“The Consequences of the Criminal Justice Pipeline and Latino Masculinity” is a research paper in which minority youth in Oakland, California are studied in order to determine the effect of heightened policing techniques on gendered practices. The author is able to make conclusions based on observations made while doing field research and interviews.
Rios’ main argument is that the enhanced policing, surveillance, and punitive treatment of youth of color facilitate the development of gendered practices. Essentially he is saying that minority youth, mainly males, experience more of a police presence, and that causes them to have different views on masculinity than individuals who do not experience increased police presence. He describes this altered view of masculinity as hypermasculinity, in which the typical display of physical strength and aggression associated with masculinity is exaggerated. Rios is able to make conclusions on his argument based on observations made while doing field research and conducting interviews. …show more content…
He uses anecdotes from his interviewees as evidence for his findings. I found these explanations to be interesting and helpful in my own understanding of his research. I noticed that the development of hypermasculinity functioned as a form of operant conditioning. When the police gave the boys a hard time, the boys would respond by increasing their masculine behavior, which involved exerting dominance and the willingness to resort to violence if needed. The police backing off negatively reinforced the boys for their behavior. This only increased the effect of police presence on hypermasculinity.
In contrast to Rios’ focus on policing, Ann Arnett Ferguson looks at gender and racial stereotyping in public schools in the excerpt from her book, “Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity.” Ferguson spent three years at Rosa Parks Elementary School studying how schools function in reproducing social inequalities. Ann Arnett Ferguson argues that schools play a major part in the development of social identities in children, and that they use punishment to push specific identities on certain students. Throughout her fieldwork at Rosa Parks, Ferguson found that the school negligently set up its black male students to fit certain labels. She uses the term “criminally inclined” to suggest that the school’s use of labels and rules as a way to criminalize a student’s behavior before it even became criminal. At the beginning of the paper, Ferguson mentions how teachers could predict a student’s future and would say they were on a track for jail. In my opinion this is absolutely awful. Teachers are supposed to encourage students to be their best and help them succeed, not predetermine their career as a criminal. In many of my psychology classes we talk about how much influence teachers and parents have on young students. If a teacher thinks a student is not capable of bettering his/her self, then why would that student think any differently? In my opinion, the students at this school know exactly what the faculty think of them, and they let their views become self-fulfilling prophecies, so that in the future the only thing they think they can become is a criminal. At the end of the paper Ferguson talks about how people always ask her about possible solutions to the problem. She hesitates to give solutions because there is no quick fix to the problem, and that is not what people want to hear. She believes that the whole school system is flawed, in that black students are only meant to learn to obey the rules of society, and the whole system needs to be restructured. The quick fix solutions and small programs are not going to bring about the desired results. The last paper, “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families” by Annette Lareau looks at disparities in social class and their effects …show more content…
Lareau begins by critiquing work done by Kingston, in which the idea is that family life is too complex and cannot be reduced to meaningful patterns. Kingston also believes that class does not distinguish parenting style. Annette Lareau contests Kingston’s views arguing that social class does have an effect on the way parents raise their children. She also seeks to conceptualize the mechanisms of social advantages. She uses the term “conceptual umbrellas” to describe the way in which she attempts to compare the role of race and class in daily
Rios’ main argument is that the enhanced policing, surveillance, and punitive treatment of youth of color facilitate the development of gendered practices. Essentially he is saying that minority youth, mainly males, experience more of a police presence, and that causes them to have different views on masculinity than individuals who do not experience increased police presence. He describes this altered view of masculinity as hypermasculinity, in which the typical display of physical strength and aggression associated with masculinity is exaggerated. Rios is able to make conclusions on his argument based on observations made while doing field research and conducting interviews. …show more content…
He uses anecdotes from his interviewees as evidence for his findings. I found these explanations to be interesting and helpful in my own understanding of his research. I noticed that the development of hypermasculinity functioned as a form of operant conditioning. When the police gave the boys a hard time, the boys would respond by increasing their masculine behavior, which involved exerting dominance and the willingness to resort to violence if needed. The police backing off negatively reinforced the boys for their behavior. This only increased the effect of police presence on hypermasculinity.
In contrast to Rios’ focus on policing, Ann Arnett Ferguson looks at gender and racial stereotyping in public schools in the excerpt from her book, “Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity.” Ferguson spent three years at Rosa Parks Elementary School studying how schools function in reproducing social inequalities. Ann Arnett Ferguson argues that schools play a major part in the development of social identities in children, and that they use punishment to push specific identities on certain students. Throughout her fieldwork at Rosa Parks, Ferguson found that the school negligently set up its black male students to fit certain labels. She uses the term “criminally inclined” to suggest that the school’s use of labels and rules as a way to criminalize a student’s behavior before it even became criminal. At the beginning of the paper, Ferguson mentions how teachers could predict a student’s future and would say they were on a track for jail. In my opinion this is absolutely awful. Teachers are supposed to encourage students to be their best and help them succeed, not predetermine their career as a criminal. In many of my psychology classes we talk about how much influence teachers and parents have on young students. If a teacher thinks a student is not capable of bettering his/her self, then why would that student think any differently? In my opinion, the students at this school know exactly what the faculty think of them, and they let their views become self-fulfilling prophecies, so that in the future the only thing they think they can become is a criminal. At the end of the paper Ferguson talks about how people always ask her about possible solutions to the problem. She hesitates to give solutions because there is no quick fix to the problem, and that is not what people want to hear. She believes that the whole school system is flawed, in that black students are only meant to learn to obey the rules of society, and the whole system needs to be restructured. The quick fix solutions and small programs are not going to bring about the desired results. The last paper, “Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families” by Annette Lareau looks at disparities in social class and their effects …show more content…
Lareau begins by critiquing work done by Kingston, in which the idea is that family life is too complex and cannot be reduced to meaningful patterns. Kingston also believes that class does not distinguish parenting style. Annette Lareau contests Kingston’s views arguing that social class does have an effect on the way parents raise their children. She also seeks to conceptualize the mechanisms of social advantages. She uses the term “conceptual umbrellas” to describe the way in which she attempts to compare the role of race and class in daily