Book Club -- Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity

One of the disruptions that I had while reading this book was the fact that so many of the kids who were considered "at risk", or trouble makers were African American, and that so many of them were being tracked to a prison cell from such a young age.  No 10 year old should have their future decided like that.  I think that if you're hearing things like "There's a jail cell in your future" from so early on, you start to think that there's no other option for you, because no one's ever told you that there could be something different.

I think that one of the stories from this book that really highlight the media aspect that we talked about in class is where the author is doing a self-description exercise, and two of the students get into a conversation.  One says that there are good kids, and then there are bad kids.  The other argues that there's no such thing as a bad kid, just that TV sets a bad example and some kids want to be like that.  "But nobody's bad, though."  I think that this highlights the identity struggle that the author of this book looks at.  Media and many other things tell these boys that they have to be masculine, and to do that you have to be dominant, and powerful.  But when they go into school, they are punished for that, and taught that you have to submissive to the teacher, and not to cause trouble.  But if they do that, then the people around them tell them that aren't "acting black", and that they're only technically black.  There's a struggle with the hegemonic vs the counter hegemonic culture.  And if the kids do act out, it's seen as "because they're black", instead of as a reaction to something in their environment.  Their behavior gets generalized, instead of being seen as something individual.

Another story looks at the stereotypes African Americans are often subject to.  Some of the parents shared discussions that they've had with their sons about how other people will perceive them.  These kids are taught lessons from an early age to downplay there blackness, and that they will be under more heavy scrutiny than other people based on their race, and that because of this they will have to work harder to make himself visibly different from the image of black males that everyone has in their head.  Things that would be ok for a white kid to do suddenly become more threatening when done by a black kid.  It's alright for a white kid to go to the store in junky clothes, but if a black kid does it, he's clearly up to no good.

I think that one of the ways that this book will affect how I go into the classroom will be to never judge any student as a "bad kid", and to never look at them with the idea that all they have in their future is just to end up in prison.  There not going anywhere, so what's the point in teaching them.  All of these kids need help, and if you treat them like just a bad boy, then that's what they'll be, because it's easier to act the way everyone expects you to, than to try and fight and prove that you're different.