Issue 45-70 "The Black Male pt. 1"

NDE are the national educational radio network presents

special of the week from the series called backgrounder

produced by Neil Bedford for WUOM in Ann Arbor part

1.

Well during the entire time that I spent in the school I found teachers fee and

especially female teachers really immobile every time a small kid with

throw a punch at another kid in a classroom. You know the class would like halt

the whole class if and severely emotionally disturbed kid referred

to a white teacher as a white 12 letter word that deals with incest with

one's mother. Then the home school would

close for a period of mourning.

This is Background a program of comment conversation and analysis.

Today a discussion of the new role of the black male and implications for education.

This is the first of two programs taken from a recent seminar sponsored by the University of

Michigan's schools of social work and education. Dr. Lawrence Gary moderates

and introduces his panelists.

Before I introduce the palace perhaps I will give some preliminary

statements. I think most of us are aware of the black awareness movement

and all the black power movement what have you. And I think not many of you

are way out of the consequences that this type of thing are having on the

university. But it's a difficult thing to challenge some of the traditional

viewpoints. It's very difficult because there's vested interests.

We know this. You have to pass your prelims. You have to write your dissertation.

And the guy who is responsible for certain thesis a certain

proposition a certain theory is on your community. You get on a

committee. You know there's no black person on there.

You have a certain language problem. You can speak correct in English

but the guy still can't hear you. You can find his in terms of the scripture for example.

Where do you put Afro-American studies on American culture for example. I'm

not even sure what American culture is. But yet in steel you have a department with the

budget. You see then the admission area.

You see the whole thing what all credentials what our

credentials.

It's a little game that universally people apply. And I think most of you are aware of

that this complicates the thing when you want to get more black men in. So you see the

black awareness movement is going to raise some issues that the university must deal with.

And I think these are the type of issues that will make the university a real

university one of some diversity different opinions

different styles. You see we can do with some of these issues today.

We do not have all the answers. I repeat we do

not have all the answers.

We're going to give you some viewpoints and we're not citing research about other people

before we get involved in the specifics. The specific implications from the point of view of

education. Perhaps we need to deal with a historical perspective.

Robin Williams will speak to this. He's a student in the public health and the medical

schools.

He's from Texas. Thank you very much Mr. Garrett.

I'm hopeful that this dialogue will prove to be one of the better dialogues that we're going to have on the central

theme of the black American in this country. I

thought that I was going to have something that was somewhat of a radical departure

from perceiving patterns that we have observed throughout our history of the black males

behavior.

But then after I made preparation I did my homework.

I found that I was somewhat professionally made aware or perhaps

made aware that this new role is none other than that which we must

expect at this juncture in accordance with the prevailing pattern

of social front that we are witnesses and that the president had been extended at

least on three occasions during past and recent history.

By that I mean that we've probably witnessed a pattern during the period of

enslavement are the antebellum period as some of you may prefer

the postwar period to the Great Migration of the early 1900s perhaps showed us another.

And then the pre-civil rights followed immediately by the civil right and the civil

disobedience phase of course I feel that there's someone that

hangs over all of these African American cultural heritage.

I'm contending that basically the role for the black male is nothing

other than that of a traditional role.

Each of these periods that I've mentioned before have been characterized by the black males attempt to be

assertive when he was not when he was indeed the dominant family figure

to be the vanguard. He's been the chief arbitrator of all that has been

relevant to the black family except of course during the periods of enslavement

and the periods of the industrial migration of the early 1900s. When we found him

somewhat joblessness and these occasions have made him helpless.

The latter that of the ration and the experience of joblessness made him

equally as helpless as his masters had made him on the great plantations of the south by

denying the black male any real authority as regards the family unit.

The blackmail then has been either definitely assertive

or has experienced temporary phases of being passive.

It has been the plight of a black man to live in the conditions in this country of the worst sort.

There are daily experiences tell them that almost nowhere in our society.

Nowhere are they respected in granite the ordinary dignity and courteous is accorded

to the others. Since every human depends upon his experiences

with other people for cues as to how he should view and value himself it will be

little wonder that will find children who are consistently rejected.

Understandably will begin to question and doubt whether they their families

their friends.

Other people in their group really deserve no more respect from the largest segments of

our society than they're presently receiving. These dots become the seed of a

pernicious self and sort of group hatred that become the negro

complex debilitating prejudice against

himself. Psychology of the black male due in the past has been manifested by

the preoccupation of many with a hair straightening the skin bleaches and the like.

They seem to illustrate to me the tragic aspect of the American racial prejudice

that at last a negro had come to believe that they were indeed inferior.

