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Journal of Negro Education

Towards A Pedagogy of Hip Hop in Urban Teacher EducationAuthor(s): Thurman BridgesSource: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 80, No. 3, Preparing Teachers to Teach BlackStudents; Preparing Black Students to Become Teachers (Summer 2011), pp. 325-338Published by: Journal of Negro EducationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41341137 .Accessed: 23/03/2014 08:56

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The Journal of Negro Education, 80 (3), 325-338

Towards A Pedagogy of Hip Hop in Urban Teacher

Education

Thurman Bridges Morgan State University

This article draws from a qualitative study of ten Black male K-12 teachers from the Hip Hop Generation who are closely connected to Hip Hop culture and have been effective in addressing the academic and social needs of Black boys. Through an analysis of their social , educational and cultural experiences, this article highlights three organizing principles drawn from Hip Hop Culture - (a) Call to Service , (b) Commitment to Self-Awareness , and (c) Resistance to Social Injustice - which profoundly shaped the teaching identities of these Black men. The author discusses the implications of these principles for conceptualizing and creating teaching and learning environments that are supportive for Black male teachers and increase the capacity of all teachers to effectively teach diverse student populations.

Keywords: teacher education, Black male teachers, Hip Hop pedagogy

Hip Hop has become a buzzword in teacher education, particularly as it relates to training teachers for service in urban schools. The idea of borrowing from popular culture to support instruction is not new to teacher education. However, the academic challenges facing urban, and particularly Black male students, has heightened imperatives to find innovative models for drawing more Black men into teaching and for effectively training teachers of all backgrounds to educate diverse student populations. One response to these imperatives has been an increasing focus on Hip Hop and its potential for teaching and learning.

Hip Hop has been both demonized and commodified in the field of education and in broader U.S. society. It has been characterized as hyper-masculine, overtly sexual, and criminal and, as such, antithetical to the positive, personal, and academic growth and development of urban youth. At the same time, Hip Hop has been commodified and sold to young people of all backgrounds by the media and entertainment industry, and it has been packaged as an instructional tool for advancing traditional and, often, narrows curricular goals. It is no coincidence that these processes of demonization and commodification reflect parallel practices in schools and society that strip away the value and promise of Black boys and men, who are the primary creators and supporters of Hip Hop.

Given the current context of urban education and the national initiative to increase the numbers of Black male teachers in U.S. public schools, it is an opportune time for teacher education to capitalize on the relationship between Black men, urban youth, and Hip Hop culture to attract Black male teachers and to captivate the minds of students from all cultures. However, this will require a deeper and more authentic understanding of the meaning and value of Hip Hop and its implications for the education of teachers and students.

This article draws from a qualitative study of 10 Black male K-12 teachers from the Hip Hop Generation who are closely connected to Hip Hop culture and have been effective in addressing the academic and social needs of, especially, Black boys. Through an analysis of their social, educational and cultural experiences, this article highlights three organizing principles drawn from Hip Hop culture - (a) call to service, (b) commitment to self-awareness, and (c) resistance to social injustice - which profoundly shaped the teaching identities of these Black men. The author discusses the implications of these principles for conceptualizing and creating teaching and learning environments that are supportive for Black male teachers and that increase the capacity of all teachers to effectively teach diverse student populations, particularly in urban schools.

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Re-conceptualizing Hip Hop Culture

My interest in re-conceptualizing Hip Hop and re-imaging Black men as conduits for reformation in urban teacher education undergirds the fundamental belief in their collective capacities to encourage urban youth to make meaning of, and more fully engage in, their educational journeys while creating classroom contexts that normalize their orientations towards service to humanity, self-awareness, social justice, and community activism. Therefore, the three organizing principals of Hip Hop discussed in this article not only frame the pedagogical orientations of the Black male teachers in this study, but they also represent principals that should be used to support the intellectual, social, and personal development of urban youth.

Since the terms "Hip Hop" and "Hip Hop Generation" are heavily used in this article, this author will first unpack both terms and provide deeper definitions of each before delving into an analysis of the three principles of Hip Hop and their implications for urban teacher education.

"Hip Hop" is a term used to describe the collective experience, modes of thinking, and epistemologies of urban youth. Largely influenced by Afrika Bambaataa (visit www.oldschoolhiphop.com/artists/deejays/afrika.htm for more information), Hip Hop is a cultivated way of life for urban youth, grounded on the tenets of peace, love, unity, and having fun. These are generally expressed through the nine elements of Hip Hop: (a) Breakin' (Breakdancing), (b) Emceein' (Rapping), (c) Graffiti Art (Aerosol Art), (d) Deejayin', (e) Beatboxin', (f) Street Fashion, (g) Street Language, (h) Street Knowledge, and (i) Street Entrepreneurialism (KRS-One, 2003). 'Education' too has emerged as a fundamental element of Hip Hop and serves as the impetus for this study and article.

