On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children and Their American Dreams

This book is an excellent source for anyone seeking insight into the crises in our central cities today. Nightingale shows how many of the problems associated with indigent minorities are actually problems with American culture in general--such as materialism. Poor people are as materialistic as everyone else, they just don't have the means to indulge it. Hence crime. So, which is the real problem; the incessant admonitions to buy, buy, buy, or minorities lacking in "character"? Nightingale also discusses how certain cultural characteristics, such as fist fighting to settle a dispute, have long traditions and are often misunderstood by outsiders and labeled as criminal. Nightingale, who is white, discovered some of these things firsthand--he lived in a black neighborhood while writing this book and had many of his own stereotypes exploded as he went along. All in all, a very good book.