At the heart of the ABC series Black-ish lies one question: How do you go about instilling certain traits and values about hard work and success in your children if your kids have a much more privileged upbringing than you had? It's a question that is furrowing the collective eyebrows of middle-class and upper-middle-class black parents who fear that their own successes will cause their children not to develop certain qualities that would help propel them to the top.
The Root's Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele speaks with Nita Young White, a school principal in Chicago who says she struggled to motivate her daughter to do well in school and take initiative, and Angel Harris, a professor of sociology and African and African-American studies at Duke University, who sheds light on how children think about their upward mobility and their chances at success.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features expert advice for TV and film’s most complex characters. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.