This study of six young urban African American men, all in grades 10 or 11 at the time of the study, examined their experiences and the meanings they constructed of the high school diploma, their experiences in classrooms, and their relationships with family members and peers. The perspectives of these young men point to the importance of understanding the ways in which race and social class and gender are significant to the meanings they construct of schooling. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "The Six Young Men"; (3) "The Politics of a White Researcher Learning about Young African-American Men's Experiences of School"; (4) "Situated Meanings of the High School Diploma"; (5) "Accommodation and Critique of Life in Classrooms"; (6) "Building Connections"; (7) "Images of Self, Images of Others"; and (8) "Power, Privilege, and Inequality." (Contains 153 references.) (SLD)