Portraits of Four Black Men with the Baltimore Algebra Project

(Extra)Ordinary Young People, (Extra)Ordinary Demands: Portraits of Four Black Men With the Baltimore Algebra Project The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nikundiwe, Thomas. 2017. (Extra)Ordinary Young People, (Extra)Ordinary Demands: Portraits of Four Black Men With the Baltimore Algebra Project. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33052841 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA (Extra)Ordinary Young People, (Extra)Ordinary Demands: Four Black Men with the Baltimore Algebra Project Thomas Nikundiwe Mark Warren, Chair Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Shawn Ginwright A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Education of Harvard University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2017 2017 Thomas Nikundiwe All Rights Reserved i Dedication For Z and AK – you are why I do any of what I do. And for Zach and Victorious – we only got to learn from you for a very short time, but your lessons will live with us forever. ii Acknowledgements (Shout outs) Shout out to: Comrade AKA CMG AKA ItsChris for never trying to embarrass me on the court and for inspiring this work. Wayne AKA William AKA Lil’ Snook the…for so generously sharing your family with me and for teaching me what family could be. X AKA Xzavier for constantly blowing my mind with your wisdom and also sharing your pain with me. Chris AKA Big Chris for the hours and hours we spent and always keeping it 100 no matter the topic. Props to: Mrs. Goodman for sharing your home and stories with me like I was one of circle. Mrs. Washington for all of the time and honesty about your kids. Mrs. McFadden for opening up your immaculate home and your memories. Bani for sharing your art, your journey, and your vision. Hogs for letting yet another person into your house, letting me play with those amazing children of yours, and for your incisive analysis. Ms. Kristina for laying out all of the good and bad and letting it all out. Ms. Julie for turning the questions on me and thinking it all through with me. Big Ups to: Mama – this space could never do justice to what you have meant to me. You were my first hero and will continue to be my hero as long as I live. Mama & G – you already know what it is – FOE! FOE! I am only who I am because of you. LDaddy for paving the way and letting me know someone from the West Side could do this. Dr. Jay for your mentorship and partnership, and for your loving way in the world. Michelle for encouraging me to go all the way at the beginning of this thing. SMG and Scott for always taking care of me in BMore, even when I just showed up! Holla to my writing squad: Marisa and Rachel, your transcriptions were invaluable at the beginning stages. Gretchen, Luke and Paula, Margaret, Sherry I couldn’t have finished without your support. Carla and Margaret, for fixing my backwards writing and doing it any time, all the time. C & K, SPF is the best writing group there ever was – I know I was difficult to work with but I recognize the careful work you did of both pushing me forward and pulling me up. Mad love to the DRP (Amanda, Anita, Ann, Carolyn, Cynthia, Connie, Helen, Karen, Keith, Kenneth, Malia, Mara, Mark, Paul, Roy, Soo, Soojin, Tiffany, Zenub) and to my HER people (Carla, Chantal, Christina, Gretchen, Irene, Sherry) Just plain love to my partner in the work and in the world, Carla – none of this is remotely possible without you. You held me up in all the ways imaginable, kept me going when I was determined to stop, held it down when I was immersed, and believed in the work like no one else. iii Respect to my incredible committee: Professor Warren – I can’t say how much I appreciate you for having my back. You had me with the work, you had with the institution, you had me with all that faced my family. You are more than anyone could ask in an advisor Professor Lawrence-Lightfoot – I have so much respect for the way you are able to hold my feet to the fire, while never letting me burn. The same can be said for so many of the rest of us when you were the only one for us to turn to. Professor Ginwright – Thank you for teaching me through your scholarship and your action, and thank you for hearing my work in ways that had not been heard. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1 The Worst Day: Losing Zach…………………………………………page 1 Chapter 2 A Framework: Three Tiers of Demand and Earning Insurgencies…...page 14 Chapter 3 Literature Review: Stepping into the Black Freedom Struggle………..page 20 Chapter 4 Methodology: Adding Depth to a Flat Picture………...…………...…page 35 Chapter 5 Comrade: From the Megaphone to the Microphone……………...….page 46 Chapter 6 William Wayne Washington: Architect of Family…………........……..page 89 Chapter 7 The Pedagogy of X………….……………………………………...page 144 Chapter 8 Chris Lawson: Searching for a Belonging……………..…………….page 196 Chapter 9 Commitment, Responsibility, Change: The Demands of Actors on Society….……………………………..page 236 Chapter 10 Afterword…………………...………………………………….….page 264 Appendix: Data Collection Protocols………..………………..……page 269 Bibliography……………………………………….……….………page 273 v Abstract As long as there have been Black people in the United States, they have struggled for the recognition of their full humanity. From the insurrection of slaves to the organized efforts of the Civil Rights Movement, historians have documented the ways in which Black individuals and Black organizations made a “demand on society” (Moses & Cobb, 2001) to be treated as full human beings with full human and civil rights. Young people continue the historical struggle by making demands on society today for their rights to safe housing, affordable transportation, youth jobs, and quality public education. This is a study of four young, Black men, former members of the Baltimore Algebra Project (B.A.P.), who have made a demand on society. The scholarship on Black males in education is overwhelmingly focused on documenting pathology, collectively painting a picture that is too flat, lacking the depth of “complex personhood” (Tuck, 2010). I turn to portraiture as my methodology for its nuanced focus on goodness and the complexity of the human experience to ask four questions: What role, if any, did the personal history of four Black men in the B.A.P. play in their ability and willingness to make a demand on society? What role, if any, did participation in the B.A.P. have on their ability and willingness to make a demand on society? How do these participants understand their role in society as actors on society? The study ultimately finds that the young men have the requisite skills, knowledge, dispositions, and commitment to liberation. They are organizers, teachers, philosophers, poets, mathematicians, artists, problem-solvers, fathers, partners and leaders. But they do not possess the material privileges that allow them to experiment with employment, to make mistakes, or to choose an activist lifestyle without regard for economic realities. In the absence of certain privileges, each young man is trying to find a way to live as a constitutional person, a full human being committed to the full humanness of other beings. Each is working hard to find spaces and people with whom they can experience the freedom and power of their B.A.P. days. 1 The Worst Day: Losing Zach It was the worst day for Xzavier “X” Cheatom – standing at the bus stop and watching his best friend Zach get shot in the head over a cell phone. A cell phone. Shot in the head. He watched him get shot in the head over a cell phone. This day was devastating for X’s friends Chris “Comrade” Goodman and “Wayne” William Washington, as well. “Worst? I don’t know… just off the top of my head, was when Zach was shot, that was probably the worst right there, when I heard about that.” Chris “Comrade” Goodman “You know, a lotta my friends die, a lot of ’em. A lot of ’em pass away; a lot of ’em got shot. I’ve been blamed for my friends’ deaths because of, because of beef that I have … So, that’s tough, and, you know, I care about everyone who passes and I, you know, I want to support, I support them after in any which way I can, but, when Zach died, that was a very harsh day.” “Wayne” William Washington This project is not supposed to be about a scene like this – a scene you expect to see on the evening news or your favorite cop show. Everybody knows “Zach.” Or at least they think they do: a young Black male, a high school drop-out, the ultimate victim of street crime. He fits nicely into the statistics. He fits nicely into mainstream media storylines, or the educational research storyline, or the storyline of the collective imagination of this country. But the truth is that you probably don’t know Zach. And that’s what this project is about. Ordinarily Extraordinary: Being Zach Comrade was the first to teach me that he is Zach – and Wayne is Zach, and X is Zach and Chris “Big Chris” Lawson is Zach.

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