Bad Boys

White historical activity theory: toward a critical understanding of white zones of proximal development

“…In neighborhoods and public spaces, the recent rash of fatal shootings implies that black lives matter less, leading to black self-censorship in fear of confrontations with the police. This process does not always come with recommendations as children of color lose their 'innocence' due to the pressures of surviving in the inhospitable conditions of racism that adultify them (Ferguson 2001). They are forced to decipher their environmental cues with astuteness when they are considered a 'problem' to be solved (see Du Bois 1989).…”

“…This predicament is clear when we consider how black males are targets of criminal profiling. In schools, Ferguson (2001) has shown how their behavior is regulated more militantly. In neighborhoods and public spaces, the recent rash of fatal shootings implies that black lives matter less, leading to black self-censorship in fear of confrontations with the police.…”

“…We define white supremacy as a socio-historical process that works to ensure white racial domination through various social institutions and through the maintenance of a white racial common sense (Leonardo 2013;Mills 1997). As a structure, white domination involves every aspect of education, from policy formation (Gillborn 2005;Leonardo 2007), to teacher development and teacher education programs (Matias 2015;Sleeter 1993), and disciplinary actions (Ferguson 2001;Parker and Stovall 2004). The supremacy of whites in almost all aspects of US schooling is not indomitable, as shown by multiculturalism's success in reforming curriculum at the national level (Banks 2006).…”

“…The mediating tools of whiteness have become the common sense embedded in everyday practice. Many behaviors ranging from where children sit in the school cafeteria (Tatum 1997) to those that warrant strict disciplining (Ferguson 2001) would not make complete sense without a proper understanding of racialization.…”

Shifting Identities in the Classroom

“…I call this the stereotype of 'promising girls and unpromising boys'. This stereotype draws on widely circulating socio-historical patterns, like those that identify black male students as particularly concerned with respect and more likely to resist participation in school (Anderson, 1999;Ferguson, 2000) and those that identify adolescent boys as disdainful of school success (Newkirk, 2002). But the gender difference was especially salient in this classroom, for two reasons.…”