NCJ Number
178958
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 1997 Pages: 56-76
Date Published
1997
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This article analyses writings created by African American youth for their own purposes beyond school.
Abstract
These youths’ words and works demonstrate that their lives differ greatly from the way they have been socially constructed. The works created by these young people go beyond socially acceptable subjects and stylistically permissible forms and in so doing challenge some of the socially constructed obstacles to cultural difference that use literacy and other institutionalized mechanisms to regulate access to societal resources. Their writings are lenses through which the youths view and reflect on their lives, and reveal their personal views in a critique of their social worlds. These views are comforting in what society learns about them as youth, disturbing in what adults see about themselves as responsible for shaping the world that the youths will inherit and inhabit. References