Includes bibliographical references and index.

Cover; Half Title; Endorsement Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Hoveys' Porch; Introduction; Meet the Hoveys; Family Ties; Izzy's World; Discussion; Chapter 3 School Daze; Introduction; Parlington High: A Tale of Two Schools; The In-School Experience of African American High-School Students; Discussion; Notes; Chapter 4 Sports and a Caring Coach; Introduction; The Athletes; Race Relations and High School Sports; Sports Participation, Academic Achievement, and School Attachment; The Role of Coaches; Discussion

Chapter 5 The Gender Factor: Bad Black Girls Who Are Not All BadIntroduction; The Home Lives of Parlington High's Bad Black Girls; Bored, Belligerent, and Boundary Keepers; Just Hanging Out; Regrets and Aspirations; Discussion; Chapter 6 From Teenagers to Adulthood: Revisiting Hoveys' Porch; Introduction; Revisiting Hoveys' Porch; The Hovey Network and Beyond; The Girls; Discussion; Chapter 7 Conclusion; When Race Meets Class; Implications; Beyond the Study: A Final Note on Policy; Note; Appendix: A Note On Methodology; Network Visualization; References; Index

A rare, 15-year ethnography, this book follows the lives of individual, low-income African American youth from the beginning of high school into their early adult years. Levine shows how their interaction and experience with multiple institutions (family, school, community) and individuals (parents, friends, teachers, coaches, strangers) shape their hopes, fears, aspirations, and worldviews. The intersectionality of their social identities--how race, class, and gender come together to influence how they come to think about who they are--influences many behaviors that directly contradict their stated aspirations. Affected, too, by limited access to resources, these youths often take a path profoundly different from their stated values and life goals. Levine explores the volatility and constraints underlying their decision-making and behaviors. The book reveals the critical junctures and turning points shaping life trajectories, challenging many long-held assumptions about the persistence of racial inequality by offering new insights on the educational and occupational barriers facing young African Americans.

Rhonda F. Levine is Professor of Sociology, Emerita, at Colgate University, USA. She is the author of Class, Networks, and Identity (2001) and Class Struggle and The New Deal (1988), and editor of Enriching the Sociological Imagination: How Radical Sociology Changed the Discipline (2005) and Social Class and Stratification: Classic Statements and Theoretical Debates, Second Edition (2006).

Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed January 10, 2019).