Celebrating college-bound black youth in Oakland

As of 2009, only a quarter of 18-24 year old black men were enrolled in college. But one Oakland foundation is trying to make this a thing of the past.

CEDRIC BROWN: Fifty percent of black students drop out of high school before graduation. And in the Bay Area, less than 20% of young black men who do graduate from high school actually enroll in college. So we are here to change all of that!

The San Francisco-based Mitchell Kapor Foundation funds programs that encourage, and keep, black teens in high school so they can go on to college. Every year, they hold a special graduation party for black high school graduates. It's called the College Bound Brotherhood Graduation, and it just took place. One of the program coordinators is Justin Davis – he’s a success story: Berkeley born and raised, Davis played basketball at Stanford and four years of pro ball in Europe. And when he returned he knew he wanted to help other young African Americans reach their own dreams. Davis sat down with KALW's Hana Baba to discuss his own story, and that of a young scholar he helped named David Thomas.

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JUSTIN DAVIS: [David Thomas] was doing well in school, but he also was distracted in other areas. Went to St. Mary's High School in Berkeley and graduated a few weeks back. And it's remarkable hearing his story because he was an athlete – everybody loved David. So he probably got a little more caught up in the social scene and not really focused or intune to his academics. And David will tell you that once you got involved with his program, and was around other individuals who were on this path towards college and having people encouraging him and telling him, "Hey, you need focus on here, spend a little less time focusing on this stuff," the peripheral things, and just keeping your mind on the bigger picture: you know, college. And he did that and him being accepted to 26 schools is a testimony of his work and his dedication to seeing and recognizing a college degree will really put me in a much better financial decision down the road.

HANA BABA: And then if he, the popular kid, did it, then other people might...

DAVIS: Absolutely, absolutely.

BABA: ...go in his footsteps as well? And so what kind of, if you can talk about this, distractions were there in his life?

DAVIS: I think they were more of the distractions that one gets being the "cool kid.” You feel like you have to live up to this image, to be somewhat the class clown. You feel like you have to have this persona about you that's inviting and welcoming because you want to be everyone's friend. And you get caught up in things that are not really productive. But here he is, and I think him being a part of this program recognized like all that stuff doesn't do anything for you. It won't bring anything to the table in terms of your future. It's great to have communication skills, you know, those people skills, but use them in a way and channel them in the right area.

BABA: And so how did he end up in the program? Or was it outreach to kind of lure him in, or how did that work? How was he convinced to be a part of this program, for example?

DAVIS: I believe David got involved through friends, his own peers who were already involved, and went through the process of applying to get into the program. And from there just made his way through the program and eventually becoming like a leader in the program. Being this senior who's doing well, who's senior class president, who's an example of an individual that could be a bright, intelligent student and athlete who’s focused on school and wants to do well for himself.

BABA: So now tell me about yourself and your history.

DAVIS: So I was born in Berkeley. I grew up there, played basketball growing up. That was my dream, to be a professional basketball player. So I put a lot of emphasis in basketball but also loved school. So I put a lot of emphasis – and probably more emphasis – in my schoolwork. Did two years of high school at St. Joe's High School, and then from there I got a basketball scholarship to Stanford University. And it’s funny because it wasn't my first choice, but when you have parents that don't make a lot of money and Stanford comes up the door, it was like, "No you're going to Stanford.” It was pretty much end of the story. And I went there, and really, honestly, I had a great collegiate experience. Athletically, academically, that took me from growing up in Berkeley to once I was done with school, living in Europe.

I played four years of basketball in Europe and Greece, Cypress, Italy, Germany, and had a wonderful time just learning about cultures, learning about myself, learning about who I was in terms of the person that I wanted to be going forward. I was able to bring that back here after my career was over and determine what it was that I was going to do. And that was, I want to get involved and make a difference in young men's lives, especially African American males, who grew up in the same community that I did. Had the same dreams that I once had, and help them achieve those.

BABA: So you were the cool kid?

DAVIS: I was definitely the cool kid.

BABA: And so how did you then, do you remember how you made the decision to ... you were saying earlier that the cool kid has this thing where he feels like he doesn't have to do well in other aspects of school and academics. How did you balance it out and what was in your head?

DAVIS: I will say this, I was the cool kid, but I was also the competitive kid in the classroom. I was, most times, I was the only African American in the class. And if I wasn't the only African American, I was the only African American male in the classroom. I felt, just by nature, of being the minority in the classroom, that I had to represent for all the other African American kids in the school. So here I was, the image of what they saw of African Americans rested on my shoulders. If I didn't do well, they were like, "Oh yeah, well he's token, just being here, they probably just needed someone else to fill that seat.” But I wanted to outperform everyone in the classroom. And that was my motivation, was to show people that yeah, we are talented, we are smart, we are intelligent and we can do well.

BABA: Did you feel like there was a stereotype you were breaking by being the black basketball player?

DAVIS: I was, I was. I remember it was awards, it was end of the quarter. And so the academic awards ceremony was happening. And I got an award for a 4.0 GPA for the quarter and a girl tapped me on my shoulder and she was an African American, and she said, "Wow, I didn't know you were smart!"

BABA: Mmmm.

DAVIS: And I was like "...Okay? Interesting. Interesting.” And what it kind of showed me is that not only do non-blacks have stereotypes on us, but we have stereotypes about ourselves. And it is unfortunate that that is the situation. And it was the situation for me then, and I'm still sure it's the situation now in the classroom. We found ourselves in these positions where we question our own abilities, and by questioning our own abilities, we kind of question the abilities of us as a whole, like "maybe we're all just like this.” And it's not true, none of us have to be in this situation. We can all work and there are programs and people out there that will help us achieve in the many ways in which we want to.

BABA: And what motivation do you think most works to get a young black man into college? What is your pitch, what do you say to them?

DAVIS: I think it's all about exposure. We recognize that the opportunities to see what's beyond the streets of San Francisco and Oakland are limited. There's not, unless you are involved usually in sports, you get to travel outside your own communities. We're not afforded the opportunity to really see that there are universities that are 95% African American population. We don't see it, we don't see this. We don't go onto UC’s and CSU’s and see that there are African Americans excelling in science, mathematics, engineering, so those things are not visible to us. And I feel like if you can make those images visible to young African Americans, they will see like, "Wow there is an opportunity for us, there are chances for us to get higher education and be in an environment where we can get comfortable excel and do well for ourselves.”