Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
Typically residing in areas of concentrated urban poverty, too many
young black men are trapped in a horrific cycle that includes active
discrimination, unemployment, violence, crime, prison, and early death.
This toxic mixture has given rise to wider stereotypes that limit the
social capital of all young black males.
Edited and with an introductory chapter by sociologist Elijah Anderson,
the essays in Against the Wall describe how the young black man has
come to be identified publicly with crime and violence. In reaction to
his sense of rejection, he may place an exaggerated emphasis on the
integrity of his self-expression in clothing and demeanor by adopting
the fashions of the street. To those deeply invested in and associated
with the dominant culture, his attitude is perceived as profoundly
oppositional. His presence in public gathering places becomes disturbing
to others, and the stereotype of the dangerous young black male is
perpetuated and strengthened.
To understand the origin of the problem and the prospects of the black
inner-city male, it is essential to distinguish his experience from that
of his pre-Civil Rights Movement forebears. In the 1950s, as militant
black people increasingly emerged to challenge the system, the figure of
the black male became more ambiguous and fearsome. And while this
activism did have the positive effect of creating opportunities for the
black middle class who fled from the ghettos, those who remained faced
an increasingly desperate climate.
Featuring a foreword by Cornel West and sixteen original essays by
contributors including William Julius Wilson, Gerald D. Jaynes, Douglas
S. Massey, and Peter Edelman, Against the Wall illustrates how social
distance increases as alienation and marginalization within the black
male underclass persist, thereby deepening the country's racial divide.
