Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Law, Meaning, And Violence)
Project Muse - Johns Hopkins Library ^ | 2000 | Ann Arnett Ferguson

Posted on 01/06/2022 11:53:39 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation's school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as "bound for jail" and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel to be labeled "unsalvageable" by your teacher? How does one endure school when the educators predict one's future as "a jail cell with your name on it?"

Through interviews and participation with these youth in classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades, the author explores what "getting into trouble" means for the boys themselves. She argues that rather than simply internalizing these labels, the boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. Supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives of the students, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators' beliefs in a "natural difference" of black children and the "criminal inclination" of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being "at risk" for failure and punishment.

Bad Boys is a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the problem of black males in our schools today.

(Excerpt) Read more at muse.jhu.edu ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: education; masculinity; publicschools; race
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

1 posted on 01/06/2022 11:53:39 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

2 posted on 01/06/2022 11:54:37 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator

You are the fastest draw in this here town, mister!

Perfect!


3 posted on 01/06/2022 11:58:12 AM PST by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

What would correct this is the firm hand of a loving father on their shoulder. Sadly, far too many don’t have that.


4 posted on 01/06/2022 12:00:18 PM PST by BBQToadRibs2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

I’ll recommend it to a friend of mine for his opinion. He teaches high-school at an inner-city high school. He’s white, but a big guy, a beard like Grizzly Adams, tattoos. They respect him.

There are other teachers (usually female) who are weak, and while there is some physical violence (often while breaking up fights) but its the verbal abuse drives them away.

His biggest complaint is that there’s just a few who are the worst offenders, but the time needed to deal with them, and their influence overall, destroys the learning environment for everyone else - particularly the girls.


5 posted on 01/06/2022 12:03:39 PM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PGR88

I had a very smart educator tell me years ago that his state uses third grade standardized test results to forecast the number of prison cells the state penitentiary system will need ten years later for new adult criminals turning 18 years of age.


6 posted on 01/06/2022 12:07:12 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("All lies and jest; still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

“The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys.”

Now, imagine if they focused on just plain-old American kids,
and helped to teach how to act, instead of listening to them.
After all, they are KIDS.

You are an Adult, so show them the way, don’t follow them.


7 posted on 01/06/2022 12:09:04 PM PST by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege
the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators' beliefs in a "natural difference" of black children and the "criminal inclination" of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being "at risk"


Pure b.s. There is a natural difference in children who are raised without good father role models.
8 posted on 01/06/2022 12:10:06 PM PST by The_Media_never_lie ( "The media is the enemy of the American people." Democrat Pat Caddell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The_Media_never_lie
richly textured account

That's academic-speak for a primarily fictional account.

9 posted on 01/06/2022 12:18:37 PM PST by SamuraiScot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: BBQToadRibs2
Culture matters. Children are best raised in an environment with both parents present and have the same expectations of how to discipline the children. Keeping one's exasperation in check is easier when your spouse can step in give you a break.

There are situations that makes that difficult - such as one parent needs to travel for work out of town or when one parent has a long term illness. Then one does the best you can...

10 posted on 01/06/2022 12:19:09 PM PST by RetiredScientist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: The_Media_never_lie

“There is a natural difference in children who are raised without good father role models.”

Agreed. That fact alone can lead to quick temper, reactionary attitude, and lack of respect of authority.


11 posted on 01/06/2022 12:19:42 PM PST by bk1000 (Banned from Breitbart)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: The_Media_never_lie
good father role models

And even harder to find--when fathers are busy working 24-7 on the one hand, or taking drugs and tom-cattin' on the other--are fathers who care what they think, hang out with them, and are affectionate in that fatherly way.

12 posted on 01/06/2022 12:24:07 PM PST by SamuraiScot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

I have been a school resource officer for the past 4 years. After George Floyd… the lush here was to remove the police from the schools because they “target black and brown children at a disproportionate rate”. Isaac part of a task force for 10 months … trying to explain the job of an SRO. we don’t do anything unless it is brought to our attention by the school admin. The problem is that they disproportionately get caught committing the offenses..Activists tried to say that SROS have a say who is suspended for school violations, which we do not. In the end.. the parents of the community.. and 75% of the students… mostly hispanic… wanted us to stay. So now the admin has been instructed to not bring hardly anything to our attention. I am retiring at the end of this school year…


13 posted on 01/06/2022 12:25:23 PM PST by bike800
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

My gym has mostly black members. I use this club because the pool is usually open- it’s a fact, in-general, black people don’t swim.

However since Dante Wright (same community) I have noticed that some of the guys working out are hostile towards me. I get the feeling: what are you doing in our gym.

IMO if the black community keeps feeding this hate, there are going to be awful race wars in USA.

The angry black man didn’t realize that the white people who go to “his” gym, like black people. The racists go to another gym. Again THIS IS MY OPINION.


14 posted on 01/06/2022 12:32:47 PM PST by BarbM (FU Pence. You refuse to be alone with a woman, but have no compunction in screwing the USA))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

fatherless boys, raised by single “girls” -— it’s baked right in

then NEVER make them follow normal civilized behavior at home let alone while in school and, well...


15 posted on 01/06/2022 12:34:08 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

The “benign” racism of Liberals low expectations of blacks, and why it is I believe black youth do much better in the historically all black schools, where no such low expectations are shown.


16 posted on 01/06/2022 12:43:31 PM PST by Wuli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege
Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation's school systems.

When they started bussing blacks to my junior high in the 70's that's when it began.

Until then we rarely had problems. Just stating the obvious.

17 posted on 01/06/2022 12:57:18 PM PST by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Genetics


18 posted on 01/06/2022 1:55:57 PM PST by DownInFlames (P)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

16 years


19 posted on 01/06/2022 1:59:21 PM PST by DownInFlames (P)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it?


20 posted on 01/06/2022 3:38:35 PM PST by simpson96
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson