Carter, Prudence L. Keepin' It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White.

• Author: Hirsch, Mike
• Position: Book review

Carter, Prudence L. Keepin' It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 219 pages. Cloth, $29.95; paper, $15.95.

In Keepin' It Real, sociologist Prudence L. Carter examines the educational-achievement gap between whites and their black and Hispanic peers. She does so through a qualitative research study conducted in the late 1990s involving sixty-eight black and Hispanic students and their parents from two housing projects located in Yonkers, New York. Carter's student sample includes thirty males and thirty-eight females. Classified in another way, there are forty-two blacks and twenty-six Latinos (p. 176). Her research methods include surveys, face-to-face interviews, group discussions, and observations.

At the outset, Carter questions the assertion that African-American and second-generation Latino students "reject academic excellence because they perceive it as 'acting white'" (p. v). Carter suggests that her students' adherence to the cultural meanings and mannerisms of their groups which "facilitate in-group solidarity" are interpreted by many educators (white and black) "as a rejection of excellence" (p. vi). She suggests the need for "multicultural navigators" to help "find better ways to communicate, interact, and improve students' attachment and engagement to school" (p. viii).

Carter shares the four primary lessons drawn from her research, issues that need to be addressed in order to close the achievement gap. First, in American society, a relative few "get to define what knowledge is," creating a situation wherein a "hierarchy of cultural meanings" exists. This contributes to the perpetuation of social inequality (p. 6). Second, while many view the culture among African-American and Latino students as reactive and engendering of "attitudes and values that inhibit their academic achievement," the author claims "positive functions" for the culture including the provision of "a sense of belonging, distinction, and support for how to critique and cope with inequality" (p. 6). Third, since some students are drawn to the culture as a means of coping with social inequality, their actions or engagement in the school setting is influenced by ideologies prescribing "how in-group members should respond to social inequalities and how in-group members should respect cultural boundaries" (p.7). Finally, current cultural explanations tend to ignore "the intersections between ethno-specific culture...