Bad Boys by Arnette Ferguson

Paige Kahalnik Sociology Bad Boys paper In the book, Bad Boys, Ann Arnett Ferguson goes on a three-year journey through genus Rosa Parks head teacher(a) School to observe and research why it is that mostly obscure males atomic number 18 ending up in jail and atomic number 18 unsalvageable from such a teenaged age. She interviews and observes daily interactions with the eleven and twelve year old students that guard been labeled at risk by their teachers and peers. She wants to research how it is macrocosm in domesticate when every(prenominal) of the educators permit already labeled them as unsalvagable, at risk, and bound for jail.These kids pretty much act in the way that their teachers treat them. They get into nettle every single day and most of the times these boys provoke it because thats how they hold there supposed to act because they think they atomic number 18 already waiver no where in life. At such a materialisation age, these boys, honorable because the y are black, shouldnt be viciousized and put in a polar socio-economic class than other boys. These children faced many challenges that effected how they learned in school, the way teachers and peers treated them, and how they are labeled as bad boys.Ann Arnett Ferguson said, in the course of my prove it became clear that school labeling practices and the exercise of rules operated as part of a hidden curriculum to marginalize and isolate black male youth in disciplinal spaces and brand them as criminally inclined(page 2). This means that the educators didnt really realize they were doing this and labeling these boys but it was more like a tradition and they saw naught wrong with it. This is purely based on race and obviously just about people are still in the mindset that black people are lowly to sportsmanlike people.Bad boys show black males from a very young age organism adultified and become very male making them becomes part of the criminal system early on. Adultific ation is a filter of overlapping representations of three accessiblely invented categories of difference age, gender and race. This is justified by saying that humans are different from animals, children different from adults, girls different from males, and blacks different from whites. African American boys are doubly displaced among society.Ann Arnett Ferguson says, they are not seen as childlike but adultified as black males they are denied the masculine dispensation constituting white males as being naturally naughty and are discerned as willfully bad(page 80). These African American boys are thought of being two things, either a criminal or an endangered species. They are not allowed to be naughty by nature according to society, but rather there naughtiness is a sign of vicious, inherent, insubordinate behavior.African americans are seen as endangered victims, which passs them criminals. Ferguson states, It is their own maladaptive and inappropriate behavior that causes Afr ican americans to self-destruct(page 82). in that location are two versions of childhood that are contradictory to each other. A real child would be seen as a little plants ready to buzz off up accordingly which is what white men were like to educators. On the other hand the African American boys were seen as children who are powerful, self centered, and have an agendum of their own.These black boys are seen as adults from such a young age, they dont have time to be young and grow up because others make it seem like they are already fully grown. This drives them in the path to do bad things and make bad decisions. In the beginning of the book, the vice principal of Rosa Parks Elementary school said that most of the children in the school would be headed for jail and that there was a jail cell with some of their names waiting on it. At first, Ferguson rejected this point of view and said that that was not firing to be true.After further research and observation, Ferguson definite ly looked at the situation differently. She said, While I rejected the labeling practices of the school vice principal , in my opening chapter, I also reluctantly admitted that by the end of school year, I too had come to suspect that a prison cell might have a place in the future of many Rosa Parks students (page 230). These boys have adopted the way that people treat them and it has such a negative effect on them that they are probably heading to jail.They are all being punished so much and isolated from the classroom that they arent learning anything throughout the days. They dont have many social interactions and dont have full access to resources that are needed. Educators might not see it, but they are a big reason that these children and being put behind bars and not meeting expectations that white boys meet. They are treated differently than white boys from such a young age, so they just start to act black like how everyone else thinks they should. They know they are getting treated differently, so they just keep it that way.Most of the people that end up in jail are usually African American boys. If these bad boys werent treated like they are some kind of poison, maybe they wouldnt be behind bars as life goes on for them. African American boys have to seem masculine every single day from such a young age because they were labeled as adults so early on. These boys thrive on their masculinity because this means that they have power and value. Their life doesnt have meaning if they arent throwing masculine performances to the best level. This is why so many African Americans get in trouble.They want to prove their masculinity through violence. When young African American boys are in school they fight to show others who they are. Most of these boys identify themselves in groups like gangs because it is a sense of home for them. They are all being treated differently than others and they come together based on the fact of their race and how others see them . There is never any white boys in these gangs they are all black. Gangs are a sign of family and equality when theyre with there homies. They do violent acts in gangs to show their masculinity to others and have others fear them.The public and the media see them as ghetto black boys who arent educated and are violent. Since so many people portray them as this, they tend to do these things. They know how people see them and so they act on it how they think they should be acting in correlation to what the media and public see them as. In the classroom the African American boys will talk out of hug drug, say mean comments to others, and not answer any questions that the teacher asks. They see this as a masculine performance. It is fundamental for these boys to engage with power while in the classroom or they dont feel like themselves.They are always seen as inferior to the white boys and girls in class, so they decide to stay that way and not play around with the hidden curriculum. B ad Boys shows that there is still race issues that are going on today. Whether the educators realize that they single out the black boys more than anyone or not, there hidden curriculum is very apparent in this book. Fergusons portraying of what happens to black boys is very real and happens to tons of them. It is true that mostly African Americans end up in jail and that they are treated like adults from such an early age that they already feel grown up by the time they are eleven or twelve.These boys are supposed to act black, so they do. These boys are supposed to act masculine, so they fight. These boys do everything that the public and media say they should and they dont know any other way of how to act. This has been going on for so long, that there is no turning back for these boys. This book will show people what is really going on and I think many educators, peers, parents, etc. will see this and really try to change the way they say and do things to African Americans. May be this book will turn some people around and these boys will be treated equally.