Listening to the voices of young men of color can help educators understand how to help them succeed. 

In 2014, President Barack Obama introduced the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Initiative (Obama, 2014), an effort to highlight and respond to the various individual and institutional challenges faced in the United States by boys and men who are Black, Latino, Native American, or Asian American Pacific Islander. Since then, more than $1 billion from private and public foundations, corporations, and city and state entities have been invested in related projects. In 2016, for example, New York’s state legislature became the first in the country to pass a My Brother’s Keeper law, allocating $20 million for K-12 school-based programs and postsecondary education opportunities for boys and men of color. In Las Vegas, Nevada, the city government created an MBK task force to focus on educational equity, law enforcement, and community engagement (MBK Taskforce, 2016). And in California, the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color collaborated with local nonprofits to lobby for passage of multiple bills to improve the lived experiences of these boys and men, including state laws designed to prevent their schools from singling them out for suspensions and other disciplinary measures, as well as procedures to sanction police officers who’ve engaged in improper conduct toward male youth of color. (Let us note, also, that we write these words at a time when protests have swept the country in response to the recent killing of George Floyd [MN] and in memory of Michael Brown [MO], Tamir Rice [OH], Pedro Villanueva [CA], and countless other Black and Latino victims of police violence. We believe that these demonstrations are very much in the spirit of the MBK Initiative, which aims to bring heightened awareness to structural racism and improve the living conditions of all boys and men of color.)  

Altogether, more than 240 communities have launched programs under MBK’s banner, and local leaders have credited this work with a range of benefits, such as helping to raise high school graduation rates for young men of color, reduce in-school arrests, and strengthen community policing practices. Given the extent to which the design and funding of MBK programs have varied from place to place, it has been difficult to quantify the initiative’s overall impact or compare the effectiveness of specific program models. Still, though, much can be learned from these efforts to help boys and men of color to achieve full educational and societal advancement — especially if those boys and men are given the chance to weigh in on the kinds of services and supports they perceive to be most valuable.  

All too often, both the popular and professional literature about boys and men of color have relied on deficit-laden narratives, describing them in terms of what they have not achieved. But one of the chief aims of the MBK Initiative has been to highlight innovative practices that take an asset-based approach to improving educational conditions, allowing young people to share positive stories about their experiences and achievements.  

To that end, and inspired by the MBK Initiative’s call to listen more attentively to boys and men of color, our research team conducted in-depth interviews in 2013-2015 with more than 200 Black and Latino students attending six urban schools in Los Angeles County. They varied in their family circumstances, their test scores, their grade point averages (which ranged from 2.5 to 4.0), their engagement in high school, their involvement in the community, and in many other ways. However, all had been identified by their teachers, counselors, and school administrators as “successful” young men who’ve demonstrated resilience, civic engagement, and character. And they turned out to have a lot to say about the kinds of policies, practices, and institutional conditions that matter to them. 

Listening to and learning from successful students 

In choosing to study “what works” for adolescent boys of color, we build upon previous scholarship that has focused on high-achieving Black and Latino high school students, especially Shaun Harper and Dennis Williams’ (2013) well-known study of 325 successful students at 40 New York City schools. As Harper and Williams observed, social scientists have learned much already about the multiple institutional failures that prevent boys of color from positively transitioning into adulthood. For instance, researchers have established that Black and Latino boys are disproportionately subjected to aggressive disciplinary practices in school (Howard, 2014; Musto, 2019); that boys of color who are suspected of having associations with gangs tend to face particularly harsh discipline in schools (Huerta et al., 2020); that school suspensions and expulsions predict increased contact with the juvenile justice system and subsequent arrests (Mittleman, 2018), and that increased justice contact negatively impacts academic performance and college attendance (Johnson, 2015; Shedd, 2015). However, noted Harper and Williams, while the evidence shows that harsh disciplinary practices — suspending and expelling these students for minor infractions, and then pushing them out and away from schooling environments — are ineffective (Wood et al., 2018), much less is known about the institutional policies, practices, and other factors that lead to positive outcomes for these students.  

