Anderson's Discrimination In The Inner City

Discrimination is another key concern for the author as he is struggling to overcome poverty, racism and intolerance. Discrimination comes in many different forms and is defined by the textbook as being any behavior directed against persons because of their membership in a particular group. As a young man Williams experienced many acts of discrimination directed towards both himself and his family. For example, after fishing one evening Carl wanted a soda but couldn?t get one from the drive-in they were passing because ?blacks were barred from the drive-in like every down-town restaurant? (Williams, 225). Another example of discrimination appears in the text when Black students were unable to obtain teaching positions once they graduated from Ball State University because of the color of their skin.

Life in the Inner-City In the novel “Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City” written by Elijah Anderson, Elijah discusses how socioeconomic problems affect the choices that youths in the inner-city make. Elijah asserts in order not to be harmed, individuals need to understand the code in these areas. An important key point to remember from this novel is that violence happens because of the social disorganization and socioeconomic issues that surround these cities. Issues like poverty impact how people live their lives.

Culture in urban communities, also referred to as inner-cities, are growing increasingly violent. In the article, The Code of the Streets by Elijah Anderson, he begins to take an in-depth look at the root of the evil. He deduces that economic factors, parenting and the troublesome environments largely influence the violent norms within this culture.

The " Code of the Street" written by Eljah Anderson is an explanation for high rates violence among African-American Adolescents in Philadelphia. He wrote about poverty, lack of job, racial discrimination, rampant drug use and trafficking that leads to anti-social attitudes, violent behavior, alienation, and lack of hope for the future of the African Americas in Philadelphia.

I the article Race the Power of an Illusion, Dalton Conley says, “the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s really marks both an opportunity and a new danger in terms of racial relations in America. On the one hand, the Civil Rights era officially ended inequality of opportunity. It officially ended de jure legal inequality, so it was no longer legal for employers, for landlords, or for any public institution or accommodations to discriminate based on race. At the same time, those civil rights triumphs did nothing to address the underlying economic and social inequalities that had already been in place because of hundreds of years of inequality.” (Conley pp 1). What goes on in the American ghetto is not as glamorous as Hollywood makes it out to be now, this film does a great job at depicting what life in the ghetto for black teens is really like. The ghettos in America are full of broken culture that is left behind from centuries of oppression by the white man. Most teens like those in the movie never make it out of their neighborhoods alive. Thousands of kids die every years from gang on gang violence, damaging all chances of them escaping the ghetto and making something of themselves. Death, gangs, and drugs is the more common way that young people are left with to deal with a life of poverty and survival that seems to have no escape.

They considered other factors that may lie in those numbers. In this case, where crime is prominent they account that people try to seek protection of themselves and their possessions. Likewise, those who are disadvantaged, lead to more frequently to commit property and other crimes to satisfy wants and desires (Crutchfield 27). From this, one can simply conclude that people living in such conditions are trying to survive. With this in mind, residential segregation is more focused on African Americans. This is in part because of a history of unequal opportunities in the job market, education, and housing for disadvantaged African Americans. It is especially true when more prosperous African Americans manage to leave ghettos, the disadvantaged African Americans are in a more concentrated poverty (Crutchfield 26). Furthermore, Crutchfield adds in his article a study conducted in Mercer Sullivan's Getting Paid that job opportunities are influenced by neighborhood characteristics: work prospects in the area, available networks, and the linkage between the employment of adults and where they worked (30). In addition to that, in 2003, Devah Pager looked into how incarceration can affect employment to understand how class is linked to race. She concludes that African American men without a criminal record were less successful in landing an interview than whites with a record,

Given the various discussions, it is clear that the city is a long way from equality. Policies need to be put into that ensure anyone found discriminating another individual, be it in words or denying services to anyone faces proper justice. All people are worthy of basic social services that are inclusive of good healthcare and amenities such as housing.

Setting is an important feature of novels. This narration takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1960. A time that saw the segregation of black people and the dominance of white people in the southern United States. In this novel the setting of 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi exposes significant themes such as racial discrimination, social partiality. The setting also supplies decisive insight into character inspirations and views.

