Analysis Of 'Tell Them Who I Am'

Savannah Georgia (GA) is home to a beautiful historic downtown area. The city of Savannah’s population is 145,674 people as of 2015 (US Census, 2016). On the periphery are abandoned or rundown residential areas. These areas are surrounded by various residential streets and businesses. Regrettably, Savannah has many homeless people living within these areas. Often they remain hidden in the woods just off the interstate where they live in tents. This area has been dubbed “Tent City” by the local population, and local news outlets. Savannah’s homeless citizens are the primary subjects of the vulnerable population. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the homeless as a vulnerable population

The setting of a rundown house in a poor neighborhood gives the impression of their struggle to survive as African Americans. The shabbiness of the exterior suggests their low social status. “A relatively recent addition to the house and running its full width, the porch lacks congruence. It is a sturdy porch with a flat roof. One or two chairs of dubious value sit at one end where the kitchen window opens on to the porch. An old fashioned ice box stands silent guard at the opposite end” (Wilson, setting description). While the newly added porch may represent an attempt to

In the book “Code of the Street” introduction, the author Elijah Anderson gives you an outlook on how a city can go from wealth and poverty in just five miles. Anderson’s ethnographic portrayal of urban life in black America through a journey down Philadelphia’s historic Germantown Ave, which connects the appreciation of newly suburban Chestnut Hill and Philly’s main line with the generally less civil society of Germantown proper and its outlying ghetto’s, where a code of the street old as poverty and oppression itself governs the interactions of both willing and unwilling members. The story starts in Chestnut Hill which is often called "the suburb in the city," and finishes in the Northern Liberties subdivision.

McLeod explains the conditions of the Projects as, “overcrowding, unemployment, alcoholism, drug abuse, crime, and racism plague.” (McLeod 2009: 6). McLeod mainly wanted to emphasize on the occupational aspirations of both the Brothers and the Hallway Hangers, how they formed and their significance for the reproduction of social inequality.

Homelessness has different meanings to different people; someone who has never been homeless might think homelessness is a person who lives on the street, in a tent or in a box. Many people don’t realize that there are a number of

Homelessness is portrayed as circumstances of people or family units without steady, uninterrupted, proper lodging, or the quick prospect, means and capacity of getting it. It is the aftereffect of universal or public obstructions, an absence of reasonable and suitable lodging, the individual/family unit 's money related, mental, cognitive, behavioral or physical difficulties, and/or bigotry and segregation. A majority of individuals don 't decide to be dispossessed, and the occurrence is usually negative, unsavory, upsetting and troubling

How we dress, talk, and behave can have life or death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. Myself would define it as the ultimate black urban experience. More importantly, I was more engaged to read the book eager to base my own personal experience of my black urban neighborhood to compare to the residents interviews Anderson tackles and the assertion Anderson makes between street" persons from "decent" persons and families, with decent families tending to accept mainstream values, while street values are part of an oppositional culture. In addition, I wanted to see if he is accurate about his assumptions that the constant threat of violence to the circumstances of life among the ghetto stir from poor lack of living-wage jobs, dearth of basic public services, the stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug trafficking and use, and the ensuing alienation and lack of hope for the future. After just finishing chapter one and two I was amazed and shocked by his knowledge and illustration on the distinction along with the relationships between “street” and “decent”

In his essay, “Code of the Streets”, Anderson defines the code of the streets as “[amounting] to a set of informal rules interpersonal public behavior, including violence” (Anderson) within lower income and poor communities especially African-American neighborhoods within the inner-city. Anderson proves that the income gap leading to lacking upward mobility and unemployment with the lack of the government or law enforcement’s presence within these communities by saying an “inclination of violence springs from the circumstances of life among the ghetto poor— the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, stigma of race, the fallout from rampant drug use and drug trafficking, and the resulting national alienation, slandering from the media, and lack of hope for the future”. Lack of jobs due to the higher class’ conservation of low income and inequality which equates to lack of higher education which in today’s job market is crucial. The stigma of race from the media keeps the national and federal attention away from these communities thus perpetuating the code of the streets and overall lower class crime. The government and corporations prolonging of the income gap creates in the lower class the “Code of the Streets” which causes more crime to use as a scapegoat to distract America from the income gap and tax inequality. They do this by not giving these communities attention they need and taking their jobs away to render them uneducated and poor thus leading them to lives of

The issue of homelessness has been called as one that is "highly ambiguous and intangible" (Neale, 1997, p.7). Wright defines the homeless a "diverse, heterogeneous lot. No single catch phrase or easy myth can possibly describe them all" (p.46)

In his book Elijah Anderson tries to describe how life is, living in a black poor community in an American town known as Inner-city. In this area everyone is struggling financially and seem distant from the rest of America. The main social class in this town is the “decent” and the “street” families as the community has labeled them. The labeling by the local is as a result of social contest between the inhabitants. The line between a decent and street family is usually very thin, it’s based on a family evaluation of itself labeling itself decent and the other street. The irony is that families bearing a street label may value itself as decent and still valuing other families’ street. However, this labels form the basis of understanding inner-city community lifestyle. The community has many of the white society middle class values but they know the values don’t hold water in the street. They say it does not provide the attitude of a person who can take care of themselves in the street.

When thinking about socioeconomic status many directly look to the “American Dream” as a guiding ideology. The “American Dream” inspires and motivates people to be their best selves and instills the idea that if one works hard and aspirations for a better life they will be able to rise within the socioeconomic rank system. Through out the novel Ain’t No Makin’ It by Jay MacLeod, two groups go through their own journey towards “makin’ it,” but even with vastly different work ethics and approaches they end up in very similar positions. Ultimately social reproduction is inevitable and social mobility is challenging to overcome no matter the aspirations and conviction, but to what extent? In the novel, MacLeod follows the two groups as they grow up in Clarendon Heights, a low-income housing development. MacLeod reviews how their initial socioeconomic status and their mentality towards social mobility is represented as a factor in the study. The two groups are the Hallway Hangers who are a majority White group, and the Brothers who are majority African American.

In Brent Staples’ personal essay “Black Men and Public Space”, he tells the readers what happen to a young black man in an urban setting. He pinpointed that people often stereotype you because of color, race, gender, culture or appearance. In addition, the author expresses to us that he notices the space between him and other people, such as women on the street. Some people may disagree that women set a certain amount of space when walking by a black man on the street. This statement is not true and public space is not about race, gender, color, culture, or appearance.

The lack of dignity that these individuals feel is a direct effect of society’s disrespect for the lower class. The stereotypes of the homeless conceived by upper social classes, cause the lower class to lose any respectable role they may have in society. A homeless man in Oberlin, Ohio says, “Many of us historically invisible people, in our quest for visibility, have chosen to take the routes of organization and alliance building. Often we tend to find that our muted voices have more resonance, bass, and credibility within these snugly, institutionally sanctioned cubby holes” (Laymon). After failing to get sufficient help through

While a portion of today’s society turns a blind eye to the subject of the criminalization of homelessness, an even larger quantity of people are not aware of the situation that is happening in every major city of America. For those living an affluent lifestyle, it can be difficult to discuss the amount of poverty and homelessness that is constantly occurring. The definition and meaning behind the absence of home is also arduous to discuss. While homelessness is commonly associated with sleeping outside or in provisional areas, this word also identifies with an absence of belonging. This absence of belonging can relate not only to a community, but also to the people that dwell there (Baumohl 3). Within the portion of those who are aware of the homelessness situation, there is a section that detests the poverty stricken persons of our society. These biased members of the American population express their antipathy in several ways. It is necessary to reveal the privileges that homeless persons have been violently stripped of, and expose and broadcast the freedom they are entitled to. Through

The question “who am I”? Can have a lot of individuals thinking about themselves, including myself because one might not know where to start. It is a very broad question, but having done the Strengths Finder 2.0 assessment, I realized more in depth what kind of person I really am based on my top 5 strengths. Who I am as a learner, who I am in my career and who I am as a person of faith lead me to answering the question above and understanding more of myself within.