Critical Pedagogy and STEM Education for African American males-2
The Problem is Larger than STEM Access and Achievement
In developing quality, critical instruction for hyper-marginalized students we must be fully aware of the reality that the many of the students that we are endeavoring to serve, low-income, first-in-family, etc., face a slew of circumstances that are specific to them, but due to no fault of their own. Contrary to the negative stereotypical depictions promulgated in mass media and in K-12 education, nationally, we were convinced that there exists no innate or intrinsic cultural and/or cognitive deficits in the hyper-marginalized students. What is more, we have to come to realize that much of the low educational achievement of these groups, the so-called achievement gap, is in fact based on structural and institutionalized, long-standing racist apparatuses (Leonardo, 2010; Delpit, 2012), which inform all aspects of their lived experiences. In the section below, we will start this module by centering the lived-experiences of African American males as a microcosm of the struggles that far too many low-income, first generation students of color face vis-a-vis STEM education.
Canaries in the Mineshaft
African American Males and STEM Education
According to Skinner (2008) a community’s health can be gauged by how well black men and boys are doing within it. That is to say, black males represent the proverbial canary in the mineshaft. If Skinner’s claim is accurate—we are all in trouble. According to Noguera (2008): Black males in America are in trouble. With respect to health, education, employment, income, and overall well-being, all of the most reliable data consistently indicate that Black males constitute a segment of the population that is distinguished by hardships, disadvantages, and vulnerability (2008:11).
Noguera’s troubling observation is, sadly, yet unsurprisingly, supported by report after report, year after year. For example, the 2012 Level Playing Field Institute (LPFI) report on STEM Educational Inequality (Scott and Martin, 2012) found that there are still glaring inequalities in our state’s educational outcomes. This is especially true for African American males, especially when the level of specificity for the data collected is disaggregated for STEM-related educational preparedness and attainment. The stark reality is that our schooling of African American boys does not foment the nutritive educational space that all children need (Marsh, J. H., Mendoza Denton, R., & Adam Smith, J., 2010); instead, they normalize and reify the pressures, pejorative stereotypes (Steele, 2010; Leonardo, 2010; Duncan Andrade & Morrell, 2008), and academic failings of African American boys. Far too often (purportedly oppositional) culture, ethnicity, community, pigment, parenting and or comportment of black boys are used to obfuscate or elide authentic and potentially transformative conversations about the systemic, institutionalized racist apparatuses at the root of the educational under-performance of black boys.
According to reports from the Level Playing Field Institute (Scott, 2010; Scott and Martin, 2012), the STEM opportunity gap for African American students is profound. For example, just 43% of African American students reach proficiency in 5th grade science compared to 80% for Asians and Whites. By 6th grade with respect to math proficiency, 46 percentage points separate African American (35%) from Asian students (81%). Throughout middle and high school, proficiency rates in math and science continue to decline insuring that African American students are less likely to access and be successful in rigorous college preparatory coursework in these subjects. Predictably, very few graduate from college with degrees and career opportunities in STEM, the fields with seven of the top ten fastest-growing occupations between 2010 and 2020 (Scott & Martin, 2012).
These statistics are troubling for African American students generally, and though not disaggregated by gender, they are even more problematic for African American males who have the highest school dropout rates of any demographic category. For example, data on black males and public education in all 50 states in the U.S. indicate that they remain at the bottom of high school graduation rates in all but 13 states, and in those 13 states, Latino males are on the bottom (Scott & Martin, 2012). Clearly, there is a need to dramatically change the language, curriculum, and pedagogy utilized for learning STEM as well as other academic subjects as a human right in education for African Americans and, ultimately, for all students.
