Stark Stats Motivate Black Kids
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Susan Greene, Denver Post, Dec. 29, 2007
A middle-aged white guy is inciting a black power movement from a quiet corner of the Smoky Hill High School cafeteria.
Bill Richardson—the math teacher, not the presidential candidate—is a numbers man motivating a growing band of African-American boys with statistics they have memorized like their cellphone numbers.
One in three will serve time in prison, projections show.
They will score 13 percent lower than white students on their ACTs.
And they’ll likely earn $20,000 less per year after graduation.
So members of The Brotherhood, as they call themselves, come to school early and stay late working to “kill the gap” and “blow up the statistics” against them.
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“We thought, this is a joke—there’s no way a white guy’s going to lead a black group,” says Aaron Giron, one of the first kids recruited.
Richardson pressed on, firing up students the only way he knew how—with numbers that would strike fear in any black student coming of age in America. It’s a white man’s world, said the guy in the Dockers khakis. Be proud. Rise up against the stats.
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The 60-some members have boosted their marks an average of half a letter grade in the year since the group formed, Richardson says.
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“We’re no longer statistics,” said 11th-grader Mike Seals, whose GPA has risen from a 2.3 to a 3.5.
About Richardson—Seals pays him the group’s highest compliment:
“He’s our biggest brother. We don’t even notice anymore that he’s white.”
(Posted on December 31, 2007)