CULTIVATING A MORALITY OF CARE IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS - A CULTURE-BASED MODEL OF VIOLENCE PREVENTION

In this article, Janie Ward looks at the historical traditions of cari ng, interdependence, and valuing justice within the African American c ommunity. She posits that what has been lost to African American youth enmeshed in the violence of U.S. society is an awareness that aggress ion against others is aggression against the self. She argues further that such aggression is a violation of the care and connectedness impl icit in the notion of Black racial identity and community. Ward conclu des that a solution to youth violence may lie in reconnecting African American teens to the communal values and traditions that have allowed Blacks to develop racial identity and racial solidarity in spite of t heir economic and social oppression in the United States.