http://chronicle.com/article/Black-Man-in-the-Lab/149565/?cid=gs&utm_source=gs&utm_medium=en
For two decades, academic researchers have asked the same questions about black males in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, known as the STEM fields:
Why do black males underperform in grade-school and high-school math and science classrooms?
Why do so few pursue STEM degrees?
Of those who enter college with the intention to major in STEM fields, why do so many switch to other disciplines?
And among those who persist and graduate with science majors, why do so few proceed to Ph.D. programs?
STEM... Why is it a white man's world?
My own experience (and I have substantial experience here)
1) Schools. The truth is, many public schools do nothing to prepare their students for college, period. Back when I was getting my BSEE, even many of the white students had no idea how to actually take a test - they'd get the right answer and then fool themselves out of it, they had no study habits to speak of, and so on. Black students get it even worse. We know that:
a) Black students face far harsher discipline than white students, even when they act the same way, and this leads to more suspensions, which only hurts them academically.
b) They're more likely to go to grossly underfunded schools - often to the point where they never do any sort of experiment in science classes, for example. For these kids, experiments are something done on tv, and their classes are just painful exercises that have no connection to reality.
c) Yes, they do sometimes face teachers who actively discourage them from interest in math or science.
2) Costs. College is becoming increasingly expensive, the payoff for any PhD is becoming increasingly bad, especially in academia. In truth, I'd prefer to get a second Masters Degree, to a PhD. I suspect it'd be worth far more to me. For that matter, I know kids who were thinking of going to college, but were told by their family that they needed to get a job, because they couldn't afford to keep them up. Given that, for historical reasons, black households are far poorer than white households, this is more true for black potential students.
3) Yes, going to college is often a culture shock, and this is more true for many black students, who were used to their segregated neighborhood, moving to a mostly white school, and suddenly dealing with a very different culture. Combine this with a large number of white students who have never met a black person before, and it can get...very irritating, very quickly.
ETA: I forgot this one: 4) lack of access. For mental health counseling (there's a nasty stigma around this in many black communities), for tutoring, for mentoring, for diagnosing learning disorders. For internships, also. To computers with programming tools, in some cases.
