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EVERYDAY COURAGE
QUALITATIVE STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY
GENERAL EDITORS
Michelle Fine and Jeanne Marecek
Everyday Courage:
The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers
by Niobe Way
EVERYDAY COURAGE
The Lives and Stories of Urban Teenagers
NIOBE WAY
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 1998 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Way, Niobe, 1963–
Everyday courage : the lives and stories of urban teenagers/
Niobe Way.
p. cm. — (Qualitative studies in psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8147-9320-7 (cloth : acid-free paper). — ISBN
0-8147-9339-8 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. Urban youth—United States—Case studies. 2. Urban youth—
United States—Longitudinal studies. 3. Socially handicapped
teenagers—United States—Case studies. 4. Socially handicapped
teenagers—United States—Longitudinal studies. 5. Adolescence—
United States. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ796.W325 1998
305.235’0973’091732—dc21 97-45296
CIP
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5
To “Malcolm” and “Eva”
Contents
5. Desire and Betrayal in Friendships
6. “I Never Put Anyone in Front of My Mother”
7. Maintaining a “Positive Attitude”/Fearing Death
9. Racism, Sexism, and Difference
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I wish to express my gratitude to the adolescents who were willing to share their stories with me and my colleagues. Without their patience, cooperation, and wisdom, this book would not have been written. I am also grateful to the Henry Murray Research Center at Radcliffe College for financial support of this project.
My deepest appreciation extends to my graduate school mentor and friend Carol Gilligan, whose teachings are the inspiration for my research. Carol’s intellectual guidance and vision have provided me with the essential tools with which to pursue my own research questions. There have also been numerous friends, colleagues, former teachers, and students who have graciously read this book and provided me with constructive criticism, wonderful insights, and much encouragement. These people include Elizabeth Abrams, Charles Baraw, Elizabeth Chin, Michelle Fine, JoEllen Fisherkeller, Monica Garcia, Patricia Harmon, Stuart Hauser, Laura Maciuika, Allison Morell, Meg Turner, and Janie Ward. Charles Baraw’s extremely close reading of this book was especially helpful. I also want to extend a special thanks to Helena Stauber and Michael Nakkula for interviewing many of the adolescents and for their years of support and intellectual challenge. The project would not have been possible without them. Thank you as well to Jamie Aronson and Stacy Scott for helping to conduct the interviews, to Madeline Alers for taking the photos that grace the cover of this book, and to Annie Rogers whose remarkable work on “ordinary courage” among girls was the inspiration for the title of this book and for the substance of some of the chapters.
Tim Bartlett, my editor at New York University Press, made astute