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Working With Black Boys

Why are they targeted for discipline?

In collaboration with the OUSD African-American Male Achievement Office

2011

Lincoln/ AAMA Office Training

Introduction/Check-inWhat would you like to get?

What are your challenges?

What are you hopeful about?


Training Goals1. Frame the context in which Black boys are served in various settings.2. Develop a shared understanding of what impacts our work with Black boys3. Build critical questions that can inform our continued work with Black boys

Address Site Specific Goals:

1. Building relationships with students

2. Culturally responsive strategies for engaging students in the learning process

3. Dealing with misbehavior


http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0S020sqRHxL0DMAk7mjzbkF/SIG=12kfui6c1/EXP=1266521514/**http%3A//www.iowaaflcio.org/9-01-page%202%20-%20bullseye.jpg

Visioning Activity•Close your eyes, visualize a Black male student you have worked with that made an impact on you.•Think about why they impacted you, positively or negatively•Think about how you responded to this student


Paired Share1. Talk about your student

and share your reflections:

1. Who this student was2. Why they impacted you3. How you responded (what

was the impact)


How are they targeted?Safety Health Education

HomicidePrisonEnvironmental hazardsProfiling

DiseaseIllnessLow quality of lifeDiscrimination is psychological warfare

Suspension/ExpulsionDrop outLow graduationSpecial Ed/ ADHDRemedial/ Tracking


The Gaps•The Achievement Gap (test scores, dropout rates, higher ed)

•The Discipline Gap (suspension and expulsion)

•The Wealth Gap (net worth, income, rates of poverty)

•The Health (mortality) Gap (life expectancy, excess death)

•The Prison Gap (incarceration rates, sentencing, profiling)

•The Employment Gap (unemployment and underemployment rate)

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmPKvhsNVk


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmPKvhsNVk

The Gaps•The Achievement Gap (test scores, dropout rates, higher ed)

•The Discipline Gap (suspension and expulsion)

•The Wealth Gap (net worth, income, rates of poverty)

•The Health (mortality) Gap (life expectancy, excess death)

•The Prison Gap (incarceration rates, sentencing, profiling)

•The Employment Gap (unemployment and underemployment rate)

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmPKvhsNVk

Lincoln Monthly Training

Attribution of DisparitiesDominant public paradigms explaining disparities: “bad apples”

Defective culture (Bill Cosby, President Obama, & Co.) Individual faults (Bootstraps, agency, free will & choice)

Personal racism (isolated incidents, generally equal)

Overlooks policies and arrangements: “diseased tree”Structures (Competition rewards advantage. Privilege bestows advantage, social reproduction)Institutions (White supremacy, Brown v. Board, School to Prison) -Paul Hirshfield, Preparing for Prison: The Criminalization of School Discipline in the USACumulative causation (multisystemic inequity, doll test)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmPKvhsNVk

Who is the Oppressor?• Primary Oppressors

• Ways of thinking (ideological oppression)– White supremacy (white

privilege) – Any thoughts of superiority

over others• Institutions (institutional

oppression)– Police brutality– “ism’s”

• People (interpersonal oppression)– Act of bigotry– “ism’s”

• Overt domination and exploitation of people, resources, and thought

• Secondary Oppressors or sub-oppressors

• Internalized oppression– Inability to name source of

oppression – Black on black crime– Negative self image– Inability to identify the

existence of being oppressed

– Acceptance of negative stereotypes and labels into self concept

– Inability to actively resist structural oppression


What does oppression look like?• Negative presupposition

• Escalation• Ultimatums• Leverage power and

authority• Threats of consequences• Deny them a ‘choice or a

voice’• Forget they are children• Refuse to apologize• Treat them like adults• Intimidate them• Fail to hold them accountable

• Black boys are limited culturally, in what they can express and how they can express it

• Care, concern, fear, hurt, sadness, shame, embarrassment,

• Most of our students are acutely aware of their positioning in U.S. society (social reproduction) which is the bottom.


Risk vs. Protective Factors• Risk Factors

• Low SES (poverty or working class)

• Environment (liquor store, shots fired)

• Race (“old and black”)

• Poverty• Community violence• Trauma• Neglect• Poor schools• Lack of nutrition

• Protective Factors• SES status (middle & upper

middle class)• Education• Access to resources• Supportive caring relationships

with adults• Positive engagement, healthy self-

esteem• Tangible Skills and Prosocial skills• Internal motivation, drive,

determination, talent• Resilience


Strength-BasedSeek to see all behaviors as strengths or hidden strengths

• Name some of the hidden strengths that Black boys exhibit (harmful behaviors)?– Flashy < Creative & expressive

– Persistent < Resilient

– Bold < Courageous

– Outspoken < Honest & transparent

– Moody < Passionate & compassionate


Strength-Based"Men are whipped oftenist who are whipped easiest.“• “The strength of someone

who has endured the greatest hardship is best equipped for creating great social change.”

• Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery. A ‘foster’ child, dropped off at 6 by his grandmother who disappeared.

• At 16, he fought back, struggling for 2 hours.

• Douglass escaped slavery and rose to become an advisor to President Lincoln during civil war.

•

Miss. Sen. Blanche Bruce, former slave

Ala. Rep. Jeremiah Haralson, former slave

21 elected to House, 10 former slaves

2 elected to Senate, 1 former slave

Mississippi, Alabama, Virginia, Florida, North & South Carolina, Louisiana

From 1870 - 1901

Booker T Washington founded Tuskeegee in 1881 & met with T. Roosevelt in 1901

WEB DuBois earned a Ph.D. from Harvard 1895


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blanche_Bruce_-_Brady-Handy.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremiah_Haralson_-_Brady-Handy.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Booker_T_Washington_retouched_flattened-crop.jpg

America’s ResponseMinstrel, Jim Crow 1876, Birth of a Nation 1915 & Lynchings mostly targeting urban

Black males

Slide 13


Nothing New?


Negative StereotypesNothing New?

demonized/criminalized aspects of culture

Big, Black, Dangerous, Savage, Animal, Vicious, Beast, Immoral, Lazy, Ignorant, Careless,

Indiscriminate, Oversexed, Crazed, Deranged, Lowly, Simple, Stupid, Inferior, Subhuman


Modern Criminalization/DehumanizationThe myth of the juvenile

Superpredator: -John Dilulio, Princeton 1990’s

“Crack baby myth, immoral and beastly violent”

“Tough on crime” laws target urban Black Males

3- strikes, juveniles as adults, crack laws, gang laws-Mike Males, The Scapegoat Generation: America’s War On Adolescents


Staff Goals

1. Building relationships with students

2. Culturally responsive strategies for engaging students in the learning process

3. Dealing with misbehavior:

What are some behaviors?


Building Relationships1. Address your fear of students

2. Look at your judgement of parents and family structure & community

3. Look at your personal biases, prejudices, dislikes and pet peeves

4. Examine your motivations for being here

5. What kind of student were you? Good or bad? Did you get in trouble or suspended?


Building Relationships1. Authentic Caring vs. Aesthetic Caring –Angela Valenzuela, Subtractive Schooling

2. Know their parents & caregivers first and last name: community centered -Gloria Ladson-Billings, Dreamkeepers

3. Disclose mistakes or errors and apologize quickly

4. State your motivations for your actions, give real reasons –Howard Zinn, A Peoples History of American Empire


Culturally Responsive Strategies1. Be clear about who you are:

(race, class, gender, etc.) because it speaks more than what you say –Sharroky Hollie, Culturally Responsive

2. Be Student Centered: Their class or your class, their assignment or your assignment, their education or your education? Are you facilitator or Director of learning?

3. Cultural Consultation: Consult someone who is in the business of addressing a particular group


Common Explanations for Misbehavior1. He just wants attention (essential for survival)

2. He just wants his own way (as he should)

3. He’s manipulating us (not exactly)

4. He’s making bad choices (developmentally appropriate)

5. His parents don’t provide enough structure (neither do rich parents)

6. He has a bad attitude (unmet need)

7. His brother was the same way (we have no control over our genes)

8. He’s testing limits (that’s necessary for growth)


Applied Behavior Analysis1. Create an optimal environment (culture) BIP’s

2. Whatever behavior is reinforced the most, will occur the most

3. Behaviors are reinforced by Adult energy & attention

4. Setting events (2-6 hours) and Antecedents (30 seconds) Behavior and Consequences (natural are preferred to imposed)

5. Analyze when disruptions occur

6. Distinguish the type & kind of disrespectful outburst

7. Sharing Approximations: Clapping exercise


Crisis Management and The Crisis Cycle1. Baseline

2. Escalation phase and the reverse cognition effect

3. Crisis mode

4. Heightened baseline

5. Cortisol

6. Shift thinking from escalation to maintaining baseline

7. Adult escalation cycle out of sync with students’ cycle


Collaborative Problem Solving

1. Mutually beneficial

2. Plan A is adult will

3. Plan B is collaborative

-Ross Greene, The Explosive Child


Dealing With Misbehavior

Putting the most energy where you have the most control

1. Manage your own reaction: You always have more options than they do

2. Gather information about the environment (the setting they encountered) and disposition (what they brought to school) in that order!

