I (white) attended a predominately black high school in Boston in the early sixties (Boston Trade .. approx, 85% black at the time, populated by the Annunciation St. Projects in back of the school) and what I've read matches what I've experienced about 50 years ago.
I attended an 70% black, 20% hispanic, and 10% white high school in Richmond, Ca. in the early 1970s and about the only thing that doesn’t match is the lack of rap — which hadn’t been invented then.
Everything else? Bang on.
I joined the Navy at the earliest age possible, 17 (with my mother’s consent) to get out of that environment. It saved my life, I’m sure. Low income white families lived in a constant state of fear. My family escaped a few years after I joined up. I’ve never been back to that area, and never plan to go back.
I attended a majority black high school in the 90’s, and it wasn’t as bad as this, but it was a “magnet” school. So, they had to meet some standards to get in, and could be kicked out at pretty much any time and sent back to their local ghetto school. Mostly, this meant they would not be too disruptive in class, and save the behaviors described in this article for the hallways and lunch periods. Still, even going to school with the smarter black kids, on their best behavior, nothing in this article was unfamiliar or unrealistic to me.
There was a contingent that didn’t do this stuff at all, but even at the magnet school that seemed like less than 10% of the black kids, so I surmise they were probably not from the ghetto, but the few upscale black neighborhoods, or maybe they just had good parents.
It is a very good read...same findings as a good friend who taught in a predominantly black school system...and this was 20-years ago.