The Miseducation of a Black American Boy

by Justin Patton

Question Everything!!

I never questioned the information because I didn’t know that I had to. The fact that I could be taught something that was wrong was not even a thought in my mind. I figured if it was in a history book it must be true. As a kid, never was I given the impression that everything needed to be questioned. 

History 

As a black boy, I knew my history started with slavery. Then after Abraham Lincoln set us free, it was civil rights. I took pride in my history because I always felt that my people were fighters. We were always the underdogs and had to fight for everything we wanted and deserved. 

On the other hand, was my school force feeding me slavery like that was all black people are known for? Whether slavery or civil rights, do we always have to be looked down upon?

Let’s talk slavery in the context of how discrimination based on race laid the foundation for many under-served black and brown communities today. The Civil Rights Act was just signed 54 years ago. Our Society is not so far removed from that type of prejudice.

From my history, Africa was a big, poor country. It’s where most other black people resided and where I came from, but it’s full of poverty and corruption. That’s why it’s so important for you to call the 1–800 number and sponsor an impoverished African child for 10¢/day. 

The story was never that Africa was the largest continent with the most natural resources of any land. The story was never about how exploitation of ‘the Motherland’ for those same resources has led to even more corruption and war. The same thing continues to this day. Taught no self-worth just the blood of slave.” 

American history in school always left me feeling 3/5 human. Thankfully, my family instilled a history in me that made me proud of the lineage in which I came. Having parents who lived through the height of the civil rights era in the south gave me a firsthand account of how life was, and an appreciation for the people before me who fought for my freedom. 

It was not until I was older that I realized Columbus didn’t discover America, and that the Pilgrims didn’t necessarily make friends with the Natives. It was not until I was older that I realized how history from a European point of view had shaped not only how I viewed my ancestors, but how I viewed myself.

Religion 

Growing up Catholic, religion was given to me at an early age. Before I could comprehend what I was talking about, I could recite a ‘Hail Mary’ at any time. In school, we would attend mass every Friday, and we went as a family on Sundays. 

While I understood the values that my religion was teaching, I didn’t understand why no one in the depictions looked like me? Not Jesus, not Mary and Joseph, nor the disciples or even the modern day popes had skin like mine. 

In religion class, the workbooks contained people with mostly fair skin. Depictions of Jesus in the church was a man with European features including white skin. Not seeing myself in my place of worship made me feel like I wasn’t good enough at times, because it seemed like we weren’t good enough to be represented.  

Seeing images of white people (and white people only) as the most righteous people in my church and Catholic school played a part in me not appreciating my own features. I wanted hair like white boys because their hair moved when we played soccer. I thought having blue or green eyes was so much cooler than just plain old brown.

While the faith gave me a moral compass as a child, the miseducation came through the images which seem to reinforce the old saying that “white is right”, and since I wasn’t white, was I wrong? 

Survival Tactics 

If it was not for the love and belief that my family instilled in me, I’m not sure that I would be able to say today that I love the skin that I’m in. As a black boy in America, it is made clear that you’re at a disadvantage due to the color of your skin by the survival tactics that you’re taught early. 

I was taught an early age that if I was going to succeed in life, then I had to be twice as good as other people simply because I was black. This may be the reality of our country, but it reinforced a notion that this outlook was okay. 

Like I should just accept this because that’s just the way it is. As if because of my color, I’m not good enough, therefore I must work harder. I was taught at an early age that if I was going to survive an encounter with the police, then I need to act in the most respectable manner possible, regardless of how the cop is acting. 

Even if the cop is the aggressor, I am to obey by any mean necessary. While this is probably the best course of action, what message does that send to a young black boy when he is told to respect the cops because there’s a good chance that you could get killed for NOTHING! 

“What one does realize is that when you try to stand up and look the world in the face like you had a right to be here, without knowing that this is the result of it, you have attacked the entire power structure of the Western world.” -James Baldwin 

The most important survival tactic that America taught me was to know my place. My American heroes were the ones who had the audacity to speak out against injustices regarding black people, a crime obviously punishable by death as it related to Martin and Malcolm. 

