Reimagining Equality
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Reimagining Equality

A New Deal for Children of Color

Nancy E. Dowd

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Reimagining Equality

A New Deal for Children of Color

Nancy E. Dowd

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About This Book

A comprehensive examination of developmental inequality among children Developmental equality–whether every child has an equal opportunity to reach their fullest potential–is essential for children’s future growth and access to opportunity. In the United States, however, children of color are disproportionately affected by poverty, poor educational outcomes, and structural discrimination, limiting their potential. In Reimagining Equality, Nancy E. Dowd sets out to examine the roots of these inequalities by tracing the life course of black boys from birth to age 18 in an effort to create an affirmative system of rights and support for all children. Drawing on interdisciplinary research, the book demonstrates that black boys encounter challenges and barriers that funnel them toward failure rather than developmental success. Their example exposes a broader reality of hierarchies among children, linked to government policies, practices, structures, and institutions. Dowd argues for a new legal model of developmental equality, grounded in the real challenges that children face on the basis of race, gender, and class. Concluding with a “New Deal” for all children, Reimagining Equality provides a comprehensive set of policies that enables our political and legal systems to dismantle what harms and discriminates children, and maximize their development.

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Information

Publisher
NYU Press
Year
2018
ISBN
9781479893522
Topic
Law
Subtopic
Family Law

Part I

Black Boys

1

Black Boys

Why focus on the lives of Black boys? Because their lives starkly illuminate how developmental inequality functions and replicates hierarchy among children. The high likelihood of negative life outcomes and the funneling of their lives toward subordination show us how it is done. And, they lead us to ask the other question: “Who else?” (Matsuda 1991). When we do, we more specifically look for other identities and intersectionalities linked to inequalities of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and immigration status that expose similar patterns.
I began this research in the juvenile justice system. It is overwhelmingly populated by boys, and disproportionately boys of color. That system exposes not only a sharp pattern of racial and ethnic disparities but also the overwhelming failure of the system, for all boys and for society, to produce positive outcomes (in addition to its mismatch and distinctive failures for girls) (Dowd 2011a, 2015). The racial configuration of juvenile justice, however, is particularly disturbing, and in exploring that pattern, I began to look earlier in the lives of Black boys, the most disproportionate group in the system. One of the pipelines into the juvenile justice system is schools (Gagnon and Barber 2011; Nance 2015). But schools not only feed the juvenile justice system, they also produce unequal educational outlines along race and gender lines. Pushing back further, the link to negative achievement outcomes is evident on day one of kindergarten; even on day one of preschool (Mead 2012). Inequality begins with the context into which Black boys are born. This developmental story, from birth, is essential to understanding the inequality of Black boys and why developmental equality is critical for all children.
Study of the lives of children of color has been limited, submerged under a developmental norm grounded in the study mostly of white children, or when directed at children of color, it has focused on questions that presume deficit and deviance. Despite the unevenness and underdevelopment of the research, however, several clear themes emerge from the available scholarship regarding the development of Black boys.
First, racialized patterns of development emerge early, literally at birth and in early childhood, traceable to several factors: the impact of poverty; lack of support of Black families and communities; the impact of early racial awareness; and the poor quality of child care and prekindergarten. While economic circumstances strongly affect the environment of early childhood, children born into middle- and upper-class families nevertheless face significant, distinctive challenges that are not erased by increased wealth. Second, this racialized pattern becomes an intersectional race and gender pattern, to the disadvantage of Black boys, once they reach school. As Black boys engage with the world outside their families and communities, they face stark stereotypes and significant cognitive bias, particularly at school. These patterns transcend their economic circumstances: they are present in public schools as well as the most exclusive private schools. Third, adolescence, as critical as the early years of development to neurological growth and overall development, generates further challenges for all children but particularly for Black boys. All adolescents experience a confusing and challenging array of physical, emotional, cognitive, and other changes at this stage, and move from dependency to emerging identity as adults. For Black boys, to that volatile mix is added the necessity of constructing a racial identity. This identity is both a strength and a danger. One of the keys to success for Black males is a strong racial identity. But that very identity can trigger dangerous reactions, particularly from police and other authority figures. Discipline and policing policies, in schools and on the streets, affect their lives, and exacerbate their risk of interface with the juvenile justice system. The importance and danger of a strong racial identity is present for all Black teenage boys, irrespective of neighborhood or circumstances. Fourth, resistance to oppression and stereotypes emerges in this context that constrains and funnels Black boys toward failure. Those Black boys and youth who succeed resist and build a persona of strength. They draw their strength from grounding in strong family relationships, a developed racial identity, and the positive impact of racial socialization.
The dualism of the developmental patterns of Black boys, of the effects of subordination as well as positive, empowering, resistance and success, cautions that the developmental data not be read either as a deterministic mark of failure, inadequacy, and inferiority, nor as an identification of a resilient path that simply needs to be followed by all. Too often in the analysis of Black boys, Black families, and Black communities, any evidence of what is perceived as a negative is read quickly against a persistent script of racial inferiority and blame of family and communities, rather than confronting the strength and persistence of racism, its structural manifestations, and state culpability (Moynihan 1965). The pattern of dualism instead suggests the importance of removing the obstacles to developmental success and adult opportunity, while recognizing and sustaining unique and positive cultural strategies.
In the balance of this chapter and the two chapters that follow, I present the interdisciplinary research that substantiates these four patterns. This developmental picture suggests a series of developmental challenges that undermine the ability of Black boys to achieve their inherent developmental potential, and thus profoundly affect their equality. This pattern is not unique to Black boys; it is characteristic of children at the bottom of hierarchies among children. It therefore necessitates reconceptualizing equality in developmental terms. In Part II, I take on that task, and argue for a model of developmental equality as every child’s right. I use the developmental equality model (1) to identify the role of the state in constructing inequality and (2) to generate strategies for change. The data that follow about Black boys offer an example, not an argument for uniqueness, exceptionalism, or priority. It is a window into the creation of hierarchy among our children that begins at birth.

