Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities

6. Schooling and the Social Reproduction of Racial Inequality

154 The previous chapter looked at the racialization process as it played out in the three school communities. Along with understanding the role schools play in the production of racial ideas, however, it is essential to understand the role of schools in the reproduction of racial inequality. Racial inequality in education , specifically racial gaps in achievement, have been receiving new attention . The black-white gap in particular has become the subject of front-page articles in national newspapers, of books, and of discussion within educational policy circles. Many observers suggest that the problem begins within the black community, that it is an issue of values (do blacks care about education?), peer relations (do black peers discourage their friends from achieving?), or identity (do blacks reject school success because they think it is a “white” thing?). Others, however, argue that perhaps processes within school buildings lead to these differences (Ferguson 1998a, 1998b; Roscigno and AinsworthDarnell 1999). In this chapter I suggest a set of mechanisms both inside and outside school that lead many children of color to have fundamentally different schooling experiences than their white peers do, mechanisms that are separate from these children’s values, desires, and identity struggles. Rather than being “the great equalizer,” I argue, educational institutions play a key role in the reproduction of racial inequality. One key for understanding racial stratification in educational experiences and outcomes is a conceptual frame first developed by Pierre Bourdieu to explore the social reproduction of class. Subsequently utilized by a whole cadre of scholars (DiMaggio 1982; Farkas 1996; Lamont and Lareau 1988; Roscigno and Ainsworth-Darnell 1999; Smrekar 1997), Bourdieu’s theory built on a MarxSix Schooling and the Social Reproduction of Racial Inequality The Social Reproduction of Inequality 155 ian notion of economic capital to suggest that other forms of capital—cultural, social, and symbolic—are also means for accessing power and improving social status. Capital is essentially a resource that serves to advance one’s position or status within a given context. Bourdieu discussed four types of capital: economic (money and property); social (connections, social networks); cultural (cultural knowledge, educational credentials); and symbolic (symbols of prestige and legitimacy). Each of the forms of capital (all distributed unequally in the population ) help those who already have resources maintain or increase their status and power. Under the right conditions, each form of capital can be converted into the others in order to enhance or maintain positions in the social order (Connolly 1998: Swartz 1997). However, as Lareau and others have pointed out (Lareau 1989; Lareau and Horvat 1999; Lamont and Lareau 1988), having capital does not automatically translate into advantages or resources; in order to provide benefit, capital must be put to use and put to use effectively. For example, recent graduates may have a great deal of capital in the form of social networks , but if they do not tap into these networks in their job-search process, that capital will not prove useful in finding work. These various kinds of resources, however, are not directly equivalent to capital . For example, all individuals, families, and communities have a wealth of cultural resources. However, only some of those resources are useful within specific social contexts. Only when cultural resources assist one in gaining access to additional resources within a particular place can they be considered capital. Thus, though all children and families have specific kinds of social connections and may even have access to symbols of prestige, these resources provide advantage only within particular settings. For example, cultural knowledge important for navigating a low-income neighborhood (e.g., knowing which corner stores accept food stamps, which blocks are safe after dark, how to play “the dozens”) would provide little assistance in successfully negotiating a corporate law firm’s holiday cocktail party. Moreover symbols of prestige at the cocktail party (e.g., specific styles and brands of clothes) would likely not function similarly in the low-income neighborhood. Some resources, then, that are critical in certain contexts become almost meaningless in others. Though it is analytically useful to talk about these various forms of capital as distinct, in practice the boundaries are quite blurry. For example, parents may use economic capital to pay for their children’s private schooling, which bestows important educational credentials (cultural capital) and often social connections (social capital), which the children may then use to get good jobs, which lead to future economic capital. In this chapter I often discuss forms...