It really doesn't matter anymore how we find ourselves dress. That is with leather coats or

Ivy League suits. There are not or otherwise we find out

ourselves reacting to the pervasive factor of race and that we're

still not free to take ourselves for granted or to judge ourselves by the usual

standards of personal success and character. It is still to some

great extent the white man's society that governs the negro image of himself.

Not every questionable new role for the black male its

educational import. What does all this mean.

Well I can say only at this point that we have come a long way and it seems

that for those who have not been awakened they haven't seen anything yet.

On the new role itself now just what is to be this new role of the black male in

America we're going to ask ourselves before this some in our clothes can we see it as different from the

previous pattern. Is it going to be something that we've never seen

before. Not sure that even I can answer these questions. Not sure that we're here to do

so but certainly to provoke some thought on on this behalf.

One thing for sure we can expect a swing of the action from the brothers of the ghetto towards those of us who are

pursuing higher education and the major disciplines we can expect that the athletes and

entertainers will also be seeking a little the action we should expect greater thrust from the

entire middle class men who have been reluctant heretofore about losing their good

jobs find that the days of the secure ivory tower for the black man is

entirely gone. And if he is conscious doesn't get to I'm perhaps one of the

brothers will. Thank you.

Revive.

Ah thank you. Thank you Bob.

Now since we've had a few statements on the traditional patterns of male

behavior perhaps we should concentrate a little bit on the elementary school

and I think most of you can understand why this is so important.

Eugene Purnell who's from Alabama a doctoral student in the School of

Education will speak about the images in early education. I should

point out now just because we have three sons on this side it

doesn't mean that we want to get to the north. These two guys are from the north.

OK. Thank you dear. Thank you Garrick.

I think when you said Alabama I heard I heard somebody say in a backwards step you know this is it.

I really came north for a couple reasons. One

is to finish completely education the other to complete campaign for Wallace

noticing that this is really true. We're trying to get him out of Alabama the only way we know to do that is to get him into the

presidential chair. Thank you.

I am not going to try to talk to you about any kind of statistical evidence about

images and the elementary school. I'd like to really give you some some of my

experiences are as I call them war stories. I tell you about some of the things that

I found to be happening in the elementary schools as a as a

consultant and I kind of hate that term because I found a new word or a new term for

consulting the other day. The guy says A family had a castrated dog

and every day a female dog would pass the winter and the dog with their clamor to

get outside. They wonder why you want to get out so somebody says oh he's just a consultant.

She said. I hope so I can

just stay away from that work.

But in the elementary schools that I've worked both here in the north and in the South as a

consultant I found that there is one pattern that exists practically all over the schools

and that is that the schools are staffed by females even

from the press blown down probably there's one male there and it's kind of funny because he's usually

overwhelmed by the attention that he gets from the female students

and the male students. Now many times as

I've gone into the schools and spent probably two days there working I've found

that I've learned all of the boys not only their names but where they were from and

everything about them especially the black boys. And it seems to me it's nothing on the part of my personality

but it's the fact that these kids are looking for an image. So I guess this is what I'm I want to

mix in fact briefly about the reason for the develop in images down

especially with black males at the elementary level. One of the basic things that I

found in working with female teachers is that they it's that

difficulty in trying to handle aggression both physically and verbally. I happen

to have been in a school in Alabama that was recently integrated I have to

define integration for you in Alabama means that we close up the black schools and we move

the population over to the white school. Are we moved the staff

and principal from the black school to restaff it was white and black and white

principal and some black teachers and some you know some agents. Well.

In a way in this particular school they had a problem. They were talking about a

satirical literature and then they asked the kids to

transfer the ideas of the things that they learned into pictures. One kid who had an

ingenious poster that had Joan a picture and the

caption of it was some guy says bring us together I don't know where that came from but

it's this was the caption of the picture.

And the teacher told me that we can't put that up because it's fallen what he

had done was to draw two pictures on his caption one was a white

guy with a club and the other was a black guy with a knife. And his argument was

that with this kind of politics that we had you know this is the kind of thing that he wanted to show that was a

satire on this politics. But in a way she thought that this was violent and we don't have

violence in Alabama we have incidents so.

We decided that his poster would not go up. So we found

that the only thing way to solve some of these problems in this school was to

restaff it with a lot of males and especially black males not

guys who could play the role of the heavy. But guys who could accept aggression.

To help rechannel the type of aggression guys who would accept verbal and if

physical aggression did occur then these guys who were they felt good enough about

themselves to try to at least accept that they wouldn't become a mobile as

did the females. So I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that one of the new roles I see

is males getting into the elementary school trying to channel or E channel aggression

that is surely to come. And not saying to the kid you know be a nice little boy.

I think the other area of the problem is the

overprotectiveness and teachers especially in females. I've seen black kids

coming to the school from homes where a parent what. Just

food for him if it was possible they were over Fayette they were over close. You know the

kind of mother who would like to drive with the hood off a car so she could watch the engine.

