The African American Male...

I have been doing some high-school algebra class observations, to learn more about the teaching experience. I'm tagging along with an old expert teacher and we often debrief with someone at the school to discuss what we saw and learned.

We've been recently watching this one teacher who seems to have complete control over the class (real impressive to watch) and in the debriefing the old expert teacher applauded his use of eye contact, and with one reference to one student interaction:

" We're told, the number one rule with African American males.... you have to look them in the eye, acknowledge them and honour their presence."

That seems like a good way to treat anybody really. But, do people really have a special rule book they use on how to interact with the African American male? Is what the African American male wants acknowledgement and honour?

How would I know... I'm not even American.