be

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