I Was Just Scared

We are often told that minority adolescents are a threat to an orderly society. We focus on their poor academic performance, sexual behavior, drug habits, or gang involvement, yet we fail to examine the ways they feel threatened by society. We also fail to examine the ways in which kids may be active participants in their own lives. According to Margaret Beale Spencer, inner-city adolescents grow up in an environment that is especially precarious and confusing. She argues that in this kind of environment, “instances of resilience-success and competence displayed by vulnerable minority youth in spite of adverse living conditions