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The Fresh Prince Syndrome: Experiences of Urban Black Males in Educational Settings Matthew R. Morris Master of Arts Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto (2016) The Fresh Prince Syndrome: Experiences of Urban Black Males in Educational Settings Matthew R. Morris Master of Arts Social Justice Education Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto (2016) Abstract This thesis examines how urban Black males shape and negotiate their identities and how they situate themselves within schooling experiences. I take a phenomenological approach and use principles of CART to explore and analyze the stories of six individuals who claim an urban Black identity, including myself. This study is distinct in that it examines how identity is fostered inside of schooling environments as well as how it undergoes transformation from high school to university. This study also closely examines identity of urban Black males who find themselves clinging to a hip-hop cultural allegiance and the implications that has on their schooling. These experiences of aesthetic representation, space, and peer relationships combine to extend a narrative regarding urban Black male experience in school while providing insight into how educational institutions can facilitate more productive and engaging learning environments. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. George Dei for his patience and wisdom throughout this entire project. As a man of color, I have learned a great deal from him and credit him with my interest in doing anti-racist work. He initiated a flame within me that will last for a lifetime. I would also like to thank Dr. Miglena Todorova for her dedication, inspiration, and guidance throughout my journey in completing The Fresh Prince Syndrome. She not only provided academic support but much personal guidance. I greatly appreciate her ability to challenge my thinking and push me during the times when I truly needed it. I am forever indebted to her. I owe a great deal to the five participants who participated in this study for without them this project would not have been possible. I thank all of you for your time and interest in this project. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Neville and Erna Morris for their help and words of encouragement. I love you. Morris iii In Memory of Erna Morris Without you, none of this would be possible. Morris iv Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………. ii Acknowledgements …...……………………………………………………………….. iii Chapter I: Introduction ………………………………………………………………... 1 Chapter Ia: Positionality .……………………………………………………………… 7 Chapter II: Literature Review ...………………………………………………….….. 12 Chapter III: Methodology …...…………………………………………………….…. 28 Chapter IV: Hip-Hop Aesthetics and Academic Performance ...…………...……… 45 Chapter V: Space ……………………………………………………………………... 71 Chapter VI: Aesthesis x Space: Impacts on Vernacular & Peer Relationships ….. 83 Chapter VII: Conclusion ……………………………………………………………... 97 References ………………………………………………………………………….… 111 Morris v Morris vi “The role of hip-hop in my life…it’s big, it’s big…It’s like – hip-hop is the professor of black culture, man” -T.A, personal communication December 11, 2015 Chapter I. Introduction The hip-hop albums I have listened to, since Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle to Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly have taught me more valuable life lessons and offered more insight into my world than any educational resource I was ever handed in public school. Through education, I learned how to read, write and do math. To a certain extent the questions and challenges I was required to complete taught me how to problem-solve. As I progressed through education, History and Geography textbooks allowed me to understand my situational context. Through these resources, I learned that the world was bigger than my block, bigger than the east side of Toronto, and bigger than North America. In high school, many classes taught me lessons that were not explicit aims of the curriculum. Art and French class flaunted me with the notion that I could not excel in all things. Or rather, they made me appreciate the talent that seemed to come to others more naturally. But the music that I listened to, both to and from class (and sometimes during class!), taught me about life. In fact, hip-hop taught me how to live. There were mistakes that I did not dare to make thanks to listening to Biggie’s Ready to Die or watching videos like TLC’s Waterfalls. English classes taught me how to write ‘properly’ but I would contend that Morris 1 music taught me how to articulate meaning. However, the hip-hop cultural aesthetics and vernacular that I learned from and appreciated were the furthest from things being valued in the school space. This reality impacted my scholastic endeavors both externally and internally. With that being said, I give kudos to all those scholars and academics that have and continue to work in Anti-Racism education for paving the way for a young mind like mine. But as I read canonical articles of the trendsetters in this socio-political vein of academe, I cannot help myself from feeling a gap between my reality and their theoretical analysis. Fanon is dead and gone. Yet, his work leaves a lasting impression. The Cornel Wests and the bell hooks have left an undeniable and indelible imprint on my psyche as a young Black male and intellectual. But they grew up in an era that I had no part of. I only know it through ink on a page and black and white pictures. These black and white articulations of a better tomorrow bridge my reality with their contextual lens because I find myself relating to an environment of yester year. Despite the progressive transformations of the Civil Rights era, Black males are still being gunned down for being in a place where they ought not to fit and because they are merely wearing a hoodie at night. The black and white pages that analyze racism have recycled their message into the physical reality of today. The anti-racist intellectuals of prior generations have undoubtedly made their mark, but what has improved on the ground? I still feel ‘a way’ driving my car down a main road once a police cruiser pulls behind me. Although I have not committed a crime, nor done anything wrong, I still feel anxious. For all the work these trailblazers have done, I still feel that way. So what has really been done? And in academia, what are we really peddling? Is the practice of theorizing Morris 2 about the material conditions of oppressed bodies merely “intellectual gymnastics”? As we have grown to become a more litigious state it seems as though, “[t]he current climate of accountability and proclamations that all children can and should learn, we are witnessing a disparity between equality talk and inequality reality” (Hooks and Miskovic, 2011, p. 191). “Discourse” and “reality” seem to be two far opposing sides of a coin we consistently suggested to flip, over and over again. As far as the predicament and prospectus of urban black males are concerned, the coin might as well be the house money. We have cycled the same rhetorical message over and over: Black kids are failing in school and we need to analyze it (Dei, 1997). The deeper theoretical explanations on this topic always resorts to this unfortunate meta-narrative. We know that Black males perform below their peers in basic subject areas (Noguera, 2008). We have known this for 60 years. The Brown v. Board of Education act and much other legislation have tried to remedy the situation. But little has been done to scratch the core epistemological issues that create the reality that still objects to core tenets of Black culture in the school settings. The Fresh Prince Syndrome identifies an assumption made of the Black male subject as, “The discourse that emphasizes Black students’ underachievement is a component of the racial hegemony that serves to perpetuate the myth of Black inferiority. It conveys a message that assaults the intelligence of Black people and reinforces the perception of White superiority. The danger in this message is that it not only shapes and reinforces the beliefs of White supremacist thinking but it also influences the perceptions African Americans have of themselves. It creates a form of mental bondage, a psychological slavery where people internalize the negative discourse about themselves to the extent that they believe and consent to what they are said to be, which makes their subjugation easier” (Hooks and Miskovic, 2011, p. 194). Morris 3 The issues I and countless other urban Black males experience(d) when navigating a system that ostensibly sees us as outsiders is more complicated than a few dichotomous tropes and analogies. The matter stems deeper than the ways I talked to my friends, or how I dressed at school and how teachers and the institution of schooling perceived me. Simultaneously, these realities are precisely where the analysis of Black culture and schooling must begin. It is about the culture urban Black males prescribe to, but also about how that culture becomes delegitimized by more hegemonic definitions of social interaction, especially within the educational setting. Thus, it can clearly be observed that the academic discourse encapsulating the urban Black male borders on a type of lose-lose situation. This is precisely why academics must be especially diligent when examining the experiences of urban Black males. The dilemma of Black male excellence pertains to a certain type of fluidity of identity and culture that cannot be easily categorized. For sake of a less “intellectual” term, in our modern times I will phrase the aesthetic articulations, vernacular performances, and peer relationships as a collective phenomena that, when combined, resemble what can be termed as “swag”. This “swag” pertains to the notion that aesthetics and vernacular of Black male culture impact how urban Black males articulate their identity.

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