Deference and the Gendered Rewards of ‘Good’ Behavior

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter highlights the shared ethnic purpose yet different gendered practice of deference as a cultural strategy to counter ethnic expectations and escape the culture trap. Black Caribbean students in New York marshaled deference as a strategy for damage prevention, to limit the spoiling of their positive reputation and to shore up positive ethnic expectations. However, for Black Caribbean youth in London, deference was an exercise in damage reduction, attempts to redeem their stigmatized ethnic identities through ‘good’ behavior. But despite the shared ethnic purpose of deference among Black Caribbean youth in their respective cities, this chapter shows that Black Caribbean girls and boys are unequally rewarded for it. On both sides of the Atlantic, Black Caribbean boys who practiced deference were often publicly praised. When Black Caribbean girls practiced deference, their good behavior was often taken for granted: they were “just being girls.”