Ties That Bind: Youth and Drugs in a Black Community

This provocative study of drug use among Black youths living in a U.S. community focuses on the dynamic relationship between drugs, society, and culture. Dei's vivid presentation of the portraits of five youths the emic point of view reveals individual thought processes that shape behavior and attitudes. Ties That Bind is not about despised antisocial individuals whose morals are debased. Instead, it is about people who are attempting to achieve success as members of their family, their community, and the larger society as well. In particular, Dei links drug use and sales by Black youths to the larger political economy. This engaging, thought-provoking study replaces misconceptions with authenticity to provide a comprehensive understanding of the drug phenomenon in a minority neighborhood.

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Barker, Danger, Duty, and Dissolution: The Worldview of Los Angeles Police Officers (ISBN 9781577660415); Glasser, Anthropology of Addictions and Recovery (ISBN 9781577665588); Gmelch et al., Urban Life: Readings in the Anthropology of the City, Fifth Edition (ISBN 9781577666349); Howell, Hard Living on Clay Street: Portraits of Blue Collar Families (ISBN 9780881335262); Singer, Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drugs and Social Inequality (ISBN 9781577664949); Singer, The Face of Social Suffering: The Life History of a Street Drug Addict (ISBN 1577664321); Singer, Something Dangerous: Emergent and Changing Illicit Drug Use and Community Health (ISBN 9781577663768); and Spradley, You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads (ISBN 9781577660859).