Understanding the Environmental Contexts of Boys and Young Men of Color

Lynette A. Rawlings February 2015 Far too often, when the research and policy communities take on the topic of boys and young men of color, it is to describe in depressing detail how these young males contribute to their own poor outcomes. Complex realities, institutional challenges, and underlying circumstances are reduced to individualized behaviors. In addition, research and policy often fail to explore the many cases where boys and young men are thriving despite challenging circumstances or to examine the roots of these successes. This essay provides a framework for understanding the various settings (often unseen or unacknowledged) that influence the lives of boys and young men of color. To fully understand how to improve outcomes for this group, it is important to first appreciate the environmental contexts that shape how they experience the world. These settings can either support or constrain their development and well-being as they mature into manhood. And though most boys and young men do have the power to make their own decisions, we—as adults and as a society—are responsible for the choice sets and consequences they face. While the focus here on boys and young men of color is fully intentional, it is not meant to imply that the needs of girls and young women of color do not deserve considered attention as well. Many of the conditions they face are similar to those of their young male counterparts. Girls and young women of color grow up in the same families, live in the same neighborhoods, and attend the same schools. However, their RACE, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER Understanding the Environmental Contexts of Boys and Young Men of Color treatment and experiences within these environments can vary in profound and unexpected ways. This variation is enough to merit separate and specific consideration. There should be room enough in our policy discourse to examine in their full complexity the challenges each group faces, and to create tailored policy approaches as necessary. This essay does not offer solutions. It provides a context for future research and analysis, in hopes that it will examine the lives and circumstances of boys and young men of color using more complex and nuanced perspectives. In particular, we should not accept current institutional and systemic realities as a necessarily positive or neutral status quo. Doing so implicitly treats the problems experienced by boys and young men of color as entirely of their own making and ignores the role of societal norms, systems, and institutions in contributing to poor circumstances. To change the current conversation, we must critically examine our own perspectives on what actually drives outcomes for boys and young men of color. Boys and Young Men of Color and Nested Environments The environments in which children grow up profoundly shape their socio-emotional health and development and set the stage for future success. The field of developmental psychology has long noted the importance of different levels of environmental influence on child and adolescent growth. These environments create nested ecological spheres, each one influencing a child’s development in unique ways, as well as interacting with each other to compound or mitigate those impacts.1 The most prominent environments affecting boys and young men of color highlighted here are: 1. prevailing mainstream sociocultural contexts, which shape how they are perceived and treated as a group; 2. institutions and systems, which frame their opportunity set; 3. community and neighborhood environments, which shape their daily lives and interactions; and 4. family settings, which (should) confer security, stability, and general well-being. 2 IDENTIFYING THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTS OF BOYS AND YOUNG MEN OF COLOR Though these different environments are intertwined and certainly influence each other, when we look at them as a monolith, we miss important details about what each environment contributes and therefore pose incomplete remedies. To get a complete picture, it is important to examine each layer as a separate factor as well as its influence on other environmental contexts. Ideally, these environments should serve as layers of nurturing and protective influences as young children progress and mature into adulthood. However, if these domains are lacking necessary supports—or worse, if children and young adults are exposed to dysfunctional dynamics in these environments—they potentially suffer both immediate damage and serious adverse long-term consequences. Unfortunately, boys and young men of color disproportionately suffer in each of these domains. They must confront negative societal perceptions, disparate treatment within systems and institutions, and sometimes damaging neighborhood environments, and family instability. Breaking the chain of harmful impacts in these layered environments requires changes to societal, institutional, community, and family policy and prac