Chapter 4: Re-Examining Noncognitive Factors: Promoting the Academic Achievement of African American Males at Urban Universities

White supremacist ideology has always judged African Americans by the color of their skin and denied them equal educational opportunities (Watson & Wiggan, 2016; Wiggan, 2007). Allen et al. (2007) posited that the educational gap between African Americans and Whites is the reason for African Americans’ subjugated status in society. Negative assumptions about African Americans are deeply interconnected with the utilization of a single test to determine the academic success of African American males, without accounting for school inequalities and structural barriers to achievement (Sedlacek, 2004; Watson & Wiggan, 2016; Wiggan, 2011). To elucidate this issue, Wiggan (2007) highlighted two research studies that assert African American students are intellectually deficient. The first was Stetson’s (1897) study that tested 500 African American and White American students who read aloud four stanzas of poetry. The results indicated that African American students outpaced their White counterparts; however, even with these findings, Stetson asserted that African American students were intellectually deficient.