Essential black study by a young white sociologist/law student.
Feelings abound under the clear surface of Duneier's debut book as
he weighs his four years of research on a group of poor,
working-class blacks in the Valois "See Your Food" Cafeteria on
Chicago's South Side - with some whites included. Duneier explodes
stereotypes and shows these ghetto men as "respectable" while not
conforming to middle-class black (or white) stereotypes. Slim, a
car mechanic, is more or less the respected bachelor master of the
table where the diners meet once or twice a day for anywhere from
45 to 90 minutes a meal. We watch Slim as he substitutes an elderly
white diner, Bart, as his father figure and cares for him, although
Bart still has a southerner's belief in racial superiority and is a
tight-lipped recluse. Bart tells a southern visitor that Slim is
his friend, but when Bart is hospitalized he cannot bring himself
to thank Slim for some candy - he'd rather refuse the gift. The
diners form a moral community that transcends roles and images.
Duneier is good at building a sense of their masculinity as they
disclose personal weaknesses and fail to dominate women or even to
coexist with them. Ozzie, a regular, tells of having to give up
dating a woman who is too well known on the street, has five
children by five different men, likes reefers and coke, and seems a
sitting cluck for AIDS. The author shoots clown many otherwise
sensitive landmark black studies of the past half-century for
generalizing about working-class blacks, often from essentially
middle-class studies and unsatisfactory evidence, thus confirming
inaccurate black stereotypes. The media get bashed as well. Fresh
fieldwork on innocence and racial stereotyping in the ghetto.
Rewires your thinking. (Kirkus Reviews)
At the Valois "See Your Food" cafeteria on Chicago's South Side,
black and white men gather over cups of coffee and steam-table
food. Mitchell Duneier, a sociologist, spent four years at the
Valois writing this moving profile of the black men who congregate
at "Slim's Table." Praised as "a marvelous study of those who
should not be forgotten" by the "Wall Street Journal, ""Slim's
Table" helps demolish the narrow sociological picture of black men
and simple media-reinforced stereotypes. In between is a
"respectable" citizenry, too often ignored and little understood.
""Slim's Table" is an astonishment. Duneier manages to fling open
windows of perception into what it means to be working-class black,
how a caring community can proceed from the most ordinary
transactions, all the while smashing media-induced stereotypes of
the races and race relations."--Citation for "Chicago Sun Times"
Chicago Book of the Year Award
"An instant classic of ethnography that will provoke debate and
provide insight for years to come."--Michael Eric Dyson, "Chicago
Tribune"
"Mr. Duneier sees the subjects of his study as people and he sees
the scale of their lives as fully human, rather than as diminished
versions of grander lives lived elsewhere by people of another
color. . . . A welcome antidote to trends in both journalism and
sociology."--Roger Wilkins, "New York Times Book Review"
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