| In this critical ethnography, ten, fourteen year old, African American, middle school males, called the B-Boys, describe their lived experiences and specific cultural values and forms, which are the basis of their collective identity and distinguish them from mainstream society. This study follows and extends the work of Paul Willis (1977), in which structural forces, as well as their own counter school culture, structured working class youths out of future social and economic rewards while allowing them to maintain their psychological well-being. This study includes racism as another critical element within the American social fabric, demonstrating how African American youths become contributors to maintaining their disadvantaged social and economic position within society.; The multilayered and multidimensional issues raised in this study are addressed methodologically by using the critical ethnographic approach outlined by Carspecken (1996), though this linear approach was modified in order to respond to the emerging themes articulated by the participants—broadly defined as lived experience and cultural values and symbols.; The study suggests that African Americans are presented with a triple quandary—the need to participate in three distinct and interconnected cultures which present them with conflicting and contradictory demands. This triple quandary gives rise to oppositional attitudes and behaviors which are manifested within society's mainstream socializing agent, the school. As African American youth engage and negotiate mainstream socialization efforts, they absorb some of the cultural/ideological imperatives disseminated by the school, but they also resist the often mystifying and incomprehensible knowledge generated by the school, efforts to devalue their knowledge, values and symbolic cultural forms which constitute the essence of their cultural identity.; Theories of reproduction and resistance inform the study and suggest that the official knowledge of the school contributes to maintaining social and class distinctions and is rejected by African American American youths, as is positive school performance, unless it holds some instrumental value to them. They are thus able to retain their identity but, simultaneously, remove themselves from the futures of which they dream. Their ability to critique mainstream society, however, offers potential for systemic changes which may lead to transformative experiences and learning. |
