Behind the White Picket Fence: Power and Privilege in a Multiethnic Neighborhood

A Gentle Invitation into the Challenging Topic of Privilege The notion that some might have it better than others, for no good reason, offends our sensibilities. Yet, until we talk about privilege, we’ll never fully understand it or find our way forward. Amy Julia Becker welcomes us into her life, from the charm of her privileged southern childhood to her adult experience in the northeast, and the denials she has faced as the mother of a child with special needs. She shows how a life behind a white picket fence can restrict even as it protects, and how it can prevent us from loving our neighbors well. White Picket Fences invites us to respond to privilege with generosity, humility, and hope. It opens us to questions we are afraid to ask, so that we can walk further from fear and closer to love, in all its fragile and mysterious possibilities.

Growing up, Krista Kathleen followed all the rules... She went to church every Sunday, got straight A's in school, found a high paying job, and married her college sweetheart at the age of 26. From the outside looking in? Life looked picture perfect. But inside? She couldn't shake this nagging feeling that something was missing...that she was meant for so much more. Then, at the age of 30, Krista tragically got fired AND divorced within the span of a week. Though on one level, these events were totally catastrophic, they were also the energetic wakeup call Krista needed from the Universe to leave her former life behind so she could start over again. This book holds the answers she found as she put the pieces of her life back together in a bold and daring way that TRULY fit Part memoir, part "how-to" guide, Beyond the White Picket Fence is a battle cry for the woman who wants to blaze her own trail in a world desperate to keep her on the well-trodden path. You're going to walk away looking at your relationships, health, purpose, and connection to humanity in new ways and start asking yourself some really powerful questions maybe for the first time ever. At the end of the day, there are two kinds of women in this world: Those who follow the rules, and those who write their own. Beyond the White Picket Fence is for the latter.

White Picket Monsters tells the story of a young girl growing up in a house of horrors - a house brimming with shocking family secrets of manipulation, sexual exploitation, and extreme violence. Her parents, while being praised for their humanitarianism, lived a life that was far from ordinary in the house behind the white picket fence. Bev's story is one of survival, resilience, and strength. It is a story of rising above extreme pain to overcome obstacles and achieve great success.

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 5.0, Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce, language: English, abstract: In this society driven by the need to reproduce as much as one could – just to fight back the Communists, children were the obvious center of the suburban life, as well as the reason why so many families decided to leave big cities and transfer to these areas where the feeling of safety and community were dominant. And so – although contained in their suburban realms and living both the dream life of wife in modern house and a scared woman in the nuclear threat era, 1950’s housewives had another aspect to be aware of – the moral standards they had to keep up. [However] Beneath the illusion of happiness, women wanted more – more power, more control over their lives and above everything – more autonomy. But it was all forbidden and what is even worse – it was stuffed between the warped morality of 1950s and social standard empowered by the government, where male dominance resurfaced as if it were reborn in the pure form of Victorian society.

When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her sixteen year-old niece Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands– in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm–and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a “normal” life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble. Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn’t seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn’t expect her arrival will affect him much–or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else. Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project, and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won’t make them go away. Will Tally’s presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all–or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?

Has Your Life Just Been Turned Upside Down? You shouldn’t have to go through a devastating crisis alone. You need a friend to come alongside you to help you heal and find hope again. Sheri Rose Shepherd, author of the bestselling His Princess series (more than a million copies sold), knows exactly what it’s like to have your life torn apart and your dreams shattered. Beyond the White Picket Fence is a lesson-filled love letter to anyone trapped in a pit of pain. Whether you are going through divorce, betrayal, abandonment, or disease, there is a way to come through it to find an even better, stronger you. God will not waste pain, and His promises will prove true when you’re on the other side of this season. This book will help you gain an eternal perspective and provide you with everyday survival skills to work with until you are thriving again.