By Nikki Markow

Carol Stack, professor emeritus at the Department of Education for University of California-Berkeley, spoke in the Raytheon Amphitheater at Northeastern last night. Hosted by the Department of African-American Studies, the lecture was titled, “Doing Anthropology for Social Justice.”

Using an anthropological perspective, Slack discussed her research on rural and urban poverty, child and family policy, gender, work and identity and migration. Professor Stack explained the issues of welfare reform along with how the number of people living in poverty has exploded and what the causes are.

She also talked about the current economy, in which “poor people have been presented with a noble lie and that personal responsibility can only go so far.”

Along with her well-known book, “All Our Kin,” a work that takes a close look at the kinship ties among urban African-American families, Professor Stack talked about her new book that focuses on “coming of age with minimum wage,” the title of the book. The book focuses on a study done in Oakland, Calif. on young adults between the ages of 16-24, working at four fast-food restaurants for minimum wage.

She finds the majority of the workers include the poor communities of African-Americans, Latinos and Asians and uses her studies to try to understand why these communities become stuck in the fast food world.