As proponents and creators of the original philosophy of the Hip Hop community, Black men of the Hip Hop Generation - born between 1965 and 1984 (Collins, 2006; KRS-One, 2003) - are unique due to the intersections of their early experiences with Hip Hop culture as a powerful social and political voice for people of color and their experiences with racism and classism in the U.S. educational system (Brown, 1999; Lynn, 1999, 2002). The interaction between these diametrically opposed experiences - one that engendered a sense of voice and agency among people of color and the other that fostered feelings of inferiority and lack of self-worth - contributes to this populations' reliance on Hip Hop artists as surrogate teachers and Hip Hop culture as alternative classrooms (Collins, 2006).

The Hip Hop Generation embodies a new type of activism and is distinctive as it is the first to be raised in a racially integrated U.S. society. As the offspring to Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements, the Hip Hop Generation has bore the fruit of voting rights, educational reform, and affirmative action campaigns. However, they too have experienced the rapid erosion of the racial, social, and educational gains that their foreparents worked so diligently to achieve (Bynoe, 2004; Kitwana, 2002; KRS-One, 2003). Kitwana (2002) asserted:

We've [the Hip Hop Generation] developed a different sense of urgency rooted in what we've lost in a mere generation - what some critics have deemed the reversal of civil rights gains, such as welfare reform and the decline of affirmative action - as well as in new attacks targeting Black youth like police brutality, anti-youth legislation, and the incarceration of hundreds of thousands of Hip-Hop generationers. (p. 147)

This generation of Black male teachers recognizes the undeniable gains achieved during the Civil Rights era, but they too are aware and critical of the unfinished business of the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements. Data from this study revealed that they recognize the centrality of racism in American life, but more specifically, they problematize the deleterious effects of racism on marginalized people and communities. Furthermore, they rely on the critique and resistance found within Hip Hop culture to expose racist practices within public school systems, law enforcement, and the broader legal system (Kitwana, 2002).

326 The Journal of Negro Education, 2011, Vol. 80, No. 3


Theorizing Hip Hop: A Critical Cultural Movement

The goal is to re-introduce Hip Hop to the field of urban teacher education. This article situates Hip Hop and Hip Hop pedagogy as more than an educational tool or a segment of popular culture that Black and Latino youth predominate, but as a critical epistemology or a theoretical framework that challenges our beliefs about teaching, shapes our conception of the function of schooling, and informs our understandings of the qualities of effective educators. This author defines Hip Hop as a "Critical Cultural Movement" due to its historic and continued orientations towards healing broken families and supporting cultural and spiritual connectedness; resisting and critiquing peoples, spaces, and systems that promote fragmentation and divisiveness; and fighting (literally) for a peaceful, restorative, and humanizing existence - a movement towards self-actualization. Given the pieces of Hip Hop that garner popularity in mainstream media, the notion that Hip Hop, or even public education, may have the power to heal or to promote healing, must come as a surprise to some. Nevertheless, as will be detailed throughout the article, study participants spoke frequently and specifically about the healing power of Hip Hop in its ability to give voice, shape, and dimension to the often ignored and disregarded sources of pain that Black men negotiate and ultimately fight against in the U.S. and throughout the world, bell hooks (1994) described this process of healing as an engaged pedagogy - that is, to teach in a way the nurtures the soul of the student. She argued:

To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin... That means that teachers must be actively committed to a process of self-actualization that promotes their own well- being if they are to teach in a manner that empowers students, (pp. 13-15)

The idea that teachers and the act of teaching (which is inclusive of all learning environments where participants are engaged in an active process of making meaning of their purpose, function, and legacy - Hip Hop included) relates not only to an exchange of ideas, but also connects to our beliefs about ourselves and those with whom we exchange ideas, speaks loudly to the pedagogical orientations of this study's participants. One participant clearly articulates this point by stating:

When I'm teaching, I see their souls. I look in their eyes, and I see me. I figure out who they are, and I teach them from that vantage point. I think that if you visited my class, you would see peace. You would see a lot of honesty. You would see a lot of sharing. You would see a lot of lives being exposed. I think that you would see what peace really is. (Bridges, 2009, p. 178)

Similarly, for those who study and are deeply engaged in Hip Hop, as are most urban youth, access to the threads of resistance (across its elements) against oppressive sociopolitical structures are effortless. For that reason, it is through Hip Hop that many youth of color choose to exercise their power to push against the status quo. Freire (2007) called this the process " conscientizacao " (p. 35). Fundamental to this experience is the belief that self-actualization can only emerge from an intimate sojourn toward a collective consciousness. The collective gives birth to the individual, linking them both inextricably. It is then through the struggle against that which is depleting, self- serving, and foul in nature that individual and collective resistance develops (Freire, 2007).

Another participant supports Freire's analysis and personalizes his experiences with Hip Hop by situating it as a space where people of color revive their spiritual footing and assess the conditions of their communities. He asserted:

Hip Hop is the Black man's Negro spiritual. It speaks to the struggles, the aspirations, the challenges, and the shortcomings, all in the same place. In a lot of ways, Hip Hop has become what the church used to be which was a place for lots of different points of view within the community. It's that universal meeting place. It has the ability to bring people of different walks of life together to share an experience

The Journal of Negro Education , 2011 , Vol. 80, No.3 327


of culture, of love and to fight for their rights. It is a place where we seek spiritual renewal and validation. (Bridges, 2009, p. 170)

The notion of fighting for peace may initially seem contradictory as we often associate peace with complacency or passivity or indifference. However, this conceptualization of the process of peace, again informed by Freire's theories of conscientizacao, relates to a struggle toward that which is natural, innate, and essential to human existence - FREEDOM! Freire (2007) argued:

Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity for liberation? They will not gain the liberation by chance but through the praxis of their quest for it, through their recognition of the necessity to fight for it. And this fight, because of the purpose given it by the oppressed, will actually constitute an act of love opposing the lovelessness which lies at the heart of the oppressors' violence, lovelessness even when clothed in false generosity, (p. 45)

In keeping with the articulation of Hip Hop as a Critical Cultural Movement, it is important to note that, historically, Hip Hop crews grew out of former gangs who would, rather than fighting, engage in battles of words, of beats, and of dancing. The goal of these interactions was to determine who could 'rock the mie' better (Bynoe, 2004; KRS-One, 2003; Rose, 1994). Hip Hop battles, be they rapping, dancing, deejay in', or bombing, even though there was 'dis sing' (joking at the opponents expense), was not about dehumanizing or debasing others but about demonstrating one's skill and wit. Hip Hop pioneer, Russell Simmons, supports this assertion by stating:

The Hip Hop community is a spiritual and compassionate community. Its ability to speak in honest and truthful ways to millions around the world makes it one of the most powerful art forms of the late 20th and 21st century. Despite the public outcry and naysayers, we continue to grow and transform the minds of young people in a way that makes ours the most insightful and integrated youth culture in American History. (Russell Simmons in KRS-One, 2003, p. 180)

It is not surprising then that deejay's and emcee's throughout urban communities, mostly in New York City and bordering northeastern states, turned to Hip Hop music, block parties, and healthy competition to ease tensions between rival gangs in an effort to bring communities together, in love. In fact, within those spaces, which represented our most vulnerable communities, the governing rule of law was peace not conflict and healing rather than victimization. It is through this humanizing spirit, this disposition toward justice, and this movement toward freedom, that the author extracts from that which is so readily hated and regarded as degenerate (Hip Hop and Black men) to theorize Hip Hop as critical, as cultural, and as praxis.

Principles of Hip Hop for Urban Teacher Education

Following, is the examination of three organizing principles drawn from Hip Hop Culture - (a) call to service, (b) commitment to self-awareness, and (c) resistance to social injustice - that emerged from an investigation of the intersections between Hip Hop music, critical pedagogy and the teaching orientations of the Black male educators in this study. The goal is not to be essentialist or to over-generalize, but rather to shed light on and theorize about the humanizing, critical, and, in most cases, transformative pedagogical orientations, shaped by Hip Hop culture, that these Black male teachers bring to their urban classrooms. This author initiated a discussion of each principle through an analysis of relevant Hip Hop lyrics, concepts of critical theory, and the voices of Black male teachers from this study.

328 The Journal of Negro Education, 2011, Vol 80, No. 3


Call to Service

In this section, the ways are considered, if at all, that pre- and inservice teachers are being prepared to support the educational development of vulnerable student populations and the ways that teacher education may be complicit in their production of teachers that are underdeveloped, not in their pedagogical or theoretical understandings, but in their commitment to serving students, families, and their communities. In her analysis of the spiritual connectedness that effective Black female teachers bring to urban classrooms, Irvine (2003) described this commitment to teaching as a "calling" (p. 12). The idea of teaching as a calling suggests that teachers who possess an ethic of caring yielding positive socio-emotional outcomes for students of color (heightened self-esteem and feelings of self-efficacy) are motivated by a spiritual connectedness to the students and communities they serve. This notion of teaching as a calling is relied on to support the thinking about the type of momentum that is needed to attract and sustain effective teachers in urban classrooms.

Consistent across study participants was a clear articulation that a desire to serve and address the social, emotional, spiritual, and academic needs of students and families from vulnerable communities played the most significant role in their motivations to become educators (standardized testing and mandated curriculum notwithstanding). Freire (2007) described this commitment to community connectedness as essential to the development of a transformative educational movement. He argued, "the starting point for organizing the program content of education or political action must be the present, existential, concrete situation, reflecting the aspirations of the people" (p. 95).

Participants believed that, as educators, Black men play a significant role in helping Black male youth, in particular, to overcome the challenges they face in urban schools and communities. According to one participant, "there is no magical curriculum; there is no magic school building. The magic is in you, the people" (Bridges, 2009, p. 175). Speaking specifically to Black man, this participant issued a challenge encouraging the Hip Hop Generation to re-examine the teaching profession as one that promotes service to the community, self-reflection, and is committed to alleviating the dire conditions facing many urban youth and families.

