Code Of The Streets

Piri Thomas’s book Down These Mean Streets takes place in the mid-20th century it incorporates both the harshness of living in an unforgivable environment (Harlem) and the life style that is based on skin pigmentation (that of being a Dark Puerto Rican). Piri is a strong yet brash willed person who finds himself trying to do right but yet finds himself going down a different path. It’s able to break his life in to eatable segments that is easy for not only the reader to comprehend. This is presented in each chapter and sub-chapter enabling us (the reader) to understand the both the theme and the time era.

Moreover, in this study Voisin, Bird, Hardestry, & Shiu noticed that community violence exposure among urban youth has caused them psychological distress, anxiety, depression, aggression, low academic functioning, and delinquency (Voisin, Bird, Hardestry, & Shiu, 2011). The researchers used a grounded theory approach that helped them understand how African American youth live in a high-violence Chicago neighborhood (Voisin, Bird, Hardestry, & Shiu, 2011). The methodology used by these researchers included 16 boys and 16 girls which are equal to 32 participants (Voisin, Bird, Hardestry, & Shiu, 2011). They found out that participants were exposed to community violence by either hearing about it, witnessing it, or as direct victim (Voisin, Bird,

One major weakness of Anderson’s article is that he labels families as either “decent” or “street” and nothing in between. After reading Code of the Streets, it becomes obvious that Anderson believes if a family has one characteristic that aligns them with the “street” then they have them all. There is no category for parents who want their children to be able to defend themselves, but also make sure they have their homework done every night.

There are many social factors that can influence the lives of young black males. Many of these social factors can influence a person to live by a certain code or value. Such factors can cause a person to act or engage in certain behaviors that are outside of the norms. One factor is the environment that the person grew up in. If the person’s social life does not align with their values, this can lead to conflicts. There are many young black males that live their lives based on the codes of the streets.

He interviewed 20 boys per area and for every 80 percent, he also interviewed a parent or primary caretaker. Harding explains his focus on boys because of their greater involvement and exposure to street violence and to allow a gender match between subject and interviewer. To understand the boys' neighborhoods, the interviews investigated how the subjects conceptualize their neighborhoods as not only geographic but as social spaces. The differentiation of the three neighborhoods is a key aspect of his study's design. Asking similar questions and discussing the same topics with the individuals in different neighborhoods revealed significant differences in the daily lives of adolescent boys across the neighborhoods. It was only through these comparisons that Harding’s findings about the differences in experiences of violence, threats of victimization, and the role of older males in social settings was discovered. According to Harding (2009), among the adolescent boys of Franklin and Roxbury Crossing, neighborhood violence is simultaneously structured by neighborhood identities. Nearly all of the subjects in these poor, violent areas use neighborhoods as categories to distinguish insiders from outsiders. “In Franklin and Roxbury Crossing, 32 of 40 boys (80 percent) reported that more than half of their friends live in their immediate neighborhoods, and 22 of the boys (55 percent) had no friends from outside their neighborhoods. Only three of 40 boys reported no neighborhood friends. In Lower Mills, 13 of 20 boys (65 percent) reported that more than half of their friends live in their neighborhoods, and seven of the boys (35 percent) had no friends outside the neighborhood. Four of 20 Lower Mills boys reported no neighborhood friends” (Harding, 2009, Page

Reflecting on the film a piece that stood out was how the young men's environment discouraged a sense of belonging to their community. They both suffered a loss of identity because of the false beliefs that society placed on them (Davis, 2009). Societal views assumed that they were unable to achieve a higher education or deserved access to better living conditions. However, the young men's perceptions held that societies view of them were based on prejudicial beliefs that all black youth are involved in criminal activity (Davis, 2009). Kendall (2009), argued this point by saying that not everyone living in Regent was a troublemaker. In a cultural context, social exclusion perpetuated marginalization, stigma, and deprivation of racialized minorities

The Street is a brutal examination of racism, sexism, and poverty in America. Set in 1940s Harlem, Ann Petry 's novel primarily tells the story of Lutie Johnson’s efforts to raise her son and escape poverty while living in Harlem. Young, black, beautiful, poor, and socially isolated, Lutie is constantly and acutely aware of the ways in which her existence and her son 's future are limited and crushed by the forces of racism and class. Determined to rise above the poverty and racism that constrains her on a daily basis. There are many conflicts, twists, and turns, but one thing that can’t go unnoticed is the hard knocked life Lutie, and many others throughout the novel experience while living in poverty. When reading the novel I felt emotionally invested, almost as if I was experiencing Lutie’s experiences as

My opinion on the code of the street theory is that is heavily prominent in low income neighborhoods, where gangs, drug dealers, etc… are present. The code of the street to me signify that a man should be tough, violence is key to portray authority, it tells a man how to behave, especially when they need to respond to a challenge. In communities that revolve around the code of the street I believe is telling the younger generations that acting firstly with violence is acceptable because someone challenged your opinion and that's not okay, so by using violence and attacking the person one can see who is stronger and has more authority. I think that when kids witness violence, mainly if they reside in a low income community, where they see their

