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[ xvii ] Acknowledgments It takes a village to write a book. I am grateful to everyone that took part in the collective sowing to see this project flourish. The following colleagues and mentors read or discussed parts of my manuscript and provided me with crucial feedback: Elijah Anderson, Randol Contreras , Waverly Duck, Mitch Duneier, Robert Duran, Sarah Fenstermaker, Alice Goffman, Melissa Guzman, John Hagedorn, Paul Hirschfield, Gaye Johnson, Nikki Jones, Aaron Kupchik, Patrick Lopez-Aguado, Cid Martinez , Jody Miller, David Minkus, Pamela Oliver, Howard Pinderhughes, Carolyn Pinedo, Cesar Rodriguez, Ronald Takaki, Heather Tirado-Delgado , Diego Vigil, Howard Winant, and Clyde Woods. I also benefited tremendously from the mentoring and funding provided by UC Berkeley ’s Institute for the Study of Social Change, Center for the Study of Race and Gender, and Department of Ethnic Studies, the University of San Francisco’s Irvine Dissertation Fellowship Program, the University of San Francisco’s Sociology Department, the Ford Foundation’s Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship programs, and the Racial Democracy Crime and Justice Network at Ohio State University. The colleagues at the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara , have been extremely supportive. My department chair, Verta Taylor, epitomizes the meaning of an outstanding mentor. She has been instrumental in my early professional career. Anonymous reviewers gave me the insight needed to complete this manuscript. Ilene Kalish, my editor at NYU Press, and John Hagan, the series editor, were always enthusiastic about this project, even when I felt otherwise. The young men in this study who shared their lives with me have granted all of us the gift of gaining deeper insight into the lives of young people who encounter injustice. My mother, Raquel; my brother J.T.; my brother Mike; and my sister, Acknowledgments [ xviii ] Rosa, struggled and persisted with me growing up. My in-laws, Nadine, Enrique, Anita, Darrell, and Sarita, have taken me in as their own son and brother. I have made it this far thanks to the support and encouragement of my decade-long companion-partner-best-friend-wife, Rebeca Mireles. My twin daughters, Marina and Maya, and son, Marco, have taught me how to be a good father while striving to become a grounded professor and intellectual. To the entire village I am deeply grateful. Inevitably I have forgotten some names of people who helped me out along the way. I apologize and hope that you can remind me so that I can make it up to you. ...

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