Early Developmental Patterns, Poverty, and Racial Awareness

From birth to age three is a period of critical development when the context of children’s families (neighborhood, work, economic circumstances, wealth, and stability) has a huge impact on children reaching developmental benchmarks (Zero to Three 2016; Bronfenbrenner 1979). Indeed, even before birth, the impact of maternal circumstances and health on the developing fetus is significant (Zero to Three 2016). From birth to age three, there is an explosion in neurological growth. Positive support or interventions to facilitate early development at the familial level can have tremendous impact (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2013; Dallas 2015). Conversely, trauma has significant developmental effects. While trauma is a part of life for virtually all children, toxic levels of trauma generate significant developmental consequences. Chronic stress for Black boys emanates particularly from two sources: economic disadvantage, including violence associated with poverty; and racism, rooted in the consequences of historical racism in the current lives of their families and communities, as well as current manifestations, including daily microaggressions and structural barriers. Poverty and racism generate stress, and stress challenges children’s development in a very significant way. Indeed, although there are few posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) studies of African American adults or children, the level of stress, and its constancy, is arguably comparable to that which generates PTSD (Hunt, Martens, and Belcher 2011; Stopford 2015; Hill and Madhere 1996; Gump 2010).
Nearly 40 percent of African American children are born into poverty (Birckhead 2012a). As of 2013, the poverty rate for African American children was 38.3 percent, four times the rate of poverty for white children, holding steady even as overall poverty rates for children have dropped to 20 percent (Patten and Krogstad 2015). In the United States, the rate of child poverty is high and runs deep. Poverty affects the opportunity structures that impact parental well-being, family formation, and parent-child bonds, thereby potentially rendering toxic the most critical ecology for children in their early years—their family. The developmental setup here is the interaction poverty will foreseeably create between children and school, as well as how poverty compromises the ability of parents to provide support for their child’s development and education (Edin and Nelson 2013; Huntington 2014). Poverty exacts a terrible price on development, particularly the development of very young children (Ready 2010). It is associated with consequences for physical, intellectual, and emotional development. It affects where children live and how they live, including nutrition, family well-being and interaction, safety, and community well-being (Birckhead 2012a; Hobbs and Baity 2006).
The positive support of families is especially critical to foster children’s attachment, which is linked to warm and responsive parenting. Secure attachment affects school readiness and behavior (Dexter et al. 2013). What affect parents most strongly, and derivatively their children, are context and socioeconomic status (SES) factors (Tudge et al. 2006). While racial differences in early childhood frequently are framed as differentials in parenting, to the contrary, those differences are more often linked to SES factors (Dexter et al. 2013). At the same time, although race and SES are often related, they function differently and independently in children’s development (Fouts et al. 2012). Those factors, in turn, are significantly linked to state-created environments and structures that lead to, and perpetuate, poverty.
Poverty has a significant impact on family forms (Cahn and Carbone 2010; Edin and Nelson 2013). The dominant family form for African American children is a single-parent, mother-headed family. The proportion of single-parent families has remained at roughly two-thirds of African American families for the past five years (Kids Count Data Center 2015). Single parents generally are not well supported; this is especially true of nonmarital single parents (Dowd 1997; Edin and Nelson 2013; Huntington 2014; Maldonado 2005, 2014; Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study 2015). In addition, there are strong negative stereotypes about women of color and their role as mothers. The classic critique is that of Daniel Patrick Moynihan (Moynihan 1965; see also Roberts 1994, 2012). Moynihan blamed Black mothers and mother-headed families for the poor outcomes of Black children. Maternal education level, family income level, maternal age, neighborhood quality, and family structure can all negatively impact school readiness (Baker 2014b). Although mothers often function within networks of support, they are subject to ongoing stress—and maternal stress has a negative impact on child development (Baker and Iruka 2013). There are particular maternal behaviors that have been correlated with better school achievement: maternal warmth, for example, correlates with better reading, and home learning stimulation links with math skills (id.). Supporting mothers, and helping them to avoid maternal depression and stress, can have a strong positive impact on children and their school readiness at kindergarten. Without that readiness, by kindergarten, under existing systems, the gaps widen.
Fathers have a significant developmental impact as well:
Fathering is a dynamic, multidimensional construct that has direct links to children’s health, education, and social-emotional development. Early childhood research suggests that fathering may be particularly important during the first 5 years of life, when children are rapidly acquiring cognitive skills that can contribute to early school success. . . . [T]here is very little literature on the specific ways in which African American fathers contribute to their children’s early academic achievement and readiness for school. (Baker 2014a, 19)
Sustaining father involvement is particularly important given the patterns of family and residence for children and their biological parents (Edin and Nelson 2013). Low-income fathers engage significantly with their children, but poverty and fathers’ lack of opportunities and hopelessness, as well as the impact of mass incarceration coupled with a punitive child support system, make parenting for some fathers difficult and conflicted (Cunningham-Parmeter 2013; Hatcher 2013).
It is critical to emphasize that policies that undermine poor families and parents, and that fail to provide opportunity for parents or their children, are a public policy choice, structurally carried out, that consigns poor children to the likelihood of failure. The links between parental poverty and outcomes for children are clear. “[P]overty and economic loss diminish the capacity for supportive, consistent and involved parenting and render parents more vulnerable to the debilitating effects of negative life events, . . . [generate] psychological distress deriving from an excess of negative life events, undesirable chronic conditions, and the absence and disruption of marital bonds, [and] . . . adversely [affect] children’s socioemotional functioning in part through its impact on the parent’s behavior toward the child” (McLoyd 1990, 311). The correlations between poverty and children’s socioemotional development include poor school outcomes (such as low achievement and higher drop-out rates), teen parenthood, substance abuse, gang involvement, and violence (Barbarin 1993). Family, instead of being a resilience factor, becomes a risk factor.
This begins in infancy (Burchinal et al. 1997). One of the ironies of advances in neonatal care is an increased survival rate of low-birth-weight babies but a higher number of infants with impairment (Perenyi et al. 2011). Black women are twice as likely to deliver low-birth-weight babies, irrespective of their class status (Catov et al. 2015). Infants are incredibly malleable, and there are identifiable positive interventions that work to foster their development. “[M]ore optimal patterns of cognitive development [are] associated with intensive early educational child care, responsive stimulating care at home, and higher maternal IQ. . . . [C]hild care experiences [are] related to better cognitive performance in part through enhancing the infant’s responsiveness to his or her environment” (Burchinal et al. 1997, 935). The issues that arise for children once they begin school have already emerged by three to five years of age (Moiduddin 2008).
Especially important is the support of cognitive development, as the potential impact of poverty on cognitive development is well known: “The cognitive development of children reared in low-income families is generally characterized by average performance on standardized tests during infancy, followed by gradual declines during early and middle childhood for U.S. children in general and for African American children specifically” (Burchinal et al. 1997, 935, emphasis added). This is a critical point to emphasize: children begin their lives at relative cognitive equality. Inequality emerges in the first few years. Cognitive development is correlated with social competence, which includes emotional regulation and impulse control (Brown, Barbarin, and Scott 2013; Scott, Barbarin, and Brown 2013). Supporting cognitive skills in higher order thinking increases the ability to self-regulate and creates less behavioral issues for children once they begin school. This link between cognitive skills and behavior continues through fifth grade (id.).
