Observations in All Our Kin Essay -- Carol Stack

carol Stack finds herself in a curious seat as a young white woman venturing into a ghastly neighborhood in hopes of alleviating negative stereotypes and bringing illumination into a semiosphere that is whole ignored or even despised. While she defined her purpose as the attempt to illustrate the collective adaptations to poverty of men, women, and children within the social-cultural network of the scurrilous urban family (28), her methods atomic number 18 not merely those of an outside observer jetting back information, but truly that of an actively engaged participant. Staying true to the guidelines of participant observation studies, Stack did not attempt to isolate or duck the culture she saw, and instead of donning the lab coat, as it were, and playing the role of the experimenting scientist, or simply sneaking in, Stack was very human in her interactions and dealings, take part as actively as possible in peoples real lives in The Flats. (Hedrick).Twenty years ago, Stac k sought to explain why the indigent area was not subject to stuffy judgment and evaluation by describing the primary differences between that society, and the more affluent culture that defines the standards. To say, for example, that the average downhearted household is unstructured would be a misstatement. On the contrary, these households are intricately structured, but in a more fluid manner than the conventional home. Typically, these subcultures are negatively defined or judged by what they are not. with this lens, The Flats appears to be a disheveled mess of rats scurrying for the next toss by of food. Walking into this situation, Stack had to prove the notion that distinctively negative features attributed to light families, that they are fat... ...their lifestyles or values, but merely funnel greater sums of specie into bottomless, self-destructing pits (23). If this is true, then certainly the American Dream wins out for virtue. Indeed, throwing money at a probl em absolutely does not make it go away but when families are legitimately struggling to make ends meet and goods are scarce, when theyve established these complex chains of organized networks and trades, and when they can empathize with others in their situation and see the big picture beyond their own, one is go forth to wonder why Stacks voice hasnt been hear more widely, and why the residents of The Flats are still left to fight against the menstruum in their own comparatively competent culture of exchange, and networks of all their kin.Stack, Carol B. All Our Kin Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. red-hot York Basic Books, 1983.