Jr. Fellow Studies Black Success Gap

While most his age are still trying to figure out what to do with their lives, Harvard Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows Roland G. Fryer Jr. has done groundbreaking research that is shedding new light on the causes of black underachievement.

Fryer has conducted pioneering research on “acting white”—behaviors black youth are discouraged from exhibiting for fear of “selling out” to their black peers.

Fryer, 27, graduated magna cum laude in two and a half years from the University of Texas Arlington in 1998, received his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, and conducted post-doctoral studies in economics at the University of Chicago. In 2003, he became a Junior Fellow.

Junior Fellows, who are scholars in the early stages of their careers, are selected by Harvard’s Society of Fellows to conduct research for a three-year term, according to the Society of Fellows website.

Junior fellows are “selected for their resourcefulness, initiative, and intellectual curiosity, and because their work holds exceptional promise,” the website says.

The description seems tailor-made for Fryer, who has also studied the gaps in black and white students’ achievement test scores and tested for differences in mental abilities between black and white babies.

‘ALL SORTS OF SUFFERING’

But Fryer says his path to Harvard has not been easy.

Fryer says his childhood in Daytona Beach, Fla., taught him that there are some people who lead poverty-stricken lives, but can’t seem to get out.

“If you’re not making money through the resorts, then there’s incredible poverty,” Fryer explains in his southern accent. “There’s those who live by the beach and there’s those who don’t, and we didn’t.”

“My best friend went to prison when I was twelve years old,” he says. “I have seen all sorts of suffering.”

He says his past keeps him delving for answers.

“I made it out of there, I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I’m gonna devote my life to figuring out the problem,” says Fryer.

Fryer says his mother left when he was two—“I never really knew why,” he says—and he didn’t see her again until he was 21. According to a passage in “Freakonomics,” written by Fryer’s colleague Steven D. Levitt, Fryer’s father beat him when he was a pre-teen.

He says that when he was very young, he watched some of his family members cook cocaine and sell it.

Fryer says he sold drugs to survive in high school, and he speaks about it with a bluntness that is both jarring and endearing.

“I was working at McDonald’s for five dollars an hour since I was thirteen,” Fryer declares. “That ‘wunt’ cuttin’ it.”

Fryer says that while he lived with his father, his aunt and grandmother, both educators, mainly raised him. His uncle was a school principal. He says the neighborhood was like his family.

“I was really insulated,” he says.

Fryer discovered his passion for economics once he started college.

Although he received a basketball scholarship, he says he realized he performed a lot better in the classroom than on the court.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t good at sports!” he says, showing a competitive spirit. “I just said I was better at economics.”

A MEETING OF MINDS

Fryer’s work on black underachievement has raised “questions most people don’t want to talk about,” according to Levitt, Fryer’s “dear friend,” who is a University of Chicago professor.

“We were just interested in black white test score gaps, role of black culture, whether there were genetic differences across races.” Levitt recalls of his studies with Fryer.

Levitt remembers the day in 2000 when he first met Fryer.

“He knocked on my office door and I didn’t know anything about him,” says Levitt. “We had some of the same interests, and it was just natural.”

From that point, Levitt and Fryer collaborated on several studies to identify causes of black underachievement.

In one study, they looked at the way “black-sounding names” can affect a child’s success in the future, and in a second study, they examined the test-gap between black and white students that begins in their early childhood years.

Levitt recollects that Fryer was “tireless” during their research together.

“We quit working at 11 o’clock at night and at 9 o’clock in the morning he would have finished an enormous amount of work.” Levitt recalls. “He would say ‘I couldn’t sleep—I wanted to figure this out.’”

According to a paper they published in May 2004, blacks perform almost as well as whites on standardized achievement tests in kindergarten, but begin to lag behind them in first grade. They suggested that a possible reason for this was that black children attended lower-performing schools than whites.

Using data from California birth certificates for the period from 1961 to 2000, Fryer and Levitt also found a link between “black-sounding names” and lower household incomes. Fryer and Levitt suggested employers react negatively to black sounding names because they might infer that the applicant comes from a low-income home.

Though Fryer and Levitt no longer work at the same school, they keep in touch. Levitt even recommended Fryer for a position at University of Chicago. Fryer says he is torn between that offer and the opportunity to stay at Harvard.

“It’s like trying to choose between a Lexus and a Cadillac,” he says with a laugh.

Currently, Fryer studies other topics affecting black youth, including the way graduates of historically black colleges compare later in life to black graduates of other schools.

Fryer and Levitt have also recently compared the mental abilities of ten thousand black and white babies.

“We found little differences between the races.” Fryer says. “Those who attribute difference to genetics must have a better explanation.”

Despite the controversial questions his research addresses, Fryer says that, for now, he is not trying to impact public policy.

“I have zero interest in politics.” Fryer says bluntly. “I have never even voted.”

He says he knows his research can— and probably will—be used to “fix urban schools” and correct some problems in the black community. But he says such changes will be more effective in 10 years, once further research has been done.

Fryer says he has, however, started programs in New York City and Dallas that give students money for reading a certain number of books.

“Give kids short-term rewards,” he says, explaining that a child from a poor neighborhood needs a tangible inspiration to read a book in order for it to happen.

Though he says his initiative has numerous critics, he is “trying to cultivate intrinsic motivation.” Eventually, the money is withheld from the students, and they begin reading on their own.

‘A BETTER GOLF SWING’

Fryer’s office contains a mechanical desk that is propped to the highest setting for standing while working, and he describes his daily routine as “work, coffee with colleagues, work, coffee with colleagues,” continuing throughout the day.

But Fryer’s office contains signs that he is interested in more than work. On his walls, he has colorful artwork that depicts a black church crowd losing itself in instrumental worship and a beauty shop in which black women are “frying and dying” their hair. He listens to Jamie Foxx’s new cd while working.

Fryer says he also listens to southern rap and hip-hop, goes to night clubs, invites students and colleagues to his home to watch sports games on his big-screen TV, and plays basketball in his spare time with good friends.

Fryer’s next door neighboor, W.E.B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis “Skip” Gates Jr., says jovially that the two have spent so many memorable times together that he can’t recall any particular instance that stands out.

“We don’t have anything in common,” says Gates, referring to their disparate academic fields, and they don’t plan on collaborating on research in the future.

“We are just working on fried chicken and ribs and watching basketball games.”

Gates, who is currently recuperating from leg surgery, says Fryer was there for him when he couldn’t get things done himself.

“He brought me soul food,” Gates says.

Gates is mockingly indignant about Fryer’s possible departure for University of Chicago.

“He’s gonna have to run over me in the driveway to get out of town, and I don’t think he wants to do that.” Gates says. “He doesn’t want my blood on his conscience.”

Gates and Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree Jr. say Fryer will be an even more influential scholar in 10 years.

“Roland Fryer is the future,” Gates says, suggesting that Fryer will one day be the “leader of the economic world.”

“Roland will have offers from the Democrats for Office of Management and Budget and offers for the treasury.” Ogletree predicts.

But Fryer says he has no plans to change his habits.

“I just want to be a guy doin’ his work,” he explains. “I like writing papers and discovery, that’s where I see myself.”

Outside of economics, Ogletree says there are a few skills Fryer still needs to develop.

“What he needs is a better golf swing, his ability to bring in the prize trophy fish, and to be able to more effectively guard somebody who’s twenty five years older, twenty five pounds heavier, and twenty fives times more clever,” he laughs. “Once he achieves those goals, then he will be an equal among all people.”