Under pressure to perform: Academic achievement, masculinity, and presentation of self among urban African American male high school students

In this ethnographic project, I examine the achievement patterns of low-income African American male students in a college preparatory high school in the School District of Philadelphia. Specifically. I address the following set of questions: (1) What are the differing ways Black males at the school express their masculinity? (2) How are the differing expressions of masculinity related to the students\u27 academic achievement patterns? (3) How does school policy/practice reward/punish these differing expressions of Black masculinity? Using a three-tier analysis that encompasses micro- and macrosociological approaches, I demonstrate how the boys\u27 presentations of self and the interaction rituals they engage in to express their masculinity are impacted by the tacit rules of educational stratification in the United States, with the college preparatory high school serving as gatekeeper. I find that students who are most likely to erase stereotypical markers of young, urban Black masculinity are also the most likely to have the greatest access to support within the high school for academic success, which then leads to postsecondary opportunities that will likely steer them away from a cycle of poverty. The converse also holds true: Students most likely to embrace the stereotypical markers of young, urban Black masculinity are the least likely to get support within the high school that leads to academic success. This lack of support therefore steers these students to postsecondary opportunities that are likely to keep them mired in poverty. The research in this study oilers a careful examination of the unique circumstances of an understudied population: poor, urban, Black male college preparatory students. Moreover, it sheds light on the failed opportunities within even the best public schools to encourage higher achievement among this academically-promising population