Academic Segregation: Racializing Achievement and Criminalizing Failure in a Context of New Diversity

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. The Racial Context of Schools and Schooling

Abstract

Black male youth are in deep trouble in America. When compared to other ethnoracial and gender groups, Black males lag behind in terms of school attendance, grade point average, and standardized test scores (Anderson 2008; Belfanz and Legters 2004; Blanchett 2006; Jencks and Phillips 2011; Ladson-Billings 2011; Noguera 2003a, 2008). Black males also demonstrate a greater likelihood to be suspended or expelled from school (Tienda and Wilson 2002), classified as mentally retarded or suffering from a learning disability (Harry et al. 2000), and tracked into remedial curricular tracks devoid of any advanced placement or honors courses (Conchas 2006; Howard 2008; Oakes 2005). Thus, a deeper understanding of the unique struggles faced by this population, and the identification of potential solutions, remain critical for scholars of race and education.

In this chapter, we present the results of a qualitative case study that investigated 1) Black male students’ perspectives on the salience and consequences of racial stereotypes perpetuated within an ethnoracially diverse high school; 2) these students’ reactions to the racial stereotypes; and 3) the relationship between students’ reactions to the stereotypes and an afterschool program designed to increase their social and cultural capital. Our findings indicate that Black male students wage a constant struggle against a variety of racial stereotypes within high school and popular media contexts that systematically criminalize them, and that a supportive academic structure can function as a social buffer against the negative effects of racial stereotypes in schools.

Authors

• Sean Drake, University of California-Irvine

• Gilberto Q. Conchas, University of California-Irvine

• Leticia Oseguera, Pennsylvania State University