Doc is the leader of one of the gangs in Italy called “corner boy.” The author of the “Street Corner Society,” Bill White attempts to create compassion towards this character to teach readers not to profile others so easily. He does this by engaging people’s prejudices and describing the unfair inequality and social constraints minorities face that, ultimately, pushes them to making certain life choices. In this essay, I am going to write an intersectional analysis of Doc’s barriers and opportunities that were precluded by these barriers. As social psychology tend to look for reasons to blame others for the conditions in their lives, majority of people also, tend to conduct an instant rationalization that hold ppl accountable for whatever “bad” …show more content…
This is predominantly traditional pattern where women instrumentalize themselves and also are instrumentalized, as they have become the signifier of economic equilibrium. It poses difficulty for men to marry or attain girlfriends if they are poor. Thus, in order to attain their status of masculinity, Doc spent significant amount of money on women, when he could have used it to sustain himself instead. Last, as Doc became notorious for his gang activities, it affected his reputation and future choices. His friends encouraged him to run for a political office, but Doc was reluctant to do so. Especially since running for an office requires a lot of currency and he also felt ashamed to run for an office unemployed. In conclusion, Doc was a man of intelligence, guile, loyalty, and aggressiveness, but institutionalized biases, racism and classism worked against him, which ultimately, forced him to attain social and economic status through alternative ways. Essentially, the standard people use to determine whether Doc tried his best or not is subjective. However, in my opinion, it is easy and inconsiderate for privileged people, who are not in that situation or environment, to claim that he did not try his
Conover inferred many times that when something bad happens there will always be another person pointing the finger at another o...
Why is it that we as human beings feel the need to blame someone for every negative situation, which occurs? If we really look at the situation with any great depth, we may discover that an almost endless amount of things may be 'blamed' for the tragedy blaming an individual is pointless - only fate can really be blamed.
In Mike Sager’s Death in Venice, Sager creates a vivid story about the gang in Venice as well as their addiction to cocaine. What I enjoyed about this article, was that it told a story in the perception of the gang members. It allowed me to see a glance through the lives of the gangs in the late twentieth century. Throughout the story, I felt multiple emotions, it ranged from disbelief to anger. It is astounding how Sager documented the lives of young males in Venice. As a Chicana, I was surprised by the actions in the article, I grew up in an environment where my daily life was not surrounded by gangs and drive-bys.
Most people want to feel like they fit in, but for refugees and immigrants, that feeling was even more important. “Young refugees and immigrants... were caught between the world of their parents and the new world of their friends and schoolmates” (105) and had to choose whether they would vie for the approval of their peers or their family. One young boy on the Fugees soccer team refused to cut his hair because his peers thought it was cool, and ended up being kicked off the team (111). Other young refugees in Clarkston gave in to the allure of gangs, and ended up in a cycle of violence and crime, just for a sense of belonging and safety. “Gangs… promised both belonging and status”(105) and provided a way to become American, despite all the trouble and anguish they put their members in. As adolescents between worlds, young immigrants experience a heightened sense of liminality, when a person “becomes neither here nor there” (221), and struggle with finding out who they are and where they
Victor Rios is a previous gang member, whom “was given the opportunity” to get out of the youth control complex. In his book “Punished”, he analyzes the experiences of young black and Latino boys in Oakland, California. Rios gives us an intimate description of some of the everyday forms of “hyper discrimination” these minority boys experience. This book review will focus on the main concepts explained in chapters one through three from the book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.
I enjoyed reading Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys by Victor M. Rios because it was not only informing, but I could place myself as if I were one of the characters in the story. I could not even begin to imagine what these boys with through. From being beaten’ for no reason, to getting cuffed and sitting in the back of a cop car because they were eating a slice of pizza is absolutely ridiculous and should not be tolerated. Not only did I understand how these boys were in the networks of crime, but also, the criminalization, and punishment made sense and how I observed the higher authority took action. In my essay, I will be discussing three major concepts which are: moral panics, labeling , and code of the street.
Oxford dictionary defines intersectionality as “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” While intersectionality is a fairly new concept, looking at it can give a deeper insight into understanding crime and the types of offenders. Throughout this essay intersectionality will be discussed by a range of scholars and how it can influence different aspects of crime, such as the types of crime committed, the incarceration of offenders as well as the affects that incarceration can have on offenders and their families. It is important to look at intersectionality as
The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...
Sexy, attractive, dependent, traditional…successful, smart, determined, independent; why must a woman choose, why can they not be a woman of all these characteristics? Dalbey and duCille explain how women are objectified starting at a young age of playing with dolls and attending pageants. This objectification continues into advertisements, Kilbourne, Bailey, and Powers all argue why women are portrayed as objects of sex which ultimately dehumanizes women. The reliance on a man is a constant issue women are faced with, along with the notion that men are to be the breadwinners. What if a single woman making half a million dollars as a doctor is out buying a new vehicle; does a dealer have the right to ask “shouldn’t you ask a man permission
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
Racism still exists today in this day and age. African American men are particularly stereotyped to be drug dealers, criminals, and gangsters. People have there on opinion about black men, if someone is sitting in their car, and a black man walks by they’re going to lock their door, because they’re scared there going to get robed. The stereotypes about African American men are not true. There are educated African American men just like any other race. Two articles “Black Men in Public Space” and “Right Place, Wrong Face” deal with the issue of two educated African American men that get treated differently, because of the color of their skin. The articles are focused on times when both
For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.
While reading Brent Staples textual analysis “Black Men and Public Space”, I thought the theme was simply displayed: white people are still racist. However, when I reread the analysis a few more times it became very clear and more composite than how I interpreted it the first time. Staples implies that there is a fine distinction between the two races. The author notices the habits or cultural appropriation.
In addition to physical male dominance, economic superiority was displayed every time the male, whether it is the boyfriend in the intimate couple, or the father in the family, paid the bill, rather than the female.