Furthermore, participants' identities as Black male teachers were directly connected to their relationship with Hip Hop. That is how they understood the ideals and goals that Hip Hop embodies, as it relates to molding and nurturing urban youth, was congruent with and intimately connected to their intrinsic motivations to teach. Connecting Hip Hop to his pedagogical beliefs, one participant stated:

The treatment of your brothers, the respect of each other, the respect of community, thas the fabric I was raised up in and that's where Hip Hop started. It was started in the communities, from the communities, for the communities. So, you are treating each other like your family members. That's the same way I approach my students. (Bridges, 2009, p. 177)

Most participants identified their coming of age within Hip Hop culture as, like one said, a "sound track" (Bridges, 2009, p. 177) to their daily lives, which influenced their desires to serve. Hip Hop was a source of strength and a constant inspiration that kept them invested in public education, even though they believed that K-12 public schools are basically unfit to served Black children. As such, their experiences with and love of Hip Hop and the stories exposed through Hip Hop music is naturally linked to their commitment and approaches to teaching urban youth. One participant argued:

[As a teacher] You are serving true Hip Hop. You are serving the community because you come from the community. You are exposing the things that are happening. You are exposing the things that are going on in your life, and you are conveying it to other people to give them strength, to give them hope, to give them some things to wish to for, or a way to get out of it. (Bridges, 2009, pp. 177-178)

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Clearly, the participants' orientations toward service reach beyond the often-expressed desires of pre- and inservice teachers to 'give back' to those communities (predominantly Black, Latino and impoverished) that are in need of saving or a savior. It is important to note that these conceptions of Hip Hop's potential influence on urban teacher education are rooted in a more humanizing, liberating, and transformative framework. The goal is to shed light on the spirit of service, found within Hip Hop and the orientations of this study's participants, that centers individual and community empowerment. Seamlessly connected to these proposed principles of Hip Hop, empowerment promotes self-awareness, social justice, and activism.

The O.C., in the song Times Up , provides an example through rap lyrics of Hip Hop's commitment to service. He wrote, "Instead of putting brain cells to work they abuse it, non- conceptual, non-exceptional, everybody's either crime-related or sexual. I'm here to make a difference, besides all the ruffin" (O.C., 1994). Consistent with findings from Lynn's (2002) research on the motivations of Black male teachers, this song speaks to the responsibility of Black men to support the social and intellectual development of urban youth. Similarly, KRS-One (2003) argued, "From the very beginning, Hip Hop was about victory over the streets! It was a strategy to beat the streets" (pp. 181-182). This idea of gaining victory over the streets (avoiding criminal activity and staying alive) is a representation of the ways in which Hip Hop challenges Black men to help shape the lives and guide the experiences of urban youth (Lynn, 2002).

Additionally, in the song Fighting, the Goodie Mob wrote, "We don't even know who we are, but the answer ain't far, matter of fact its right up under our nose, but the system taught us to keep that book closed, see the reason why he gotta lie and deceive is so that we won't act according to get the blessings we supposed to receive" (Goodie Mob, 1995). Here, Goodie Mob urged listeners to believe in and develop their innate skills and talents as a way that repels hegemonic messages of self-hate and Black inferiority, which the public educational system has historically used to dwarf the social, political, and intellectual development of Black youth.

Talib Kweli's (1998) song, Manifesto , supports this analysis:

Supply and the demand - its all capitalism. Niggas don't sell crack cause they like to see black smoke, niggas sell crack cause they broke . . . Don't take a scholar to see what's going on around you, either you widdit or you ain't is what it comes down to. Have you forgotten? We pickin 100% designer name brand cotton they still plottin, my third eye is steady watchin.

Kweli critiques unjust social systems that diminish the capacity of urban youth to create, cultivate, and manage their own intellectual and creative products such that they may sustain comfortable lives for themselves and the larger community. He further identifies the proliferation of alcohol and drugs in vulnerable communities as a by-product of larger societal toxicities that destroy Black families. Kweli's ever-present "third eye" represents the protective instincts, or as I term "other fathering," that many Black men bring to urban spaces, particularly classrooms. His analysis speaks to a growing commitment among Black men, especially those who are deeply engaged in Hip Hop culture, towards transforming the lives and existential experiences of urban youth. By encouraging Black boys, in particular, to be self-sufficient critical thinkers, rather than urging them to keep "that book closed" (as articulated by Goodie Mob), and providing them with strategies to "beat the streets" (as described by KRS One), Black male teachers and Hip Hop are engaged in the important, transformative, and much needed work of injecting their students and listeners with the tools to resist the pressures of engaging in antisocial behavior.

