ABSTRACT
I conducted my work in a predominantly white urban community. While much research on homelessness has been conducted in larger, more racially diverse urban centers such as New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, less attention has been directed at more homogeneous midsized cities.2 North River is a city where conservative stereotypes about race,
homelessness, and welfare collide with recipients who are predominantly white. Poor whites disturb the chain of associations typical in U.S. cultural conceptions of normality, power, and privilege. Such disruptions help prevent my research from being uncritically folded into racist narratives about motherhood, poverty, and welfare (Roberts 1991, 1996).
