hat. There was no way I could ever imagine having to completely wear a whole in my shoes before I got a new pair. I do remember however trying to make my shoes and clothes look older and tighter than they actually were in order to get something new. I was never given a budget of three dollars and fifty cents. I thought it was rough on me that I was not able to go to cheerleading camp with all the other girls one summer because my sister needed surgery instead and there just wasn't enough money in savings to do both at the same time. I thought that was so devastating and so humiliating. I made up a story that my family and I were taking a big frivolous family vacation and I couldn't go. I now feel like I have no reason to gripe and complain. My parents would never have to teach me self defense as a child to stay safe. I've never even thought of fighting or having to think of ways to get out of fighting. In today's society the only reason I would stereotypically be forced to defend myself is from a stereotypical male trying to assault me. Obviously, there are so many stereotypes and generalizations in both my culture and that of the under-privileged African-American boys whom I read about in Reaching Up for Manhood. All of these stereotypes can be proven wrong in some case and right in others. The same stereotypes that are proven wrong can also be proven right with another story or case. That is the whole problem with stereotypes. They do not leave for exceptions. Everyone chooses to train and socialize their children in different ways. The under-privileged African American boys in the novel were taught self-defense for the playground, safe sex tips at age twelve, what drugs were and why to stay away from them at age seven, and good and bad streets to walk home from school. They were trained to drop to the ground when they hear a loud noise and to never watch out for whose neighborhood they are stepping into. I, on the ...