KRS-One's notion of victory over the streets supports Morrell (2002) and Stovall's (2006) analysis of Hip Hop culture as a representative expression of the lived experiences of youth of color in urban communities. Similarly, O.C., Goodie Mob, and Kweli's lyrics substantiates Lynn's (2002) research that asserts Black male teachers often see themselves reflected in their Black male students and teach with the intended goal of saving their lives.

The fulfilling of one's responsibility to serve the sociopolitical needs of urban families, to educate disenfranchised youth in ways that promote empowerment, and to physically protect vulnerable communities from repressive social structures and cultural domination is fundamental



to Hip Hop's call to service and the pedagogical orientations of the Black male teachers in this study. This level of stewardship - this cultural work - demands that urban teachers and urban teacher educators invest and reinvest in the processes towards deep self-reflection, and that they too support urban students through that same journey.

Commitment to Self-Awareness

Foundational to the art of teaching, is a process of self-reflection, which leads to heightened self- awareness. Self-awareness is not represented by a location or destination, but rather is a sojourn toward the fundamentals of one's beliefs. How might we begin the process of engaging in the act of teaching without first examining our beliefs about the purpose of education, the social context of urban schooling, the power of knowledge, and ourselves as actors within an educational system that has historically promoted, as Freire (2007) terms, the "domestication" (p. 51) of vulnerable populations, particularly people of color? Also, how could any of us consider ourselves critical cultural educators, given our access to the ambitions of countless urban youth, without first analyzing that which we know about ourselves and which we think we know about our students and their families?

Woodson's (1933) seminal analysis of the brand of schooling with which urban youth are generally exposed, informs the critique of the politics of knowledge and its impact on youth of color. He asserted:

They should direct their attention also to the folklore of the African, to the philosophy in his proverbs, to the development of the Negro in the use of modern language, and to the works of Negro writers .... Instead of cramming the Negro's mind with what others have shown that they can do, we should develop his latent powers that he may perform in society a part of which others are not capable, (p. 150)

Traditional school curriculum, through its historical rejection of the ideals, world views, and contributions of people of color, serves as a mechanism to facilitate the spiritual, intellectual, and sociopolitical dormancy and domination of urban youth and their families. Woodson's perspectives and advocacy for the development of a more progressive public educational system, undergirds my belief that until more aggressive efforts are made to analyze the social context of urban education, traditional public schooling will continue in the tradition of 'mis-educating' (Woodson, 1933) disadvantaged youth, relegating them to the back doors of an already failing public school system.

This conversation about self-awareness does not only relate to awareness of self as an individual with distinct qualities, characteristics, epistemologies, and aspirations. Self-awareness also relates to a deeper understanding of self, and our students, as connected to a family, a community, a collective people, and the world. This type of awareness of self has the potential to shed light on the unparalleled creativity, complexity of thought, self-assuredness, resilience, beauty, and spirituality that we, as educators, and our students inherently possesses.

In reflecting on the significance of his role as a teacher, one participant described his expectations and aspirations for his students as directly connected to his expectations and aspirations for himself, by saying:

I want to build good people; I just want them to care, I want them to love, I want them not to want to go see fights. I want them to be able to open doors for their elders when no one is looking or pick up someone's stuff off of the ground when someone may not be as popular in the school. I want them to be genuinely good people. So then I have to be a good person as an example to them. (Bridges, 2009, p. 176)

Another participant highlighted the dispositions that help teachers build deep relationships with students, stating, "If you walk down these hallways and greet a student with the words of peace, they will respond to you, without even knowing you, with those same words" (Bridges, 2009, p.



176). He went farther by explaining that, as a teacher, it is his responsibility to live in accordance to the expectations that he sets for his students. If he warns students not to drink, then they should be assured that he would not drink either. Also, if he encourages students to come to class prepared and ready to work, then they should be assured that he too is prepared and ready to teach to the best of his ability.

In a discussion about the process of developing urban educators, all of the study participants identified a reflective process of self-awareness as essential. One participant, in particular defined, as a prerequisite quality, an effective teacher as one who is spiritually invested in their community, their families, and their students. Connecting his love of teaching to his love of family, he stated:

The treatment of your brothers, the respect of each other, the respect of community, that's the fabric I was raised up in and that's where Hip Hop started. It was started in the communities, from the communities, for the communities. So, you are treating each other like your family members. That's the same way I approach my students. (Bridges, 2009, p. 177)

In these cases, self-awareness means recognizing one's role as a leader, teacher, and guide to humanity. More importantly, self-awareness means recognizing that our students' hopes, dreams, failures, and aspirations are intimately and inherently connected to our own.

This process toward awareness and its manifestation in and through Hip Hop has captivated the hearts of the participants and those of millions of people throughout the world. It is through lessons learned from Hip Hop that one participant framed and made meaning of his role as a teacher. He stated:

[As a teacher] You are serving true Hip Hop- you are serving the community because you come from the community. You are exposing the things that are happening. You are exposing the things that are going on in your life, and you are conveying it to other people [students] to give them strength, to give them hope, to give them some things to wish to for, or a way to get out of it. (Bridges, 2009, pp. 177- 178)

The O' Jays articulated this point perfectly when they sang, "We got a message in our music. There's a message in our song. So open your ears and listen . . . Things ain't like they're supposed to be" (The O' Jays, 1976).

In their song, You Must Learn , Boogie Down Productions (BDP, 1989) exemplified the ways that Hip Hop has promoted this process of self-awareness by reimagining and reconstructing the lessons that students learn about people of color in U.S. public schools:

I believe that if you're teaching history filled with straight up facts no mystery, Teach the student what needs to be taught ... No one told you about Benjamin Banneker, A brilliant Black man that invented the almanac . . . With [Eli Whitney, Haile Selassie, Grandville Woods made the walky-talky, Lewis Latimer] improved on Edison, Charles Drew did a lot for medicine, Garrett Morgan made the traffic lights, Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night, Madame J Walker made a straightin' comb. . . The point I'm getting' at is it might be harsh, 'Cause we're just walkin' around brainwashed. (BDP, 1989)

Here, BDP dismantles the singular and oppressive emphasis on the contributions of Europeans by uncovering the contributions of Black people in the development of the United States. This type of counter-narrative provides all youth, but particularly Black youth, with a lens through which to situate themselves as serious intellectual beings with the capacity to contribute to and redefine themselves as global leaders.

Goodie Mob, BDP, D-Nice, and countless other artists and teachers use Hip Hop culture to amplify the voices of historically disenfranchised peoples as they have experienced the world in ways that shed light on the harsh realities of living in a racially and socially oppressive society. More specifically, public schools, through repressive curriculum and pedagogical practices, fuel the tenuous educational conditions and larger societal obstacles facing many Black males. As such, it is within and through Hip Hop, which represents a space of intellectual and cultural



acceptance, rather than within public schools where they often experience humiliation and degradation that Black males nurture their talents, elevate their voices, and seek to transform their lives.

Resistance to Social Injustice

The experience that had the most significant impact on my identity as a teacher educator draws from my first year as a teacher in Richmond, Virginia. I can recall clearly my efforts to prepare an engaging and interactive lesson addressing the key factors contributing to the social unrest among the American colonists that lead the Revolutionary War. For that lesson, I assembled period music, reproduced pamphlets representing the grievances of the people ( Common Sense by Thomas Paine), and created differentiated workstations throughout the classroom for students to investigate the sociopolitical context of that time. Needless to say, I was excited to facilitate the process of historical exploration. During the first class of the day, however, a student posed this important question: Mr. Bridges, why should we care about the American Revolution, when we are fighting everyday just to survive? How is this going to help me to live a better life RIGHT NOW?

His questioning forced to me to challenge what I had learned, as a pre-service teacher, about the intellectual needs of urban youth. Beyond emphasizing processes of social control and intellectual docility (through classroom management strategies, as well as singular and disjointed courses on cultural diversity) my formal teacher training failed to prepare me to address his question or any questions related to a students' critique of poverty and social injustice. With a newly minted graduate degree from an elite White research-intensive university, I was heralded as the one who would bring ground-breaking theories and pedagogical knowledge to my struggling school. Yet, I was ill-prepared to support my students' fundamental quest for self-actualization and relevance in the public school curriculum.

The omission of any analysis of the theories, empirical studies, or personal narratives that center our students' experiences with and resistance against racial and social oppression represents a significant gap in teacher education. I challenge our insistence that students engage in an educational process that fails to reflect their struggles, aspirations, and dreams. This type of schooling seems antithetical to any movement toward a progressive, transformative, or liberatory model for urban education. Additionally, this type of dehumanizing pedagogical framework undergirds our students' disinterest in public schooling. I contend it is not that our students cannot or do not want to learn, but that they reject that which fails to address their social, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs.

Freire (2007) supports this argument by stating: . . . sooner or later, these contradictions may lead formerly passive students to tum against their domestication and the attempt to domesticate reality. They may discover through existential experience that their present way of life is irreconcilable with their vocation to become more fully human . . . sooner or later they may perceive the contradiction in which the banking education seeks to maintain them and then engage themselves in the struggle for liberation, (p. 75)

Drawing on their own experiences as Black males in the United States and in K-12 public schools, my participants related closely to their students' voices of resistance. They articulated that distrust in teachers, school administrators, and the overall educational system negatively influenced their students' dispositions toward school. In fact, one participant posed the following questions: "As a Black boy in America, why would I trust any teacher? Why would I trust teachers in general if teachers put me out of school, put me out of class, get mad at me because they don't understand me" (Bridges, 2009, pp. 163-164)? This was a common sentiment among participants as many of them recounted moments when their expressions or questioning lead to their removal from class or the school.



All of the study participants described the plight of Black males in the United States as tenuous. They asserted that Black men, due to the intransigence of racism and negative stereotyping, are viewed as a threat to mainstream American society. They believed, as one participant asserted, "Every system that has been set up in this country, has been to ensure that Black men are not successful" (Bridges, 2009, p. 160). They went on to describe Black males as an endangered, at-risk population due to factors like high homicide and suicide rates, poor physical and mental health, substance abuse, and inadequate education. Because of the dangers aforementioned, participants described Black and Latino youth as being "behind enemy lines" (Bridges, 2009, p. 161) as many live under constant threat of attack by law enforcement, the court systems, and the public educational system. In the song Fighting , Goodie Mob (1995) digs deeper with their critique of the social injustices perpetuated against Black peoples and reiterates a collective responsibility to fight against all forms of oppression:

I guess that's what I'm writing for to try to shed some light, but we been in the darkness for so long, don't know right from wrong... You'll find a lot of the reason we behind is because the system is designed to keep our third eyes blind, but not blind in the sense that our other two eyes can't see, you just end -investing quality time in places you don't even need to be.

Goodie Mob critiques systems of oppression that perpetuate a racist social order. In their assertion that racism and the fight against it is endemic in U.S. culture, they use Hip Hop as a venue to challenge a historicism and to advocate for the acknowledgment of the perspectives of people and communities of color (Lynn, 2002; Matsuda, 1991; Parker & Lynn, 2002; Smith -Maddox & Solorzano, 2002; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002).

Also, D-Nice, in the song Self-Destruction , provides a critique of racist social systems and offers guidance to urban youth regarding productive ways to "beat the streets":

It's time to stand together in a unity cause if not then we're soon to be self destroyed, unemployed . . . Down the road that we call eternity where knowledge is formed and you'll learn to be self-sufficient, independent to teach to each is what Rap intended. But society wants to invade. So do not walk this path they laid. (Stop the Violence Allstars, 1989)

His analysis speaks about disengaging from self-destructive behaviors and encourages Black male youth in particular, to embrace independent thinking as a way to support their development into self-sufficient and politically active adults.

Most participants said that they temper expressions of power and aggressiveness out of fear of being victimized or negatively stereotyped. Arguing that society's perceptions of Black males are heavily influenced by images on television in which they are oveirepresented as perpetrators of crime and violence, one participant stated:

So you have an incident like Sean Bell [an African American man who, on his wedding day, died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by a group of 5 police officers] ... So the cops had a itchy quick trigger finger - because they couldn't take no chances, man. And those types of things not only shape us as Black males, but they also shape future police officers: Black, White, Latino, it shapes their perception of us. (Bridges, 2009, p. 162)

This is not to say that Black men do not commit crimes or that students of color don't engage in behaviors that negatively impact their school success. However, participants argued that Black male's actions and intentions, even when innocuous, are more likely to be interpreted as threatening due to their portrayal in the media and how teachers and schools choose to interpret their dispositions.

This analysis of the context of social injustice in the United States, and the propensity of urban youth to resist it (often in ways that teachers misunderstand), as well as the emergence of insurgent movements throughout the world, provides teacher education the opportunity to situate

334 The Journal of Negro Education, 2011, Vol. 80, No . 3


their frameworks for developing pre- and inservice teachers around issues of resistance and social change. Teachers, if borrowing from Hip Hop's principle of resistance, can strengthen their capacities to more effectively validate, shape, and amplify students' voices of resistance and social critique.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The goal of this article, in theorizing Hip Hop as grounded in principles of service, self-awareness, and sociopolitical resistance, is to demystify, humanize, and elevate the experiences and cultural expressions of Black men and American boys and throughout the world. This author sought to analyze Hip Hop as a framework that provides a venue by which urban youth, particularly Black males, engage in a critical analysis of their lived experiences and the social conditions of their communities.

Through the voices of study participants, Hip Hop artists, and critical theorists, I illuminated their dissatisfaction with the current context of public education in urban environments. In general, they interpreted their schooling experiences as repressive, dehumanizing, and depleting. Although many have learned how to navigate the hostile educational terrain, the process has left them bruised, battered, disaffected and disconnected from school. Black males remain under attack as they are subjugated to race, class, and gender-based aggressions that, for many, have shaped their thinking about schools as unsafe emotional and spiritual spaces.

Given the imperatives to attract Black men to the teaching profession and to make deeper and more meaningful connections with Black male students, it is necessary that teacher educators reexamine their beliefs about who can and should teach, and how transformative pedagogy might be enacted. Additionally, schools of education and school districts must reevaluate their beliefs about teaching and learning by pushing past archaic conceptions of the dispositions of desirable teachers and students. Below, I provide practical implications for establishing learning environments that are supportive for Black male teachers and that increase the capacity of all teachers to effectively teach diverse student populations, particularly in urban schools.

