Branding Bad Boys. Teachers’ Perceptions of Behaviour and How to Tackle Stereotyping Black Males

Contents

Branding Bad Boys: Teachers’ Perceptions of Behavior and Brains of Black Males

Impact on My Personal Teaching Strategies

Annotated Bibliography

List of References

Branding Bad Boys: Teachers’ Perceptions of Behavior and Brains of Black Males

Bang! A desk is turned over, a student blows up and attacks a peer physically to revenge verbal abuse, while the rest of the class if not sleeping throw eraser projectiles at the teacher, write obscenities on the board, make intolerable noise with the pencil sharpener, tear up each others’ papers, or watch with growing interest the developing fight instead of coping with their rewrites on a paper the majority of them has failed, not meeting the standards in reading and writing. If students raise their hands which rarely happens it is to ask for a pencil they never bring to class, or to go to the bathroom for the fifth time in a row. Imagine this frequent horror scenario in a freshman low track class in a North American high school – and guess which student group makes up the majority of the classroom: the bad, bad black boys.

Teachers’ attitudes towards black male students are still an under-discussed topic. Tatum observed that “[t]he black male experience in school and the related achievement and social outcome have limited space in academic literature …. There is a prejudiced focus on behavior problems of black male students when there should be attention to developing critical, proactive solutions that challenge some of their projected images.” (Tatum 2003, 620+) He maintains that refuting all these perceptions, many black boys value literacy. But do we educators furnish them with equal learning opportunities as our white male students? Frankly, teachers of third track classes filled with black boys, can you claim for yourself never to use easy reader texts for your audience while providing the same literature in its original, sophisticated version to top track classes abundant with white students? Sanacore refers to this peculiarity as the “teaching less syndrome,” stating that these “low expectations are more prevalent with working class and minority children because of biases – sometimes well-intentioned – about what these children really need to be successful learners.” (Sanacore 2004, 744+) In the following, let us explore current teachers’ perceptions of their black male students, in order to find ways for instructors to identify possible forms of stereotyping and labeling, and to make suggestions for a change in perspective for teaching a diverse classroom. How are bad students punished? Misbehavior of students is generally met with disciplinary measures such as being pulled out of the classroom, referrals, detention, and alternate classroom (ACR), or, in the worst case, expulsion. But is it really bad behavior and violence against students or staff that are responsible for many black students being banned from school? A scandal arose in Great Britain when it reached the public that, according to an article in The Independent from December 2006, “1,000 black pupils are permanently excluded from school each year and 30,000 receive temporary bans.” ( The Independent 2006) The article titled “Institutionally racist: Report tells how black children are being discriminated against in schools” evolves around the issue whether Britain’s schools are unintentionally racist, and teachers in England and Wales are unconsciously prejudiced against Afro-Caribbean pupils.

It refers to the disadvantaged home situation of the concerned children, whose parents take little interest in their education, and delineates the decline of those school drop-outs who are more likely to commit serious crimes, re-offend, smoke, drink, or take drugs: “Some in the black community even view the exclusion gap as equivalent to ‘stop-and-search’ procedures in the criminal justice system.” ( The Independent 2006) The Independent finds fault with the biased school system, in which black children are three times more likely to be excluded, but five times less likely to appear on an official register of “gifted or talented” students than their white peers, and points a warning finger towards the outcome: “[T]he continued existence of the exclusion gap means that black pupils are disproportionately denied mainstream education and the life chances that go with it.” ( The Independent 2006) The “street culture” enforced by the media propagating a certain type of black masculinity is seen as an origin of the evolving prejudices against black young men in Great Britain who are perceived as threatening, which “encourages school staff to expect black pupils to be worse behaved and to perceive a greater level of threat.” ( The Independent 2006) Moreover, it seems to be the bad example of the United States that has an impact on black British youths:

The portrayal of images heavily dominated by the experience of black Americans has encouraged growing levels of aggression and a view that violence is a product of poverty and disempowerment. Such cultural factors have encouraged young men to posture aggressively as a means of ‘getting respect’ and resolving conflicts. (Quoted in The Independent 2006)

For comparison, let us look at the numbers in North America: “At least 15 percent of eighth-grade boys, nationwide, were suspended or expelled from school in 1998. Boys of all ages are suspended or expelled at two to three times the rate of girls.” (Kipnis 1999, 49) According to Kipnis, black students are more likely to be expelled than Asian, white, or Latino students, and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are two and one half times more likely to be expelled than advantaged students. Black males are suspended at higher rates in every economic group, and many urban schools expel a third or even half of the black male students annually; many of them are boys that end up in our juvenile institutions and prisons. This leaves us with the question whether these statistics really indicate overall worse behavior of bad black boys, or racial and gender imbalance in our school system. Indices for the latter are documented by Valora Washington who states in an article on racial differences in teacher perceptions that “both Black and White teachers viewed Black boys – those most different from the ‘establishment’ – most negatively. Next to last among both teacher-groups were Black girls.” (Washington 1982, 70)

As a solution to the problem of labeling black boys as bad boys, Delpit suggests “[t]hey do not have to be, and would not be, if our teachers were taught how to redesign classrooms so that the styles of African-American boys are accommodated” (Delpit 1995, 169). This includes special learning material; thus, teachers could introduce reading materials that interest boys, and assign writing exercises that relate to the boys’ real lives. Such an exercise could be journal writing, which the teacher then should grade more towards content than form (cf. Kipnis 1999, 53). Paramount is a more appropriate teacher training raising awareness of biases.

Impact on My Personal Teaching Strategies

Just like in Great Britain, black boys seem to be an equally unpopular student minority group in North America. Before I came to this country, I watched several shocking movies about violence and drugs in U.S. classrooms which could only be controlled by frightening, scarred Vietnam veterans of the caliber of a Sylvester Stallone. Lisa Delpit found that many white teachers are actually afraid of black students (Delpit 1995, 168). When I began my observing and student teaching, I was not really scared, but quite apprehensive. It did not take me long to figure out that the black boys are mainly confined to low track classes, and yes – being a non-native and having no racial or stereotypical attitudes, I had to admit to myself that their behavior was really, really bad. Ann Arnett Ferguson wrote a book in 2000 titled Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity, claiming that public schools create an image of black teenagers as “bad boys,” also labeled “troublemakers,” or “bound for jail.” (Joseph 2001, 463). She also mentions the ever-present aspirations of black boys to become professional athletes due to the fact that the children see sports as their main strength, and can identify with black athletes. And this is precisely the stereotype that many white teachers have: that black boys are good at sports, a failure academically, and an imposition behavior-wise. I can’t help it; this is what I found! In surveys I gave in my third track class I found out that the goals of my black male students were precisely that – to excel in sports, and use this as a vehicle to enter higher education:

My Goals is to Graduate and before that take all the small engine classes and play Basketball for the team to get A Scolarship and go to college to be an aircraft mechnic. I need to pass my English classes to graduate so I need it to graduate. [sic]

My goals are get my grades and play basketball and go to colleg. English can help me get to colleg because it help me with my writing papars in colleg and read in the books they give me in colleg. These are my goals that I wat to acheve after high school. [sic]

my dream is to play for the NBAone day and get paid alot of money and i also want to meet the president [sic]

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