I began by reading the introduction, and the statistics listed absolutely floored me. The fact that Black adult males make up less than six percent of the overall population seemed a little crazy to me, but the fact that Black adult males make up over fifty percent of thelp he population absolutely astounded me. So much of our media is focused on Black males, whether good or bad, and the fact that they make up a very small minority of the population did not make sense with the attention they receive. Additionally, that such a small sector of the population makes up so much of the incarcerated population signifies huge problems to me. Obviously, we as a society are failing this group in some way. I felt like my eyes were opened and my heart was broken a little reading these statistics and knowing my son will have to encounter so much of the world like that.
Another aspect I had not considered before is the dichotomy in which Black men are viewed. We all grow up seeing Black men as one of two extremes- either super-wealthy and successful as athletes or musicians, or as "thugs" and "gangsters". Very rarely in our society do we see average, middle-class and working-class Black men who are educated and working hard for their families. Although, we have to believe the majority of them fall into these categories as does the majority of all other races. I had never evaluated that dichotomy before, so I found this part very interesting.
In chapter 1 it was very interesting to me the connections between the author's son Joaquin and his friends. I can see the racial identity spectrum being played out in my own two sons, one black and one white. Right now, at 2 and 4, their skin colors and the difference in the two are just as simple as the differences in hair color or eye color. Neither of them find much identity or lose much identity in the color of their skin...yet. It was interesting to me to see that even though my black son will be raised in a middle-class, hard-working, educated family, he may still encounter some of the same struggles Black children do in impoverished families, simply because he will identify with his peers and struggle to find his identity for awhile in adolescence. I am very eager to continue to read this book to see how I can help my Black students during public education and also my own son.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteThe statistics at the beginning of the book are rather flooring to say the least. The problem with statistics is that, as we all know, they can be skewed to look how the producer of them wants them to look. The research was done well by Pedro and presented in a manner in which I can fully support his findings. (I have to support them as most are facts) The problem with our world is that we will take his findings and some will twist them to sound like Black people are horrible. They might say it's their fault that so many of them are being arrested and it's just proving stereotypes correct when such a large percentage of the Black male population is in jail. Statistics are often times so skewed that it's disgusting to me. We have to find a solid way to regulate this within the media to only allow our children and kids the ability to see positive and accurate statistics.