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Gilda · 08-31-2006, 06:41 PM

I've had a good amount of exposure to black kids, at least 11-13 year olds in Southern California. The "no snitching" attitude is pervasive in school culture, and is generally a misapplication of the positive aspects of loyalty. Being loyal to your friends is an admirable quality, but it has to be balanced against doing what's right, and it tends in homogenous subcultures of any kind to be perverted into loyalty to the identified group rather than to one's friends and family, with balancing it against the good of the larger community completely abandoned.

In school culture this tends to mean that you don't report misbehavior, including crimes, even if you are the victim and the others involved are not your friends, aquantances, or otherwise associated with you. It becomes expected among certain leaders that the loyalty normally granted by those close will and should be granted solely because of sharing some superficial characteristic that may not provide any substantive link or any reason to protect them, along with a sense of betrayal when that expected protection is not extended.

For example, bullies expect that their victims won't report their misbehavior and or outright assaults because that is "snitching", and in many school enviroments, this is backed up by the general school population. Not every individual, but the general consensus. The bullies may even feel a sense of betrayal when their victims turn them in and play the victim card themselves among their peers. The same attitudes extend to other behaviors like drugs, cheating, truancy, etc. You must be loyal to the group, even if the group does nothing for you, even if the group is persecuting you. With the bullying and smaller acts of violence, adults can even contribute to the problem by insisting that the kids be allowed to work it out on their own, and that those being targeted need to learn to stand up for themselves.

What it boils down to is the idea that everyone who is like me should always take my side against those who are unlike me.

It creates a situation where reporting dangerous activity isn't seen as being a good citizen, it's ratting on your "friends" even if said friends aren't. In schools this can happen in terms of race, clique, sex, class, but students v. faculty is usually seen as predominant.

In the school where I worked, there was some of the attitude described in the article above among all the groups of boys regardless of race or class, but it was most common among the poorer black boys, with many of the white boys regardless of class trying to imitate them in dress and attitude. It was far less common among the girls of any ethnicity, and entirly absent among the Asian girls.

I imagine that if you translated those conditions to a larger homogenous population with a longer history and deeper intensity of distrust for authority, that all of the facets would be intensified.

I have no idea what the solution, if any, is. One study I read conducted by sociologist Johnathan Crane found that, in black neighborhoods, there was a strong correlation between the number of high status professionals living in the neighborhood (doctors, lawyers, teachers, business owners, other professionals) and the rate of certain social problems such as drop out rates, juvinile incarceration, and teen pregnancy. Above about 5%, there was a greatly reduced incidence of these problems, while below 3% they skyrocketed. This tends to coincide with the commonly held wisdom that more positive role models are needed, but it is correlational, and doesn't necessarily indicate causation. Maybe the professionals move out when crime, teen pregnancy, and other problems increase.

Glorifying crime and the criminal subculture through magazines like those described can't be a good idea, though. At best the description leaves me uneasy, and I suspect I might find myself sickened by the attitude described there if the characterization is indeed accurate.

Gilda

08-31-2006, 06:41 PM	#18 (permalink)
Gilda 32 flavors and then some Location: Out on a wire.	I've had a good amount of exposure to black kids, at least 11-13 year olds in Southern California. The "no snitching" attitude is pervasive in school culture, and is generally a misapplication of the positive aspects of loyalty. Being loyal to your friends is an admirable quality, but it has to be balanced against doing what's right, and it tends in homogenous subcultures of any kind to be perverted into loyalty to the identified group rather than to one's friends and family, with balancing it against the good of the larger community completely abandoned. In school culture this tends to mean that you don't report misbehavior, including crimes, even if you are the victim and the others involved are not your friends, aquantances, or otherwise associated with you. It becomes expected among certain leaders that the loyalty normally granted by those close will and should be granted solely because of sharing some superficial characteristic that may not provide any substantive link or any reason to protect them, along with a sense of betrayal when that expected protection is not extended. For example, bullies expect that their victims won't report their misbehavior and or outright assaults because that is "snitching", and in many school enviroments, this is backed up by the general school population. Not every individual, but the general consensus. The bullies may even feel a sense of betrayal when their victims turn them in and play the victim card themselves among their peers. The same attitudes extend to other behaviors like drugs, cheating, truancy, etc. You must be loyal to the group, even if the group does nothing for you, even if the group is persecuting you. With the bullying and smaller acts of violence, adults can even contribute to the problem by insisting that the kids be allowed to work it out on their own, and that those being targeted need to learn to stand up for themselves. What it boils down to is the idea that everyone who is like me should always take my side against those who are unlike me. It creates a situation where reporting dangerous activity isn't seen as being a good citizen, it's ratting on your "friends" even if said friends aren't. In schools this can happen in terms of race, clique, sex, class, but students v. faculty is usually seen as predominant. In the school where I worked, there was some of the attitude described in the article above among all the groups of boys regardless of race or class, but it was most common among the poorer black boys, with many of the white boys regardless of class trying to imitate them in dress and attitude. It was far less common among the girls of any ethnicity, and entirly absent among the Asian girls. I imagine that if you translated those conditions to a larger homogenous population with a longer history and deeper intensity of distrust for authority, that all of the facets would be intensified. I have no idea what the solution, if any, is. One study I read conducted by sociologist Johnathan Crane found that, in black neighborhoods, there was a strong correlation between the number of high status professionals living in the neighborhood (doctors, lawyers, teachers, business owners, other professionals) and the rate of certain social problems such as drop out rates, juvinile incarceration, and teen pregnancy. Above about 5%, there was a greatly reduced incidence of these problems, while below 3% they skyrocketed. This tends to coincide with the commonly held wisdom that more positive role models are needed, but it is correlational, and doesn't necessarily indicate causation. Maybe the professionals move out when crime, teen pregnancy, and other problems increase. Glorifying crime and the criminal subculture through magazines like those described can't be a good idea, though. At best the description leaves me uneasy, and I suspect I might find myself sickened by the attitude described there if the characterization is indeed accurate. Gilda __________________ I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert