Internalized Stereotypes and Academic Self-Handicapping among Black American Male High School Students

Black American male adolescents continue to be placed at-risk within the United States. Such risk has educational researchers along with those in the social and political sciences positing the belief that this is actually failing Black American male adolescents, particularly by exposing them to environments where interactions at school with teachers, along with their community-based exposure to violence, and some law enforcement officers can prove to be detrimental (Brunson, 2007; Patton, Woolley, u0026 Hung, 2012). For example, using a national data set, Fantuzzo, LeBouef, Rouse, and Chen (2012) noted that 13% of Black American male adolescents reported living in a homeless shelter versus nearly three percent of their White male counterparts. Patton et al. (2012) cited that 30% of young, school-aged Black American boys are exposed to violent events, particularly violent crimes. Brunson (2007) found that many Black American school-aged boys (ages 13-19) have had aggressive and hostile encounters with police, despite not having committed a crime. Indeed, such exposure to community-based violence, especially at the hands of law enforcement officers, has been a significant factor in the lives of Black American male adolescents.In addition to dealing with these community-based factors, Black American male adolescents are also in a persistent battle for their own social identities or how they are perceived by social others (Tyler, 2014). Oftentimes, members of this population are labeled as violent, undesirable, unintelligent, and overall, u0027troublemakersu0027 and u0027problemsu0027 (James, 2012; Howard, 2013). Such racist and egregious stereotypes and images of this population have been the catalyst of or at least salient in several shooting deaths of Black American male adolescents in particular, and perhaps the result of their disproportionate involvement in the criminal justice system in general (James, 2012; Love, 2014; Rios, 2006). Moreover, some reports in the lay and scientific literature have illustrated a careless regard and insensitivity to the lives of young Black American boys. For example, Winbush (2013) recalled the infamous remarks of a presidential appointee who, in 2005, claimed indirectly that the crime rate is linked to the number of Black Americans in this country, and thus, if crime needed to be reduced, . you could abort every Black baby in this country (p. 465). Additionally, Love (2014) reported on a teacher in Georgia who, in teaching about slavery, asked a Black American male student to pretend to be a slave, specifically by standing on an auction block and opening his mouth for inspection. Within the empirical research literature, Goff, Jackson, Di Leone, Culotta, u0026 DiTomasso (2014) found Black American boys are seen as older in their chronological age than they actually are and are viewed as more culpable for their actions than males from other racial groups. Their findings demonstrate that Black American male adolescents are not supplied with the presumption of innocence typically afforded to their white male and female counterparts (Goff et al., 2014). Such a social perception of these young boys-juxtaposed to those negative, racist images of them which have persisted throughout history-leaves this population at its most vulnerable, particularly to those misinformed of their realities and/or among those who do not have their best interests at heart (Franklin, 1999; James, 2012; Tyler, 2014).Perhaps such vulnerability among Black American male adolescents is most salient within the public school. The educational experiences of Black American male adolescents are continually discussed and problematized in the social sciences, educational, and political literature (e.g., Ford u0026 Moore, 2013; Howard, 2013; Tyler, 2014). Palmer, Wood, Dancy, u0026 Strayhorn (2014) remarked on the increase in the number of publication venues and books exclusively dedicated to the life experiences of young Black American men, most notably, their educational experiences. …