Analysis Of ' Ain 't No Makin It By Jay Macleod

Reading the articles “From Beyond Outrage” by Robert B. Reich, and “A Tangle of Pathology to a Race-Fair America” by Alan Aja. Daniel Bustillo, William Darity Jr., and Darrick Hamilton, made me comprehend additional perspectives about class, ethnic groups, and education to our examination of success. Specifically, the way “A Tangle of Pathology to a Race-Fair America” explains its point of views, and the facts that it provides makes the reader fully understand how race has affected employment throughout the years. Black families were trapped in the Tangle of Pathology; representing how they had, and still continue to have, extremely low benefits and advantages compared to the whites. Race, class and education have a powerful connection, since

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

control, such as financial issues, segregation, suspensions and drop-outs rates, subtractive schooling, and school climate negatively impacts their overall performance. Jay MacLeod brings to light these issues in his book, Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. The book, which reports the author’s findings on fifteen boys living in public housing and their overall educational and life success over several years. The book centered around the achievement ideology, which is the belief that success can be obtained through hard work and education. Under this belief, factors such as race and socioeconomic status do not impact one’s success so long as there is a strong work ethic. He described two groups who had a different perspective of the achievement ideology (MacLeod, 2009). The white boys, called the Hallway Hangers, did not agree with ideology and believed they were being cheated out of what was rightfully theirs by minority students. They put no effort into their schooling and were highly involved in criminal life. Meanwhile, the Brothers, were black males who strongly believed in the Achievement theory. They worked hard not only with school but in other things as well and believed they would soon be rewarded for their efforts. Another theme that MacLeod covered was the idea that these boys were “pushed into jumping.” He describes that this idea is based on the fact these individuals in spite of the circumstances in which they were born are either able to does they please and see it, also known as jumping or are forced to do certain things therefore, “pushed into jumping.” In utter agreeance, minority individuals are “pushed into jumping” and if they are at any point failing, then educators and schools need to collaborate with the community to assure these students stay in school.

It appears to be that the discussion of race and class in America has become amplified, especially in the last couple of years. For many, it is a touchy subject that hits close to home. With the presence of social media and news that feeds off of racial tension in America, the issues are polarizing and difficult to productively discuss. America’s handling of race and class relations is generally not something to be proud of, and there exists a long history of issues with race. It is clear that there is a lack of understanding and empathy of what others experience toward those who are oppressed. So often it is too easy to dismiss another human’s experiences as reality if one has had no prior encounter with the same challenges. Race is easy to sweep under the rug, but we must address the problem, and it is not a one size fits all solution. It is a problem that has been years in the making and continues to have an enormous impact on our human capital from an economic standpoint. And most of the time, there is a correlation between race and class.

For some students, race is a central part of their identity. The struggles they face with it determines the achievements that they can present to the admissions officers. Despite the current ban on the usage of race in college admissions in Michigan, admissions officers should not ignore any part of a student’s unique circumstances, which may be related to one’s socioeconomic status, race, or both. In the article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol argues that the ongoing racial segregation and the lack of funding in schools consisting primarily of blacks and Hispanics are putting the poor and minority children at an disadvantage by not providing them a chance to have good teachers, classrooms, and other resources. While universities use scores to assess the academic ability of a student, minorities who attend schools segregated based on race or socioeconomic status may excel at what they are given, have the

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Ultimately the lack of reliable resources and preparation from underfunded schools leads African American students into being unprepared for college and jobs, once again reinforcing a vicious cycle of poverty within the community. Gillian B. White, a senior associate editor at The Atlantic, wrote a chilling article regarding the systematic racism that is deeply embedded in the American school system. In the article The Data: Race Influences School Funding, White states “At a given poverty level, districts that have a higher proportion of white students get substantially higher funding than districts that have more minority students” (White). In this quote White explains the clear correlation of race and inadequate funding in the American school

