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
"
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
"A very compelling account of daily life as experienced by poor, urban, African American adolescent girls. Recommended."
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
"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
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 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
SUSAN D. GREENBAUM is a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of South Florida. Her book More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa won several awards and was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 2003.