ABSTRACT
Teen-age Negroes often cope with the ghetto's frustrations by retreating into fantasies related chiefly to their role in society. The white man in America has, historically, arranged to have both white and Negro women available to him; he has claimed sexual priority with both and, in the process, he has sought to emasculate Negro men. Certain Negro women of status who have married white men report that their choice was related to their discovery that the Negro men they knew were inferior in status, interests, and sophistication and hence unsuitable as partners. Psychologically, the Negro male could not support his normal desire for dominance. The Negro woman has, in turn, been required to hold the family together; to set the goals, to stimulate, to encourage, and to protect both boys and girls. Her compensatory strength tended to perpetuate the weaker role of the Negro male.
