The (Good) Trouble with Black Boys: Organizing with Black Boys and Young Men In George Floyd’s America

Black boys and young men are over-represented in the youth and adult justice systems in England and Wales. Despite the Lammy Review (2017) into the treatment of and outcomes for Black, Asian, and minority ethnic individuals (BAME) in the criminal justice system, the disproportionate numbers of Black boys and young men at all stages of the system continue to rise. There has been limited qualitative research of Black boys’ and young men’s experiences with the justice system in England and Wales. In particular, there is a lack of evidence on their experiences with sentencing and courts. What is known tends to focus on Black, Asian, and minority ethnic and/or Muslim men’s experiences more generally. A lack of critical understanding of the specific experiences of desistance by young Black men has been criticised in the literature. Set in this context, this review of UK literature focuses on the following questions: (1) What are Black boys’ and young Black men’s experiences with the youth and criminal justice systems in England and Wales? (2) What does research tell us specifically about their experiences with desistance?

Download Full-text

Imagining the Comprehensive Mattering of Black Boys and Young Men in Society and Schools: Toward a New Approach

Harvard Educational Review ◽

10.17763/1943-5045-89.3.370 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 89 (3) ◽

pp. 370-396 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

RODERICK L. CAREY

Keyword(s):

Young Men ◽

School Failure ◽

Educational Practices ◽

Black Boys ◽

Social Psychological ◽

New Approach ◽

Neoliberal Reforms

In this essay, Roderick L. Carey draws from social-psychological perspectives on mattering to argue that Black boys and young men have yet to achieve comprehensive mattering in social and educational contexts. Positing that Black boys and young men find their social and school lives framed by marginal mattering, which is realized through social and educational practices that criminalize, dismiss, and propel them into school failure, and partial mattering, where only some of their skills and abilities are cultivated and heralded, Carey contends that due to neoliberal reforms and stakeholders' structural incapacities to imagine and do otherwise, educators fail to construct contexts in which Black boys and young men can robustly infer their comprehensive mattering. Thus, educators and researchers miss relational opportunities to support Black boys and young men in imagining alternative lives that compel their fullness of interests, latent talents, and subsequent worth.

Download Full-text

The Respectable Brotherhood: Young Black Men in an All-boys Charter High School

Sociological Perspectives ◽

10.1177/0731121417706071 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 60 (6) ◽

pp. 1063-1081 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Freeden Oeur

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

Public Schools ◽

Black Men ◽

Young Men ◽

Black Boys ◽

Public School Reform ◽

Single Sex ◽

Moral Boundaries ◽

One Year ◽

The Impact

Neoliberal public school reform has revitalized efforts to open unique all-male schools for black boys. Existing research stresses how these black male academies nurture resilience but has failed to examine what makes these schools distinctive. Drawing on one year of ethnographic research, this article demonstrates how Northside Academy, an all-male charter high school, built a respectable brotherhood. Modeled after elite all-male institutions, Northside’s classics curriculum and professional uniform marked its young men as having disciplined minds and bodies, destined for college and a middle-class future. Yet to maintain legitimacy within a competitive environment, the school community drew moral boundaries between its exceptional young men and those delinquent boys most in crisis. This engaged a respectability politics where upwardly mobile black men reject their more marginalized peers for failing to reform their character. This study’s findings extend knowledge of single-sex public schools and of the impact of increased competition under neoliberalism.

Download Full-text

An Ethnic Comparison of Arginine Dimethylation and Cardiometabolic Factors in Healthy Black and White Youth: The ASOS and African-PREDICT Studies

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm9030844 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 844 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Alexander Bollenbach ◽

Aletta E. Schutte ◽

Ruan Kruger ◽

Dimitrios Tsikas

Keyword(s):

Blood Pressure ◽

Black Men ◽

Young Men ◽

White Men ◽

Whole Body ◽

Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽

Inflammatory Factors ◽

Renal Elimination ◽

Black Boys ◽

Black And White

Proteinic arginine dimethylation (PADiMe) is a major post-translational modification. Proteolysis of asymmetric and symmetric PADiMe products releases asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA), respectively, two endogenous atherogenic substances. SDMA, ADMA, and its major metabolite dimethylamine (DMA) are eliminated by the kidney. The urinary concentrations of DMA+ADMA, SDMA, and DMA+ADMA+SDMA are useful measures of the whole-body asymmetric and symmetric PADiMe, respectively. Urinary (DMA+ADMA)/SDMA is an index of the asymmetric to symmetric PADiMe balance. In two bi-ethnic studies, the ASOS (39 black boys, 41 white boys) and the African-PREDICT (292 black young men, 281 white young men) studies, we investigated whether ethnicity is a major determinant of PADiMe, and whether PADiMe is associated with blood pressure and ethnicity-dependent growth and inflammatory factors, including HDL. DMA, ADMA, and SDMA were measured in spot urine samples by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, and their excretion was corrected for creatinine excretion. In black boys, creatinine-corrected DMA, DMA+ADMA, and DMA+ADMA+SDMA concentrations were lower by 11.7%, 9.5%, and 7.6% (all p < 0.05), respectively, compared to the white boys, and 3.4%, 2.0%, and 1.8% lower (all p < 0.05), respectively, in black compared to white men. (DMA+ADMA)/SDMA did not differ between black boys and black men, but was higher in white boys compared to white men. ADMA did not differ between black and white boys, or between black and white men. Creatinine-corrected SDMA excretion was lower in black boys compared to white boys (by 8%) and to white men (by 3.1%). None of the PADiMe indices were associated with blood pressure in either study. IGF-binding protein 3 correlated inversely with all PADiMe indices in the black men only. Our study showed that asymmetric proteinic arginine dimethylation is higher in white boys than in black boys, and that this difference disappears in adulthood. ADMA metabolism and SDMA excretion were lower in the black subjects compared to the white subjects, suggesting ethnicity-dependent hepatic and renal elimination of ADMA and SDMA in the childhood. The results of our study may have clinical relevance beyond atherosclerosis, such as in growth and inflammation, which have not been sufficiently addressed thus far.

Download Full-text