Not always our fault Inner city. What a lot of people will say when they see these two words is think stereotypes. People wonder, why is the inner city a violent and dangerous place and why don’t the people who live there try and make it a better place instead of being lazy? People assume that you live in poverty they assume that you are not hardworking and you just don’t care about how you live. What happens if there are more factors that go into poverty than you think? What happens if that isn’t always the case? Poverty has been a problem in the inner city in America for decades but the real question is, what causes poverty in the inner city? What causes the school system to be unequal, or what is the cause for people being on drugs, and children going into gangs at a young age? People who don’t live in the Inner city think they have all of the answers when in reality they don’t have a clue what they are …show more content…
The number one thing people hear about in the inner city. Why is it so violent in the inner city people ask? In the inner city there the neighborhoods are separated and because there is so much poverty the only way people can focus their energy is to violence. People in the inner city think that if the commit these violent crimes they think that they will get peoples attention and show them how they are living in the terrible conditions that they live in. (Thompson) Another reason why there is much violence in the inner city is because of drugs. If there wasn’t a war on drugs gun violence in the inner city wouldn’t exist. (Thompson) Drugs and violence go hand in hand in in in the inner city. Just last year the death toll increased across America by 78 percent. (Thompson) Violence leads to incarceration and that means males in jail. Males are the ones who are suppose to provide for families and with women working 2 jobs just to put on the table for kids isn’t going to be a good lifestyle. It will lead to poverty every time and it’s a repeating
More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time)
As described in the film “Tough Guise 2”, the U.S. is both obsessed with and is a victim of its own culture. On one hand, movies and video games that glamorize violence and books that argue that violence. Additionally, many other films and books highlight that violence is a core aspect of male masculinity and argues that men are losing it through the empowerment of women and the loss of employment. At the same time, the United States has suffered through countless gun-related deaths and the mainstreaming of media such as Bum Fights, where actual homeless people are assaulted on camera. But due to the politicization of the issue of violence and the news media to properly explain the issue to the U.S., many people are taught that violence stems from the youth, which is only part of the broader picture. Instead of identifying and preventing the largest source of violence in the country, young white males, the focus is instead shifted toward the potential of violence of young men of color in poor urban
The vicious cycle created by the code of streets that Elijah Anderson discusses is never ending. Anderson brings up many different factors in the cycle that keep it going, only inhancing crime. Every example the author brought up were actions used to gain respect in the streets. Kids are raised around the violence and are then encouraged by their parents to keep the cycle going. The kids are taught to defend themselves and always win the fight. They have to win fights, be violent and act tough to gain respect. Their accomplishments in violence hold their respect status in the streets. Learning to fight like this and continue the violence cycle then gives people on the streets low tolerance. They are easy to lash out. All of these examples
This quote shows what a study found in Seattle, that the population in Seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drugs being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most are whites, but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are African Americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are blacks, this mainly due to the way the law enforcements act towards the poor colored communities. The issue arose from people that are non white abusing certain drugs, the drugs got outlawed every time a certain race abused it.
Anderson’s theory examined African Americans living in America’s inner cities that are driven to follow the “street code” and work to maintain respect, loyalty, and their own self-image. The “street code” Anderson is referring to is “a cultural adaptation” which is the cause of violent crime in America’s inner cities (Anderson Article PDF, 3). Since these people are living in mainly impoverished neighborhoods with easy access to drugs and guns, as well as high rates of crime and violence, “everyone feels isolated and alienated from the rest of America” (Vold, 187). Anderson continues to distinguish between “decent” people and “street people.” Those who are “decent” families live in accordance with a “civil code” that upholds values in comparison with the rest of society such as maintaining a job, obtaining an education, protecting their children and following the law. Additionally, “street” families tend to fend for themselves, and when young, grow up without adult supervision and are often abused. This alone causes a dangerous environment because children then, “learn that to solve any kind of interpersonal problem one must quickly resort to hitting or other violent behavior” (Anderson Article PDF, 5). When brought up in an inner city “street” family, racism is a leading factor that causes the youth to construct a negative outlook on the rest of society. When these inner city, lo...
