African American Girls and the Construction of Identity

Download or read book African American Girls and the Construction of Identity written by Sheila Walker and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In African American Girls and the Construction of Identity, Sheila Walker closely examines socioeconomic class and explores the way it shapes how African American girls experience race and gender in the process of their identity formation. While all the girls who participated in the two-year study are African American, their lives are racialized and gendered in significantly different ways, in both public and private spaces. Affluence is not a guaranteed protection against the identity-damaging effects of racism, and poverty is not necessarily a risk factor for an irresolute identity. By examining identity through the lens of class, Walker provides researchers, educators, and parents a more in-depth appreciation of what is a very complex, multi-layered phenomenon.