“don’t believe the hype” (by Ann Ferguson, early 1990’s)

This article is an ethnographic analysis of racism, but it is also an ethnographic “memoir.” Ferguson gives an account of the interplay between the “institution” (Rosa Parks Elementary), and the black male students (regulated social identities) at the school. Ferguson says, “It is an account of the power of institutions to create, shape, and regulate social identities” (2).

Most of the institutionally identified troubled youth were black and male; a disproportionately high number given the ethnographic make-up of the student population (one-fourth of the students, one-half of the students sent to the Punishing Room). This fact supports Fergusons assertions later on that:

Bad Boys (the title of the book from which “don’t believe the hype” is an excerpt) is a study of these two modes: how institutional norms and procedures in the field of education are used to maintain a racial order, and how images and racial myths frame how we see ourselves and others in a racial hierarchy. (19)

I believe this is the main idea of this article; that institutions wield power over socially marginalized groups at the expense of the powerless. The socio-economic make-up of the school was a factor that contributed to this marginalization: a higher proportion of lower socio-economic families consisted of female-headed households. The neighborhood consisted of “mixed” dwellings, but there was an abundance of drug-trafficking and violence. The socio-economic mix in itself creates a breeding ground for racism.

What I learned from this article was that Ferguson used an ethnographic narrative to highlight the issue of racism in a way I could understand. My perception of racism was not anywhere near the reality of racism that Ferguson so eloquently records. An example of my enlightenment comes when Ferguson described a trip to the Punishing Room. She says, “What I observed confirmed that a trip to the Punishing Room was not necessarily a shameful event but held a variety of meanings for the children” (9). Those meanings were feelings of power. The author recalled one student trip to the Punishing Room and it is this narrative that sticks in my head:

For example, one day a fifth-grade African American boy who was always in trouble saw the file folder with his name on the desk. “I got a lot in there, don’t I? Who else got one that big?” he asked. There was awe in his voice at his accomplishment. He had made an important mark on the school. (9)

For the author this was not just a brief journey into the lives of male black students in order to understand a superficial view of the effects of racism. Ferguson immersed herself in the culture of the Arcadia school district society. Ferguson became a “participant-observer” (7) in her ethnography, similar to Brenda-Jo Brueggmann. But, it seems to me that Ferguson is able to straddle the “hyphen” with less conflict. The difference is that Ferguson articulated that she had learned from the experience without alienating her subjects; “Though I paid attention to the accounts of a variety of individuals and heard explanations and theories from numerous viewpoints, it is the perspective and the voices of the kids, mostly boys, whom I talked to that animate and bind this text together” (11). In order to learn from this ethnography Ferguson had to understand the “self-fashioning” that took place with the boys. This self-fashioning was the boy’s creation of a “world view.” Their world view was helped through the medium of music. Her research into the boy’s music provided Ferguson with insight into her subject’s psyche:

My brief and intense exposure to and growing familiarity with this cultural production was an indispensable element in alerting me to some key sources that the boys drew on for self-fashioning. (16)

In essence, Ferguson’s journey in exploring racism also enlightened her to the importance of pop-culture in the self-fashioning process of the young black boys.

In conclusion, Ferguson provides a vivid narrative, in memoir fashion, of her experience in a racially mixed contemporary elementary school. She writes very clearly about the power of the institution to “shape and regulate social identities” (2). Ferguson also enlightens with a glimpse into the lives of young black boys as they create a world view that is at odds with the “institution” of education.