In No Way Out, Waverly Duck examines an urban neighborhood referred to as Bristol Hill, where the drug trade is prevalent among the residents. Duck challenges the popular misconception that these communities characterized by the drug trade, crime, and violence are tumultuous areas with no social order. Duck argues that the residents of this community have created an interaction order that is a complex social organization that allows for survival in such dangerous conditions. For seven years, Duck lived on Lyford Street in Bristol Hill, and his theory is built on his personal experiences and information gathered from residents in this community. Through residents’ personal narratives of their experiences and detailed observations, Duck validates his theory and shows how social order exists in these communities. Waverly Duck explores the business of drug dealing in this community and the …show more content…
The stories of residents in this neighborhood were remarkably vivid, making the reader feel as if he or she was actually present in this community. These compelling personal narratives allow the reader to understand how residents of this neighborhood navigate life and survive under such difficult circumstances. Duck digs beneath the surface of this community into the underlying factors that contribute to the social structure and shows how residents live in safety in the presence of the drug trade. The language used in No Way Out is very understandable and concise. Duck successfully conveys the harsh conditions of poverty that most residents experience and their limited resources to escape it. No Way Out provides new insights into the economic and social lives of these residents and the struggles that these residents face on a daily basis. Duck brilliantly shows how a local interaction order exists against the chaos of the drug
Getting Ghost – Culture and Ethnographic Essay The book Getting Ghost, by Luke Bergmann, recounts the stories of two adolescent African-American males, Dude Freeman, and Rodney Phelps, attending a juvenile detention facility in the city of Detroit, USA. Detroit, one of the poorest cities in the United States has one third of its residents living in poverty. Its crime rates are high, and illegal drugs are available in many poor areas. In the western and eastern suburbs the ethnic majority is African-American, these suburbs are low income, and as a result drug dealing on the streets is carried out by the adolescent African-American males (Getting Ghost Background Sheet 2015:1).
Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.
In America, a teenager can be easily drawn into witnessing a family member being stabbed to death, trafficked into drug/gang cults, or receive severe damages to his/her physical body. Commonly, these kinds of circumstances call the responsible leaders in our community to action, but in the forgotten part of America, they continue uninterrupted. During the late 1980’s, the United States ranked as a developed nation with a competitive capitalist economy and better living standards for the higher social class. Their promises to defend critical human rights remained unrivaled around the globe; yet the United States still possessed areas with lower class people compressed into high rise projects and who struggled to overcome poverty, violence, and prejudice. The lower class people were often given very little to no resources or the
Chapter three ask why do drug dealers still live with their moms. The biggest takeaway from this chapter is the similarity between the drug dealing empire and corporate America, but we all kinda knew this. Chapter four Levitt expands on the crime and abortion correlation. This chapter also introduces the concept of black markets.
The film specifically highlighted the health system issues and how the lack of mental health assistance from the government has hindered progression and recovery of many people living on Skid Row. Thousands of individuals suffer from mental illnesses on Skid Row and many are living on the streets because of their mental illnesses and their inability to cope/ interact with the rest of the world. The government has done little to nothing to rectify the issue of the homeless and mentally
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.
Informal controls once again act in a manner that supports the idea that when neighborhood adults interact in terms of obligations and expectations, they are able supervise and control the activities of children. When this is not present in neighborhoods, such as the one shown in the documentary The House I Live In, the result is the participation of youths in the drug trade and other aspects of criminal life. The destruction of the neighborhood has already been underway as a result of spatial mismatch, but worsens when the war on drug is factored in. These neighborhoods often suffer from the result of the policy known as broken windows policing that doesn’t make situations any better. The policy is predicated on the notion that where there are a few broken windows, there will be more if the windows are not repaired.
Scott Monks introduces the reader to his book about boys and gangs, growing up in an area where it is a norm to be in a gang and leadership in a gang. Introducton: The story of the book, Boyz “r “us deals with Mitchel, (Mitch) and gangs in the 1990’s in Marrickville, an inner suburb of Sydney. The toughness of boys growing up in extreme circumstances, poverty, one parent families, dysfunctional families. Juvenile delinquencies of boys and siblings, assaults and wilful damage.
The code of the street can be used to explain differences in crime rates between adjacent neighborhoods. Stewart & Simons (2010), conversed the difficulties of inner-city life for citizens in structurally deprived vicinities. He painted the physical and ethnic influences leading to violence. Anderson (1999) argued that the extraordinary rates of poverty, unemployment, violence, cultural discernment, isolation, distrust of police, and hopelessness that portray many underprivileged settings have led to a neighborhood street
During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role
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
Geoffrey Canada does an excellent job of bringing his readers to the streets of the South Bronx and making them understand the culture and code of growing up in a poor, New York City neighborhood in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In his book, Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, Canada details, through his own childhood experiences, the progression of violence in poverty plagued neighborhoods across America over the last 50 years. From learning to be “brave” by being forced to fight his best friend on a sidewalk at six-years-old, to staring down an enraged, knife wielding, “outsider” with nothing to defend himself but nerve, Canada explains the nightmare of fear that tens of thousands of children live through every day growing up in poor neighborhoods. The book
The continuous use of narcotics results in addiction, and financial struggles due to the costly upkeep. “Financial problems are one of the major side effects of drug and substance abuse” (Buaggett, 2015). Addicts cannot adequately take an active role in the economic activities, as the use of drugs inhibits the abilities of the users to earn a daily living. Due to the instability of finances, this would result in selling personal belongings to continue funding the substance of choice, and depending on the addicts living situation, this could lead to losing their house or being removed from their current housing. While being under the influence, an addicts voice of reason is jeopardized, resulting in criminal activities which raise the chances of being apprehended by the law enforcers, as well as, heavy fines are imposed.
The great philosopher Plato once said , “Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, and the other of the rich; these are at the war with one another.” This quote perfectly summarizes the theme of S.E Hinton's novel, The Outsiders. The novel is about two gangs/groups that live in Rural, Oklahoma, the Greasers and the Socials. The Socs are the more affluent and often times referred to as the ‘West-side rich kids’, and the Greasers, are the less fortunate gang. Throughout the novel both gangs experience various types of conflict and at one point their differences ended up costing the life of a couple gang members.
Since it’s a cleaner area than the streets, and equipped with bathrooms, it makes sense for them to gather there--especially during rainy weather. The economic and social divides are becoming clear in the cafe area. While women are holding their designer bags, the homeless hold cheap coffee cups and sit in their own groups. The divides between classes are not only emphasized by the building facades, but are visible in social situations. Thus, is demonstrates a lack of community, and social bias towards disadvantaged people while showing isolation in what is supposed to be a communal space.