While the mass media-driven stereotype of Black achievement in rapping, dancing or shooting hoops have consumed all of American culture, in this year…2009…there is at least one shining example of an African-American succeeding devoid of his stand-out artistic ability. Some would ask, “What’s the formula for this kind of Black?”

 

Well, the variety of talent within Black America is not just restricted to the behind the scenes story of Notorious B.IG. or Ray Charles - in February TNT broadcast, on the heels of the instatement of our new president, the amazing story of Ben Carson. He was the man that made medical history when in 1987 he separated a pair of Siamese twins joined at the head.

 

The movie, based on Ben Carson’s inspirational memoir, chronicles the journey of Carson – played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. – from his frustrated inner-city days in Mo-Town to the halls of Johns Hopkins University Hospital.

 

His autobiography describes life as a child in Detroit facing the scarcities of a single-parent household and the limitations of the encroaching belief on the part of some his teachers that "Blacks are not as smart as Whites.”

 

The film depicts Carson’s grade school award ceremony where he was highlighted as one of the school’s top students. His honor was undermined as one of the teachers chastised the other students for having not worked hard enough to allow a Negro boy from a broken home to surpass them academically.

 

While this view has greatly diminished since the era of Ben Carson, Black students try everyday to overcome any remnant of this world view.

 

“There’s a certain academic advantage to being Black at my school. Because we’re on scholarship, we have to keep our grades up,” said Shannon Cohall, 17, 12^th grader at NYC’s distinguished Poly Prep Country Day School. “I’m not like Meryl Streep’s daughter who has the money to go there.”

 

Cohall is a part of a growing number of African-American students in New York City who are beneficiaries of programs like A Better Chance or Prep For Prep which identifies the city’s most promising students of color and prepares them for placement at independent schools in the city and boarding schools throughout the Northeast.

 

“Because I’m competing with kids with money, I have to make sure my grades are up to par,” said Cohall, whose parents are heavily involved in her educational pursuits. “When I heard about Ben Carson and what he was able to accomplish, that’s what made me decide to become a neurosurgeon.”

 

Carson, who went on to Yale University to earn a degree in Psychology, credits his mother, Sonya Carson – played by Kimberly Elise – as his sole reason for shirking the prejudicial and all so common remarks made at the predominately white Higgens Elementary.

 

He recalls her – a devout Seventh-Day Adventist - saying over and over to him, “Bennie, if you can read, honey, you can learn just about anything you want to know.  The doors of the world are open to people who can read.”

 

With the stereotypes of post-literate and anti-education imposed upon Blacks in this country, some would theorize that the encouragement of a child’s engagement – not just an acquaintance – with books is necessary.

 

In the movie, we see Sonya – who was illiterate herself - make house rules to enable her boys to become better students. She restricted their television viewing to two programs per week. They were required to visit the library each week and to pick two books to read. Then, Curtis and Ben needed to write a book report for each book that was read. Afterward, the boys were required to read their reports to their mother. Never did they detect that their mother could not read.

 

As important as an engagement with literature is, most African-Americans who have ever made a splash in the world of hard science, engineering, politics – areas where Blacks are heavily underrepresented –have most always had the support of a strong parental figure like a Sonya Carson or Ann Dunham, Barack Obama’s mother, to foster a healthy academic outlook. This point was portrayed quite well in the film.

 

So, the Barack Obamas , the Ben Carsons and even the Shannon Cohalls aren’t as arbitrary as society might think.

 

To make it to the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital or as we can say now, to the President of The United States of America, all you need is the support of a God-fearing mother or father.