Synopses & Reviews
In 1965, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan—then a high-ranking official in the Department of Labor—sparked a firestorm when he released his report “The Negro Family,” which came to be regarded by both supporters and detractors as an indictment of African American culture. Blaming the Poor examines the regrettably durable impact of the Moynihan Report for race relations and social policy in America, challenging the humiliating image the report cast on poor black families and its misleading explanation of the causes of poverty. A leading authority on poverty and racism in the United States, Susan D. Greenbaum dismantles Moynihan’s main thesis—that the so called matriarchal structure of the African American family “feminized” black men, making them inadequate workers and absent fathers, and resulting in what he called a tangle of pathology that led to a host of ills, from teen pregnancy to adult crime. Drawing on extensive scholarship, Greenbaum highlights the flaws in Moynihan’s analysis. She reveals how his questionable ideas have been used to redirect blame for substandard schools, low wages, and the scarcity of jobs away from the societal forces that cause these problems, while simultaneously reinforcing stereotypes about African Americans. Greenbaum also critiques current policy issues that are directly affected by the tangle of pathology mindset—the demonization and destruction of public housing; the criminalization of black youth; and the continued humiliation of the poor by entrepreneurs who become rich consulting to teachers, non-profits, and social service personnel. A half century later, Moynihan’s thesis remains for many a convenient justification for punitive measures and stingy indifference to the poor. Blaming the Poor debunks this infamous thesis, proposing instead more productive and humane policies to address the enormous problems facing us today.
Review
"This book adds invaluable information and analysis to the growing debate on the violence perpetrated by girls, and the ethnographic method is exactly what is needed to further the question of whether today's girls—particularly those most marginalized due to class, race, and neighborhood—are more violent."
Review
"A very compelling account of daily life as experienced by poor, urban, African American adolescent girls. Recommended."
Review
"
Between Good and Ghetto is an expertly written and fascinating ethnography of the gendered racial dimensions of violence in the inner city. Jones does an excellent job in communicating the strength and sensitivity [of the girls she interviewed] to her readers while, simultaneously, producing a work of tremendous insight and immense sociological imagination."
Review
"Nikki Jones' sharp, detailed investigation of the way fighting, on the street and in school, shapes the lives of young African American women combines shrewd analytical insight and clear evocative language to give readers an understanding of what it costs a 'good girl' to stay good, and what happens to those who 'go for bad.'"
Review
"The young women in
Between Good and Ghetto compel the reader to consider their lives and the violence they experience in relation to the shifting and dynamic concept of protection. What is perhaps the most significant and disturbing revelation in the book is that there are few contexts, behavioral strategies, institutional spaces, or ways of identifying that fully protect young inner-city African American women's physical well-being, emotional health, and empowered self-perception."
Review
"Intellectually and emotionally evocative. Jones’s [book] is hard to put down due to her adept use of imagery and obvious passion for her work."
Review
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/22/opinion/whitaker-arizona-law/index.html?iref=allsearch
Review
and#8220;An indispensable survey of modern African American history and its implications in the present. Expansive in its breadth, keen in its observations, and fluid in its prose, this is the best single volume on the period.and#8221;and#8212;William Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history and director of the Institute of African American Studies, University of Connecticut, and author of
The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of ProgressReview
and#8220;A strong contribution to the field and historiography of African American history. Written in clear and concise language and filled with brilliant insights.and#8221;and#8212;Peniel Joseph, professor of history at Tufts University, and author of
Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack ObamaReview
and#8220;Eloquent yet concise, Professor Whitakerand#8217;s thoughtful survey of contemporary African American History offers a rich narrative that expertly situates the victories and hardships of the last half century, within the context of a long Black Freedom struggle, the ebbs and flows of which continues to this day. Peace Be Still should be required reading for all serious students of U.S. and African American History.and#8221;and#8212;Yohuru Williams, professor and chair of the Department of History, Fairfield University, and author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven
Review
"This history of African Americans for a new generation breaks new ground by offering a fresh, articulate, succinct, and comprehensive examination of recent black history."and#8212;W. T. Howard, CHOICE
Review
"I applaud Susan Greenbaum's timely book, with its sober reasoning, scrupulous scholarship, theoretical acumen, lucid prose, and penetrating and spirited critique of mainstream perspectives on poverty."
Review
"Greenbaum's powerful and important book provides valuable and little-known context for the Moynihan Report. She traces the ideas in that report as they were adopted and challenged over time."
