Social Class Paralysis through Punishment

Jonathan Weir
ED 161
Fall 2013
November 11, 2013
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Through her research, Anne Ferguson highlights the institutional norms found within
the education system that perpetuate inequality. These practices are embedded within the
forms of punishment employed by educators and school authorities targeted at young Black
males, whose behavior is dissimilar from that of the dominant culture or White middleclass.
Both Ferguson and Morris explore the idea of intersectionality, which can help to explain
how structural racism affects individuals based upon their indistinguishable traits of race,
gender, and social class. As Ferguson investigates the punishment of young Black males in
schools, she uncovers that this indivisible combination of factors crafts an identity that is
perceived as threatening by many of the teachers at Rosa Parks School, which serves as the
basis for their persecution. Fergusons findings can be applied to subjects of Morriss study at
Matthews Middle School, who experience structural racism through punishment aimed at
increasing their opportunity for social mobility.
In her work, Ferguson (2001) articulates how structural racism erects itself upon the
assumption that inequality is a consequence of ranking some cultural characteristics as
superior and other as subordinate. These cultural modes include attitudes, values, behaviors,
and familial practices, which together encompass what Bourdieu identifies as cultural capital
(20). Black people suffer the consequences of structural racism, as their cultural knowledge
is deemed inferior to that of the dominant culture. They may only remedy their condition by
rejecting what makes them different from the White middle class. Within institutions, namely
schools, the hierarchical differences in cultural capital perpetuate existing patterns of
punishment, which demonizes the black students whose conduct differs from the acceptable
behavior norms establish by the dominant culture.
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In Morriss work at Matthews Middle School, we clearly see the devaluation of the
cultural capital of the Black girls. Testimonies from teachers express the Black girls aptitude
for success in the classroom and their presence in Pre-AP Classes suggest devote attention to
schoolwork. Nevertheless, educators working at the school feel that the Black girls behavior
needs transformation. Many teachers perceive them as abrasive, assertive, loud, and
combative, often labeling them as unladylike because of their loquacious nature. Here we
see the girls being perceived in a negative light due to their talkative tendencies, rather than
being celebrated for their participation. By reprimanding these African American girls for
their behavior, teachers attempt to mold them into quieter students who are better suited for
the middleclass world; however, the consequence of their punishments will likely result in
disengaged students.
Gender is the trait that links the Black girls from working class families to their White
middleclass counterparts. Teachers at Matthews Middle School, therefore, use a socially
constructed view of femininity as the benchmark for comparison. This perspective is
centered upon the idea that being ladylike requires passiveness and docility. Morris (2007)
explains how faculty members justify their attempts to silence the African American girls in
the classrooms by demonizing their talkative nature, calling it aggressive and dominant
(502). He also connects the Black girls distinct language to the lack of a male figure in the
home, portraying the matriarchs of these working class families as assertive (504). Here we
see a link constructed to relate language to social class, a trait that distinguishes the Black
girls and the females of the dominant culture. This distinction in social class further
marginalizes the Black girls from the middleclass and devalues the cultural knowledge they
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bring to schools, reinforcing the system of structural racism that pervades throughout the
education system.
It is insightful to investigate the dynamics between the Black girls and African
American women teachers. As Morris (2007) observed, these teachers disciplined the girls
more often than the male teachers did (502). The purpose of their discipline is to transform
the young Black girls into individuals that are better suited for success within the dominant
culture. Success here would mean attaining social mobility that would allow the girls to
transcend their working class status and move upward into the middleclass. The Black
women teachers at Matthews are more conscious of the stereotypes that these girls will face
surrounding their identities as Black working class females. Morris (2007) explains how their
discipline can be considered an extension of family-like caring within the Black
community that will prepare Black girls for the racism and sexism they will encounter as
adults (503).
Though these teachers can easily relate to the Black girls in terms of race and gender,
the skills they try to communicate are centered upon language and behavior reform, which is
closely linked to social class. One teacher at Matthews suggested that the Black girls in her
class always try to exert authority over her by attempting to act as adults through assertive
language. This adultification returns to the social construct of the black female as the
matriarch of a single-parent household, which is associated with working class families. The
Black girls are expected to embody the commonly accepted ideals of femininity by acting
passively and compliantly in class. Morrison (2007) describes another African American
teacher at Matthews, Ms. Boyd, who corrected a Black girls grammar in front of the class,
explaining afterward how she valued teaching life skills that these students werent getting
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at home (504). This provides a concrete example of a middleclass teacher attempting to
transfer her skills to a working class student in an effort to align the students abilities with
what the dominant culture considers valuable.
Ferguson (2001) succinctly explains the significant link between language and social
class, stating, language is fundamental to the work of representing and constituting self. It
bears traces of our geographic origins, the social class we come from, the history we share,
our place in the system of power (205). The Black girls outspokenness indicates a certain
level of self-esteem. Their competitiveness inside the classroom indicates an interest in
schoolwork, and the importance they place upon education hints at a belief in the possibility
of social mobility. African American teachers value speaking Received Standard English in
their classrooms, which typically signifies culture and intelligence. Nevertheless, Black
teachers at Rosa Parks School often spoke Black English amongst one another outside of
the classroom. The dual-language identity of these educators suggests their recognition of
what is acceptable by the dominant culture. They only make use of Black English when they
feel comfortable and are conversing with members of the same group, which assures that
they will not be shamed for their behavior. Nevertheless, they employ Received Standard
English in the classroom when they are conversing with an African American student,
suggesting that proper English is more valuable to success than Black English and devaluing
the cultural capital of African American students.
The teachers attempts to equip the Black girls with the skills they need for upward
social mobility extends beyond the walls of the classrooms at Matthews Middle School. The
school created two clubs devoted to teaching proper manners to students, which were
comprised almost entirely of Black females. Morris (2007) describes how one club, The
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Proper Ladies, was a girls-only club that teaches students how to dress, encourages
community service, and brings members to visit local colleges (508). Encouraging
community service is an attempt to embed middleclass values of empowerment and
compassion into the girls. College visits offer an opportunity for the Black girls to have a
glimpse into how their hard work could be rewarded. These visits could later be used as
leverage to reinforce the importance of hard work and academic success, again promoting a
middleclass value system.
The various methods of behavioral reform exploited by teachers and administrators at
Matthews fortify the structural racism embedded within the schools culture, which can have
devastating effects on the students. In what seems to be a well-intentioned effort to prepare
the Black girls for not only survival, but also success through social mobility, teachers are
inadvertently creating inactive learners. The voices of the African American girls are heard
as combative and forceful by most faculty members, rather than constructive and engaging.
Participation from these girls is being stifled as teachers try to protect their power and control
within the classroom from assertive students. The outspoken nature of the girls could be
directed to help them become critical learners, which would truly give them the skill set
necessary to transcend their social class; yet their voices are silenced and the adversities of
structural racism are perpetually reproduced.





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Bibliography

Ferguson, A. (2001). Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity. Ann
Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Morris, E. (2007). Ladies or loudies? Perceptions and experience of black girls in
classrooms. Youth & Society, 38(4), 490-515.