Bad Boys Essay Sample

Written by Ann Arnett Ferguson, bad boys is a book about black masculinity in the national schools of America. The book is dedicated to looking at how public schools track the black American (African American) boys for life in prison (beyond bars). However, much the topic is complex and feared, Ferguson goes beyond the imaginary and uncovers the secrets hidden from view. She writes her book in a two-pronged kind of analysis that shows the maintenance race order using the institutional practices couched in the universal language.
At one point in her book, Ferguson shows the racial stereotypes displayed in our daily life. For instance, she notes that a young African American kid is referred to as an individual with a jail-cell already written his name, which is according how they call them at Rosa. Ferguson’s findings of the whole situation came from Rosa Parks Elementary School in Berkeley, which is in California. Ferguson does not fail to mention the physical space at Race and the social sites of punishment. In her book, she highlights in details of the importance of space where punishments were being conducted.
In the room, she noted that at least African American students made half of the referrals there while, at the same time, their number was just a quarter of the population. Differently from the adult’s viewpoint, of the room as a punishment area, the boys know the room as both a punishment site as well as pleasure room. In support of the statement, Ferguson describes the room as not just a punishment area, but also as a room with less surveillance. Additionally, the room is also a social hub to many. Additionally, it is a room in which students can have forbidden discussions and where they indulge adults in a game of power. The room also brags of the place where individual students get to design their names, making it a place of geographical embodiment and significant value to black students. In her book, she describes a different room called ‘Jailhouse’ where more serious crimes and punishments at Rosa were conducted. However, the school’s assumption was that 90% of the students were at risk of failing. With the schools population, Ferguson indicates that the teachers could not notice that black students were singled out. Additionally, the students were subjected to unorthodox due to their race something that black teachers at the school confided to Ferguson.
In her book, she urges that African American student were picked on because the majority of Americans do not accord these children with the same naiveté that is given to other children of the same age and class. In most cases, the behavior of black students is ‘adultified’ and therefore they are punished for it while the same behavior is considered as naughtiness when a white student does it. Finally, the black student are judged and handled as criminals awaiting jail. Additionally, she observed that the hostility of the environment increases as the boys become older in age. As a result, their advancement in grade makes the situation even worse. Ferguson with this observation states that, that is the reason as to why most of the black students drop school at a tender age. Additionally, it is the same reason that forces them to join bad companies, thus, end up in jail. However, she does not fail to notice that some black students succeed in the same school despite the struggle. For that reason, not all black students lose faith and give up.
However, Ferguson does not shy away from noticing that those students even though they succeed, their success comes at a price that is, the bigger percentage of them wish to be ‘de-raced’. This desire makes them detest the black community, thus; they end up striving to remove themselves from the notions attributed to blacks, which are lawlessness, dangerous and poor.
Even though, Ferguson uses vignettes and field notes, she relies more on the interviews that she conducts on some parents of the black children and some of the pupils. Ferguson’s books describe racial inequalities in details showing that not only is it subjected to adults; children on the other hand also receive their share. The book teaches the reader the two modes of life: the first being how procedures and norms are used to maintain law and order in schools. Secondly, it teaches how racial myths dictate our perception of things including social hierarchy. When reading how Rosa treats its African American student’s one gets the real picture of the feel of the radical schooling theory.
Radical theory of schooling is the design in which it is believed that the dominant group in the society creates schools thus other races will always remain inferior. In addition, the dominant group will always have the power over others and, as a result, they have the privilege of influencing decisions. In her quest to highlight the inequalities in the school, which is but a mirror of what is happening in the society, Ferguson expresses her irritation with the way things are run in the school. She laments that public schools in America are designed to fail African American students and that the idea is engraved into the minds of these black students to the extent they know where their place in the society.