Against John Ogbu's oppositional culture theory and Claude Steele's disidentification hypothesis, Jesus and the Streets offers a more appropriate structural Marxian hermeneutical framework for contextualizing, conceptualizing, and evaluating the locus of causality for the black male/female intra-racial gender academic achievement gap in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Positing that in general the origins of the black/white academic achievement gap in both countries is grounded in what Paul C. Mocombe refers to as a "mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function." Within this structural Marxist theoretical framework the intra-racial gender academic achievement gap between black boys and girls, the authors argue, is a result of the social class functions associated with industries (mode of production) and ideological apparatuses, i.e., prisons, the urban street life, athletics and entertainment, where the majority of urban black males in the US and UK achieve their status, social mobility, and economic gain, and the black church/education where black females in both countries are overwhelmingly more likely to achieve their status, social mobility, and drive for economic gain via education and professionalization.

Paul C. Mocombe is former visiting professor of philosophy and sociology at Bethune Cookman University and assistant professor of philosophy and sociology at West Virginia State University and the president/CEO of The Mocombeian Foundation, Inc. A social theorist interested in the application of social theory to contemporary issues such as race, class, and capitalism (globalization), he is the author of Race and Class Distinctions Within Black Communities (2013)and Language, Literacy, and Pedagogy in Postindustrial Societies (2012)as well as numerous other titles.

Carol Tomlin is visiting senior lecturer in sociology and education at Wolverhampton University and senior pastor of Restoration Fellowship Ministries.

Victoria Showunmi is lecturer of education at the Institute of Education, London.