I went to a British-run school in Spain for a year and then a village school in the UK for a year--I suspect at least in comparison to England that it's a more democratic impulse in the U.S., which, while it leads to more rejection of the hypocrisy, perversely also leads to more rejection of the whole project of school. Also, there's more overt tracking in the UK, and it's actually more of a meritocracy in that college is free (or at least has been) if you make the grade. So there's less hypocrisy to reject (although still plenty) and less assumption that it should be any other way (overt, undenied class division.)
We should not underestimate the degree to which college in the U.S. is simply a sign of class status and class obedience. Excepting some technical degrees, what a 4 year degree mostly tells your employer is that you won't make trouble and are bought in to the system.
>It was out and out ridicule of
>any black man making any claim to skill/education/professionalism.
I can think of several interpretations of this, from your descriptions. One (mostly likely) is simply playing on the racist stereotype which exists in the audience's mind and imitating and exaggerating it is, well, funny; another is playing with the genuine hurt / discomfort that someone who gets a professional degree has 'left one's people behind' and cutting down those who allegedly have; another is sort of sideways raising the question that you quote Malcolm about, as in you think you've made it but you can't really make it as long as black people in general are not free. It doesn't have to be about 'don't get an education' but it could be about the painful contradictions of getting one, in the context of a war on the African American working class, a war that is p rosecuted in part by the professions these professionals have joined.
Jenny Brown