Like Harper and Williams, we contend that if researchers make a conscious effort to focus on assets instead of deficits, they can capture often-neglected stories of success and perseverance among Black and Latino boys. Further, by listening to these students share their own accounts of their experiences in school systems and the kinds of instruction they receive, researchers can gain much richer insights than they can get merely by observing those students or interviewing their teachers and administrators.  

Simply put, Black and Latino boys have a great deal of wisdom to share.

Simply put, Black and Latino boys have a great deal of wisdom to share. When teachers, administrators, school counselors, and other educators recognize that these students possess deep funds of knowledge (Huerta & Rios-Aguilar, 2018), and when they seek to learn more about the various forces that shape these students’ lives — including not just the challenges they face but also their values, interests, ambitions, cultural traditions, family histories, out-of-school learning opportunities, and more — they are better able to leverage those resources both in and out of the classroom (Howard et al., 2019).  

So, having listened carefully to these 200 Black and Latino boys, and having coded and analyzed a wealth of interview data, what lessons have we learned? What can education researchers, teachers, counselors, administrators, and other school staff do to better support young men of color as they progress through high school and into adulthood? 

Provide strong and supportive counseling 

Time and again, the youth in our study shared a sense of surprise that they had been labeled as particularly “successful” students, noting that if they’ve done well, it is because they’ve had help and encouragement from teachers, counselors, and others who’ve seen potential in them. That is, they credit the support they’ve received from adults in school and other settings, and they know that many more of their peers would be just as successful if given the same supports. 

One student told us about a science teacher who encouraged him to enroll in an honors class: 

I would say my teachers have had a pretty big positive impact in the sense that they sort of nudged me a little into trying a harder class . . . and I wasn’t sure about it at the time but after thinking about it . . . “Well this teacher feels like I can do it. So if she thinks I can do it, why shouldn’t I think I can do it?” Then I ended up taking Honors Chemistry the next year and passing with an A. 

Another student praised his high school counselors, who set lofty expectations for him and fellow boys of color:  

My counselors . . . they implement toughness, saying keep going on, keep fighting. They expect a lot [and set] high expectations for us. They don’t want us to fail. . . . They’ll be like “See, you made it. It was possible. . . . Always drive for more and more, ’cause someone else out there is going to drive harder than you.” 

Media accounts about Black and Latino adolescents often portray them as apathetic or resistant to being educated (Howard, 2014; Huerta, 2018). However, the students we interviewed frequently spoke to the value of education, reiterating what has been found in a number of previous studies (Harper & Davis, 2012; Howard et al., 2019): They (and their less successful peers, they insisted) do indeed care about learning, and they are confident in the power of post-secondary degrees and credentials to enable them to pursue meaningful careers.  

Just like other young people, then, Black and Latino boys deserve effective counseling that can help them translate their ambitions into concrete plans (Ballysingh, 2019; Carey, 2019; Huerta et al., 2020). And yet, previous research suggests that high school boys (of all races and ethnicities) tend to be less likely than girls to seek out college information and support from counselors (Bryan et al., 2009). Further, researchers have long found that boys or color, in particular, are disproportionately steered by counselors toward local community colleges and non-selective four-year institutions (Martinez & Huerta, 2020). What’s needed, then, are proactive efforts by school personnel to understand why many boys do not see them as reliable resources for college planning. Moreover, and as many of the boys in our study suggested, counselors should be much more intentional and consistent in making sure that Black and Latino boys are meeting college requirements, completing financial aid documents, and applying to rigorous post-secondary programs that match their achievements (Huerta, McDonough, & Allen, 2018; McDonough, 1997; Rodriguez, 2015). The default assumption ought to be that these students can and should enroll in the most challenging degree programs they are qualified to attend. 

