Looking Up From Below: Framing Personal Reality
Chapter six focuses on the aspect of self-identification. Finding and stating who you are as a person and what you want your mission in life and goals to be; and how to mobilize oneself in society in order to achieve these goals. Different aspects of the stereotypical ideal future or "good life" are mentioned. This ideal future mentioned touches on the three spheres of life: work, home, and individual well-being. In this stage of self-identification, a specific profession is not addressed; instead the goal is to attain whatever fits the individual's definition of a well-paying job.
There is a strong emphasis on personal mobility and opportunity and that they are the key basis for aspirations or the 'ideal" future. The author, Young, Jr. touches on the essential points of using any resources that are possible in order to mobilize yourself on a small scale, and to in time give yourself and opportunity on a larger scale. An example given is of Arthur working at a liquor store to get an idea of how to set up his own business. Young, Jr. analyzes the men's lack of social capital in the world of work, by saying that the men have an insufficient in the human capital of strategic skills and talents.
The world of work is shown as a world of, education, brainpower and skill, and certification credentials; which are resources for success in the working world. The attributes of just strength and physical stamina have very little importance in the white-collar environment. In conclusion of this chapter, the men's perceptions of their own skills shows that most of the men would remain eligible for minimal skill positions.
Read more about this topic: The Minds Of Marginalized Black Men, Chapter 6
Famous quotes containing the words framing, personal and/or reality:
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men ... you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)
“A man’s personal defects will commonly have with the rest of the world precisely that importance which they have to himself. If he makes light of them, so will other men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The instincts of merry England lingered on here with exceptional vitality, and the symbolic customs which tradition has attached to each season of the year were yet a reality on Egdon. Indeed, the impulses of all such outlandish hamlets are pagan still: in these spots homage to nature, self-adoration, frantic gaieties, fragments of Teutonic rites to divinities whose names are forgotten, seem in some way or other to have survived mediaeval doctrine.”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)