I learned from Ali that no matter how hard my right hook was, standing up for a cause being black could get me thrown in jail. How could America treat these people so bad while alive, but idolize them upon their death? 

The Miseducation Continues 

If it was not for having a family who took pride in their skin color, and the struggles of being black in America, I’m sure that my sense of self would lack what it is today. 

Juggling a dual life of being myself around family, but tucking in my culture to fit white America’s mold created an internal conflict within me. However, it was through seeking true knowledge and self-awareness that I was able to counter (and still countering) this conflict within. 

Having gone through America’s educational system up to the point of receiving advanced degrees, I have spent much of my adult life unlearning much of the information, and seeking different perspectives rather than just American perspectives on events throughout history. 

I’ve tried my best to erase images in mind that make black Americans feel less than, and replace them with knowing the impact black people have had on American culture. I combat the negative notions of black people by creating content that uplifts not only the black race, but the human race. 

What’s most disappointing about my miseducation, is that I can still see how the cycle continue. Politicians make slavery references, and speak in code as if we do not hear them. The media shows images of black men being gunned down by police over and over again, and cops getting away with it. 

We are still taught Columbus discovered America, like he didn’t kill off many natives. We celebrate Thanksgiving like it’s a time of joy, when it was a actually a time of suffering for black and brown people. Imagine how these images and stories shape the psyche of a black American boy? 

While there are a lot more positive images of black people in America in the media, as executives, and as leaders in public policy, we still have a ways to go. 

Until we can address deep rooted race issues in America that keep black and brown people at a disadvantage economically, financially, educationally, and even mentally, race relations will continue being an issue. 

Until black American boys like myself can understand their power and get a sense of self-worth through American institutions, the miseducation of who they truly are will continue.

Very-Very Few Black Males in the Medical Profession, Black Male Mentoring Has the Responsibility in Increasing These Numbers

by Kenny Anderson

Recently I attended my 25 year-old son’s college graduation in Bismarck, North Dakota; he received a Doctor’s degree in Physical Therapy, he was the only Black graduate of a class of 48 students. 

As I sat through my son's graduation ceremony I thought about that earlier this month April 4th marked the 50th anniversary of the racist political assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. That in 50 years in the post-civil rights era my son would be the only Black person graduating in his class. 

I looked at a recent study stating less than four percent of the physical therapy professionals are Black and less than one percent of those are Black males. Will it take another 50 years ‘2068’ to increase Black male Doctors in Physical Therapy to 2 percent!

Indeed, like the paltry number of Black male Doctors in Physical Therapy, the percentage of Black male medical doctors are very-very low. Currently there are fewer Black males applying to and attending medical school than in 1978; Black men enrolled in medical school in 1978 was 542 than in 2014, when only 515 enrolled.

David Williams of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s remarked that America needs more Black doctors, particularly Black male doctors, so that Black people will have more access to providers who are culturally connected to them who understand their lives and their challenges as much as their clinical needs. 

Williams cited one study that found that white doctors were less empathetic to Black patients near the end of their lives than Black doctors were. Another study found that a group of medical students thought wrongly that Blacks’ blood coagulates faster than that of whites, and that Blacks have more pain tolerance than whites. Increasing the number of Black doctors can increase the cultural competency of non-Black doctors around them to better understand the culture and circumstances of Black patients.

Many reports, surveys, and studies have found that Black doctors are far more likely than white doctors to establish practices and provide health care in Black communities; and that Black patients have expressed greater confidence in and satisfaction with the quality of care that they provide.

There’s been barely perceptible progress over a 50-year period with only 3.8 percent of medical doctors being Black and nowhere near representing 15 percent of their percentage of the US population. 

Due to racism that causes the uneven and poor quality of public education I don’t see the number of Black male medical professionals improving too much in the future; as professor Kimi Wilson stated: 

“I’ve learned how schools have traumatized generations of Black children in their quest to learn math and science. Thus, we as a nation must come to terms with who is encouraged and supported in Science Technology Engineering Math (STEM) education - because clearly it isn’t Black people. I urge Black adults to visit a math and science classroom in their local schools and observe the type of pedagogies and learning occurring among Black children. Are Black youth positioned to transform their communities using math and science? Are images of Black mathematicians and scientists visible? If the answer to any of these questions is no, Black boys will remain distressed, and this places math and science education for them in a state of emergency.”

