Observations in All Our Kin Essay -- Carol Stack

Carol Stack finds herself in a curious place as a young white woman venturing into a black rural bea in hopes of alleviating negative stereotypes and bringing illumination into a semiosphere that is altogether do by or even despised. While she defined her purpose as the blast to illustrate the collective adaptations to poverty of men, women, and children within the social-cultural network of the black urban family (28), her methods are not merely those of an outside observer spouting subscribe information, simply truly that of an actively engaged participant. Staying true to the guidelines of participant poster studies, Stack did not attempt to isolate or manipulate the market-gardening she saw, and instead of donning the lab coat, as it were, and playing the role of the experimenting scientist, or simply sneaking in, Stack was very human in her interactions and dealings, participating as actively as possible in peoples real lives in The Flats. (Hedrick). xx years ago, Sta ck sought to explain why the impoverished area was not subject to conventional judgment and evaluation by describing the basal differences between that society, and the much affluent culture that defines the standards. To say, for example, that the average black family is unstructured would be a misstatement. On the contrary, these households are elaborately structured, just now in a more fluid manner than the conventional home. Typically, these subcultures are negatively defined or judged by what they are not. Through this lens, The Flats appears to be a disheveled mess of rats scurrying for the next scrap of food. locomote into this smirch, Stack had to prove the notion that distinctively negative features attributed to poor families, that they are fat... ...their lifestyles or values, but merely funnel greater sums of money into bottomless, self-destructing pits (23). If this is true, and then certainly the American Dream wins out for virtue. Indeed, throwing money at a problem absolutely does not make it go away but when families are legitimately struggling to make ends meet and goods are scarce, when theyve completed these complex chains of organized networks and trades, and when they can empathize with others in their situation and see the big picture beyond their own, one is left to interview why Stacks voice hasnt been heard more widely, and why the residents of The Flats are still left to fight against the current in their own comparatively competent culture of exchange, and networks of all their kin.Stack, Carol B. each(prenominal) Our Kin Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. New York basic Books, 1983.