"Hey, Those Shoes Are Out of Uniform": African American Girls in an Elite High School and the Importance of Habitus

We examine how race and class influenced the lives of six African American high school seniors who attended a predominantly white, elite, independent secondary school. Race and class contributed to an organizational habitus of the school characterized by white and wealthy privilege. Interaction of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropology & education quarterly 1999-09, Vol.30 (3), p.317-342
Main Authors: Horvat, Erin McNamara, Antonio, Anthony Lising
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Access to Education
African American culture
African American Students
African Americans
Black Students
California
College Choice
Colleges
Coping
Corporate culture
Cultural Context
Disadvantaged Youth
Educational Environment
Educational Experience
Educational Mobility
Educational Opportunities
Educational research
Elites
Equal Education
Females
Gender
Habitus
High School Students
High Schools
Influence
Institutional Characteristics
Minority Groups
Mothers
Network Analysis
Parents
Poverty
Private Schools
Privilege
Qualitative research
Race
Racial Bias
School counselors
School Effectiveness
School Organization
School uniforms
Secondary schools
Social Class
Social classes
Social History
Social Mobility
Social Structure
Sociology
Strauss, Anselm (1916-1996)
Student Attitudes
Student Experience
Theory
Uniforms
Upward mobility
Urban Schools
Urban Youth
White people
Women
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Summary:We examine how race and class influenced the lives of six African American high school seniors who attended a predominantly white, elite, independent secondary school. Race and class contributed to an organizational habitus of the school characterized by white and wealthy privilege. Interaction of that dominant habitus with the dissimilar individual habitus of the students resulted in a form of symbolic violence-symbolic violence the black students knowingly endured in exchange for the social mobility afforded by attending the elite school.
ISSN:0161-7761
1548-1492
DOI:10.1525/aeq.1999.30.3.317