Language in the Inner City

Language in the Inner City
Author: William Labov
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 1972
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780812210514

With the recent controversy in the Oakland, California school district about Ebonics—or as it is referred to in sociolinguistic circles, African American Vernacular English or Black English Vernacular—much attention has been paid to the patterns of speech prevalent among African Americans in the inner city. In January 1997, at the height of the Ebonics debate, author and prominent sociolinguist William Labov testified before a Senate subcommittee that for most inner city African American children, the relation of sound to spelling is different, and more complicated than for speakers of other dialects. He suggested that it was time to apply this knowledge to the teaching of reading. The testimony harkened back to research contained in his groundbreaking book Language in the Inner City, originally published in 1972. In it, Labov probed the question "Does 'Black English' exist?" and emerged with an answer that was well ahead of his time, and that remains essential to our contemporary understanding of the subject. Language in the Inner City firmly establishes African American Vernacular English not simply as slang but as a well-formed set of rules of pronunciation and grammar capable of conveying complex logic and reasoning. Studying not only the normal processes of communication in the inner city but such art forms as the ritual insult and ritualized narrative, Labov confirms the Black vernacular as a separate and independent dialect of English. His analysis goes on to clarify the nature and processes of linguistic change in the context of a changing society. Perhaps even more today than two decades ago, Labov's conclusions are mandatory reading for anyone concerned with education and social change, with African American culture, and with the future of race relations in this country.

The Inner City Mother Goose

The Inner City Mother Goose
Author: Eve Merriam
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 1982
Genre: Children's poetry, American
ISBN:

Poems inspired by traditional nursery rhymes depict the grim reality of inner city life, including such topics as crime, drug abuse, unemployment, and inadequate housing.

The Struggle and the Tools

The Struggle and the Tools
Author: Ellen Cushman
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780791439814

Explores the daily lives of a group of inner city residents, focusing particularly upon their language use and other types of literate strategies used to gain resources, access to social institutions, and respect.

The Analyst in the Inner City

The Analyst in the Inner City
Author: Neil Altman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2011-08-24
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1135468524

In 1995, Neil Altman did what few psychoanalysts did or even dared to do: He brought the theory and practice of psychoanalysis out of the cozy confines of the consulting room and into the realms of the marginalized, to the very individuals whom this theory and practice often overlooked. In doing so, he brought together psychoanalytic and social theory, and examined how divisions of race, class and culture reflect and influence splits in the developing self, more often than not leading to a negative self image of the "other" in an increasingly polarized society. Much like the original, this second edition of The Analyst in the Inner City opens up with updated, detailed clinical vignettes and case presentations, which illustrate the challenges of working within this clinical milieu. Altman greatly expands his section on race, both in the psychoanalytic and the larger social world, including a focus on "whiteness" which, he argues, is socially constructed in relation to "blackness." However, he admits the inadequacy of such categorizations and proffers a more fluid view of the structure of race. A brand new section, "Thinking Systemically and Psychoanalytically at the Same Time," examines the impact of the socio-political context in which psychotherapy takes place, whether local or global, on the clinical work itself and the socio-economic categories of its patients, and vice-versa. Topics in this section include the APA’s relationship to CIA interrogation practices, group dynamics in child and adolescent psychotherapeutic interventions, and psychoanalytic views on suicide bombing. Ranging from the day-to-day work in a public clinic in the South Bronx to considerations of global events far outside the clinic’s doors (but closer than one might think), this book is a timely revision of a groundbreaking work in psychoanalytic literature, expanding the import of psychoanalysis from the centers of analytical thought to the margins of clinical need.

Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City
Author: Elijah Anderson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2000-09-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0393070387

Unsparing and important. . . . An informative, clearheaded and sobering book.—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1999 Critic's Choice) Inner-city black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence, but in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. This unwritten set of rules—based largely on an individual's ability to command respect—is a powerful and pervasive form of etiquette, governing the way in which people learn to negotiate public spaces. Elijah Anderson's incisive book delineates the code and examines it as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope.

Inner City Romance

Inner City Romance
Author: Guy Colwell
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2015-02-22
Genre: Comics & Graphic Novels
ISBN: 1606998137

Guy Colwell’s 1970s underground comic book series Inner City Romance tread new territory: it was filled with stories about prison, black culture, ghetto life, the sex trade, and radical activism. It portrayed the unpleasant realities of life in the inner city, where opportunities were limited and being on the lowest end of the economic ladder meant that one’s vision of the American dream was more about survival than lifestyle choices. Every issue of Inner City Romance is included in this collection, as well as many of the highly detailed paintings Colwell created at the time. In an accompanying text piece, Colwell provides context for the material.

Doing the Best I Can

Doing the Best I Can
Author: Kathryn Edin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2014-08-15
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0520283929

Across the political spectrum, unwed fatherhood is denounced as one of the leading social problems of today. Doing the Best I Can is a strikingly rich, paradigm-shifting look at fatherhood among inner-city men often dismissed as “deadbeat dads.” Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson examine how couples in challenging straits come together and get pregnant so quickly—without planning. The authors chronicle the high hopes for forging lasting family bonds that pregnancy inspires, and pinpoint the fatal flaws that often lead to the relationship’s demise. They offer keen insight into a radical redefinition of family life where the father-child bond is central and parental ties are peripheral. Drawing on years of fieldwork, Doing the Best I Can shows how mammoth economic and cultural changes have transformed the meaning of fatherhood among the urban poor. Intimate interviews with more than 100 fathers make real the significant obstacles faced by low-income men at every step in the familial process: from the difficulties of romantic relationships, to decision-making dilemmas at conception, to the often celebratory moment of birth, and finally to the hardships that accompany the early years of the child's life, and beyond.

Inner City Hoodlum

Inner City Hoodlum
Author: Donald Goines
Publisher: Holloway House Publishing
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1992-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780870679995

"Johnny Washington, a black teenager in Los Angeles, knows the freight yards like the back of his hand. He and his pals, Josh and Buddy, hit them often, stealing for a fence. They have to. They're the sole support of their families. But when Josh is killed by a security guard, they are forced to look for other work. They find it with the underworld kings in Elliot Davis." -- Back cover.

Inner City Miracle

Inner City Miracle
Author: Greg Mathis
Publisher: One World/Ballantine
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2002
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

From the hugely popular star of TVUs "Judge Mathis, " comes the inspirational story of a young man who rose from delinquent to Detroit District Court Judge to national television personality. Color photos.