Dalton Conley

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has affected him to the point that even with greater opportunities presented to him he still falls back into the bad habits associated with the area in which he resides. Dalton shows this through his action of choosing to steal money from his family instead of just asking for it, which leads to Dalton disappointing his mother when she catches him. Toward the end of the book Dalton’s mother is trying very hard to move her and her family to another, far more safe neighborhood which the rest of the family opposes as they have grown deeply attached to their neighborhood. Eventually they are able to move into a new more affluent complex where mainly middle class white people live. But in spite of this move to a new and safer environment, to all the advantages afforded to him and his family due to their cultural capital, Dalton ends the book as much an outsider as he was to start.

Dalton Conley is able to eloquently capture the difficulty that exist when straddling the line between race and class. This unique and complex story about a young white kid growing up in the slums of New York achieves its purpose of showing hypocrisy, confusion, and realities that race and class can create, and that has existed in America for some time. Conley shows the difficulty in trying to conform to various social norms while also growing into maturity. He handles the subjects of race and class with wit and realism that highlight the differences while at the same time never making the material feel too heavy. The central point of Honky is to bring awareness to the socioeconomic as well as racial differences people in America have between them and the importance of recongnizing that and giving it its proper respect for being a contributing factor in the way people relate to one another. The situation is uncomfortable and very few people want to write about what’s going on, especially not from the perspective of a white person but it’s something that’s necessary and this book was necessary. Conley’s work, which is supported by a wealth of information about his experiences growing up as a white kid in the projects, is very clear in its message to educate people on the realities of race and class in the world. Reading about what Conley and his family experienced not only reinforced some of the realities about racism and classism that I already knew about, it also enlightened me to how it can be percieved through the eyes of a person of another race. It also enlightened me to the reality that choice in and of itself is a privilege because there are many groups that do not have that as an option. A lot of was in this book I was already aware of, but when you see it through someone elses eyes it gives you a different sense of appreciation for the struggles that we all as people experience, while at the same time it validates the hardships that minorities experiences everyday. From it’s detailed account of coming of age in a so called “post-racial” society, to its broaching of subjects like socioeconomics, racism, classism, privilege, and what it means to be a minority, Dalton Conley has created a book that is a must read not only because it is wealth of information on social and economic issues, but simply because at the end of the day it is a very good book. One that I highly recommend.

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