Cultivate empathy among school personnel 

Without exception, the students in our study expressed appreciation for adults in schools and elsewhere in the local community (e.g., in churches, sports clubs, and community-service programs) who empathize with them, choosing to see them as potential leaders, change agents, and success stories. Whatever the in-school personas that Black and Latino boys project — even if they come across as tough, uninterested, or indifferent — they want teachers and staff to recognize them as well-meaning and fully capable human beings, having the ability to achieve at high levels. Like everybody else, boys of color want to be seen as the complex, many-layered, self-aware people they are. And that’s no less true for those who struggle in school or have criminal records. For instance, even the most “hardened” gang members want their younger male siblings to do well in school and stay out of trouble (Huerta et al., 2020; Rios, 2017). And the students who act out the most are often themselves striving to overcome trauma, violence, and victimization (Huerta, 2018; Peguero, 2011). 

That isn’t to say that efforts to support boys and men of color should be born out of pity. The point isn’t to tug at the heartstrings of school staff but, rather, to assert that for teachers and counselors, empathy must be defined as a core professional disposition. As students in our study told us, it is easy to spot adults who make a shallow effort to appear understanding and sympathetic. But it’s also easy to spot those who make a genuine effort to see the world from students’ social and cultural points of view (Warren, 2013, 2014) and to appreciate the resources and skills they bring with them to school (Kiyama, 2010). For teachers and other school personnel, the ability to empathize with Black and Latino boys must be viewed not as a personal quality but as a professional responsibility. 

Build relationships beyond the classroom 

While all school professionals should understand that their job requires them to empathize with and set high expectations for young men of color, the most impactful teachers and staff — according to the students we interviewed — are those who make a real effort to get to know them as individuals, learn about their out-of-school lives, and build the kinds of positive relationships that research has shown to have strong effects on student engagement and educational attainment (Howard, 2014). It can be difficult to make time for these connections, given that many teachers and counselors are overwhelmed with other responsibilities, but the young men in our study heaped praised on those teachers and staff who genuinely cared for them and took on mentoring roles in their lives.  

Mentors, however, need not come from within schools. Counselors and other school staff might consider collaborating with local community colleges, four-year universities, or college access nonprofits to find college-student mentors to take on some of this work. These near-peer mentors can serve as role models and build strong relationships with Black and Latino boys in high schools, giving them a sense of what their own next steps may look like. Efforts like these can help students strengthen their connection to their current school and begin forming an attachment to institutions of higher education. 

Conduct research that humanizes young men of color 

When studying Black and Latino high school students, researchers often choose to take a one-dimensional view of their subjects, zeroing in on academic struggles and negative interactions with schools and the justice system. In our own research, though, we have sought to humanize the young men we’ve studied, giving them many opportunities to tell their own stories about their rich and complex experiences in and out of school. Indeed, our interviews confirmed that the Black and Latino boys in our study are just as complex and fully human as everybody else. For instance, they care deeply about the safety and well-being of their local communities; they tend to be influenced powerfully by caring adults both inside and outside schools; among those whose families are new to the U.S., their immigrant experiences tend to have profound effects on how they see the world; their gender identity is shaped by a broad range of experiences in homes, schools, and neighborhoods, and, overall, they display a strong commitment to giving back to their local communities in future years (Howard et al., 2019). 

If we truly aim to understand participants’ lived experience, we must use new and emerging research tools that show, for example, how they navigate their journey to and from school every day, how they spend their out-of-school time, and how they find support from peers and adults at school and in the community. As recent research illustrates (Martinez & Castellanos, 2018), the process of defining one’s own identity is extraordinarily complicated for many Black and Latino boys and young men. For example, academic self-concept — which tends to be a key driver of educational outcomes — cannot be neatly separated from immigration and migration stories, exposure to gangs and violence, socioeconomic status, gender norms, geography, and educational opportunities in home and schools (Carey, 2019; Howard, 2014; Huerta, 2018). Interviews, focus groups, and participant observations can capture some of this complexity, but researchers should also look to innovative tools such as time diaries, journaling, and other methods that push the boundaries of traditional research, providing closer looks into the ways in which these students construct their identities as boys, men, students, friends, and more.  

