African American male youth: An urban ethnography of race, space & place

Abstract

Student migration within U.S. urban school districts is now a central feature of policies that promote school choice to access a quality education. Policymakers also support the value of diversity in public schools, even as educational policies and legal decisions that redress racial inequities have receded into the political background. This paper draws from a four-year ethnography (2007-2011) to explore the intersections of race and the geography of school opportunity, and their impact on 15 African American male youth who leave their neighborhoods to participate in a diversity initiative [DI] at an elite public high school in Chicago. The ethnography conveys the visible and often invisible borders of race and place and the impact on youth's perceptual cartographies of the spaces in which their daily lives occur. As the issue of social inclusion gains salience, not only in U.S. cities, but also in cities everywhere, the relevance of these processes and their impact on disadvantaged groups are important to understand. (DIPF/Orig.)