Elijah Anderson spent much of his career doing ethnographic studies in the poor, inner-city communities of Philadelphia. From his field research, he came to believe that people, especially young black men who lived in the most economically depressed, drug-infested, and crime-ridden sections of the city, had to contend with weakened rules of civil law. In the place of the usual civil laws governing people’s behavior evolved a “code of the street” (Anderson, 1999, p. 9). Anderson argues that at the core of this code is a set of informal rules organized around a search for respect that governs public social
This African-American culture within Detroit shapes and gives meaning to the lives of Dude Freeman and Rodney Phelps. The overarching cultural element of African-American culture within Detroit affecting the two main interlocutors is the street drug trade. The culture of the street drug trade can be thought of as having three overarching effects on the adolescents which shape and give meaning to their lives, economic effects, kinship effects, and political effects.
This allowed them to have their own version of the American Dream. On the streets of New York, these Dominican males were acknowledged as Joloperos in Spanish, or the recognized Stickup Kids. In the book, Randol composes about his ventures with his friends “The Stick up Kids” and leads to analyze their conduct during their production moments. He notes how the production of crack increased after the decline of the Cocaine market.
Guillermoprieto spent a year around the favelas, with that she was able to observe and hear stories that contradict what many imagine how drug lords (the malandros) interact within the community. Organized crime began in the favelas in 1889, with a lottery called the animal game. The game started with Baron Joao Batista, he used animals as symbols, similar to the game of bingo, he used the funds he received from the lottery to raise money for his zoo. After his death and the collapse of the zoo, the game lived on, “under the control of an emerging elite among the malandros” (Guillermoprieto, pg. 76). Once the government declared the animal game illegal, it was natural for these elite malandros to use this “underground” structured society as a means of prostitution rings, drug smuggling, gun dealing, and selling stolen goods.
The main idea of this passage is that there is a way to have lunches that don't produce waste, such as plastic bags or wrappers. The author says to do this all you have to do put your lunch in reusable containers and put it in a lunch bag instead of a brown paper bag. The author also explains what her invention, the Trashless Lunch is. A piece of textual evidence from this passage is that is a supporting detail is, “As with every triumph, however, there’s a stumbling block,”the gute means that with every victory or achievement, there is a part that kind of blocks the full victory.
Introduction Written and published in 2008 by Paul Gootenberg, History professor and Latin American studies at University of New York at Stony Brook, “Andean Cocaine: The Making of a Global drug” retraces the pivotal stages of the illicit cocaine trafficking, starting from the boundless coca fields in Latin America to the chemistry laboratories in Europe up until the streets of U.S. cities. The aim of this book review is to provide the reader with a short but detailed insight of what is the main content of the book, by paying particular attention to its structure, objectivity and style. Scope & Organisation Adopting a meticulous chronological approach, Gootenberg describes the infamous and complex untold history of cocaine, analysing and
1. “African-American crime groups used the drug trade as much as their Irish, Jewish, and Italians predecessors used bootlegging” (Abadinsky, 2013, p.170). It wasn’t until the time of the Vietnam War that black crime groups were exposed and succeeded in the heroin business. Prior to the war Abadinsky (2013) explains that “black crime groups were dependent on American Mafia Families for their heroin” (p.170). In time, black crime groups were able to conduct business with suppliers in Thailand, without the American Mafia.
Bridge 1 Gangsters Without Borders by T.W. Ward is an ethnography about the El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha. Ward chose to focus the majority of his research on the male members in order to earn their trust. With that in mind, I am presuming that the views of women portrayed in this ethnography are fundamentally the thoughts of its male members. Nonetheless, early on in my reading on this ethnography, I identified the role gender plays not only for the ethnographer but also for the gang members. The gender roles for these gang members mimic those of most societies, although some of the roles appear contradictory.
In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have
The House I Live In, is a documentary that visually represents how the War on Drugs affected drug dealers, parents of those who took drugs, enforcers of the drug laws, prisoners convicted of drug violence or drug dealing, poor neighborhoods, and historical recordings about the war. All of these were captured through clips of interviews by those imprisoned due to drugs, experts from academic institutes, and police personnel. Moreover, it is a discursive narrative, since the film exhibits conversation of past and current results of the War on Drugs. Additionally, it has been a ‘hot button’ topic actively discussed by victims and authoritative enforcers of the war, outlining how ineffective it has
In Chapter 12 of Readings for Sociology, Garth Massey included and piece titled “The Code of the Streets,” written by Elijah Anderson. Anderson describes both a subculture and a counterculture found in inner-city neighborhoods in America. Anderson discusses “decent families,” and “street families,” he differentiates the two in in doing so he describes the so called “Code of the Streets.” This code is an exemplifies, norms, deviance, socialization, and the ideas of subcultures and countercultures.
Like the majority of people in the United States, even illegal drug dealers in East Harlem are captivated by the American Dream. In Phillipe Bourgois' ethnography In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, the Puerto Rican crack dealers of El Barrio want an opportunity where they can obtain jobs to support their families and ultimately become financially successful. However, in the job search, some cultures must face more obstacles than others. Social marginalization, cultural capital “clash”, and institutionalized racism take a significant toll on a minority’s ability to prosper in employment. Despite the ambitions of Puerto Rican drug dealers to succeed in the legal workplace, the structural inequalities they face make it impossible
Tally’s Corner is the sociological interpretation of the culture of Negro streetcorner men. Elliot Liebow sets out to expose the hypocrisies that lead black men in this circumstance. The study is carried out in Washington D.C. The key argument posed by Liebow is that black males are incapable of attaining jobs because they lack education. He also argues that this is a cycle that inevitably results in a trans-generational marginalization of the black race.
INTRODUCTION This essay will address how gender roles are discussed in Philippe Bourgois ethnographic book, ‘In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio’. This will be pursued by exploring one of the key characters in this text. This essay will primarily centre on the role of women based of the stories of Candy. The other main characters in this text are of male gender.
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great cultural growth in the black community. It is accepted that it started in 1918 and lasted throughout the 1930s. Though named the ‘Harlem’ Renaissance, it was a country-wide phenomenon of pride and development among black Americans, the likes of which had never existed in such grand scale. Among the varying political actions and movements for equality, a surge of new art appeared: musical, visual, and even theatre. With said surge, many of the most well-known black authors, poets, musicians and actors rose to prevalence including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Louis Armstrong, and Eulalie Spence.
