Boyz in the ‘Burbs: Parental Negotiation of Race and Class in Raising Black Males in Suburbia (original) (raw)

2016, Peabody Journal of Education

This paper explores the outlooks of black parents raising sons in a suburban school setting in a town that I call Rolling Acres. Dominant narratives about black males center on urban environments where hazards of violence, failing schools, and socially disorganized neighborhoods are prevalent. However, black parents in suburban settings are not immune to racial hazards when raising black boys. This article engages two domains of distinct concern for the parents of black boys: academics and social life. Through a series of in-depth interviews and participant observations with 18 families in a suburban context, I argue parents of black boys, though sometimes divided along gender lines, were concerned with a host of race-related challenges such as social promotion, special education classification, dating preferences, the stereotyping of black boys, and the strain between being cool and academically successful. These concerns demonstrate the importance of understanding how black families, and boys in particular, wrestle with the racialized and gendered power structures even in well-resourced settings. This paper adds to the emerging body on suburbia by highlighting the continued significance of race and gender for black residential families sending their children to suburban schools. This article examines the outlooks of black parents raising sons in the suburbs and their educational experiences in local schools. Dominant narratives of parental negotiation center on urban environments where hazards of violence, failing schools, and socially disorganized neighborhoods are prevalent (Anderson, 1999; Noguera, 2003). Films such as Boyz N the Hood popularize the image of embattled black males struggling against poverty, violence, and urban decay. The film's patriarch Furious Styles works to shepherd his son and other males out of the 'hood, but many of the boys in the film remain trapped. Dominant images such as those circulated by Boyz N the Hood obscure the multidimensional nature of the black male experience in terms of class and educational opportunities. Addressing this void, this article traces the experiences of black parents in suburban settings who are raising black boys and their navigation of suburban educational institutions. Although not all suburbs may face the same challenging conditions depicted in Boyz N the Hood and other urban dramas, as this study shows, the reality of racism and its intersection with class and gender dynamics exist and contribute to disparate educational experiences and outcomes. This article engages two domains of concern for the parents of black boys: academics and social life. Drawing from a series of in-depth interviews and participant observation, I show how African-American parents-though divided along gender lines-routinely work to avoid racial Correspondence should be sent to R.