Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Abstract
Today's generation of adolescents is inheriting a country in decline. More specifically, youth in city centers are experiencing the plight of severe economic and social distress and urban violence. The academic discourse around urban violence that plagues African Americans tends to focus on the deterioration of the black family because of lack of fathers, black-on-black crimes and mass incarceration of black men. Women, especially adolescent girls, are often left out of the discourse. For the most part, young women are not committing the crimes, however, their friends, boyfriends, brothers and cousins are society and the media's alleged perpetrators. Young women are affected by this violence and by relationships with people committing such violence. But what are the effects? How do young women function amidst such violence? The following paper will discuss how the social capital of adolescent African American young women affects their integration into public space. I will share the implications of qualitative interviews conducted in the Bayview/Hunter's Point community of San Francisco, California.
