This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.-Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye In each of 3 years of a longitudinal study of poor and working-class urban adolescent girls, Anita,' an African American girl, speaks with clarity and passion about her hopes for the future and her connections in the present. In 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, Anita asserts that she wants to be a lawyer and that "kids, kids, kids," as she says in 8th grade, are the only thing that might get in her way. In 9th grade, she determines that "I ain't going to let nothing get in the way. The only thing that could probably 'Anita, a pseudonym, is 1 of 26 girls who were designated as "at-risk" for pregnancy and dropout by their urban school in the northeastern United States. She participated in a 3-year study, "Understanding adolescents: A study of urban teens considered to be at risk," directed by Jill

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