Analysis Of Down These Mean Streets

In Streetwise, Elijah Anderson (1990) discusses the social forces at work in an urban area he calls the Village-Northton. His is a sociological field study of the daily interactions between the residents of an area encompassing two communities--in his words, "one black and low income to very poor (with an extremely high infant mortality rate), [and] the other racially mixed but becoming increasingly middle to upper income and white" (Anderson, 1990, p. ix). In keeping with valid sociological fieldwork, Anderson (1990) immersed himself in the community from the summer of 1975 through the summer of 1989.

     Harlem Renaissance, an African American cultural movement of the 1920s and early 1930s that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. According to Wintz:

Everyone can relate to the most common universal truths. The universal truths everyone can relate to are family problems, dealing with a teenager, alcoholism, and unemployment. These universal truths can have really bad effects on people such as isolating oneself from family or not wanting to do anything with a specific person in the family. Universal truths can also have good effects such as being in an abusive relationship and eventually getting out of it and starting fresh. David Adams Richards portrays these universal truths in his novel, Nights Below Station Street, through the use of simple language, use of flashbacks for each character and his personal connection to the novel and its character, Joe.

The book We Beat the Street by DRS. Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck hunt is a captivating autobiography about three boys, Sampson, Rameck, and George, who overcame several obstacles and became important doctors. This story took place in the dangerous location of Newark, New Jersey, in the 1980-1990’s. Violence, peer pressure, and drugs were often found in this location, so the majority of people were greatly impacted by the negativity around them. In this book, Sampson and Rameck were involved in unfortunate situations, and often had to face severe consequences, some as serious as being arrested.

     The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.

Because of our Latin American origins, Hispanic Americans are also called Latinos. Within this soon to be largest group of minorities in the United States, there are people of many different national and ethnic origins. They are not from one nationality or one culture, but are from many different origins. Many Latinos identify themselves with their cultural or national background. For example someone who is born in the U.S, but his/her parents are from Mexico can call him or herself Mexican. The three largest groups of Latinos in the United States are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans. Many Puerto Ricans also call themselves Boricua. Members of subgroups sometimes use more specialized names. For example, some Mexican Americans call themselves Chicanos, and Puerto Ricans living in New York State often refer to themselves as Nuyoricans.

A neighborhood that was once Irish, Jewish, Greek and African American has drastically changed throughout the years (Snyder, 2015). While New York is viewed as the cultural center, this area of Manhattan is now often referred to as “little Dominican Republic” as Dominicans immigrated to Washington Heights in the 1960s. After the end of Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship, many Dominican families fled to the United States to escape civil unrest and political violence (Pantoja, 2005). Today, the largest population of Dominican born and descendants of Dominican Republic in the borough of Manhattan are living in Washington Heights. There is also a growing Ecuadorian, Mexican and Puerto Rican population in the neighborhood (Bleiwas & DiNapoli, 2015). These cultures are prominent within the streets of the Heights as there are a multitude of Latin cuisines, churches, botanicals and pharmacies that cater to Latin families. As the neighborhood shifted through the 60s and 80s, it seems to be undergoing a new

The Walls weren’t able to provide for their children . The father was an alcoholic , who wasn’t able to maintain a job .The mother was an artist, that one may say she was in “dream land “. They were always on the run or as the dad called it , doing the “skedaddle.” The dad would often tell the kids , it was because the mafia or the cops were chasing after him. In addition the dad never seemed to appeal to civilization, he would always tell the kids: ”These cities will kill you”.

