Raised Up Down Yonder

Raised Up Down Yonder attempts to shift focus away from why blackyouth are problematic to explore what their daily lives really entail.Howell travels to the small community of Hamilton Alabama to investigatewhat it is like for a young black person to grow up in the contemporaryrural South.What she finds is that the young people of Hamilton are neither idlypassing their time in a stereotypically languid setting nor are they beingcorrupted by hip-hop culture and the perils of the urban North as manypundits suggest. Rather they are dynamic and diverse young people makingtheir way through the structures that define the twenty-first-centurySouth. Told through the poignant stories of several high school studentsRaised Up Down Yonder reveals a group that is often rendered invisiblein society. Blended families football sagas crunk music expanding socialnetworks and a nearby segregated prom are just a few of the fascinatingjuxtapositions.Angela McMillan Howell is an assistant professor of sociology and anthropologyat Morgan State University. Her work has been published inthe Journal of African American Studies and Anthropology Now.