Synopsis
Between Good and Ghetto reflects the social world of inner city African American girls and how they manage threats of personal violence. Drawing on personal encounters, traditions of urban ethnography, Black feminist thought, gender studies, and feminist criminology, Nikki Jones provides a richly descriptive and compassionate account, revealing multiple strategies used to navigate interpersonal and gender-specific violence and how gendered dilemmas of their adolescence are reconciled.
Synopsis
Between Good and Ghetto reflects the social world of inner city African American girls and how they manage threats of personal violence. Drawing on personal encounters, traditions of urban ethnography, Black feminist thought, gender studies, and feminist criminology, Nikki Jones provides a richly descriptive and compassionate account.
Synopsis
With an outward gaze focused on a better future,
Between Good and Ghetto reflects the social world of inner city African American girls and how they manage threats of personal violence.
Drawing on personal encounters, traditions of urban ethnography, Black feminist thought, gender studies, and feminist criminology, Nikki Jones gives readers a richly descriptive and compassionate account of how African American girls negotiate schools and neighborhoods governed by the so-called "code of the street"--the form of street justice that governs violence in distressed urban areas. She reveals the multiple strategies they use to navigate interpersonal and gender-specific violence and how they reconcile the gendered dilemmas of their adolescence. Illuminating struggles for survival within this group, Between Good and Ghetto encourages others to move African American girls toward the center of discussions of "the crisis" in poor, urban neighborhoods."The result is a very compelling account of daily life as experienced by poor, urban, African American adolescent girls. Recommended."
Choice"Between Good and Ghetto is an expertly written and fascinating ethnography of the gendered racial dimensions of violence in the inner city. Jones does an excellent job in communicating [the] strength and sensitivity [of her subjects] to her readers while, simultaneously, producing a work of tremendous insight and immense sociological imagination."
Contemporary Sociology"This book adds invaluable information and analysis to the gowing debate on the violence perpetrated by girls, and the ethnographic method is exactly what is needed to further the question of whether today's girls--particularly those most marginalized due to class, race and neighborhood--are more violent."
Joanne Belknap, author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice
Synopsis
With an outward gaze focused on a better future,
Between Good and Ghetto reflects the social world of inner city African American girls and how they manage threats of personal violence.
Drawing on personal encounters, traditions of urban ethnography, Black feminist thought, gender studies, and feminist criminology, Nikki Jones gives readers a richly descriptive and compassionate account of how African American girls negotiate schools and neighborhoods governed by the so-called "code of the street"ùthe form of street justice that governs violence in distressed urban areas. She reveals the multiple strategies they use to navigate interpersonal and gender-specific violence and how they reconcile the gendered dilemmas of their adolescence. Illuminating struggles for survival within this group, Between Good and Ghetto encourages others to move African American girls toward the center of discussions of "the crisis" in poor, urban neighborhoods.
Synopsis
A concise, engaging, and provocative history of African Americans since World War II,
Peace Be Still is also nothing less than an alternate history of the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Organizing this history around culture, politics, and resistance, Matthew C. Whitaker takes us from World War II as a galvanizing force for African American activism and the modern civil rights movement to the culmination of generations of struggle in the election of Barack Obama.
From the promise of the postand#8211;World War II era to the black power movement of the 1960s, the economic and political struggles of the 1970s, and the major ideological realignment of political culture during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, this book chronicles a people fighting oppression while fashioning a dynamic culture of artistic and religious expression along with a program of educational and professional advancement. A resurgence of rigid conservative right-wing policies, the politics of poverty, racial profiling, and police brutality are ongoing counterpoints to African Americans rising to political prominence and securing positions once denied them.
A history of African Americans for a new generation, Peace Be Still demonstrates how dramatically African American history illuminates the promise, conflicts, contradictions, hopes, and victories that all Americans share.
and#160;
Synopsis
A leading authority on poverty and racism, Susan D. Greenbaum dismantles the main thesis of the Moynihan Report—that the so called matriarchal structure of the African American family “feminized black men,” resulting in a “tangle of pathology” that led to a host of ills, from teen pregnancy to adult crime. Drawing on extensive scholarship, Greenbaum debunks this infamous thesis while outlining more productive and humane policies to address the problems facing America today.
About the Author
Matthew C. Whitaker is ASU Foundation Professor of History and founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University. He is the author of Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West (Nebraska, 2005) and the coeditor of Hurricane Katrina: Americaand#8217;s Unnatural Disaster (Nebraska, 2009).
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 The Social World of Inner City Girls
2 "It's Not Where You Live, It's How You Live"
3 "Ain't I A Violent Person?"
4 "Love Make You Fight Crazy"
Conclusion: The Other Side of the Crisis
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index