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I understand this is the author’s personal delve into ethnography/performance theory, but I did not enjoy his writing style, or agree with the major premise in this book. However, to write a review I consider fair, I forced myself to read this book in its entirety.

In a nutshell, I don’t support choosing code meshing over code switching, or vice versa – both are necessary. It’s complicated in the real world, and students need as many tools as possible in their tool belt to prepare them to deal with the many situations that will come their way.

Although I had high hopes for this book, they never materialized. Even so, I welcome this attempt to start a dialogue about the relationship, or, arguably lack thereof, between black boys and school. My wish for the future is that more scholars continue exploring this very important topic.

My Girlfriend borrowed this book from me after hearing me rave about it for a little while. She's an educator, and works with k-12, more closely with special needs children and those on the autism spectrum currently. Anyway, at the time she was teaching in a charter school for young men of color and was interested in the subject matter for that reason. She found herself adding tabs and marking places to which she wanted to return and eventually just bought me another copy of the book so that she wouldn't lose her markers and would be able to return to it.

I've just finished grad school and begun student teaching, and find that I return to this text when trying to determine how to cast a wider net in the classroom-- I'm working with returning adult students who are particularly at risk of not continuing, and the lessons from this text are invaluable in attempting to bridge the discursive gaps that widen the achievement gap.

I was first assigned this text in a integrated reading and writing pedagogy class. I highly recommend it for educators- anyone who's done any research will see that the achievement gap widens dramatically for precisely and exactly the subject Professor Young talks about- young men of color are absurdly underrepresented in higher education, and this text is an examination of some of the reasons for that. It meshes different genres into a hybrid form in order to critically examine the experiences of a man of color in the academy. It is in part literacy biography, ethnography, and academic inquiry.

Its a timely text in terms of the examination of linguistic performativity of class, race, sexuality and gender. Its timely in its critical stance toward code-switching, and toward our schools as part of the structure that reproduces and maintains asymmetrical relations of power. For those familiar with the notion of deracination as a product of education, or familiar with the achievement gap, and/or aware of some of the important work on critical pedagogy, this text is a fabulous addition to that line of research. For those of us who wish to teach and know for a fact that the subject studied and embodied in this work is the very subject whom our system fails; this is an essential text.

I found Young's arguments extremely compelling, and agreed with him that code meshing was and
is preferable to code switching. Among the things that I found interesting in this book-- the difficulties that he describes himself having in academic settings really resonated for me. Young himself is depicted by another teacher as an argument for code switching- he supposedly exemplifies a success of that system. Yet I read a lot of translation failures in this book. In fact- he seemed to me something of a misfit both in the world he left behind--the street that he describes, and the world he attempts to enter- the world of the academy.

I also appreciate the hybrid form that Young produces here to construct his text, and I think I comprehend his reasons for doing this. The WEV (white english vernacular)he is required to assimilate to and exemplify within Academia stifles and/or silences him so thoroughly, that he is *unable* to respond to that silencing within the same language and conventions. His hybrid form of `autocritography' is an example of the vigorous energy of hybrid discourse, which is something he argues for. It is also impossible, I think, to examine the effects of the particular linguistic requirements on the identity of a single person without making use of an informal method, but at the same time, Young clearly wishes to examine the theoretical implications of code meshing through a text that exemplifies it.

Great book, very insightful. I think Young is an exciting new voice.

It came like they promised it would, and I really appreciate when the product lives up to the expectations of the dealer, and me.

This author presents an articulate, convincing case. I enjoyed reading it; it informed me of many things regarding African-American culture and literacy that I needed to know.

An important book about linguistic segregation and the necessity of code-meshing as a means of overcoming this divide. The book's autobiographical structure also presents a number of insights drawn from Dr. Young's experiences. Recommended.

Well, I'm a PhD students in performance studies and English. I had to read Vershawn Young's book last semester in a graduate course on language, culture, and performance. I had to do a presentation that involved in-depth interpretative reading. After I had just read the preface I was very much impressed with his candor and awesome writing style -- so much so that I immediately stopped reading and looked up his email address to tell him so !!!

He was very nice and we had a nice email conversation. He even helped me with my presentation, saying that while it's important to read his book as auto-ethnography, the method the field sees it in, he says it's an autocritography...a personal study of what makes a scholar and the ideas he's interested in. I had almost missed that in the introduction.

Anyway, I was privileged to meet him. So few authors engage others in their ideas. What I liked most about the book and the thing that was most different is that the scholarly parts are mixed in with the stories, so they become a real part of the narrative. It's not like other books where you can flip to the introduction and conclusion of each chapter and get the point without reading any other parts. I had to actually READ this book. And his excellent writing style made every minute worthwhile, which didn't take me long at all. Three days over a busy weekend.

I also had a personal reaction to the book, being a black person. I found myself wanting to speak with him over a cup of coffee or a beer ---not strictly academically, but more as friend and colleague who shares
some intellectual and personal interests by nature of our ethnicity.

I have friends who are an academic couple I met in grad school who are
come from a background very similar to Young's. And I was able to understand them better, as i'm from a higher class bracket, though we all share a similar experience. I believe our mutual sense of racial performance comes from opposite ends of a continuum.

I think Young's work and my response to it are a phenomena of the Black
Intelligencia --- probably discussed and debated among peers
frequently, but rarely laid bare in print before the world. I think that is the best feature of this book. My own research has nothing whatsoever to do with this but I dare say these conversations are vital to my abiltiy to perform professionally.

I think most serious readers who understand the experience he's coming from or who wants to understand, will get his arguments about language and black students, and why they (or professionals) shouldn't be asked to code switch but code mesh. I also think folks will get his idea about the burden of racial performance, which is greater for black men. We always have to prove who we are to whites and other blacks. Just think about OBAMA! I will keep enjoying his work.

If you are curious, read this stimulating, intellectual novelistic book!