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Title: Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood by Jay MacLeod ISBN: 0-8133-7164-3 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: June, 1987 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $52.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Moving and Troublesome
Comment: I read this years ago in an anthropology/sociology class in college, and I can say that it still carries as much weight today as it did then. Jay manages to weave entertaining narration with factual reporting, resulting in a moving work that points a critical finger at our society. I've actually met the author, and can say that he is an honest, engaging and professional writer. At no point did he milk the drama angle of this work, nor use it to further his own agenda. I noticed another reviewer called this book "socialist junk"; to this person I say: just because this work is a testament to some of the failures of America's precious capitalist model does not immediately make it socialist. Moreover, if socialism means having a conscience about racism and socioeconomic discrimination, then sign me up!
Rating: 1
Summary: Socialist Junk
Comment: This book did a great job of showing how research can be distorted any way one desires. I was forced to read this text for a Social Anthropology class. The boys that MacLeod follows throughout his research fail because the just didn't try hard enough. The one boy who almost succeeds fails not because of social constraints but because he could not shed his tendancy towards poor behavior- such as having children at too young an age.
This book only reinforces the "poor me" mantra- "its Capitalism's fault, it creates poverty."
Coming from "ahem" less than savory roots myself, I can tell you that Capitalism's fostering of competition does nothing but good in society. Those who have the drive to succeed, do so (I'll be attending my first year of law school in the fall), and those that have no self dicipline don't succeed.
No amount of education can change that. While the boys followed in the text didn't have the greatest educational beginnings, one of them did make it to a community college and could have made it further, but blew it by getting a girl pregnant. That's not capitalism's fault - I think its more the fault of the "free love" culture. This book is a socialist's best friend - claiming that free markets don't really produce social mobility, and producing examples to "prove" it. Too bad the failures of these examples had nothing to do with capitalism - and everything to do with a lack of drive.
Rating: 4
Summary: A study of the persistance of poverty in a housing project
Comment: This book provides a thorough account of the aspirations and expectations of two male peer groups residing in a public housing project. Both peer groups, although originating from similar class locations, have distinct aspirations resulting from their racial lived experiences. The peer group consisting mostly of young black men (The Brothers) supported the achievement ideology that we live in an open society. They viewed the hardships faced by previous generations was a result of racial discrimination barriers that (theoretically) cease to exist. They applied themselves in socially acceptable practices such as excelling in school and keeping out of trouble. In contrast, the peer group consisting of mostly young white men (Hallway Hangers) rejected the achievement ideology and had low aspirations of their position in the labor market. They realized through family and friends that their chances of getting out of the projects is slim leading most of the Hallway Hangers dropped out of school and smoked dope, among other illegal activities. Despite the disjuncture of both groups' levels of aspirations, both failed to get out of poverty. MacLeod hung out with both of these male peer groups in an effort to understand their daily meanings of the role of education and their future aspirations rather than relying exclusively on statistical data.
I give this book four stars because MacLeod failed to take into consideration the aspirations and expectations of young women. Instead he concentrated solely on the role of race and class. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand how societal structures restrict and limit the actions of individuals. Furthermore this book challenges the myth that education creates a level playing field for all regardless of race or class (and gender too ~ although not addressed here).
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Title: American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass by Douglas S. Massey, Nancy A. Denton ISBN: 0674018214 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.50 |
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Title: Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol ISBN: 0060974990 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 August, 1992 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer ISBN: 0761986286 Publisher: Pine Forge Press Pub. Date: 19 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $36.95 |
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Title: Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings In Sociology, Revised by Susan J. Ferguson ISBN: 0072555238 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 04 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $41.90 |
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Title: Gender and the South China Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women by Ching Kwan Lee ISBN: 0520211278 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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