3. Consider more than 2 ways to look at what happened to be as objective (accurate & non-biased) as possible

4. Use Plan B! Mutually beneficial –Ross Greene, The Explosive Child


Alignment

School Needs/ Goals

Student

Needs/ Goals

This is where

the work should

be


Expectations

1. No quick fix

2. Cumulative: It took a long time to get this way, it will take a while to change

3. Give the strategy time


The Service

1. Too hard on them, negative assumptions

2. Too easy on them, low expectations, feel sorry for them

3. Afraid of them, reinforcing stereotypes

Service must be Firm and Caring


Vaccum/Silo Approach

Not effective

•Work harder, longer•Increase focus on punishments•Punish their parents•Get stricter, doing more of what doesn’t work•Consult with no one•Retreat to one’s authority and power


Organic Approachmost effective

1. Gather as much info as possible. • Get the facts• Ask questions• Listen, listen, listen

2. Be upfront, transparent & explicit3. Work with & in partnership

• Constantly check in• Offer options or even choices• Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate• Value the process as much as the goal

4. Seek cultural consultation5. Reflect


Strengths Based Practice How can we raise OUR bar?

1. What do you do well with Black boys?2. Where can you improve? 3. How can you strengthen your work with Black boys?


Empathy Activity

You should not present yourself to students everyday unless you can do the following.

Imagine the following: 1. Your teacher being afraid of you and as a result unable

to comfort you appropriately 2. Never feeling safe when you see the police even when

they are there to “help” 3. Any enthusiasm that you express being interpreted as

aggressive or even violent4. Passion or excitement that you express being cast as

sexually deviant5. People not getting on the elevator with you or getting

off as soon as you get on OR moving to the corner, grabbing purse and avoiding eye contact at all costs

6. People treat you as if you are going to steal something7. Not being allowed to be angry without being viewed as

dangerous


The Culture (of black male success)

The Agencies that support Black Males

-Youth UpRising

-Leadership Excellence (Camp Akili, Freedom Schools)

-Mentoring Center

-100 Black Men (Man Up!)

-OUSD, Office of African American Achievement

The Research that feeds Black Male policy

-Urban Strategies Council

-Policy Link

-Alameda County

-Black male scholars

-US Census


Empathy Activity

You should not present yourself to students everyday unless you can do the following.

Imagine the following: 1. Your teacher being afraid of you and as a result unable

to comfort you appropriately 2. Never feeling safe when you see the police even when

they are there to “help” 3. Any enthusiasm that you express being interpreted as

aggressive or even violent4. Passion or excitement that you express being cast as

sexually deviant5. People not getting on the elevator with you or getting

off as soon as you get on6. People treat you as if you are going to steal something7. Not being allowed to be angry without being viewed as

dangerous


Cultural

Consultation

Just a few individuals to consult about Black males in Oakland

Shawn Ginwright, Ph.D. Professor SFSU

Darrick Smith, M.A. Director, June Jordan School for Equity

Tacuma King, Artistic Director, Malonga Center

Hodari Davis, M.A. National Director Youth Speaks

Arnold Perkins, Retired Health Director, AC

Afriye Quamina, Ed.D. Equity Institute

Chris Chatmon, AAMAO, OUSD

Baayan Bakari, Filmmaker

Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. Professor SFSU, OUSD teacher

Jason Seals, M.A. Professor Merritt College

Wade Nobles, Ph.D. Professor SFSU, Black Family & Life Institute

Saleem Shakir, Executive Director, Leadership Excellence

Ronald Muhammad, FOI

David Muhammad, AC Probation Chief

Michael Gibson, AC EMS

Jerome Gourdine, Principal Frick Middle

Greg Hodge, Former School Board Member

OrganizationsLeadership ExcellenceMentoring CenterYouth Uprising100 Black Men of East BayUrban Strategies CenterPolicy LinkChildren’s Defense Fund,

OaklandAlameda County, Health Dept. ACLU Bay Area chapterNAACP, Oakland ChapterUrban League, Northern

California


Strategic Approach

More effective1. Be deliberate about method &

approach2. Evaluate effectiveness3. Prioritize strategically4. Firm caring5. Be responsible6. Stop what’s not working or

making headway7. Work smarter, work differently


Thank You

• Questions?

• Comments?

• Reflections?

• Feedback?

• For a copy of the powerpoint email

• [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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