Regarding my son’s success in achieving a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, a major contributing factor along with his hard work 'commitment', was his exposure to strong Black males and participating in a Male Responsibility program that instilled in him Black self-esteem/self-confidence and educational expectations. 

From my perspective as a mentor it will take Black male mentoring intervention to play a very key role in encouraging and supporting (tutoring) Black boys to pursue careers in the medical profession.

Is The Road to Special Education For Black Boys Paved With the White Educator's Paperwork

by Kelli Seaton

“This ink pen is my weapon.” - Anonymous Teacher

Many studies note that there is an over identification of Black boys to special education. While serving as the Teach For America Vice President with Teacher Leadership Development in Greater Philadelphia, I had the opportunity to spend time in classes in Trenton, Camden, and Philadelphia.

In this role, I saw 3rd grade special education classes that were 100% Black males and 9th grade special education classes that were 93% Black males. This dynamic was unsettling and gave me reason to think more deeply about the root causes and solutions to the over representation of Black boys to special education.

Before examining root causes and potential solutions, it’s important to consider elements of history that have influenced why the education force looks the way it does. In February of 2017, USA TODAY wrote,

“The dilemma is, in part, a little-known and unintended legacy of the Brown decision. Because most white communities in the 1950s and 1960s preferred white teachers over black ones, court-ordered desegregation often ended the teaching careers of black educators. One historian, Emory University’s Vanessa Siddle Walker, has said the culture of black teaching ‘died with Brown.’ ”

Given what has happened in the 50s and 60s, the following comment from Paul Beare, Dean of California State University-Fresno’s Kremen School of Education, makes perfect sense.

“Few minorities, especially men, think about becoming teachers. Many have simply never had minority teachers themselves, and so they don’t identify with the idea.” As we consider the root causes and solutions for the over identification of Black boys to special education, let’s also think about how the teaching and education force shifted to its current demographic - because therein lies a systemic resolution. In conversations with several culturally competent special educators, they shared some root causes for the over identification of Black boys in special education:

Root cause #1: Many White American educators see Black boys’ behavior as aberrant. “They don’t know how to respond to a black boy’s behavior; so they think he is being oppositional and then label him as oppositional defiant or attention deficit and hyperactive” instead of building relationships, understanding the rationale for his behavior, and incorporating this understanding into their teaching pedagogy.

Root cause #2: “School psychologists are often White women. I’ve worked with hundreds of school psychologists, mostly White women, and they hold students up to a lens that is often deficit based.” Several special educators also noted never having worked with a school psychologist that was Black and from an urban environment, though the student population in their schools is more than 90% Black.

Root cause #3: “Educators tend to not look at the teacher’s responsibility, the time of the day, the curriculum. Instead there tends to be blame on the home and the child.”

Root cause #4: “School psychologists sometimes fluff the data to save the school money in case something happens; there is a fear of being sued. And districts get more money for special education; so the more children identified with IEPs, the more money for schools and districts.”

In an article on the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Dr. Roy Jones, the director of the Call Me MISTER program, offers a word on diversifying.

“You just have to make it a priority, it’s not hard recruiting black athletes and if you put a premium and a value on recruiting master teachers, then it won’t be hard to recruit black males who want to teach.”

Educators offered the following solutions to the over identification of Black boys to special education–but this isn’t about incremental change. This is about re-imagining and redesigning the way we think about and engage with Black boys and all the components that touch their lives. And it certainly means diversifying the body of those making the decisions about Black boys as well as doing the mindset work with those currently in front of them and with their managers.

Educators need to study the over identification of Black males in special education and apply this learning to our coaching, instructional, leadership, recruiting, and hiring frameworks. “This topic needs to be a normalized conversation in schools and school systems–not just a conversation with Black educators but with all educators. When we love our students, we think about their experience and what is best for them.”

Collect data to find out the root causes of the challenges we are seeing and ask questions like:

*With what teacher does the child have challenges?
*At what time of day?
*With what teacher does this child have the most success?
*At what time of day?
*What’s the difference between the mindset and practices of the teacher who has success and the one that doesn’t?

