Chapter 9: Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and the Challenge of African American Education in the 21st Century V.P. Franklin

There is a little known statistic that needs to be more widely publicized. While the U.S. news media have been broadcasting the fact that people of African descent have been surpassed by Spanish-speaking citizens as the largest ethnic minority, a more important reality at the dawn of the 21st century is that U.S. African Americans are the wealthiest, most highly educated, and most influential African people in the world. Unfortunately, in many ways this is a dubious distinction because despite their wealth, influence, and education, U.S. African Americans are also victimized by the negative effects of globalization and the expansion of multinational corporate capitalism. The widespread health problems and obesity among U.S. African Americans, the low levels of academic achievement for urban black youth, and the extremely high rates of incarceration for black men and women are symptoms of U.S. African Americans’ victimization by the profit-driven decisions made by right-wing politicians and their corporate capitalist sponsors. While most of the people in Asia, South America, the Caribbean, and Africa are the victims of globalization and the exploitative advances of multinational corporate capitalism, U.S. African Americans, resident within the boundaries of the only remaining “superpower,” should be in a much better position to do something to change and improve these conditions. Indeed, U.S. African Americans need to mobilize their intellectual and material resources—cultural capital—to counter the negative effects of multinational corporate capitalism on the minds and bodies of African American children.