Coping With Poverty: The Social Contexts of Neighborhood, Work, and Family in the African-American Community

301 Pages·2000·2.12 MB·English

by  Sheldon Danziger

Coping with Poverty

Coping with Poverty
The Social Contexts of
Neighborhood, Work, and Family
in the African-American Community
Edited by
Sheldon Danziger and Ann Chih Lin
Ann Arbor
Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2000
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
∞Printed on acid-free paper
2003 2002 2001 2000 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or
transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic,mechanical,or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coping with poverty :the social contexts of neighborhood,work,and family in
the African-American community / edited by Sheldon Danziger and Ann Chih
Lin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-472-11145-0 (acid-free paper) — ISBN 0-472-08697-9 (pbk.:
acid-free paper)
1.Afro-Americans—Social conditions—1975– 2.Urban poor—United
States. 3.Afro-Americans—Economic conditions. 4.Afro-Americans—
Employment. 5.Urban policy—United States. 6.Afro-American families—
Social conditions. 7.Inner cities—United States. I.Danziger,Sheldon.
II.Lin,Ann Chih.
E185.86 .C58213 2000
305.896073—dc21 00-020956
ISBN13 978-0-472-08697-9 (paperback)
ISBN13 978-0-472-02358-5 (electronic)
To the memory of Dr.Andrew L.Reaves:
Colleague,Friend,and Role Model
For Andy,a doctorate and a university
professorship were never just a career:they
were a lifelong dream.At the age of forty-
two,a successful businessman and a sur-
vivor of lung cancer,Andy dared to start
a new life,entering a doctoral program in
social psychology at the University of
Michigan.He earned his Ph.D.in 1992
and an M.P.H.in 1993.Andy’s education
and subsequent work as an Assistant
Professor of Psychology at the University
of Alabama were his victories in the face
of death.Illness could not kill his passion
for helping others cope with and overcome
poverty.His great kindness and compas-
sion,his deep dedication,and his gallant
courage will always be an inspiration to us.

Contents
Preface
Sheldon Danziger ix
Introduction
1. Interpretive Research for Public Policy 1
Ann Chih Lin
Part 1 Neighborhood:Family and Community as Supports
2. Between a Rock and a Hard Place:The Labyrinth of
Working and Parenting in a Poor Community 27
Sharon Hicks-Bartlett
3. Communal Isolation:Narrowing the Pathways to Goal
Attainment and Work 52
Gina Barclay-McLaughlin
4. Negotiating Adolescence in a Black Middle-Class
Neighborhood 77
Mary Pattillo-McCoy
Part 2 Employment:From Removing Barriers to Coping
with Obstacles
5. Dreamkeeping in the Inner City:Diminishing the Divide
Between Aspirations and Expectations 105
Carla O’Connor
6. On the Outside Looking In:Low-Income Black Men’s
Conceptions of Work Opportunity and the Good Job 141
Alford A.Young Jr.
7. Black Male Employment and Self-Sufficiency 172
Andrew L.Reaves
viii Contents
Part 3 Parenting:From Enforcing Responsibility to Enabling Care
8. Mother,Worker,Welfare Recipient: Welfare Reform and
the Multiple Roles of Low-Income Women 201
Ariel Kalil,Heidi Schweingruber,Marijata Daniel-Echols,
and Ashli Breen
9. Work Preparation and Labor Market Experiences Among
Urban,Poor,Nonresident Fathers 224
Waldo E.Johnson Jr.
Conclusion
10. Social Contexts in the Making of Public Policy 262
Ann Chih Lin
Contributors 273
Index 275
Preface
The disproportionate rate ofpoverty among African-Americans often leads
policymakers, researchers, and advocates for the poor to focus on their
plight. In 1997, 26.5 percent of all black persons lived below the official
poverty line.The comparable figure for whites was 11 percent.In fact,the
1997 rate for African-Americans was higher than the 1959 rate for whites.
The poverty rate for African-Americans living in female-headed households
was 42.8 percent, compared with 30.7 percent for similar whites. Even
among married couples, who have relatively low poverty rates, the black
rate,8 percent,is substantially higher than the 4.8 percent white rate.
The persistence of poverty is also greater for minorities.That is,once
an African-American becomes poor,she or he is likely to remain poor for
more years than whites (Gottschalk,McLanahan,and Sandefur 1994).The
probability that a poor child will be poor as an adult is also higher for
African-Americans than for whites (Corcoran 1995;Corcoran and Chaudry
1997).
Poverty among African-Americans is geographically concentrated in
a way that is not true for whites. Between 1970 and 1990, the number of
poor persons living in high-poverty census tracts (tracts where at least 40
percent of all persons are poor) increased by 98 percent,even as the total
number of poor persons increased by only 37 percent.In 1990,one-third
of poor blacks resided in these high-poverty areas,compared with only 6
percent of poor whites (Jargowsky 1997). Thus, poor African-Americans
struggle not only with insufficient incomes but also with the added disad-
vantages of poor neighborhoods. Concentrated poverty, unemployment,
and crime combine with persistent residential segregation and labor mar-
ket discrimination to generate a social context that makes socioeconomic
advancement more difficult.
Focusing primarily on African-American poverty, however, can be
problematic.The history of racial hostility in America lends a racial cast
to behaviors associated with long-term poverty,even though whites account
for a substantial percentage of all poor persons.Condemnations of out-of-
wedlock births evoke images of black promiscuity,lamentation over spo-
radic employment draws on historical accusations of unwillingness to take