Against the Wall

Elijah Anderson is William K. Lanman, Jr., Professor of Sociology at Yale University and the author or editor of many books, including A Place on the Corner and Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. Cornel West is Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion, Center of African American Studies at Princeton University. Among his books is the best-selling Race Matters.

• Foreword: Strong Men Keep A-Comin On-Cornel WestI. FACING THE SITUATION OF YOUNG BLACK MEN IN INNER CITIES1. Against the Wall: Poor, Young, Black, and Male-Elijah Anderson2. David's Story: From Promise to Despair-Raymond Gunn3. Young, Black, and Male: The Life History of an American DrugDealer Facing Death Row-Waverly DuckII. STRUCTURAL ANALYSES OF JOBLESSNESS AMONG BLACK YOUTH4. The Economic Plight of Inner-City Black Males-William Julius Wilson5. Blacklisted: Hiring Discrimination in an Era of Mass Incarceration-Devah Pager6. The Effects of Immigration on the Economic Position of Young Black Males-Gerald D. Jaynes7. Immigration and Equal Opportunity-Douglas S. MasseyIII. ENGAGING URBAN YOUTH IN SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS8. Youth Entrepreneurship Training in the Inner City: Overcoming Disadvantage, Engaging Youth in School-Luke Anderson9. Black Male Students and Reflections on Learning and Teaching-L. Janelle Dance10. Fighting like a Ballplayer: Basketball as a Strategy Against Social Disorganization-Scott N. Brooks11. "Tell us how it feels to be a problem": Hip Hop Longings and Poor Young Black Men-Imani PerryIV. SOCIAL POLICY MATTERS12. Social Issues Lurking in the Over-Representation of Young African American Men in the Expanding DNA Databases-Troy Duster13. "You can take me outta the 'hood, but you can't take the 'hood outta me": Youth Incarceration and Reentry-Jamie J. Fader14. Suicide Patterns Among Black Males-Sean Joe15. Why Are Handguns So Accessible on Urban Streets?-David KairysNotesList of ContributorsIndexAcknowledgments

"Outstanding title! Anderson led the way for understanding urban black males with his ethnographic research. . . . In this book, other internationally renowned scholars join him to discuss different aspects of the barriers to success and the strategies the men use to effect the best possible outcomes. In brief, this collection is the most important on this subject to come along in the past 30 years. Its insights are indispensable. . . . A remarkable accomplishment-kudos to Anderson."-Choice"The hazy glow of Barack Obama's election has made it too easy to forget the plight of millions of young black males in inner cities who live in desperate circumstances. In his earlier work, Elijah Anderson has conveyed impressive insights about their lives; in this volume, he has collected excellent authors who have described with considerable sensitivity and detail the factors contributing to their circumstances: poverty, discrimination, joblessness, crime, incarceration, suicide, drugs, poor schools, preoccupation with sports, and handguns. Against the Wall documents the problems admirably and offers some suggestions for improvement."-Alfred Blumstein, Carnegie Mellon University"Anderson has consolidated what is known about the dire and worsening social situation of young black men in the U.S. Against the Wall brings together a set of cutting edge empirical studies from sociology, economics, and cultural studies to present a nuanced and sobering picture."-Mitchell Duneier, Princeton University, author of Sidewalk and Slim's Table"In a time when much of white America is in economic pain, Against the Wall is a timely and wide ranging reminder of the much greater and centuries longer pains which have been inflicted on poor young African Americans."-Herbert J. Gans, author of Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together After Bush"With A-to-Z thoroughness, Elijah Anderson and colleagues foreground the destructive legacies of centuries of systemic racism for today's young black men. Life histories on harsh streets, structural bars of job-flight and employer profiling, yeoman attempts at social-program redress, innovative thinking about future policies are webbed together in data-based, readable essays for all seeking answers to U.S. racism's chronically inhumane consequences."-Joe R. Feagin, author of Systemic Racism"A brilliant young black man has been elected President, while our prisons are crowded with black men and millions of others are on the street with no future. President Obama, who has seen the crisis on the streets of Chicago's south side, needs to send his Cabinet copies of Elijah Anderson's powerful new book, with its all-star collection of penetrating studies of the dynamics of the crisis and its possible solutions."-Gary Orfield, UCLA