Society in the United States has changed the way discrimination is from the 1800’s to the 2000’s and is a big impact to people all around the country. Many African-Americans have been discriminated for a long period of time and now, many athletes are taking a stand to show its physically and morally wrong and occurs in past history, sports, and even the police force. Discrimination is is immoral tell this day and is still a horrifying act.

Discrimination lingers under the diversity of the United States. Minorities across the country are targeted and eventually fight for their respect or learn to ignore the harassment. These struggles have caused beautiful revolts and renaissances throughout history. What are a few examples of these cases?

“Forbes collected their information from the FBI Crime Statistics Database. Since 1985, the total violent crimes in the city have totaled above 8,000 each year” (Jennes). Some Memphians believe that the violence increase among the city because of the gang culture that spread across the whole city. Based on the police data, more than 12,800 documented gang members have been recognized in Memphis city. Almost 2,750 people have become a part of this culture in the past three years, which mean two to three people join every day. Additionally, many gangs that have originated in major states such as California and Chicago have been moved to Memphis, which make most of the committed crimes primarily relate to the gang culture which increased the violent crime rate by 6% last year as Jeremiah Graham and Dominique Jennes mentioned in their article about the Gang activity on the rise among Memphis youth. Most of those who joined and involved in the gang activities are youth because of the carelessness of the family. To give an illustration of what I mean let’s look at the case of the parent’s indifference, when the parental control of the child is not existing, this will lead him to the wrong way with the wrong people. “A child’s home and family are the center of development. One of the most important functions of this matrix is to provide structure and guidance in an effort to encourage and aid children in their socialization and identity development” (Stern et. al.,

Young people who are exposed to domestic violence and / or abuse of children participate in the highest levels of violent behavior that young families with less violence. Widom (1989), abused and neglected children were 38% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime than children who had not been abused or neglected. Patterson argues that: aggressive children tend to imitate the aggressive parents and parents of aggressive children tend to reinforce the aggression to respond with attention or approval. Another element model of Patterson is the supervisory role of parents in the development of aggressive behavior among adolescents. Patterson suggests that aggression among adolescents is poor parental

Growing up in dangerous neighborhoods, having neglectful parents, or simply going through natural disasters are a few negative ways sociocultural factors may influence the way children and families develop. There are many people living in “safe” neighborhoods but there is also a decent amount of families who are living in very dangerous areas. There are areas in this city where crime is rarely ever seen, but there are also many areas where crime is seen on a daily basis and many families are going through that and have to either see it or live through it. This impacts a child a whole lot because they grow up hearing about people getting shot, people drug dealing, being addicted to alcohol and a variety of negative lifestyles children and families should not have to live through. Sadly, sometimes in between all this going on, children grow up having parents that may always be working or worse, be criminals. The parents

John Hegger wrote an article about the causes of criminal behavior in which he stated that “our experiences growing up have the capability to shape our view of the world and also have a direct impact on one’s ability to make rational decisions”. When kids grow up in neighborhoods where there are high crime and violence rates, they are more likely to act similar to the behavior they see. According to Salehi, “recent studies show that during the last 5 years, 60 percent of the entire world’s city residents have, directly or indirectly, been a victim of violence, crime, and felony. Thus, the increasing crime rate, violent or non-violent, is a serious threat to all the urban societies of the world” (6). This proves that the environments and societies around us have contributed towards creating more violence, crime, and felony. When children are raised in these environments, they are more susceptible to live similar, violent lives. As mentioned previously, negative home environments have been known to be a cause of poor language development, behavioral issues, aggression, depression, etc. for developing children

According to last years Census, the African American community makes up 14.5 percent of our population, and with such a large portion of our population, they are still not treated the way they should be (US Census Bureau). We are often blind to the way people of other subcultures are treated and do not realize the hardships they face on a daily basis, even though some people may deny such hardships exist. While the push for racial equality was present, we still have much to go before it is truly reached.