Avail Yourself Slims Table: Race, Respectability, And Masculinity Articulated By Mitchell Duneier Displayed As Copy

book I read in preparation to my time in Chicago, Very good! Great book even though its thirty years old I still found some interesting observations that I believe are still applicable now, Very thoughtprovoking. I don't have many uncles, men or colleagues to "shoot the sh, . " with as put in this book, It felt like I was there at Slim's table, in the discussions, the debates, enjoying the scenery of the restaurant so vivid in my mind, I loved the different view points of the patrons, This book was easy to read for the most part but some of the vocabulary was challenging for me, This is a book I own and will definitely reread in future, Read for CCJclass At the Valois "See Your Food" cafeteria on Chicago's South Side, black and white men gather over cups of coffee and steamtable 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 mediareinforced 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 workingclass black, how a caring community can proceed from the most ordinary transactions, all the while smashing mediainduced 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 I thoroughly enjoyed Chapterthe perspective Duneier took just felt so humbled and vulnerable, Also, the message in Chapterabout one's innocence and power deteriorating the truth made a lot of sense in sociology, anthropology, and one's own life, I feel like I will always have that notion on the backburner moving forward in my life, A new perspective of widely accepted stereotypes, opened my mind to new ideas pertaining to interracial relations, A good book to read on race, Seem that the author wrote mostly from live observation and interviews, A more positive light that reflected a true image of the black man rather than the same old stereotype that all want to believe, a refreshing type of book on the subject of race, its worth reading, Obviously written for an academic audienceespecially the final couple of chaptersbut worthwhile for more general readers, Dueirer is white, male and a student at the University of Chicago, a school famous for sociological investigation, And there have been a number of studies that center on the local AfricanAmerican population, neighborhoods adjacent to campus, Duneier takes earlier studies to task citing insufficient evidence and narrow observations that result in sweeping generalizations, stereotypes that are damning and that perpetrate damaging mythologies, Dueirer's work places him with a group of middle aged men, most of modest means, He finds the men moral, responsible, hard working and respectful of each other, Dueirer does not impose his findings on other generations, populations, geographies or classes,

Coming on top of Whyte's Street Corner Society, this idea of urban ethnography continues to disturb me, There is a disingeniousness to the work with such partial revelations as to purpose and a sense of dishonesty in the presumed distance of observation and later note taking.
Duerier claims dispassion but uses the term "ghetto" when others would work as well, and that word is certainly presumptive, Dueirer closes with a regret at leaving Slim's table, but no real credit to the participants, no real involvement of the men he says he studied, Andyears later, I wonder what's left of it all in that place and who sits at Slim's table today, This book is great. It's about the neighborhood that I lived in during the year I spent in Chicago, It's really strange to read a book about a place that you know, I really enjoyed this book, Even as dated as it was, I imagine a communal space somewhere, where the old heads hold forth, THe sociological concerns this book raises are multifold, among them the need for media to find the lowest of the low to stamp "black morality" on, instead of people like this the working poor and the middle class.
Lots to think about. Duneier's Slim's Table has been my introduction to ethnography, So far, I'm finding this compelling, exciting, useful,

This January I'm beginning a DMin program in contextual theology, The syllabus of my first course is full of texts searching out the connection between ethnographic research and ecclesial praxis and thought, From my current vantage pointstill eight weeks prior to my first classI'm enamored with the possibilities of bringing these conversations together,

In picking up Duneier's ST, I'm immediately aware that I'm listening in on a conversation already in progress, The conversations already well parceled out, with a lot of commonplace stories and a lot of debates about the modes, methods, and goals of ethnography, ST also introduces me more specifically into the discourse of urban ethnography, The closing section of ST marks out Duneier's position in a number of debates about black working class masculinity on the edge of the ghetto,

Right now, I'm content to listen in, I have a lot to learn, a lot to discover about how and why people in this conversation are doing and saying and not saying what they are.


But I'm excited to learn to listen better and, hopefully, get a better picture of what's going on, What I found particularly interesting and relevant in this book was the discussion of a perceived innocence in relation to black people and communities, I was reminded of the section of Coates's We Were Eight Years In Power where he talks about South Shore in Chicago and the big chunks of black America that are simply not visible in mainstream society, and the effects of that omission in the creation of black stereotypes.
Definitely a reminder to dig deeper and more critically into what we think we know and understand about other communities, Enjoyable ethnography set in Valois, a cafeteria style restaurant in Hyde Park, Mitchell Duneier is an American sociologist currently Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and regular Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, Graduate Center.
.