And then go into a classroom where you have that same kind of teacher and

you know they really they never develop an ego of their own they're always living on a bar you

go. They're the kinds of kids who would be satisfied with a magical explanation oh

you know like where babies come from or something that nature so. So

here we have another way to castrate it. Black male child I

think that males that I've worked with in elementary schools tend

not to over protect kids. And that's some of this problem is alleviated.

I think the next thing is I guess by this time you think I'm a woman hater but I'm really not

really. Females teachers sometime attempt to mold kids into

what they feel that they should be. I want to disclose. I was standing talking with a

teacher in a gym when a kid hanging from a parallel bars by a snake a bison legs

fell you know in this neck you know and she ran over to him and he was crying and

she said to him don't cry you know men don't cry. You know and I wanted to say to her Why don't you go

home and close your husband's finger up in your car go and see what happened you know. So he really crisis.

I think this kind of attitude is special to black kids. We have to re

channel this kind of thing. I know it as an elementary kid. My teacher used to tell me you know

she was developing me for middle class black and she said that you know gentlemen don't fight to get the word

got out that I didn't fight my kids wore my nose out. And I think this

this is some are things that men don't. I think many of the

classrooms where we've had behavior problems have come from the fact that many of the

teachers have said things to kids like go to the bathroom and call me a nappy hair or clean your fingernails

and this kind of thing. And they have just kind of they would sit there and say I'm going

to wait until you grow up you know to boys who who are quite action oriented. But the

girls who sit there you know the cute little girl who has clean fingernails clean. They're the ones who get the

attention and I think that and then they have a tendency to wonder why they

can't develop a more interpersonal relationship with those kids. Like boys

especially. But I think that with black men we don't have this kind

of hang up. I think the next role I see is a new role for

black males and that is in the administration field. Now if you look at

ministration and a principal I think one who kids refer to as

a strong black male who is able to make policy is who is not a tool.

And I kept that in quotation on Agent. He's high premium

and this never done no meet at the office of a principal was so important in elementary school until

I had the chance to work in another. This is a real funny story. In Alabama we had a

share of who was you know he was really. Well there's one area in Alabama not where I'm

from but it's an area that has a lot of illicit bootleg and you know goes on

the sheriff in search of this was dispatched by a bootleg moonshine his

bullet and a good governor saw fit to point appoint his wife to serve

out the tenue. It worked out real fine. And then somebody got the idea that you know her

term ran out that she should be principal of this black school with these kids.

Now most of these kids at this school had seen this lady as a.

You know the heavy somebody who would break into homes you know in the search season

destroying the rest mission and all of a sudden one day it pops up that she's principal of a school

you know in the third grade as well ask me things like the she bring a gun to school you know and stuff like this.

But I really don't know you know but we had all kind of problems all kind of behavior problems.

And in talking to kids the things I would ask is you know what's happening. And they would say

like we you know we know she's the sheriff and we got to be ready for

it's you know and so we had all kind of problems and I think this

basically stemmed from the administration's point. So I see a good role here for

black males. New role now from the curriculum side. I also

see strong males that as entering into a classroom where there's been a lot of

negligence in trying to put black people in their proper place in

history. Now if this is not done in a textbook I think in Detroit they've done something

about it could have had a riot there and I guess you have to have have to have a riot before you can do things like this.

But I see males is going in and supplementing materials that are in the school

for these kids by talking about the black heroes. We do have

black heroes and I think this is is very evident. But I think it has to get into the school. And I'm not

suggesting that the systems are not doing this but I have to be in a classroom where sister was teaching a

course in American history. Whatever that is and she was one

of the kids want to talk about Detroit riots you know it in conjunction with the American

revolutions she says no we're not going to talk about that. Well now maybe that was a no no lesson

plan. But I think there are repressive elements that underline

both the American Revolution and the Detroit writes and Hell I can't

see why we can't talk about them at least I'm not suggesting that we go in and teach kids elementary Molla

to have cocktail making but I think these things could be talked about. I think

even in the elementary schools where I work even the aides that there they are

selected on the basis of their sex. They have to be women.

So I think the point that I'm trying to make is that males can get

involved and at the elementary level it seems to be a crucial thing. So I think that my

whole point is that the black male does have a new role and this role should

include education and preferably at the elementary level because it's here that

black males need a pattern some kind of pattern of behavior that will help them to develop

a real black identity. Thank you thank you.

Thank you. Thank you Jeanne.

Jeanne spent a lot of time on the elementary school and I think

you see when you look at it and close why that his emphasis is

more on system kinds of changes rather than on individual change.

And this is something that the professionals going to have to learn that there are certain

kinds of scratches you can manipulate.

You can find other kinds of implication from what he was say. I

remember my situation and Ohio

where this is a study I did on the

referrals.

And what was happening in one particular school classroom was that the

model behavior was the white girl and everybody

else had to conform to this kind of behavior. Well you can see automatically the kind of problem that a

black male would run into. So naturally what happens. And this teacher was. Some

even aware that the girls were setting the standards. You see this is in

terms of behavior so what they do is what the guys all like guys first

black girls next and then white boys this is where the referral thing was

and I think this is something you really have to watch. Enough on the elementary school perhaps Let's talk

about the high school system and the university from the point of view of the peer group

Squire Paget who's a recent graduate of Harvard Law School will speak of

contemporary education and conflict created from the black male

line.

Thank you Professor Gary.

First some description of the conflict and I can

concentrate on the circumstances that before the blackmail and attempting to seek an higher education

in a setting such as the University of Michigan. The problem occurs in part

because of preconceived notions about what college or graduate school is going to be like

and partially because of the strong influence the black peer group has had and shaping the black males

lifestyle. I would also like to note that this is not a

criticism but the verbalization of the situation created and perpetuated by

the university environment. I find the conflict to be say

upon the admittance to the University of Michigan one finds that he no longer has the security of the peer group

that is related to since childhood. Also most behavior acquired by this

peer group is out of place or actually frowned upon in the university environment. OK

what results is usually some kind of traumatic mental physical and emotional

adjustment that creates within the black a feeling of Usually frustration.

I had a minute and a loss of self confidence and the sad fact is this

usually used to say failure or dismissal for many. So what happens

usually by the time we get to be say a lot of part of our sophomore year or

junior year we.

Experience some kind of. We go through an experience which I call the

results and the results is the experiences the varied attempts to rationalize

and deal with the problem.

What results is roughly definable into three divisible groups

or blong among black males on campus and say most of my observations have been

done on these campus and these usually break down into say I ain't going to change

the situation oriented group. And when I also call as a sellout.

OK first in the I ain't going to change crowd the group is characterized

by I refuse to change speech patterns and peer group

mannerisms vs usually the hip walk.

Then a materialistic displays of clothing such as leather coats and

I don't think I need to go on. Second is the

most these people are skilled in most or most of recent dances and most of the other in group

behavior of a particular moment. Usually they're extremely vocal among the in

group yet very quiet in academic circles. Next is the kind of

situation situation oriented group. And I find this to be the

largest group and which most of us fit that into this and this group the

Black male mean learns to adapt his behavior to what is acceptable at a

particular time. If that means to mental actualize and

university I mean that is down. If one is going home to Detroit for example

speech patterns and mannerisms tend to revert to that of the destination at about Metro Airport.

All other characteristics tend to be modified to some degree but

normally the change isn't so complete as to be labeled as a sellout which is a

socially undesirable term among all blacks.

And then I get to the set out. This is the last this last blackmail

is the small irregular group that tends to shut other blacks.

Both male and female and both on a social and academic basis.

Often members of this group actively seek out white companions other black

males tend to find this individual strange or think of him as being bright.

It's usually kind of a personal opinion. What this

leads to is when blacks are brought together is an unnecessary intergroup

conflict among the black males on campus and the lack of effective efforts to alleviate the problem.

And the university is rather static response to Black's efforts to obtain higher education and

I think one of the advantages of a black studies program could have is to provide a means of

transition from one's peer community to the university environment. And I

find example of this is the Language Institute on the university's campus which functions as kind of for

instance socialization and language unit four

of born students coming here and I tend to think that many blacks have the same problem we had we're trying

to approach them in a completely different way. Also I think we can provide a

means for more black males to enter the university in order to create a more realistic environment in

which blacks may function and that's it. Thank you.

I thank you squire.

When you mention the language you remind me of the class last night.

I'm talking about the language.

And I also reminds me why I made such a law school on the

boards. You know the college boards. So I'm going to give you one

test. If you saw this on the boards

what is a beauty.

Eight. Don't tell.

Me. You blond Ohone example.

If. You listen to this now what is so

big a small toy.

Me own 80 C A D.

What's the answer. How many say B. Raise your hand.

Raise your hand now only 80.

How many says no lady that's wrong stance of black

students.

Yeah but that's not only example.

And that's the point I'm trying to make there.

I.

My.

Song Now this is my hand to the psychology people and none of the folks that

designed these on Tess. You make these tests and you not put enough

options down that.

Is true.

You have heard the first of two programs on the new role of the blackmail and implications

for education materials for the program were taken from a recent seminar

sponsored by the University of Michigan's schools of social work and education.

Next week more excerpts from the seminar. The program was prepared for broadcast

by Barbara Kaufman and a Rs special of the week. Thanks WUOM

for this program. This is ANY our of the national

educational radio network.