A study of communication patterns in a desegregated school, located in an urban middle class black neighborhood, revealed "meddlin" (verbal and nonverbal aggression) to be a key area of cultural dissonance. This pattern is more common among blacks. Name calling, rumor mongering, body bluster, verbal intimidation, taking or destroying others' property, and physical assaults are some of the manifestations of individual and group attack. Reasons for this aggression include: (1) racism and the need to earn respect; (2) socialization to violence; (3) inadequate academic work and the need to save face; (4) responding to the self-fulfilling prophecy that blacks are more physical; (5) poor impulse control of anger; (6) sexual competition; (7) desire to test one's strength and establish position in a peer hierarchy; (8) peer pressure; and (9) desire for attention. "Meddlin" occurs more in the classroom than the playground and also in the hallways and especially the bathrooms. Both blacks and whites are targets of aggression and most fights are intra-racial. The long term negative consequences of "meddlin" outweigh the positive gains in self-esteem sometimes made by individual aggressors. (Author/EB)