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 “the people know us.” Occasionally there are problems, including people who turn off their lights when they see Black children approaching. Ms. McAllister tempers her disgust at such behavior, noting simply that “the parents were acting stupid.”
At school, the racial balance shifts. As noted earlier, Lower Richmond, which is part of a large urban district, is racially integrated: about one-half of the students are white, as are most of the teachers. Most of the administrative staff, such as the yard duty teacher and the cafeteria ladies, are white. Some of the teachers’ aides are Black and most of the bus drivers are Black. Harold’s third-grade teacher was an African American woman; this year, his teacher is a white male.
Ms. McAllister tells the African American field-worker interviewing her at the start of the study that she does not know of any Black or white children at Harold’s school who have been treated unfairly because of their race. Although clearly aware of people who “act stupid,” Ms. McAllister, unlike Mr. and Ms. Williams, does not express concern about the impact of race on her children’s lives. Instead she stresses the importance of proper care for children in general and is especially critical of adults who “do nothin’ for their kids.”
GUIDING NATURAL GROWTH
Ms. McAllister, like Ms. Williams, strongly believes that parents should provide good care for their children. Unlike Ms. Williams, she defines that care in terms of natural growth. That is, she stresses the importance of parents providing food, shelter, clothing, and good supervision. Ms. McAllister is a block captain for her section of the housing project. Among other things, during the summer, she controls the “sprinkler cap” for a nearby fire plug that project residents may use on hot summer days. With the cap on, the fire hydrant releases a spray of water that is safe for the children to play in. She criticizes the way other parents in the housing project handle this and other child-related activities:
They have five fire plugs over there. They are rowdy over there. They had three of them on yesterday full blast . . . These people don’t do nothin’ for their kids. They’ll [the kids] leave at nine o’clock [in the morning] and come back at four and not tell their parents where they went. (Shakes head, disgusted.)
Although Ms. McAllister does not actively intervene in her children’s daily lives, she does meet what she identifies as her parental obligations. Thus, even though it requires taking the bus, she attends parent-teacher conferences. Similarly, although she is not personally comfortable around health-care professionals, she takes Harold to the doctor for a physical so that he can attend Bible camp. On very limited funds, she manages to buy sufficient food for her nephews as well for her own children. She makes dinner. She arranges for Harold’s father to take him shopping when he needs new clothes for camp. Sometimes, she simply “hangs out” with the children, watching them play basketball and joking with them.
Ms. McAllister also emphasizes that she does special things with her children: “In the summer, I’ll take them on a picnic on the blanket.” And,
We always go [to the zoo] on Valentine’s Day cuz that’s when the kids get in free. We go like four or five times a year, summertime, too. I like goin’ down there in the evening time on Wednesday where you’ve got less kids and it’s nice.
Another demonstration of Ms. McAllister’s commitment to good care for children involves a difficult decision she had to make. After prolonged difficulty with her twin sister, Jill (before the study began), whose cocaine addiction interfered with her taking proper care of Halima and Monique, Ms. McAllister called the Department of Human Services (DHS) and reported her sister’s neglect. She explains: