ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the premise that although Afro-American poverty has been the subject of much scholarly attention, a great deal remains unknown and several substantive areas, including the varied and complex ways in which poor people cope with economic adversity, have received far too little attention. Even in concentrating on a single setting or process too many investigators have tried to explain the causes and consequences of Black West Indian poverty from an inadequate empirical base. "Network theory" has been used to explain Black adaptation outside the Caribbean. In a famous study of Black streetcorner men in Washington, D.C., Liebow has detailed the emotional, sentimental, and economic implications of shifting networks of friends among poor and often unemployed ghetto males. A variety of particular adaptive strategies and coping mechanisms were identified in the three arenas of economics, kinship, and friendship. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
