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Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs:
Young Black Men Coming of Age in Urban America
Greg Dimitriadis
Pub Date: September 2003, 128 pages
Paperback: $18.95, ISBN: 0807743852
Cloth: $40.00, ISBN: 0807743860
 
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"This book is a treasure! Dimitriadis offers a narrative of black urban youth that solidly contradicts mainstream stereotypes. His portraits are rich with progressive educational and social possibilities."
—Jean Anyon, author of Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform"African American males are increasingly the symbols of the crisis in America's urban areas. More often than not they are reduced to caricatures of the crisis—drug dealers, hoodlums, and predators. This book undermines these images by providing an intimate portrait of the lives of two young men and their efforts to cope with the harsh realities of life in urban America….a powerful and hopeful story."
—Pedro Noguera, Harvard Graduate School of Education This volume follows the life course of two African American teens from the urban Midwest—best friends who have followed very different paths. Challenging popular stereotypes about black youth, Dimitriadis discusses the complexities of their everyday lives, their seemingly unpredictable friendship, and their difficult transition from boys to men. Featuring direct quotations from the young men, this deeply engaging book: - Is unique in its long-term focus, following two urban youth through adolescence into their early adult years.
- Challenges typical stereotypes by highlighting a friendship that transcends the binary labels of "good kid/bad kid."
- Highlights the importance of "non-traditional" learning settings in the lives of disenfranchised youth, including the complexities of friendship and social networks, the role institutions outside of school play in their development, and the influence of older community mentors.
- Offers a highly contextualized account of the fieldwork process as it evolved over several years, delving into the complexities of researcher-researched relations.
- Calls for more context-specific understandings of the policies and institutions that serve contemporary youth.
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