Interrogating White Supremacist-based Perceptions of African American Maleness
Racism, which is predicated on a delusional and perverse notion of white supremacy (Roberts, 2011; Roediger, 1991), rests upon a pernicious, manufactured and patently false dialectical relationship with whiteness positioned as the thesis, and, blackness, seemingly forever positioned as its antithesis. This dialectical relationship was overt, violent, and ubiquitous and accepted—both socially and juridically—for much of American history. However, more recently whiteness has transmogrified. The overt hatred characterized by the peculiar institution of American Chattel Slavery, the three-fifths compromise, lynching, Jim Crow Laws, Separate But Equal Laws, segregation, and personified by the KKK, are no longer palatable for the general populace. So racism has become less overt, in many respects (Leonardo, 2010). Young black men can no longer be lynched by groups of whites with impunity; unless, of course in place of a noose, there is a gun, and in the place of angry white mobs there are uniformed law enforcement officers or overzealous pseudo-peace officers like George Zimmerman. Black youth culture has been forcibly and dangerously conflated with macro-level societal ills like violence and crime (Mahiri & Conner, 2003). This recriminatory strategy, which blames those victimized by white supremacy for their injurious relationship to it, employs ideological state apparatuses (e.g., schools, media, etc.) in the place of the more expensive and resource-intensive repressive state apparatuses (e.g., KKK, militia groups, police, military, etc.) it once relied heavily upon, in order to ensure the continued promulgation of the white supremacist agenda (Althusser, 1971; Leonardo, 2010)
Media is one of the most affective and, therefore, effective ideological state apparatuses. Ultra-conservative voices like DiIulio (1995) and Bennett (2005) along with a host of other conservative “pundits” have vilified black boys born to single mothers in impoverished communities for decades. This ethos is captured in DiIulio’s (1995) “Superpredator” theory. Scholarship in the vein of DiIulio’s tenuous theory serve to promulgate fear, racial profiling, and a deadly reification of negative, Black (I use the term Black interchangeably with African American throughout this study) male stereotypes, which is why purported claims of fear for one’s life, when face to face with an unarmed Black man in the minds of people who accept these problematic stereotypes, somehow, allows for juridically sanctioned murder of unarmed Black boys and men. This negative reification of Blackness is convenient for white supremacists capitalistic endeavors as well: Black males are grossly over-represented in the multi-billion dollar prison industrial complex (Alexander, 2010). This is Chattel Slavery, reformulated. According to Sabol, West, and Cooper (2010), the Bureau of Justice statistics data showed “an estimated 4.8% of Black men were in prison or jail, compared to 1.9% of Hispanic men and .7% white men.” In reality, the incarceration rates of African American people have been on the decline from 41.3% in 2000 to 38.6% in 2006 (Sabol et al., 2010); however, this is not the popular narrative because this narrative has the potential to begin unraveling the web of inconsistencies that white supremacy necessitates for its continued existence and prominence.
Still, Black males are more than six times as likely as White males to be incarcerated in this country (Alexander, 2010).
Entrenched structural and institutionalized racism carry the negative potential to adversely affect, seemingly, every facet of African American males’ personhood, from identity formation and development to material advancement opportunities and actual, legal freedom(Alexander, 2010). The realities of limited access to equitable, STEM education for African American males functions as a microcosm for this macro-level reality.
To be clear, STEM barriers are not unique to African American males. The United States produces fewer White STEM professionals compared to past years. And, other traditionally marginalized groups like women and Latinos continue to lag behind European-American men with regard to STEM degrees, and consequently STEM careers, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
That said, the situation is far more pronounced, and far more exigent for African American males. According to the National Center for Education Statistics
( Links to an external site.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/24/stem-education-and-jobs-d_n_1028998.html Links to an external site.) Links to an external site.:
- Black people are 12 percent of the U.S. population and 11 percent of all students beyond high school. In 2009, they received just 7 percent of all STEM bachelor's degrees, 4 percent of master's degrees, and 2 percent of PhDs, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
- From community college through PhD level, the percentage of STEM degrees received by blacks in 2009 was 7.5 percent, down from 8.1 percent in 2001.
- The numbers are striking in certain fields. In 2009, African-Americans received 1 percent of degrees in science technologies, and 4 percent of degrees in math and statistics. Out of
5,048 PhDs awarded in the physical sciences, such as chemistry and physics, 89 went to
African-Americans – less than 2 percent. (National Science Board report, 2010: http://1.usa.gov/nwHbku Links to an external site.) Links to an external site.
According to the article that the above-mentioned data comes from “several factors are cited by scientists, educators and students” that shine light on why this gap has remained persistent. One is a self-defeating perception that STEM is too hard, which can be attributed to, among other things, racist stereotyping and stereotype threat (Steele, 2010). Also mentioned is a lack of role models and mentors, which delimits these students’ ability to fully develop a STEM identity as well as socioeconomic pressure to earn money quickly because of impoverished living conditions, and discouraging academic environments, like inequitable, subpar schooling. These “discouraging academic environments,” according to Freire (1997) are the direct result of the alienating, disempowering, and stultifying banking model of education. The counter to the banking model of education which is purposely anti-critical is critical, emancipatory pedagogical practices which center students’ real life experiences (Gutstein, 2006). The oppressive pedagogical practices that Freire and Gutstein are seeking to disrupt exist and have become ubiquitous and entrenched for African American males due in large part to both the perceived academic/cognitive deficiencies in African American males and their purported penchant for criminality.
