Essay On Poor Black Communities

despite mass uprisings by blacks in resistance to unrelenting violence and the law’s delay, despite tacit urgings by blacks to be afforded some means to survive, despite bold attempts to live separate lives in America […] blacks, in the main, found themselves denied of every possible avenue to either establish their own socioeconomic independence or participate fully in larger society (“Panther”).

In her article, On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto (2009), sociologist Alice Goffman uses data collected from her six year ethnographic study to explain how incarceration and threat of incarceration impacts daily life within a Philadelphia neighborhood. Her work focuses primarily on how policing and supervision in the neighborhood, referred to primarily as Sixth Street, impacts the lives of its poor Black residents. Gossman focused on the many men in the community that had warrants out for “minor infractions” including failing to pay court fees or breaking curfew, and the daily struggles they faced while trying to avoid identification and imprisonment. Using evaluation guidelines from Creswell (2013) and Anderson (2010), I have provided a critical review of Goffman’s research methodology and practices. I have highlighted many major flaws in her work, yet I have also recognized the promising advancements to sociological understandings that could come from her findings.

In On the Run by Alice Goffman, one can see the inside perspective in a particular black community in 6th Street, Philadelphia. Goffman gives an “on-the-ground” account of the fear of being captured and the changes that fear brings upon the community in basic daily activities such as working, maintaining relationships, and seeking medical or police care when it is truly needed. Within these accounts that Goffman shares there are many connections to class readings and disscussions throughout.

African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated; that is 60% of 30% of the African American population. African Americas are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites. “Between 6.6% and 7.5% of all black males ages 25 to 39 were imprisoned in 2011, which were the highest imprisonment rates among the measured sex, race, Hispanic origin, and age groups." (Carson, E. Ann, and Sabol, William J. 2011.) Stated on Americanprogram.org “ The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more likely to be sentenced to prison.” Hispanics and African Americans make up 58% of all prisoners in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the US population. (Henderson 2000). Slightly 15% of the inmate population is made up of 283,000 Hispanic prisoners.

The mulatto elite separated themselves from the black masses by assimilating the morals and manners of the slaveholding aristocracy. They acquired as a part of their family traditions the patterns of behavior which were associated with the idea of the southern lady and southern gentleman. As a rule, these families formed a closed circle from which were excluded all who could not boast of similar ancestry and did not conform to the same standards of morals and manners. They were self-conscious of their “culture” which consisted of the enjoyment of English and, in Louisiana, French classical literature music. They maintained literary societies in which they could enjoy and foster their “culture.” The patterns found in rural as compared to urban black communities changed. The folk tradition of the

“The Book of Negroes is a master piece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.” I completely agree with The Globe and Mail’s interpretation of this story. One could almost see the desolate conditions of the slave boats and feel the pain of every person brought into slavery. Lawrence Hill created a compelling story that depicts the hard ships, emotional turmoil and bravery when he wrote The Book of Negroes.

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

“The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison” (Alexander, 2012). The numbers tell the story better than words can: black people are more likely to go to prison than any other race in the United States, shown by the fact that more than 60% of the prison population is composed of people of color (The Sentencing Project, 2016). These statistics can be traced back to several different cause, including the Era of Jim Crow and the War on Drugs, both of which led to higher policing in minority areas.

“As the walls of the ghetto shook and threatened to crumble, the walls of the prison were correspondingly extended, enlarged and fortified. . .” (Wacquant 2002:52). In his account, Wacquant implies that once ghettos began to disperse, American society required a new place for African Americans to reside: prison. Reading this article, one would never know that African Americans existed outside ghettos and prisons. The concept of African Americans in suburbia or anywhere of decent living standards is ignored completely. There is no dispute over the “racially skewed mass imprisonment” (Wacquant 2002:56) of black men and women, but not only African Americans inhabit ghettos and the “inner city.” However, the “centuries-old

“The United States has the highest poverty rate of any advance industrial nation” (Elizabetha, 2013). For many years, black people have considered to be the poorest race in the United states. There have been many government programs put in place to help poverty among black Americans. Such as welfare, unemployment, and Medicaid just to name a few. The question is, with so many government programs, why does poverty still exist among Black Americans?

Due to the completion of the transcontinental railroad, this gave American industry the opportunity to expand and grow stronger. As a direct result of this, urbanization was able to commence in several regions throughout the nation. This is basically the rapid growth of cities, attracting many different groups of people to move from the country side and live in these cities. These people included: Millions of immigrants, farmers, freed African Americans, and whites living in extreme poverty. The reason so many groups of people migrated to live in cities is because many farmers were losing their jobs due to the rise of machines and technology, while African Americans and immigrants were looking for a better lifestyle.

“The brutality with which official would have quelled the black individual became impotent when it could not be pursued with stealth and remain unobserved. It was caught—as a fugitive from a penitentiary is often caught—in gigantic circling spotlights. It was imprisoned in a luminous glare revealing the naked truth to the whole world” – Martin Luther King (8, Kasher)

In the article On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto by Alice Goffman,discussed the large increase of imprisonment concentrated in poor black communities. In these communities supervision by police has risen significantly. In some areas like Philadelphia policing increased 69% percent. In addition the heightened number of mainly black men incarcerated has grown seven times in the last 40 years. There is an undeniable correlation between the increase in black men incarcerated and the amount of policing and surveillance in these neighborhoods. For some of these men a citation for a minor infraction or offense is given. Following this is the option of not showing up for their court dates or inability to

Throughout history, blacks have been treated the poorest out of all races. Although everyone under God is to be treated equal, whites thought of themselves as being the superior race. In 1619 a Dutch ship brought 20 slaves to America and it took nearly 240 years for slavery to end in 1865(Ronald, , para. 3).These helpless slaves were taken to America and put to work growing anything from cotton to tobacco. Slaves had absolutely no rights. They were simply property of their “Massa’.” Being disrespectful to a white man could get a Negro killed and they just accepted the facts of the matter. The south was the most notorious in its treatment of slaves and slaves would run away. It was a big risk, but a slave that made it to a

The most alarming ethical issue I came to notice when I read Goffman's On the run is that the sociologist got too close with the informants that she did what"black man" would do at that particular circumstance. As she vividly describes in the book, she engaged in the manhunt looking for the murderer who killed her 6th street friend Chuck: We started out around 3:00 a.m., with Mike in the passenger seat, his hand on his Glock as he directed me around the area. We peered into dark houses and looked at license plates and car models as Mike spoke on the phone with others who had information about whereabouts. One night, Mike thought he saw his target: