Black Boys In Crisis Summary

Racism is a prevalent problem in our schools today and minority students are paying the price. This racism is partially due to false stereotypes in the media, where black boys are often portrayed as more violent and aggressive than their white, male counterparts. This is reflected in the treatment of black males in public education. In Black Boys In Crisis: Racism in the Media and Schools, Matthew Lynch discusses the portrayal of black boys in the media and the stereotypes surrounding them and the disproportionate rate at which black students are punished and sent to prison

In the article, Matthew Lynch discusses the portrayal of black boys in the media and the stereotypes surrounding them. According to Lynch, blacks in the media are often portrayed as ‘’poor’’, ‘’lazy degenerates’’, and ‘’criminally deviant’’. David J. Knight, in the article, expands on this by saying that the stereotypes of blacks in the media normally gravitate towards the common personas such as ‘’the violent,

This occurs because ‘’black and brown students are more harshly punished for the same infarctions that their white counterparts commit. This was seen in a case in Chicago where four students were caught smoking marijuana. According to the Chicago Tribune, ‘’ In the spring semester of 2012 a girl was hauled into the dean’s office at Chicago’s Hinsdale South High School for smoking marijuana …. Three of the four students received punishment. The girl and her friend, who were white, were suspended for five days. One boy, who was white, received no punishment. However, the fourth student, a black boy, was not only suspended for a full week; he was also arrested and pleaded guilty to being in possession of drug paraphernalia.’’ Due to the race of the student, he was unfairly punished harder than his other classmates who committed the same