The Transmogrification of Black Males: Thugs and Threats
The word “thug” has become synonymous with African-American male. There is no discernible difference in either words usage by many of the people who report on the murders of unarmed African American Males. For them, the two words seem to be interchangeable. This, of course, is an issue of framing. During slavery, the Negro was depicted as a happy-go-lucky pickaninny, who was wholly reliant on the slave master to provide for him; this was a justification for the peculiar institution of American chattel slavery (Fanon, 1968). This image changed during Jim Crow (Alexander, 2010): the happy-go-lucky Negro was transmogrified into the black Brute (as a new justification for the abject violence that was visited upon African Americans by whites, and a justification for segregation). This is illustrated by the willful discursive shift from the term Negro to that of the dreaded nigger. No longer was the Negro a peaceful, God-fearing oaf akin to some semblance of a farm animal; instead, he became a rapacious, licentious nigger who was only interested in defiling the “virginal” white woman (Lott, 1993). This is the imagery, with the requisite caricatures, that has won the day at the present time. And, because of this, African-American males have been permanently positioned as a threat; and, in many instances reactions to them are based on this positioning. Homicide becomes “justifiable” when one feels as though their life is in danger and that there is no way to avoid bodily injury. This is especially true when law enforcement is accused of wrongdoing.
That is to say, the notion of justifiable homicide, when exercised on an African American male—armed or not, requires decidedly less justification.
So, then, it follows that if people have been led to believe that African-American males, all African-American males, are threats irrespective of who they are individually, then, the rationale for justifiable homicide and the burden of proof for justifiable homicide is much lower. This is the result of the masses having been coerced into believing, over many years, that all African-American males represent a real and present danger—a threat. This is not only true of police officers; this is also true of the people who would serve as jurors on a potential grand jury or any case that brings charges against an officer who has been charged with violating an African-American male’s civil rights.
And, the sad reality is for many Americans is that this makes perfect sense. That is to say, these travesties of justice, when unarmed African American men, women, and children are gunned down in interactions with law enforcement, are viewed as instances of justifiable homicide precisely because African-Americans have been positioned as a threats, irrespective the presence or absence of threatening behavior, or a weapon, or whether or not they are adults capable of making adult decisions. Now to be clear, this is not a recrimination of police. The vast majority of police officers, White police officers, do not kill unarmed African-American males. That is not something to be applauded, mind you—but it is true. The fact that that this statement needs to be uttered, or in this case written down, speaks volumes. But, I am of the opinion that instances of police shooting unarmed African American males like Michael Brown and Tamir Rice (a twelve-year old child, playing with a toy gun in an open-carry state) is informed by both the non-conscious and conscious (erroneous) conflation of African American male and threat. This problematic (and patently false) association on the one hand informs police officers interactions with African American males and, simultaneously, supersedes any one interaction between white police officers and African American males. That is to say, the idea that all African American males are threats and must be subdued is present whether or not a particular African American male is in fact a threat (Miller, 2011). This is true in our school system as well (Ferguson, 2001).
Back to this idea of threat, the most telling part of it is that this correlation only works one way. An African-American male would be able to say that he killed a white man out of fear, based on the real history of atrocities visited upon him by European Americans in this country. But, this is essentially the primary thesis that supports arguments around justifiable homicide in relation to purported fear-based murders of African American males by European American police officers (and in far too many cases, citizens as well).
Switching gears, oftentimes conversations around the killing of unarmed African American males by people by white men especially by white male police officers, comes up questions around fratricidal violence within the Black community, i.e., Black on Black violence, are brought to the fore. This is, undoubtedly, an exigent matter. Rates of Black on Black violence are heartbreakingly high (Miller, 2011). This is not due to some intrinsic criminality, some innate disregard for lawfulness by African-American males. Rather, it has much more to do with structural and institutionalized inequity that is made manifest by the lack of opportunity for well-paying jobs, academic success, access to health and wellness resources, and the negative effects of pernicious stereotyping (Alexander, 2010). And, what’s routinely left out of these conversations is that fratricidal violence is not the exclusive domain of African-American males. The greatest threat to White males as far as murder is concerned is other White males; this is also true of Brown (i.e., Latino/Chicano/Hispanic) males.
I am not dismissive when it comes to conversations around fratricidal violence within the African American community. A loss of life is tragic no matter whom the perpetrator is. This is especially true when the lives that are prematurely snuffed out are of preteens and teenagers who irrespective of whatever mistakes they may or may not have made are disallowed the opportunity to learn from them and move on to become more reflective and more thoughtful people, as a result.
The Problematic Framing of African American Males in Mass Media
Conversation around the purported criminality and lack of educational success for African American males is decontextualized. It has become common practice to turn a blind eye to the macro-level problems that catalyze the disproportionate rates of crime in predominately African American communities (Alexander, 2010; Miller, 2011): deeply entrenched structural and institutionalized racist practices and apparatuses in all aspects of African American males lives, e.g., in the workforce, in education, legally, etc. Instead, conversations about the innate, intrinsic pathology of poor, urban African American communities seems to be the narrative that informs much of the conversations, specifically in mass media (Alexander, 2010), around what happens in predominately African American enclaves throughout this country. Fox News, the number one news outlet in the United States, speaks about the deaths of unarmed African American men as though they happen in a pseudo atemporal vacuum. This purposeful framing elides potentially transformative conversations that may serve to demystify the outrage of the African American community when one of its members is murdered, in cold blood, by real or pseudo-agents of law and order (Fanon & Sartre, 1965).