How can we use what we learn in root cause analysis to coach, train, support, and evaluate teachers and school and district leaders? Actively recruit school psychologists of color, particularly from urban environments, to evaluate children, share their interpretation of the data, and coach, train, support, and evaluate staff–including school, network, and district leaders.

Recruit staff that have a passion for working with Black boys. Interview with this lens in mind. “Often the staff working with Black boys are not sincerely interested in Black boys. The typical school has about 22% of the students in special education. Though the national average for the population labeled emotionally disturbed is 3%, it’s 6% for Black boys.” Transforming how we view Black boys would decrease that number and increase the quality of education for Black boys.

Leadership matters. If you are a school, network, or district leader, and you have Black boys in your school, get passionate about them and their experience. What if you’re not passionate? What if you are simply not interested?

Identify a Black male student with whom you have a strong relationship, and imagine what it would take for you to replicate this relationship with other Black males. Then, replicate. Get feedback from Black male students about how you are doing. Be open. Listen. Engage.

Find staff that hold high expectations for Black males and interview them.Study them. Not in a creepy way, but in a vulnerable, open, permission-seeking kind of way. Embrace humility, try to see the world from the child’s perspective, and determine what you can change about your practices and mindsets. Then, commit to changing.

Engage in significant mindset work that will shift your perspective so that you become more passionate. This isn’t about perfection; this is about evolution; it’s about transformation. It’s about us facing our real selves and engaging in the work to shift the parts of us that don’t serve children well. It’s about committing to the reality that this evolution is a never-ending thing. That can feel exhausting. But as the children say, “It is what it is.” So let’s accept that and do the work.

Be honest with yourself. If you simply are not interested in doing the self-work necessary to serve Black boys, consider stepping down from your role. Yeah, this option is a hard one to swallow. But I firmly believe that every school year, before we recommit to another year, we need to ask ourselves if we are in the right position to serve - if the work we are doing is what we are called to do at that moment. Sometimes we are. Sometimes we aren’t.
Be honest with families. Let’s be transparent about the options parents have and help them think through the pros and cons. Let’s invite parent advocates to the table to help us serve parents best.

One educator said, “I had my son evaluated because I am an informed educator. I knew the tests I wanted them to administer and those that I did not. And I knew when I wanted him out of special education, which was the 8th grade. I did not want him going to high school with an IEP. High school teachers wouldn’t read his IEP, and because he is a Black boy, they would assume he was emotionally disturbed and treat him as if he could not learn. In the IEP meeting, I was very clear about what I expected. And I made sure the team didn’t penalize him for things connected to his disability.”

What about families that aren’t as experienced with special education? While serving as a principal, there were a few times when we engaged in litigious conversations with parents about special education issues. After one particular series of conversations, I remember thinking, “What if we treated all families as if they had the means, interest, and commitment to sue us and win? What might we do differently?”

Honestly, I think the entire school system would be revolutionized if every educator treated children and families with this notion of being sued (and losing the suit) in mind. But this isn’t not about fear, it’s about service and responsibility. It’s about honoring our commitment to families even if they don’t know how much they can expect of us.

Let’s imagine something for a moment. There is a Black father, Randy, who struggles to maintain employment. He was born and raised in an urban area. He moves outside of the city and hopes for a safer school for his children. Randy is not certified in special education. He does not know his parental rights; nor does he know what to ask or demand. He is 27-years-old and has a 5-year old son. Randy did not finish high school, nor did his father or his grandfather.

Imagine Randy at an IEP meeting, sitting at a conference table with 5 educators, all women - 4 of them White. Imagine his nervousness as he tries to simply follow the conversation. Imagine that this father feels as lost as if he were in a dark, windowless room in the middle of the desert, this father who is at the school and who wants to offer his son more than he had.

When you read about Randy, what do you feel? Compassion? Empathy? Disgust? What do you think? Are you judging him for not knowing? Blaming him for his ignorance? Are you thinking about the father’s responsibility or about your own responsibility as an educator? Are you wanting to do something? Do nothing? What are you noticing about your own thoughts and assumptions?

