Two-Ness and Liminality in Mayfair

Alexandra’s Story
  • Catherine Simpson Bueker
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

A pronounced theme of marginalization and stigmatization comes out in the interviews among women in all three groups in the study. By virtue of geographically or symbolically existing in two spheres, based upon their point of access, these women also experience a sense of liminality, of not fully belonging in either world. Although the young women of color who live in the town are simply attending their local high school, they are often associated by teachers and other adults in the community with one of the two racial desegregation programs. Young women who accessed the high school through one of the two racial desegregation programs are confronted with stereotypes about lives and neighborhoods of deprivation and violence. At the same time, they no longer feel they belong in their home communities. Women also discuss a distinct form of romantic marginalization, resulting from feelings of undesirability by young men in the community.

Keywords

Race Racial desegregation School Marginalization Liminality 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  • Catherine Simpson Bueker
    • 1
  1. 1.Emmanuel CollegeBostonUSA

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