For generations African Americans have been disadvantaged in America and effects of these injustices have made a lasting impression. Education is one of the leading problems in the black community. Though there have many reforms in education over the years, racial injustices still exist because no attention in placed on how legislature affects people of color. I was raised in a middle-class family of educators. My entire life I’ve been told to “stay in school, get an education, and work hard so that you can beat the system.” Recognizing the structural forces in my life has helped me understand my place in society. Being able to “understand everyday life, not through personal circumstances but through the broader historical forces that

financial issues, segregation, subtractive schooling, and the overall school climate may negatively impact their overall performance. Jay MacLeod brings to light these issues in his book, Ain’t No Makin’ It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. The book, which reports the author’s findings on fifteen boys living in public housing and their overall educational and life success over several years. The book centered around the achievement ideology, which is the belief that success can only be obtained through hard work and education (MacLeod, 2009). Under this belief, factors such as race and socioeconomic status do not impact one’s success

“Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students.” (Steven Hsieh, 2014) Until now, we are still finding unequal treatment from school in American Society from different aspects, such as school discipline, early learning, college readiness and teacher equity. However, education is more than learning from books. Education enables individuals potential to utilize human mind and open doors of opportunities to obtain knowledge. But the US educational system doesn’t serve the majority of children properly and gaps remain between white and black students. What’s more, nowadays, a lot of schools only treat education as a curriculum and test scores; ignoring the stimulus of curiosity. Therefore, “Between the World and Me” is a book written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who weaves his own personal, historical, and intellectual development into his ruminations on how to live in a black body in America. In this book, Coates writes about education and pleasures of his own educational experience in Howard University. Although bad education hides the truth and restricts students’ ideas, education also contains pleasures, which broaden people’s mind, help people build their own thoughts, and prevent people from prison. As a result, there are more pleasures in American education that positively impact on black body than dangers.

Critical Race Theory provides a conceptual and theoretical framework in this research in that it paves the way for understanding the inequalities in the American education system that rise primarily from race and racism in America. Conceptually, Critical Race Theory will ground the research in the idea that although education policies, education legislation, school structures, school practices and discourses are all rooted in the perniciousness of racism, white supremacy and superiority can be challenged by analyzing the distinct experiences of African Americans (Allen, 2016). Critical Race Theory as a research framework strives to quicken the rate of educational reform by focusing on the experiential knowledge of minorities in America (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995;

American society likes to believe that race relations in our country are no longer strained. We do not want to hear about the need for affirmative action or about the growing numbers of white supremacist groups. In order to appease our collective conscious, we put aside the disturbing fact that racism is alive and well in the great U.S.A. It hides in the workplace, it subtly shows its ugly face in the media, and it affects the education of minority students nationwide. In the following excerpts from an interview with a middle class African American male, the reader will find strong evidence that race plays a major role in determining the type and quality of education a student receives.

Ain’t No Makin’ It is Jay Macleod 's projection of the social, behavioral concepts that define the human mind 's development in relation to exposure and conceptions. This report makes reference to 'the human mind ' because it is the point from which mental representations are made, and beliefs influenced. As such, Jay 's analysis examines the resilience and resistance that the human mind can develop, or its nature of submission when subjected to different environmental conditions. That is so because social behavior is the resultant psychology of interacting with the environment. Projections in the book have been divided into three sections, with portions dedicated to the hallway hangers, who are white kids and other factions to the

Some parents, such as Walter Fields, have said that “You can literally walk down the hallway...and look in a classroom and know whether it’s an upper-level class or a lower-level class based on the racial composition of the classroom” (Kohli 3). Despite the fact that some teachers claim they do not group their students based on race, some of them subconsciously play into the stereotypes presented in society today. When it comes to grouping, whether in class or between classes, the majority of the students placed in the more advanced track will either be white/asian or from a high-income family. Although black/latino students and students who come from a low-income family are just as intelligent as their counterparts, they aren’t given the opportunity to show it. Data compiled from the racial distribution in AP courses at Columbia High School show that the black student population exceeds the white student population by 13.1% (the black population being 51.5% and the white population being 38.4%), yet, when it comes to AP course takers, the white student population dominates over the black student population at 69.8% and 18.7%, respectively (Kohli 4).

There is a certain charm to theater that makes you want to get off of your couch and into the audience. Though not a typical production, Dillard Center for the Arts put on a production of Ain’t Misbehavin’ that makes it worth leaving your house on a Friday night. Set in the 1930’s, Ain’t Misbehavin’ brings a Harlem night club to you as you enjoy both dark and lighthearted numbers.