If your thoughts could be transformed into actions, and you were the son’s teacher, principal, or superintendent, what might that 5-year-old child be experiencing? Love? Disdain? Impatience? Understanding? Prejudice? And in what direction might those actions propel the child? Toward shame or success? Healing or humiliation?

To be clear, I am not saying that Randy is void of strengths or that we need to pity him. In fact, Randy is resilient, courageous, and visionary. He is also yet another Black father who isn’t receiving the best customer service from his son’s school.

There are folks out there who say that special education is the pipeline to prison. I believe them, especially for Black boys from lower income backgrounds whose parents have no experience navigating the nuances of special education.

Black boys, education, and prison - it’s really an embarrassment to this country. The thing is, to change what is happening with Black boys we need training and coaching and frameworks for sure.

We also need to develop a deeper empathy for those experiencing oppression in their everyday experience, simply because they are Black and male and live in America, even when that experience is not our own.

Importance of Mentoring Black Boys

by Matthew Lynch

Like many Black boys growing up in Cincinnati, Wesley Gallaher had dreams of becoming a star basketball player. However, soon after he entered the University of Cincinnati, he was contacted by members of a group called the Hearts and Minds Pipeline Program, which has teamed up with Mercy Health to provide minority students with exposure to medical professions. 

As founder Gary Favors says, “Our Black boys can do more than play athletics. We have to stop pigeon-holing them and start exposing them to other areas of interest.” 

African Americans are underrepresented in the medicine; in fact, only 2.5 percent of medical school entrants are Black, a number that appears to have stagnated a number that appears to have stagnate in recent years.

Favors worked closely with Gallaher, encouraging him to enter the medical field. Gallaher said, “A medical career was never in our scope growing up. It was never about being a doctor or engineer. It was all about being the next LeBron.” 

What Favors and other members of the mentoring group did for Gallaher was broaden that scope. Following Favors encouragement, Gallaher got his degree in medical science and now works as a technician in a lab at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He, in turn, has acted as a mentor in the Hearts and Minds program, offering others the chance to broaden their scope.

In a study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program published in Sage Journal, researchers Jean Grossman and Joseph Tierney stated: “Over the 18-month follow-up period, youths participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters Programs were significantly less likely to have started using illegal drugs or alcohol, hit someone, or skipped school. They were also more confident about their school performance and got along better with their families” (Grossman and Tierney 1998).

Other studies have turned up similar results. For example, Yolanda Barbier Gibson writes in the Journal of Mason Graduate Research

that African American males in mentoring programs tend to show higher self-esteem, higher levels of academic motivation, and performance. 

Also, evidence shows that when African American males have been given the opportunity to participate in higher education, and when well-conceived and formatted support systems such as mentoring programs are in place, they have been successful.”

At its best, mentoring redirects the focus from sports, music, and video games, giving Black boys support for intellectual pursuit they often lack at home or among their peers. 

An ideal mentor is a successful person in the community: someone who has completed his education and now has a solid job. 

These mentors offer tangible alternatives to the sports-and-entertainment visions Black boys obsess over and are often the only such role models the boys will encounter.

Do you think that providing Black boys with mentors will help them diversify their career options, as opposed to blindly choosing sports or entertainment?

4 troubling Truths About Black Boys and the US Educational System

by Matthew Lynch

Most people like to think that American K-12 schools, workplaces and courthouses are pillars of fairness, but statistic after statistic all point to a crisis among the young, Black men of the nation. 

This crisis begins in homes, stretches to K-12 educational experiences, and leads straight to the cycle of incarceration in increasingly high numbers.

In America's prison systems, black citizens are incarcerated at six times the rates of white ones - and the NAACP predicts that one in three of this generation of Black men will spend some time locked up.

Decreasing the rates of incarceration for black men may actually be a matter of improving educational outcomes for black boys in America. In his piece "A Broken Windows Approach to Education Reform," Forbes writer James Marshall Crotty makes a direct connection between drop-out and crime rates.

Crotty argues that if educators will simply take a highly organized approach to keeping kids in school, it will make a difference in the crime statistics of the future.

