MAQUINARIA PARA EL TRANSPORTE RIESGOS MÁS FRECUENTES

Questions eighteen asked participants about the sacrifices that successful students had to make. Question nineteen asked about the sacrifices that successful African American males had to make. These questions were asked to determine if African American males schooling experience has a nuisance or difference that other racial groups may not experience as well as if African American males saw themselves differently from other students that they attended school with. The themes that came up most often for sacrifices that an academically successful student would have to make, were social life, not having fun, sports and time. Social life was noted each time participants made reference to not having a social life, not being able to socialize or hang out with their friends. Social life was also noted when participants talked about being viewed as lame, not cool, or not fitting in with friends. Not having fun was noted each time students made reference to clowning around in class or with friends. Participants reported that sports can take away from academic success so this was noted as a theme. Lastly, participants reported not having much time for anything but studying. This was why time was selected as a theme. Table 26 gathers this data.

Table 26. Successful Students vs. Successful African American Males

Categories Themes 1.0-1.99 2.0-2.49 2.5-2.99 3.0-4.0

MS LAS AS HS

Sacrifices a successful student will have to make

No social life XX XXXX XXXXX XXX

Not having fun X

Sports X

No time/ no time due to working hard. X XX XXXX

Sacrifices African American Males will have to make

One 3.0-4.0 participant stated that there were no problems with being an academically successful African American male.

No Social Life X XXX XX

Fun X XX X

Negative life style (drugs, gangs) X X X X

Romantic Relationships X

Being a representative of all African American males X

Time working hard X

Time with family and certain friends and familiar XXX X

Sports X

Not being able to show full extent of intelligence X

What was definitely interesting was that low-average success (LAS) and average success (AS) students believed that there were more problems with being academically successful than students in the minimal success (MS) or the high success (HS) student groups. The low-average success (LAS) and average success (AS) students cited 33 problems. Combined the minimal success (MS) and high success (HS) students cited a total of 13, which was less than half of what was cited by the low average (LAS) and average success (AS) student groups. The responses to problems that academically successful African American males face was intriguing and could be further explored as a study all by itself.

While responses for an average success (AS) and high success (HS) students were more concentrated on having to give up a social life and not having time for other activities in life, responses in the African American male category were more wide spread. African American males continued to bring up the notion of having to impress their friends or not caring if they impressed their peers. This theme did not come up in the high success (HS) group.

Ian (18) talked about how he felt about the opinion of others:

Probably sacrificed opinions of others because I guess like getting back to the ghetto label- I don’t know why they just don’t care. Maybe it’s the way they were brought up or maybe for the approval of friends, just to be heard, or for attention but I guess it’s sacrificing some time with your friends or time out to try to be more academically successful.

Sam (18) stated that they would have to sacrifice time with negative friends, time with family, and/or negative things like guns, drugs, and gangs:

Sacrifices that an African American male will have to make- no, it would be the same as any American. It would just all depend on what /you want to end up as/ like an African American male, I mean usually they grow up in the urban areas, money’s not a lot of times relevant, I mean /it’s just not there/, I mean so if you’re an African American male, from some, a good home and you know, with decent money, I guess- /??/ the sacrifices but like if you’re coming from like projects or something like that, then I guess what you’re sacrificing then is you’re sacrificing the time for family, friends, a lot of things. You’re sacrificing your boys in the hood I mean like, you see guys that really aren’t going anywhere /but you know you can’t be like them, you have to be better/. And they ask you “where you been” and all that so you’re sacrificing all those /what probably could be your life/. If you’re not careful.

Ed (18, AS) explained his experience this way:

Well, it depends on where you’re from. Like if you’re from a really like we’re in St. Claire, there friends, you know how St. Claire is, they would have to give up all that

gang-banging, violence, they would have to give up all that if they wanted to be academically successful.

The social life that an academically successful student gave up seems to be superficial, more focused on not hanging out with friends and being more focused on one’s studies. The social life that African American males gave up appeared to be more complex. There was almost a giving up of an identity and taking on an entirely different persona.

Leo (18, 12) talked about changes he made to himself:

Uh, um hum. That’s a good one. Uh not too many. As far as, I actually had another discussion about environmental awareness. Uh sometimes as an African American you want to play around you want to make certain jokes and stuff like that. But I think you have to have environmental awareness. Uh sometimes change yourself up. Not just changing your personality but be a different person at certain times so you can get an education.