Inspired by Black Lives Matter activism, we used racialized lenses on social-psychological “mattering” to investigate how Black high school boys’ interactions shaped their perceived mattering. Researchers conducted interviews with 17 self-identified Black boys who were part of a larger school-based partnership called The Black Boy Mattering Project. Participants reported experiencing and resisting interpersonal marginal mattering (e.g., evidenced in negative interactions with educators and peers and fueled by racist stereotypes) and described mattering partially through selective love (e.g., inferring significance through athletics, yet deemed anti-intellectual). Our study exhibits how schools uphold systemic anti-Black racist notions that shape relationships between Black boys and their peers and educators and diminish adolescents’ self-concepts. Implications aim to support educators and researchers in radically affirming Black boys in school contexts.

中文翻译：

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黑人青少年男孩对学校问题的看法：从边缘化和选择性爱到彻底肯定关系

受 Black Lives Matter 激进主义的启发，我们使用种族化镜头来研究社会心理“重要”，以调查黑人高中男生的互动如何塑造他们感知到的重要。研究人员对 17 名自我认同的黑人男孩进行了采访，他们是更大的以学校为基础的合作伙伴关系的一部分，称为黑人男孩重要项目。参与者报告了经历和抵制人际边缘问题（例如，在与教育者和同龄人的负面互动中得到证明，并受到种族主义刻板印象的推动），并部分描述了通过选择性的爱来解决问题（例如，通过运动来推断意义，但被认为是反智的）。我们的研究展示了学校如何维护系统性的反黑人种族主义观念，这些观念塑造了黑人男孩与其同龄人和教育工作者之间的关系，并削弱了青少年的自我概念。意义旨在支持教育工作者和研究人员在学校环境中从根本上肯定黑人男孩。