Perspective

Stack is writing as an academic sociologist interested in understanding and explaining black poverty. She references studies she completed before writing this project, but the majority of her work is founded upon the three years she spent in the Flats. Conscious of how her attempts to study the community might bias or even invalidate her findings, Stack decided to simply live among them as one of them. As a white woman, she knew this was imperfect; she represented the dominant race in a community which dealt with racism almost as often as it dealt with white people. Fortunately, she found that after she overcame initial suspicion and hostility, the Flats community was willing to accept her and, therefore, she does not believe that her results were greatly distorted on account of her race.

Though writing as a sociologist, Stack makes no attempt to conceal the fact that she...