While there are many areas of improvement that we could look at changing for more successful outcomes for black men, I will discuss just four indicators that illustrate the current situation for black boys in the U.S., with the hope of starting a conversation about what we can do to produce a stronger generation of Black young men in our society.

1. Black boys are more likely to be placed in special education

While it is true that Black boys often arrive in Kindergarten classrooms with inherent disadvantages, they continue to experience a "behind the 8-ball" mentality as their school careers progress.

Black boys are more likely than any other group to be placed in special education classes, with 80 percent of all special education students being Black or Hispanic males.

Learning disabilities are just a part of the whole picture. Black students (and particularly boys) experience disconnection when it comes to the authority figures in their classrooms.

The K-12 teaching profession is dominated by white women, many of whom are very qualified and very interested in helping all their students succeed but lack the first-hand experience needed to connect with their Black male students.

2. Black boys are more likely to attend schools without the adequate resources to educate them. 

Schools with majority Black students tend to have lower numbers of teachers who are certified in their degree areas. A U.S. Department of Education report found that in schools with at least 50 percent Black students, only 48 percent were certified in the subject, compared with 65 percent in majority white schools. In English, the numbers were 59 and 68 percent, respectively and in science, they were 57 percent and 73 percent.

3. Black boys are not reading at an adequate level. 

In 2014, the Black Star Project published findings that just 10 percent of eighth-grade Black boys in the U.S. are considered "proficient" in reading. In urban areas like Chicago and Detroit, that number was even lower. 

By contrast, the 2013 National Assessment of Education Progress found that 46 percent of white students are adequate readers by eighth grade, and 17 percent of Black students as a whole are too.

The achievement gap between the two races is startling, but the difference between the NAEP report on Black students as a whole and the Black Star findings of just Black boys is troubling too. It is not simply Black children in general who appear to be failing in the basics - like literacy; it is the boys.

Reading is only one piece of the school puzzle, of course, but it is a foundational one. If the eighth graders in our schools cannot read, how will they ever learn other subjects and make it to a college education (or, in reality, to a high school diploma)?

Reading scores tell us so much more than the confines of their statistics. I believe these numbers are key to understanding the plight of young Black men in our society as a whole.

4. Punishment for black boys is harsher than for any other demographic. 

Punishment for Black boys - even first-time offenders - in schools is harsher than any other demographic. Consider these facts:

*Black students make up just 18 percent of children in U.S. preschools, but make up half of those youngsters who are suspended.

*Black boys receive two-thirds of all school suspensions nationwide - all demographics and both genders considered.

*In Chicago, 75 percent of all students arrested in public schools are Black

What's most troubling is that not all of the Black boys taken from their schools in handcuffs are violent, or even criminals.

Increasingly, school-assigned law enforcement officers are leading these students from their schools hallways for minor offenses, including class disruption, tardiness and even non-violent arguments with other students.

It seems that it is easier to remove these students from class through the stigma of suspension or arrest than to look for in-school solutions.

School suspension, and certainly arrest, is just the beginning of a life considered on the wrong side of the law for many Black boys. By 18 years of age, 30 percent of Black males have been arrested at least once, compared to just 22 percent of white males.

Those numbers rise to 49 percent for Black men by the age of 23, and 38 percent of white males. Researchers from several universities concluded earlier this year that arrests early in life often set the course for more crimes and incarceration throughout the rest of the offender's lifetime.

No wonder young black men aren't in college!

These trends are not conducive to improving the numbers of young black men who are able to attend college. In fact, the numbers are dismal when it comes to black young men who attend and graduate from colleges in the U.S.

Statistically speaking, black men have the lowest test scores, the worst grades and the highest dropout rates - in K-12 education, and in college too.

The recognition of this educational crisis has led to some strong initiatives targeted at young black men with the intention of guiding them through the college years and to successful, productive lives that follow.

This is why college motivation within and outside the black community is so vital for these young men. At this point in the nation's history, they are in the greatest need for the lifestyle change that higher education can provide, and not just for individual growth, but also for the benefit of the entire nation.

But in order to get there, black boys must experience the motivation to succeed well before college.

Healing Circle For Troubled Young Adult African-American Males

Dr. Umar Johnson on the Destruction of Black Boys