However, and as Django Paris points out, “humanizing research does not end when the study does” (Paris, 2011, p. 147). The credibility of this kind of research depends on the willingness of the participants to trust us with their stories, and that requires some reciprocity on our part. Indeed, several of the young men from this study remain in close touch with the original members of the research team, who’ve become mentors to them, offering them informal support during their college years and, in some cases, writing graduate school recommendation letters for them.  

In short, once we’ve chosen to conduct research that treats Black and Latino boys as the complex and fully human beings they are, we have a duty to treat them not as anonymous objects of study but as individuals to whom we have ethical responsibilities. Published research about Black and Latino students often has real consequences in the world, whether it challenges educators to rethink old assumptions or reaffirms what they’ve always thought about those students’ values, abilities, academic interests, and motivation to succeed in school (Kinloch & San Pedro, 2014; Paris & Winn, 2014). For far too long, the default has been to focus on these young men’s supposed deficits, while overlooking their knowledge, ambitions, and skills (Huerta & Rios-Aguilar, 2018), which often allow them to persist and succeed even in classrooms that offer less than fruitful conditions for learning and social development. Going forward, then, we urge our fellow scholars to aim for a three-dimensional view of the social and cultural lives of young men of color, including the use of asset-based research methods that capture their resources and achievements as well as their struggles.  

Changing perspectives 

The nation’s educators have much to learn from the protests that took place across the country this summer. Above all, they should acknowledge the pain and anguish that have led so many Americans to demand an end to police violence against communities of color. But it is also a moment for teachers and school staff to think carefully about how best to support Black and Latino boys and young men, both now and when schools reopen. These boys of color will need proactive responses from schools to address the physical and emotional violence and untreated trauma from witnessing shootings and killing on television and social media, and schools need to ensure counselors, teachers, and others on school grounds are able to hold real conversations about racial healing and action to build advocacy in communities.   

We recognize that structural and fiscal constraints can make it difficult for teachers and counselors to forge tight bonds with every student or for researchers to delve deeply into the lives of the people they study. However, we are unlikely to see major improvements in the personal, social, and academic fortunes of boys and men of color until many more educators change their perceptions of these students and become truly determined to support them. For too long, the conversation about Black and Latino students has focused on what’s wrong with their homes, schools, and communities (Conchas & Vigil, 2012; Howard, 2014; Huerta, 2018; Noguera, 2012; Rios, 2017). It’s past time for researchers and school personnel to humanize these young men by focusing on the assets and resources they possess as they navigate expectations related to their gender and race alongside their academic pursuits. If we are to lift up the next generation of boys and men of color, we must focus on their successes and gifts while encouraging them to strive to become the best versions of themselves they can be. Black Lives Matter.   

References 

Ballysingh, T.A. (2019). The varied college pathways of Latino young adults: A narrative study of empowerment theory. Professional School Counseling, 23 (1). 

Bryan, J., Holcomb-McCoy, C., Moore-Thomas, C., & Day-Vines, N.L. (2009). Who sees the school counselor for college information? A national study. Professional School Counseling, 12 (4), 280-291. 

Carey, R.L. (2019). Am I smart enough? Will I make friends? And can I even afford It? Exploring the college-going dilemmas of Black and Latino adolescent boys. American Journal of Education, 125 (3), 381-415. 

Conchas, G.Q. & Vigil, J.D. (2012). Streetsmart schoolsmart: Urban poverty and the education of adolescent boys. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Harper, S.R. & Davis, C.H., III. (2012). They (don’t) care about education: A counternarrative on Black male students’ responses to inequitable schooling. Educational Foundations, 26, 103-120. 

Harper, S.R. & Williams, C.D., Jr. (2013). Succeeding in the city: A report from the New York City Black and Latino male high school achievement study. Philadelphia, PA: Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. 

Howard, T.C. (2014). Black male(d): Peril and promise in the education of African American males. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. 

