ABSTRACT
Unfortunately, too much of this rapidly expanding literature on the underclass provides less an understanding of the complexity of people’s lives and cultures than a bad blaxploitation film or an Ernie Barnes painting. Many social scientists are not only quick
to generalize about the black urban poor on the basis of a few “representative” examples, but more often than not, they do not let the natives speak. A major part of the problem is the way in which many mainstream social scientists studying the underclass define culture. Relying on a narrowly conceived definition of culture, most of the underclass literature uses behavior and culture interchangeably.
