at and the boy was demoted and stopped using drugs. Unfortunately, with the pressures of being a wife and mother weighing on her restless soul, the girl was unable to stop and her use turned into a crippling addiction. After thirteen years of marriage the boy and girl, know man and woman, divorced. Their lives changed irreconcilably forever addiction. Various aspects of this story play out everyday in families across the country. This story could be anyone's tale but it is specifically the story of my parents. I have seen and experienced first hand the detriment that issues of teen pregnancy, drug use, sexual abuse and disability can have not, only on society as a whole but on individual families. It has been this exposure that has fueled my intellectual growth and strengthened my desire to add to the much-needed discourse of the African American family in Black sociology. Sociology has allowed me to view my life experiences through a critical scholarly lens. This discipline has allowed me to see the internal connection between my experiences and the larger social world. My life has been a testament to the need to have African Americans who are trained in this discipline and are able to put forth a framework by which to view our social issues without victim blaming ideologies. It is for this reason that my interests have been propelled toward African American sociology. My experiences as an African American woman has shaped and molded my philosophies and beliefs about my particular role as a black sociologist. It has been my experience that each interaction, connection, and moment in one's life is a brick. The collection of those bricks eventually builds the houses in which our souls will dwell. As human beings, either we can place those bricks in a position that yields strength and endurance for this house or we can place them haphazardly in a formation that does not support or maintain the house. It is how we decide to build our hous...