If one looks deeper into each side, they can see that these stereotypes are not always true. One big stereotype people have about “the hills” and “the flats” is that the “flats” are more prone to violence than the “hills” because of the exposure to a more difficult lifestyle. However, there are numerous counts of violence and hate that has not been accounted for or heard of in a multitude of neighborhoods. According to FBI.gov, there are 365 violent offenses per 100,000 persons in the United States. In addition, these violent crimes have an impact on those who have seen or experienced it. This number includes robberies, domestic violence, and assault and gang activities. According to a scholarly journal published by Sciencedirect, around thirty
The word “ghetto”, can have many different meanings, such as a black residential area, or it can be referred to an area for the poor (Massey & Denton, 1993). Basically, a ghetto is a neighborhood or neighborhoods, which is only made for one particularly group of race (Massey & Denton, By creating the ghettos, African Americans were residential separated from other races. These ghettos were created to keep the African American race down. When it comes to income, most black families who lived in these certain areas were unemployed and very poor (William, 1980).
These crime-ridden communities (or ghettos) are springing up all through the country, mainly in and around major metropolitan areas. These areas are the most populated, so that means that within these areas are the most people there to be influenced by the crimes committed by fellow people. In Male's reading he shows statistics that prove the fact that once the poverty factor is taken away then teen violence disappears. He later adds, “That if America wants to rid of juvenile violence than serious consideration needs to be given to the societally inflicted violence of raising three to 10 times more youth in poverty than other Western nations.” (Males p386)
As in Small’s lecture slides, the rules of the street revolve around the three R’s (respect, retaliation and reputation). Often times black youths have to engage in conflict to build respect or a reputation that will ensure future safety. However, it is easy to get caught up in this world and no think about future success with the allure of drugs and violence. In chapter six of the cultural matrix, Patterson describes how most youths in the inner city have had friends or family shot in front of them. This culture of fear instills values that promote survival but may not promote stable finical success as would the values instilled in a white suburb. There are the injunctive norms that both communities can understand but there are in turn the descriptive norms of how to behave that ensure
The United States developed the official poverty measures in 1960. It was developed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had declared a war on poverty during the Civil Rights era. (The Path of Power- The years of Lyndon B. Johnson, (Caro, 16). The poverty rate of African Americans has been declining for many years. The Census Bureau releases two reports every year that describe who is poor in the United States based on cash resources. There is also the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) which takes account for the cash resources and non cash benefits from government programs aimed at low income families. (www.Census.gov/People and household). In 2012 there were over 46.5 million people in poverty and of those numbers 10 million were African American according to the poverty reports. African Americans have been a major factor since slavery. Since the late 1660s there has been a race on poverty since the marches of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the protests was the call to March on Washington in 1963. Dr. King stated that “on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity”. (MLK speech, March on Washington, 1963)
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Hart discusses the article he read from the 1980s. These articles were designed to elicit fear in white Americans. The articles stated fallacies like black men became homicidal and were not affected by bullets. These types of stories are still heard today. The most recent example would be the reporting on the Michael Brown case, the media played on the fact that he was on THC and that he was invincible to the bullets, further feeding into the stereotype that black men are violent on drugs and bulletproof.
There are so many people suffering in New York City and around the world because they are unable to afford basic necessities for themselves and their families; many are living well below the poverty level. This is because New York City has a major income gap, the biggest gap in any county in the United States (Roberts, 2014). Over the past twenty years, the income gap has just gone up and will continue to rise if we do not find out why it is happening and how to stop it. According to Roberts (2014), “The top 5 percent of households earned 864,394, or 88 times as much as the poorest 20 percent…” (pg.1). So what are the causes and effects of the income gap in New York City over the last twenty years between the richest five percent and the poorest
Can you believe that 60% of rural children in the United States are living in poverty? Poverty is one out of many problems that America faces today. So, where does this all start? It starts with education. Education plays a huge role in this problem because most of America is not fully educated. They cannot get jobs to support their families, like farming and such. So, what about the families in poverty that live in metropolitan areas? They are faced with more problems than people in rural communities. They turn to crime because it is the only way they can provide their household and family. By examining the causes, rural crimes, health issues and statistics of poverty, crime does foster poverty.
Has anyone ever considered thinking about what the world is really going through? How many people don’t have the necessities in order to survive? If so, what are these people going through? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a standard or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Sometimes events occur that changes a person’s perspective on life. Poverty is one that can have a huge effect on not only one person, but also the people around him/her. Over half of the world is going through this tragedy and we, being the ones who created it, have the responsibility to end it.