Neoliberalism,Black Masculinity,and Black Male Youth: The Value Of Transdisciplinary Studies To Urban Educators

Drawing on Critical Race Theory and a transdisciplinary framework, this article considers how hegemonic neoliberal discourses contribute to and reinforce negative constructions of Black masculinity and the implications for educating Black male youth (BMY). Neoliberal secondary educational reforms of the last three decades in Ontario, which have resulted in heightened standardization in schools and promote norms of individual attainment, competition, and social control, have served to intensify the stigmatization and alienation BMY. In response to the interlocking racial, gendered, and class oppression they experience within the prevailing neoliberal context, many BMY have increasingly embraced a defensively situated resistant Black masculinity. We argue that, rather than viewing the communities and counternarratives of BMY as sites of deficiency, educators need to conceptualize the experiential knowledge of such young people as that which can nourish transdisciplinary knowledge production and be integrated into classroom curricula and pedagogy. Inviting the cultural wealth of BMY into school can help bridge the divide between schools and the communities of such youth, thereby making mainstream schooling more inclusive by diversifying curricula, democratizing the classroom, and challenging the neoliberalization of education. The authors highlight Hip-Hop as an example of cultural wealth that illuminates the knowledge and lived realities of BMY and can be utilized by urban educators to promote academic engagement and intercultural exchange in classrooms.     

Black children's perceptions of Black English

In studying the perception of differences between Black English and Standard English by 48 first-grade, urban, Black children, BE and SE were partitioned into content, i.e., syntax and lexicon, and style, i.e., suprasegmentals or prosodic features of phonology. A discrimination task was designed to test whether the subjects could perceive differences in terms of style or content or both. Accurate discriminations were related to language variety preference and school and home-street register maintenance. The results indicated BE style to be as significantly related to BE preference and register maintenance as BE content when the two were separated.     

Black Women

No abstract available for this article.     

“It's Like Power to Move”: Black Students’ Psychosocial Experiences in Black Studies Courses at a Predominantly White Institution

This study examined Black students’ experiences in culture‐centered courses that focused on the historical and contemporary experiences of Blacks in America and across the African diaspora. Using a qualitative approach, the authors investigated the perceptions of how Black Studies courses shaped the psychosocial experiences and identity development of Black students (N = 24) at a predominantly White institution. Data from semistructured focus group interviews revealed several themes, including psychological empowerment, self‐determination, counterspaces, and community perpetuity. The authors suggest ways counselors and educators can support Black students’ psychosocial development and provide outreach to diverse student populations. Este estudio examinó las experiencias de estudiantes negros en cursos centrados en la cultura que se enfocaron en las experiencias históricas y contemporáneas de personas negras en Estados Unidos y a lo largo de la diáspora africana. Usando un enfoque cualitativo, los autores investigaron las percepciones sobre cómo los cursos de Cultura Negra dieron forma a las experiencias psicosociales y al desarrollo de la identidad de estudiantes negros (N = 24) en una institución predominantemente blanca. Los datos obtenidos de entrevistas semiestructuradas en grupos de enfoque revelaron varios temas que incluyen el empoderamiento psicológico, la autodeterminación, los espacios seguros y la perpetuidad de la comunidad. Los autores sugieren distintas formas en las que los consejeros y educadores pueden apoyar el desarrollo psicosocial de los estudiantes negros y proporcionar un acercamiento a poblaciones diversas de estudiantes.     

On Black Intelligence

If a tree is to be judged by its fruit, if the intelligence of a race bears any relation to its accomplishment, it seems difficult to draw any conclusion other than that the black and brown races are inferior to the white race. R. S. Ellis, The Psychology of the Individual, 1928, p. 284.