Carol Stack

Carol Stack is a white female who spent three years of her life living in the Flats and forming relationships with the residents in order to create this study. The study was not an impersonal, abstract endeavor. Rather, she is critical of those researchers who attempt to pigeon-hole the behavior of blacks without having any firsthand experience with their conditions or any personal knowledge of how they think. She believes that any accurate sociological study of black urban poverty must be informed by the perspectives and beliefs of the black poor themselves; they are, after all, the ones closest to the problem and should be able to provide useful information.

While living in the Flats, though her purpose is to conduct research, Stack is eager to engage with the residents and, to what extent is possible, become accepted as a member of the community. Swapping—the...