The Adultification of African American Males
African-American males are not allowed to make mistakes. I have been alive long enough to know that young people make mistakes. Much of my professional life is spent working with young people (specifically, African-American males), and, sometimes preteens and teenagers do things without weighing the implications or possible consequences of their actions. And while many people are aware of the fact that young people sometimes act on impulse, rather than forethought and planning, African-American males are not afforded the same benefit of the doubt that non-African-American males, or more specifically European American males are afforded especially vis-à-vis interactions with law enforcement.
For example, a widely-circulated (viral) video of a young man in a police station wrestling with several police officers was brought to the fore during the news coverage of the indignation and unrest that the deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice (among others) unearthed. The young (European American) male in this video can be seen fighting with police officers for a few minutes, and at one point he was able to grab a police officer’s holstered weapon and actually fire off a shot in the police station, thereby qualifying him as armed and dangerous, i.e., as a real threat. However, this young man, this European American young man, was not shot. When this story broke, this young man was never described as thug. Instead, it was made very clear that this young man was on drugs and was “not himself.” We were led to believe that he simply made a mistake, an egregious and dangerously illegal mistake; however, he is still very much alive. The officers involved were applauded for their restraint. African American males are much less likely to receive the protections afforded to people who are perceived as inherently innocent (Goff, DiTammaso, et al., 2014).
Unlike the European male described above, this was not the case for Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown. Both of their characters were impugned. They were, essentially and successfully put on trial for their own murders. They were not afforded the benefit of the doubt. But, instead, were depicted as Bigger Thomas-esque (Wright, 1940) thugs who were potential threats that needed to be neutralized, permanently. (Obviously, these two cases are not identical. George Zimmerman, to the credit of police forces everywhere, was never allowed to wear a police badge.) This is the unfortunate reality that far too many African American males face, and instead of providing safe haven from these exigent and dangerous realities, schools that are made up of predominately low-income African American students often reproduce these constant aggressions (Sue, 2010).
This should come as no surprise according to Duncan Andrade and Morrell (2008): they argue that our national education system was designed to underserve (or in their words, fail) hyper-marginalized students. Racism is far from dead in this country (Leonardo, 2010). If there is doubt, one need look no further than the ever-increasing achievement gap, which is due in large part to racist educational policies (Kozol, 2005; Giroux, 2011; Leonardo, 2010), poorlyprepared urban teachers (Delpit, 2012), and the prevalence and over-determination of deficitmodel thinking (Valencia, 1997).
It goes without saying that in today’s hyper-competitive, technological economy, graduating from high school and subsequently obtaining a postsecondary degree can mean the difference between a lifetime of poverty and a secure economic future. However, in the United States, high school graduation and college-readiness rates are alarmingly low, particularly among students of color. The numbers for African-American male students are especially disheartening: less than 47 percent of African-American male students graduate from high school within four years; and of the ones that do, fewer still are adequately prepared with the necessary skills needed for college admission (and ultimately, college success).
Many researchers here in the United States have investigated and theorized on the root causes of the long-standing “educational gap” (or more specifically, an educational gulf) between poor minority students, especially African American and Latino students and higher socio-economic status Whites and Asians, respectively. Despite the corpus of research and subsequent reforms and policy changes which purportedly seek to bridge this gap, very little has actually changed. Poor Brown and Black students still do far worse on standardized testing; also, Brown and Black students continue to be grossly underrepresented in college enrollment and alarmingly overrepresented in our Nation’s multi-billion-dollar prison industrial complex. To this point Steele (2010) argues that year after year, African American students fall further behind their European American counterparts.
This is especially true with regard to outcomes in STEM, there are glaring inequities in educational attainment: By the 6th grade, only 35% of African-American students in California performed at grade level in mathematics, compared to 67% of White students and 80 percent of Asian students (Scott, 2010). Just 16 percent of African-American students enroll in Algebra II, which is required to meet eligibility guidelines to apply to attend a public university in California. Of these students who enroll in Algebra II, only 14% of African-American students mastered the content and reached proficiency. In 2009, only 1,551 African-American students were enrolled in a STEM discipline across all UC campuses. This represents just 2% of all STEM undergraduates (ibid.). However, seven of the top ten fastest-growing occupations over the next ten years are in STEM fields (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009), which, again is a consideration, but is not, necessarily, the impetus for this program. The impetus of this program was to provide low-income African American male middle schoolers with the opportunity to learn and excel in STEM while carving out a STEM identity as young people who are encouraged, equipped, and empowered to use their STEM knowledge to uplift their communities.