First, make sure you aren’t interpreting behavior selectively: it’s like how behavior that is assertive on a man looks pushy on a woman: there are so many media images of angry black youth that I think, among new teachers, there is a certain fear factor–like they have no idea what that strange black boy is capable of, whereas they assume the white boy is not a threat because they identify with him. So undesirable behavior on the white kid’s part is viewed as empty posturing and the same behavior from black kids is seen as a credible threat, and its importance magnified. I am not saying you are doing this, just that I’ve seen it, and in my first years teaching, was guilty of it myself.
I am a white teacher teaching in an “urban” school: we are about 30% African American, 15% white, the rest Hispanic and various international groups. To make it even fun, we have almost no real middle class: the white kids tend toward ‘filthy rich’ and the minority kids, by and large, are SES disadvantaged. It makes it very difficult to separate out race and class, and there is no doubt that the two things interact, and all I can comment about are the things I’ve seen at my school.
One thing that I see at my school is that African Americans are extraordinarily underrepresented in advanced classes. Because of this, you have a lot more bright, bored African Americans in regular classes, where they can easily do well enough to make a B–all they want–and where they tend to become ringleaders and trouble makers, attracting other, less capable kids and serving as negative role-models–they fuck around and still make ok grades, so the less capable kids feel like they are entitled to fuck around, too, except they can’t, if they want to pass.
So the solution, at least as far as I can see, is to get more African Americans into the advanced classes. I have almost no African American males in my AP classes. This is the pattern across the school. The reasons for this have caused me many sleepless nights and long conversations with both my peers and my students. Possible reasons for this that people have suggested:
-
Simple racism. There’s no doubt that people have an idea of what a “smart” kid looks like, and it’s not a thug. Now, very, very bright African American kids are still identified as smart and pushed into AP classes, and very slow rich white kids are pushed towards regular classes. It’s the middle where preconceptions come in: a middle-of-the-road white kid will often be put into the advanced classes and everyone assumes they are just kinda slackers. A middle-of-the-road African American kid is, IME, more likely to be pointed towards the regular classes.
-
The ‘sports’ culture. It’s taken as a given that regular (not AP) 7th period classes are TERRIBLE, because that’s when kids in sports have practice, and all the regular kids that are worth a damn are in sports. There’s no doubt that among the African American boys, that’s where the glory is. It’s hard to tell if the sports are overall positive or negative for these kids: on one hand, it’s amazing to see kids that focused, that driven–those same kids that drive you crazy in class are perfectly obedient, team players on the field, pushing themselves as hard as they possibly can for coach’s approval. They want something badly enough to work on it, and that’s a heck of a thing. On the other hand, sports take so much time that it makes advanced classes problematic–when football or basketball or baseball are in season, those coaches OWN those kids from 3:00 on, and many of them miss a lot of class, too. Many kids can be a scholar OR an athlete, but fewer (of any race) can be both. The white kids tend to pick scholar: the black kids tend to pick athlete.
-
Social issues. To some degree, it’s a self-fufilling prophesy. When you walk by an AP class and see every color but your own, you don’t feel like you belong there. If you get talked into giving the class a chance, you feel like the odd one out (in large part because the kids that have always been in these classes are total snots toward you), and the people you hang out with feel like you’ve left them behind. Our rich white kids are all in the same AP classes together, so when one has a huge project due and can’t go out, they all have a big project due and can’t go out, so you don’t feel like you are missing anything. On the other hand, if no one else even has homework and they are in fact pissed at you for turning them down because you do, it’s easy to just say “screw this”.
This also means they don’t lose face when they drop out of advanced classes. I have no doubt that many of my rich white kids would RUN from my class except that it conflicts with their self-image as one of the AP kids. The African-American kids don’t have that peer pressure working for them.
- Lack of understanding of the system. Every year I have a great, involved, but undereducated African American mother pull their son or daughter out of my class because they are making Cs. They are focused on high school graduation as the goal and mostly worried that their child won’t graduate. Hispanic parents, overall, are more willing to follow a teacher’s advice about keeping their kid in an advanced class.
To sum up, in my experience, there are many factors that make it difficult for African Americans–especially the “rather bright” kids–to excel academically. Because of this, the kids don’t take school seriously and act out. It’s a terrible cycle and the solutions lay in changing the system, not individuals. If you can find a way to do that, write a book and make a million dollars.