This consequence is particularly important for Black boys: “Cognitive skills during kindergarten and first grade are especially important in the positive emotional functioning of Black boys throughout childhood” (id.). Black boys are often scrutinized and evaluated under stereotypes assuming that they will behave poorly and may experience harsh discipline to counter this perceived stereotypic behavior (Scott, Barbarin, and Brown 2013). The very articulation of norms of emotional regulation and externalizing behavior conventionally has been defined by white middle-class children, in racial comparisons of young children (Supplee et al. 2009). For Black boys, “the cast for the patterns may have been set as early as kindergarten” (Brown, Barbarin, and Scott 2013, 183). The perfect storm creating negative consequences for Black boys as they enter kindergarten combines poor support of their parent(s); a cognitive skills gap despite equal cognitive capacity; intersecting socioemotional gaps linked to their cognitive development; and a raced and gendered standard of behavior differentially applied due to the cognitive bias of teachers.
Cognitive skills also directly impact academic achievement. The achievement gap appears very early, by eighteen months, and widens by age three, reflecting differences in resources in families and neighborhoods that impact development. “[T]he relative disadvantages in aspects of neighborhood (social disorganization), family (less income, more authoritarian attitudes, and less verbal stimulation), and schooling (teachers with lower expectations of Black children compared to white children) may account for differential attainment and achievement between the two” (Burchinal et al. 2011, 1405–6). These linkages return us to contextual factors in infancy and toddlerhood (id., 1416–17).
Prekindergarten is important to development across race and class (Gormley et al. 2005). But because of the impact of context on families, child care and prekindergarten systems are more important for poor children and children of color than for higher income children as possible sources of resilience and support not provided directly to their families and communities that could close developmental gaps that emerge from birth to age five. Yet, child care in the United States generally does not reflect a high level of care, and low-income parents are less likely to have access to high-quality care (Kreader, Ferguson, and Lawrence 2005). So children with the greatest needs have limits on access to the least resourced systems. This includes the absence of supports in early childhood as well as the piecemeal programs inadequately funded such as Head Start. Early childhood education, from age three to five, is even less universal and is of uneven quality.
In addition to the impact of poverty on early development, pervasive racism impacts children of color across class lines beginning very early in their lives. Racial awareness emerges at a young age in all children and has an impact on self-awareness as well as the perception of others. Cultural and social cognition of discrimination and stereotypes is evident by age three and is the foundation for racial awareness in children as they begin kindergarten. “The first years of elementary school have been identified as a ‘critical period’ in the development of young children” (Caughy et al. 2006, 1221). Children act on the basis of learned stereotypes, as well as sensing how they are viewed. Young children learn to sort and separate the meanings of such differences, from social and cultural clues embedded in stereotypes.
[B]y age 10, children can recognize discriminatory actions that are both overt . . . and covert . . . , understand that these actions may be caused by others’ social stereotypes, and use contextual information to make decisions about whether discrimination is likely to have occurred. (Brown and Bigler 2005, 535)
The perception of discrimination is “likely to affect individuals’ identity formation, peer relations, academic achievement, occupational goals, and mental and physical well-being. Perceiving other individuals . . . to be the victims of discrimination is likely to affect these domains as well,” so this impacts all children with messages of subordination, privilege, or both (id., 533). To combat the negative impact of racial awareness, parents of children of color en...

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