Success of the Week 

Irene lived in an affluent, largely white part of town, near a not-so-affluent largely black neighborhood. The local high school was directly across from her home.

There were confrontations nearly every morning as the affluent whites walked east to the train, while crowds of black teenagers streamed west toward the high school. One commuter said "I feel like a salmon swimming upstream. I get pushed off the sidewalk, these kids have no respect at all." There were pushing matches, the police would get called, there were problems on a regular basis.

Irene, who was white, noticed these weren’t bad kids, just lots and lots of them. She remembered something Andra had said about how teenagers are so involved with each other they really don’t see adults. Adults don’t appear on their radar screen.

Irene thought about what would make her turn up on their radar, which led her to supply and demand. Something in short supply gets noticed, but what would be in short supply for these kids? She thought: Approval from an adult. No teenager ever got enough approval from an adult.

From then on, as Irene made her way upstream against the crowds of kids, she would single out one with particularly good hair— which was easy since there were several first-rate hair-braiding salons nearby. She’d say, "Nice ‘do," and the teenager would break into a huge smile and the kids would part like the Red Sea.

She appeared on their radar screen, astonishingly, as an approving adult.