Howard, T.C., Woodward, B., Navarro, O., Huerta, A.H., Haro, B., & Watson, K. (2019). Renaming the narrative, reclaiming their humanity: Black and Latino males’ descriptions of success. Teachers College Record, 121 (5), 1-32. 

Huerta, A.H. (2018). Educational persistence in the face of violence: Narratives of resilient Latino male youth. Boyhood Studies, 11 (2), 94-113. 

Huerta, A.H. & Rios-Aguilar, C. (2018). “Treat a cop like they are God”: Exploring the relevance and utility of funds of gang knowledge among Latino male students. Urban Education. 

Huerta, A.H., McDonough, P.M., & Allen, W.R. (2018). Employing a developmental perspective to examine how young men of color construct a college-going identity. Urban Review, 50 (5), 713-734. 

Huerta, A.H., McDonough, P.M., Venegas, K.V., & Allen, W.R. (2020). College is . . . : Focusing on the college knowledge of gang-associated Latino boys and young men. Urban Education. 

Johnson, R.M. (2015). Measuring the influence of juvenile arrest on the odds of four-year college enrollment for Black males: An NLSY analysis. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 4 (1), 49-72. 

Kinloch, V. & San Pedro, T. (2014). The space between listening and storying: Foundations for projects in humanization. In D. Paris & M.T. Winn (Eds.), Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities (pp. 21-42). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 

Kiyama, J.M. (2010). College aspirations and limitations: The role of educational ideologies and funds of knowledge in Mexican American families. American Educational Research Journal, 47 (2), 330-356. 

Martinez, E. & Castellanos, M. (2018). Catching them early: An examination of Chicano/Latino middle school boys’ early career aspirations. Urban Review, 50 (3), 378-401. 

Martinez, E. & Huerta, A.H. (2020). Deferred enrollment: Chicano/Latino males, social mobility and military enlistment. Education & Urban Society, 52 (1), 117-142.  

McDonough, P.M. (1997). Choosing colleges: How social class and school structure opportunity. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.  

Mittleman, J. (2018). A downward spiral? Childhood suspension and the path to juvenile arrest. Sociology of Education, 91 (3), 183-204. 

My Brother’s Keeper Taskforce. (2016). 2016 Progress report: Two years of expanding opportunity and creating pathways to success. Washington, DC: The White House. 

Musto, M. (2019). Brilliant or bad: The gendered social construction of exceptionalism in early adolescence. American Sociological Review, 84 (3), 369-393. 

Noguera, P.A. (2012). Saving Black and Latino boys: What schools can do to make a difference. Phi Delta Kappan, 93 (5), 8-12. 

Obama, B. (2014). Remarks by the president on “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. Washington, DC: The White House.  

Paris, D. (2011). “A friend who understand fully”: Notes on humanizing research in a multiethnic youth community. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24, 137-149. 

Paris, D. and Winn, M.T. (Eds.). (2014). Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. 

Peguero, A.A. (2011). Violence, schools, and dropping out: Racial and ethnic disparities in the educational consequence of student victimization. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 26 (18), 3753-3772. 

Rios, V.M. (2017). Human targets: Schools, police, and the criminalization of Latino youth. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 

Rodriguez, A. (2015). Tradeoffs and limitations: Understanding the estimation of college undermatch. Research in Higher Education, 56 (6), 566-594. 

Shedd, C. (2015). Unequal city: Race, schools, and perceptions of injustice. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. 

Warren, C.A. (2013). The utility of empathy for white female teachers’ culturally responsive interactions with Black male students. Interdisciplinary Journal of Teaching and Learning, 3 (3), 175-200. 

Warren, C.A. (2014). Towards a pedagogy for the application of empathy in culturally diverse classrooms. The Urban Review, 46 (3), 395-419. 

Wood, J.L., Harris III, F., Howard, T.C., & Abdi, M. (2018). Outside looking in: Suspension as a form of segregation in San Diego County. Los Angeles, CA: Community College Equity Assessment Lab and the UCLA Black Male Institute.