Unequal Childhoods - Annette Lareau [88]
Harold’s daily activities keep him busy, but unlike Alexander Williams and Garrett Tallinger, he almost never seems exhausted by his regime. The lack of adult-organized activities leaves him free to create his own amusements and to set his own pace in pursuing them. He hones his skills at sports, and he is resourceful in finding equipment and playmates. He is adept at dealing with children much younger and much older than he is. But Harold does not acquire the adult-legitimated skills that provide an emerging sense of entitlement, nor does he develop a familiarity with the work-related routines that middle-class children acquire by participating in a roster of organized activities.
When Harold plays outside, his demeanor is very different from the way he behaves inside the apartment. Inside, he is quiet, almost sedate. He rarely talks loudly, doesn’t hop around, makes only a few, brief comments, and is not argumentative. Outside, especially when he is engaged in sports, the respectful, often subdued attitude he shows around adults gives way to a much more animated and assertive self. (This shift is clear during a basketball game described later in this chapter.) Sometimes, if he is agitated or angry, Harold will stutter. His mother explains:
He’s been in speech class now for like three years, but he just don’t take his time. If he would take his time and talk—but if he’s laughing or crying, you’ve got to wait until he calms down in order to hear him.
Harold is more likely to be laughing than crying. The McAllisters are a strikingly playful group; there is frequent laughter and joking. Even when we were getting the study under way, humor was evident. The field-worker asked Harold what time he got up on Saturday mornings. When Harold said 7:00 A.M., the field-worker replied that she would come a bit earlier, then, perhaps around 6:30. Runako’s immediate observation, “Dang, they worse than the Jehovah Witnesses!” prompted appreciative laughter among all present. Harold’s mother is especially droll. She often delivers her funniest remarks deadpan (i.e., without affect). For example, at the reunion picnic, there are about two hundred people present when I show up. Ms. McAllister alerts one of the fieldworkers who is already there:
JANE (speaking to the field-worker): Annette is here.
FIELD-WORKER (looking around): Where?
JANE: She the only white person here and you can’t find her? (laughter)
The Role of Race
Just how rarely white people are seen in the project is clear when I spend the night and accompany Ms. McAllister at around 10 P.M. as she walks over to an apartment to return Dara’s TransPass. En route, Ms. McAllister stops to chat with a couple of friends who are sitting in an old white truck, drinking. Ms. McAllister introduces me, “This is my friend Annette. She’s writing a book about my son.” Later, she explains the reason for that introduction:
JANE: When they see a white person walking around with somebody Black, they think you on drugs. (Shared laughter.)
JANE: I’m serious. They like, “Yo” [want to buy?]
FIELD-WORKER: When I walk around during the day, they think I’m from DHS [Department of Human Services].
JANE: I’m tellin’ you.6
Harold’s world is only slightly less Black outside the project. The degree of racial segregation in the surrounding urban area is considered “hyper,” as it is in many cities in the United States.7 In the business district a few minutes from Harold’s apartment, the shopkeepers are a mixed group. At Maria’s Convenience Store, where Harold goes on errands for adults (and, sometimes, to buy treats for himself), the staff includes whites, Asians, and some African Americans. A white working-class residential neighborhood is within walking distance of the housing project, but Harold does not go there to play. On Halloween Ms. McAllister reports that she and a friend take their children across the racial divide “for the candy.” They go to the same houses every year and