“Éste es un mundo brillante, éstas son mis calles, mi barrio de noche, con sus miles de luces, cientos de millones de colores mezclados con los ruidos, un sonido vibrante de carros, maldiciones, murmullos de alegría y de llantos, formando un gran concierto musical (Thomas, Down These Mean Streets, 1998, p. 3)”, is how Piri Thomas describes his birthplace, East Harlem. The diversity of cultures, the vibrant street life, the passion and conflicts of everyday life and media portrayal in movies such as West Side Story make East Harlem an exciting and mysterious place. But hidden under the dirty faces of the children is the struggle in the search for acceptance and belong,

Paul Watt and Kevin Stenson, The Street: It’s a bit dodgy around there’ safety, danger, ethnicity and young people’s uses of public spaces, chapter 15 in Geographies of youth, youth cultures: Cool places The aim of this chapter is to question young people’s feelings and experiences when moving around a town in the South East of England. The town, named Thamestown by the authors. The area in which Thamestown is location, is described as a predominantly white, wealthy middle class area of the south east of England. Between June 1994 and July 1995 Watt, Stenson and other researchers investigated, how an ethnically mixed group of young people use public spaces in terms of danger and safety. Several key points arise in this chapter. Racial segregation

Cesar Chavez was born on March 31st, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona to immigrant parents. Throughout his youth, Cesar grew up watching his parents work all day, in very harsh conditions, for such minimal pay. After

What was the Harlem Renaissance? The Harlem Renaissance was a period of time in American history that emphasized African American culture in the form of music, art, and poetry. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was plagued by poverty and racial inequality. African Americans held the dream of upward mobility and racial equality, through mediums such as poetry and jazz: a new form of music originating from the African American community of Harlem. The community of Harlem was initially designated as a place where ambitious middle class workers could live. However, the community and housing of Harlem outgrew the transportation system. This caused the white real estate owners to sell their property to a lower income group of people which were mainly African Americans. By the time that the public transportation systems were extended to Harlem, many African American intellectuals, artists, and poets had already “set up shop” there. One of the places in which they did so was Harlem’s Cotton Club. This cabaret was famous for launching the careers of jazz musicians such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. However, the club was owned by whites, and its primary audience was whites. Still, the importance of the club is untestable. It was "the" way for upper class White Americans to experience what the African American culture was like at the time. A select group of prestigious African Americans would go to the cotton

In particular, the Ku Klux Klan who argued that only white Christians were entitled to civil rights in the United States. As a result, this group, along with other white supremacist groups murdered African-American men and women by lynching, bombing churches and also setting fire to homes and property. Their migration was an expression of their changing attitudes towards themselves as Locke said best from the The New Negro, and has been described as “The mind of the Negro seems suddenly to have slipped from under the tyranny of social intimidation and to be shaking off the psychology of imitation and implied inferiority. By shedding the old chrysalis of the Negro problem we are achieving something like a spiritual emancipation.” Many African-Americans moved to Harlem, a neighborhood located in Manhattan. During that time Harlem became the world’s largest concentration of Negro life; also home to a diverse mix of cultures. Having extraordinary outbreak of inspired movement revealed their unique culture and encouraged them to discover their heritage; and becoming the “New Negro” also known as “New Negro Movement” it was later known as the Harlem Renaissance.

The Harlem Renaissance represents the rebirth and flowering of African-American culture. Although the Harlem Renaissance was concentrated in the Harlem district of New York City, its legacy reverberated throughout the United States and even abroad, to regions with large numbers of former slaves or blacks needing to construct ethnic identities amid a dominant white culture. The primary means of cultural expression during the Harlem Renaissance were literature and poetry, although visual art, drama, and music also played a role in the development of the new, urban African-American identity. Urbanization and population migration prompted large numbers of blacks to move away from the Jim Crow south, where slavery had only transformed into institutionalized racism and political disenfranchisement. The urban enclave of Harlem enabled blacks from different parts of the south to coalescence, share experiences, and most importantly, share ideas, visions, and dreams. Therefore, the Harlem Renaissance had a huge impact in framing African-American politics, social life, and public institutions.

As Frank Sinatra grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, and was a classic representation of an average Italian American. He was the child of two Italian American immigrants, was Roman Catholic, but unlike others, he was particularly interested in singing, and he was good at it. Sinatra started off performing at family get togethers with his ukulele and before everyone knew it he was a great American singer, actor, and producer.