STARTING YOUNG: Emergent Black Masculinity and Early Literacy

Persistent academic difficulties among Black males have been and continue to be widely documented. Notable among the indicators of academic difficulty for Black males are disproportionately low literacy scores (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009; Rashid, 2009; Tatum, 2008). Literacy challenges contribute to Black males’ disproportionate placement in special education (Finkel, 2010; Kunjufu, 2005) and are associated with negative life outcomes including poverty, school dropout, unemployment, poverty, and incarceration (Hernandez, 2011; Rashid, 2009). Research with the goal of understanding and improving Black male literacy is therefore important to help ensure positive life outcomes for this group. Scholars and educators with expertise in issues affecting Black males have called attention to ways in which the persistent documentation of academic difficulties for this group reifies images of Black males as perpetually at-risk and in crisis (e.g., Haddix, 2009; James, 2010). As opposed to such deficit perspectives of Black males, the research presented in this article is grounded in the premise that a culturally relevant focus on literacy can help Black males thrive and excel (James, 2010; Slaughter-Defoe & Richards, 1995; Tatum, 2006, 2008). Thus, this study is aimed at understanding the literacy practices of Black male youth to improve their literacy instruction.