Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black

by Garrod,Andrew; Garrod,Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780415920629
• ISBN10: 0415920620
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-04-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Most of what is written these days about young black men and women emphasizes incarceration and mortality rates, teen pregnancy, drug use, and domestic strife. This collection of sixteen autobiographical essays by African-Americans, Africans in America, Afro-Caribbean and biracial college students who have tackled significant obstacles to achieve success and degrees of self-understanding offers a broader, more hopeful portrait of the adolescent experiences of minority youth. Here are emotionally honest and reflective stories of economic hardship, racial bias, loneliness, and anger--but also of positive role models, spiritual awakening, perseverance, and racial pride. In these essays, students explore the process of self-discovery and the realization of cultural identity. The pieces are accompanied by commentary from prominent African-American scholars, such as Jewelle Taylor Gibbs and Peter C. Murrell, Jr. Together they create a vivid portrait of what it is like to grow up as a black person in America,and offer a springboard to current debates about self-discovery, cultural identity and assimilation. Often raw and painful, always honest and affecting, this collection of personal stories written by young people stands as an eloquent tribute to the courage of today's youth and to the power of their own words.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
James P. Comer
Preface	xiii
Introduction	xvii
I. Social Class and Race
Class and Race in Negotiating Identity	3	(72)
Peter C. Murrell Jr.
Born with a Veil	15	(17)
Prince
What Is Black Enough?	32	(15)
Maria
Living between the Lines	47	(13)
Alessandro
I Reconcile the Irreconcilable	60	(15)
Rob
II. Identity
The Social Construction of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture	75	(10)
Jewelle Taylor Gibbs
The Intersections of Identity	85	(88)
Tracy L. Robinson
Color-blind	99	(13)
Christine
Walking a Thin Line	112	(22)
Liz
Becoming Myself	134	(1)
Claudio
Becoming Comfortable in My Skin	134	(14)
Susanna
Caught between Two Cultures	148	(11)
Steve
Lost in the Middle	159	(14)
Scott
III. Resilience and Resistance
Resilience and Resistance	173	(108)
Janie Victoria Ward
Gotta Keep Climbin' All de Time	186	(17)
Chantal
Finding Zion	203	(15)
Viola
Feeling the Pressure to Succeed	218	(13)
Rick
Running Hurdles	231	(14)
Stacey
Reflections on My Survival	245	(16)
Malik
Quest for Peace	261	(20)
Denise
References	281	(10)
About the Contributors, Editors, and Foreword Writer	291	(2)
Index	293