ANTA02H3 Chapter 7: Ch. 7 Notes
Document Summary
Psychological and psychiatric explanations of people in el barrio ignores political economic and cultural context: historical unequal power relations around class, ethnicity, gender and sexual categories, psychological explanations usually use white middle class participants. Mothers still have exclusive responsibility of motherhood, but have much more individual freedom: some are unwilling to compromise freedom for motherhood, leading to abuse and neglect. Structural problems of poverty, segregation and gender power relations are not addressed by politicians: need affordable day care, job training and employment referral services are hard to come by for poor women. Children have difficult life because they witness a lot of violence and drugs. Makes it easy for them to become criminals, drug addicts or pregnant. The author enjoyed how children played so freely in the streets and the public affection given to children: when he went to middle class homes, people didn"t give the author"s child this affection.