Recommendations for Practice

Prospective Teachers

Teacher education must begin to reconceptualize their rigid adherence to standardized test scores and college grade point averages as selection criterion for accepting prospective students into teacher preparation programs. Our goal should be to recruit pre-service teachers who are deeply invested in and closely connected to urban communities, who possess the social capital to build intimate bonds with their students and families, and who, because of their own coming of age experiences in disenfranchised communities, enact the type of teaching that captivates the hearts, minds, and spirits of urban youth. Instead, we attract students who may be academically astute but are often unaware of and resistant to the critical examinations of intransigence of racism, social oppression, and economic depravity that plague urban communities. The use of test scores and grade point averages to make projections about one's future ability to teach severely limits our access to those who may be the most affective at teaching urban youth. It is recommended, however, that we begin to question our thinking about who can and should teach and actively seek out prospective teachers who possess qualities and dispositions that are more closely aligned with the principles of Hip Hop as discussed in this article. The teacher shortage should be no excuse for exposing our children to uncaring, disaffected, and indifferent teachers who view teaching in urban communities as a transitional or cultural exercise rather a spiritual calling to cultivate urban youth.

The Journal of Negro Education , 2011, Vol. 80 ; No.3 335


Access to K-12 Students

In my eight years in teacher education, as a student and teacher, I am shocked at the absence of K- 12 students in our schools of education and dissatisfied by the omission of their perspectives on effective teacher qualities, dispositions, and beliefs. Instead, we send our pre-service teachers out into urban communities to test their theories and strengthen their pedagogies, making urban students objects rather than subjects of education. This model proves damaging for both K-12 students and pre-service teachers. It seems more appropriate, however, to frame our pedagogies around the needs of students and the hopes of their families and communities. Furthermore, if more critically engaged in the process of developing emerging teachers and analyzing the theories that support our pedagogies, then K-12 students will begin to develop a natural attraction towards that which they helped to create.

Community School Model

The data from this study reveal that my participants are heavily invested in and connected to not only their students but also the surrounding communities from which they come. If public schools would continue to establish partnerships with the local boys and girls clubs, religious organizations (churches and mosques), park and recreational centers, youth and community centers, fitness facilities, local barbershops, clothing stores, Hip Hop organizations, and Black- owned business, then they will have more access to Black men and could begin to facilitate a relationship between Black men and Black boys in the community. Also, a heightened school presence in these spaces begins the important process of healing tensions and resentments that many Black men feel toward public schooling. Through these principles of Hip Hop, the field of K-12 education has the potential to create opportunities for more Black men to reimagine themselves as teachers and teacher leaders.

Same Sex Classrooms

My participants spoke frequently about their interest in addressing the social and academic needs of Black male students. More specifically, they saw their lives reflected in their students and drew from their life experiences to help cultivate the lives of the students. As such, K-12 schools would attract Black male teachers to urban classrooms by providing space for prospective Black male teachers to exercise their own "brand of caring," which many participants articulated as significant to their humanizing teaching styles and dispositions. Same sex classrooms, where Black men and boys can critically engage with and interrogate traditional curriculum and address the social and personal challenges they face, would increase both Black male teacher presence and Black male students' interest and reinvestment in K-12 schools.

Recruitment

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), community colleges, and alternative certification programs would provide K-12 schools access to Black men who may have otherwise overlooked teaching as a viable profession. Similarly, Hip Hop summits, historically Black fraternity conventions, and religious conferences attract large numbers of Black men, most of whom are formally educated and concerned with the socioeconomic challenges facing the urban communities. Heightened recruitment efforts in these communities would yield an increased interest in and presence of Black men in K-12 classrooms.

References

Boogie Down Productions. (1989). Ghetto music : The blue print of hip hop (CD). New York: Zomba Recording.

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Bridges, T. (2009). Peace , love , unity & having fun: Storying the life histories and pedagogical beliefs of African American male teachers from the hip hop generation. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Maryland, College Park. Retrieved from http://drum.lib.umd.edu

Brown, J. (1999). Factors that influence African American male teachers' educational and career aspirations: Implications for school districts recruitment and retention efforts. The Journal of Negro Education , 68, 280-292.

Bynoe, Y. (2004). Stand & deliver. Brooklyn: Soft Skull. Collins, P.H. (2006). From Black power to hip hop : Racism, nationalism, and feminism.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Freire, P (2007). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing

Group. Goodie Mob. (1995). Soul food (CD). Atlanta, GA: LaFace Records. hook, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York:

Routledge. Irvine, J. J. (2003). Educating teachers for diversity: Seeing with a cultural eye. New York:

Teachers College Press. Kitwana, B. (2002). The hip hop generation: Young Blacks and the crisis in African American

culture. New York: Basic Books. KRS-One. (2003). Ruminations. New York: Welcome Rain Publications. Lynn, M. (1999). Raising the critical consciousness of African American students in Baldwin

Hills: A portrait of an exemplary African American male teacher. The Journal of Negro Education, 68 , 43-53.

Lynn, M. (2002). Critical race theory and the perspective of Black men teachers in the Los Angeles public school. Equity

Author THURMAN BRIDGES is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. His work examines the lives of teachers, Hip Hop pedagogy and critical theory.

All comments and queries regarding this article should be addressed to [email protected]

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