The Capacity to Aspire: Perceptions of Unattainable Success and Processes of Identity Formation among Marginalized Black Youth in the Greater Toronto Area
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Issue Date
2025
Editor
Authors
Defoe, Shanii
License
Subject
School of humanitarian studies
Abstract
This thesis examines how the inequities and inequality that low-income, marginalized Black youth experience affect their success. There may be a correlation between trauma and the limitations experienced, presenting as low self-esteem and unwillingness to succeed. My research is based on first- and second-generation Black youth living in the Greater Toronto Area. Through semi-structured critical ethnography interviews and a review of literature based on crime, education of racialized and marginalized people from low-income neighbourhoods and theoretical perspectives that explain the nuance of Black experiences, this study demonstrates that Black youth, regardless of their varying social identities, all experience some socioeconomic factor or adverse childhood experience that drastically influences their futures.
Description
2025