Imagine your friend forced you to join his plan to murder someone else. However, you can not quit because you know too much of his secrets, and beside you are also worrying about your safety toward this violence act. What would you do? Paulo Freire defines violence as any dehumanizing or oppressive act. This means violence could be physical, economic, mental and emotional. There are two types of violence which are vertical violence and horizontal violence. Vertical violence is when people with more power are dehumanizing and oppressive to people with less power, while horizontal violence is oppressive and dehumanizing acts between people who come from the same social class with equal power. Straight Outta East Oakland by Harry Louis Williams II is an urban fiction novel that explores issues of violence. The book takes place in East Oakland and is about a young man who is struggling in life with poverty. He begins to commit violence towards his community. Firstborn, the protagonist, starts off as an educated man, get accepted to his dream college Alston University. Subsequently, his best friend Drama ' enchanting and seduces from this violent game, Firstborn is from a honorable man becomes a dishonorable man. Drama is responsible for Firstborn becoming violent because he encourages Firstborn to get involved in his violent activities, he gave Firstborn a weapon, and also influences Firstborn to uses drugs.

We see this theory in the younger kids that soon start to take after the actions of Li’l Ze and his gang. Elijah Anderson explains the subculture of violence that is further developed in the cities slumps as the “code of the street”. Anderson argues that the code pressures young males (majority of the time) in the inner city to respond to any display of disrespect with violence (Anderson, 1994, p. 143). The core of Anderson’s code focuses on the issue of respect- it is viewed as hard-won but easily lost (Anderson, 1994, p. 145). In the City of God we know that respect is greatly admired.

The juvenile figures were even more depressing; 1/4 young men (ages 15-17) had been arrested for domestic violence or assault during the last four months. A sociologist named Shirley Ann Vining- Brown noted: “blacks are labeled as criminals… black prisoners outnumber white prisoners in Southern prisons this is called the “Negro Problem”. On 1992 in Brooklyn, NYC, New York the game “Knock-Out” was created. It’s a game when a group of people pick an unexpected victim and physically attack them resulting in permanent serious injuries, comas, instantaneous or eventual death. The crimes are being committed primarily by African-American youth. Many victims include white senior-citizen war veterans, elderly Asian couples, and even younger and middle-aged people; sadly they didn’t survive to share their story. These aren’t even one of top five "lethal" cities in America. Not only in small cities that the violence is shown, but it’s nationwide. In cities across the land (especially in urban areas) there are mobs of young African Americans who swarm into convenience stores; steal and destroy everything in sight and attack anyone who happens to be nearby, just for fun .The videos of these attacks often come up on social media such as: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and on websites like YouTube and WorldStarHipHop.com, (frequently posted by them themselves as a form of bragging about their exploits).

Police are committing acts of violence against blacks because they have biases and stereotypes that make officers perceive blacks as a threat and feel that the only way to handle the situation is to resort to violence. The only way police know how to deal with blacks is to beat them or kill them,”The video shows Rosen stomping on the head of Demarco Anderson while Anderson is already handcuffed and under control. Anderson is visibly restrained and does not appear to be agitated or resisting when Rosen charges from the left side of the frame and pounds his foot into the back of the suspect’s head with a force reminiscent of the skinhead sidewalk scene in American History X, or the recurring dream I have about catching a certain orange-colored

The Subculture of Violence Theory states that individuals turn to violence as a survival mechanism and not as a reaction to frustration and anger. In this theory, the individual is exposed and experiences violence on a daily or regular basis and therefore equates violence with survival, violence and killing become part of a lifestyle and ingrained behavior. According to Thio, Taylor, and Schwartz they maintain, “because subculture of violent has such a grip on the poor that they engage in a wider range of violent behavior than the non-poor’ (Thio et al, 2013, p. 79). Low income neighborhoods are more vulnerable to violence and crime and therefore the culture within these neighborhoods are more likely to accept violent behavior as normal and acceptable. In communities where violence becomes acceptable the level of violence rises and may lead to violent crime and killing as a means of control or survival.

When reviewing the past seven months since Mr. Gray’s death and the aftermath that followed, the metropolitan area crime rate has increased tremendously. The inner-city neighborhoods are enduring what is known as the strain theory. This occur when the lower socioeconomic classes of individuals resort to crime as a means of releasing frustration and anger. The urban community / African American’s (use either one)households are experiencing the breakdown of family values, education is on the decline, and lack of employment that’s compelling individuals to conform to criminal behavior. Crime

People let us get real: There is no such thing as Black-On-Black Crime. It is a catch. An oxymoron. Nearly all injured parties of a brutal atrocity are attacked or killed by people they associate with. All races harm and cause violence against one another. Nearly every analysis displays the largest prognosticator of brutality are of the socioeconomic conditions and the corresponding seclusion of the perpetrators’ communities. However, when Caucasian males get violent in movie theaters or school campuses, it is not identified as “Caucasian -on- Caucasian violence” although eighty-four percent of the Caucasian casualties of homicides are murdered by their own race. Although fifty-three percent of gang related killings are done by