Mr. L: A Case Study

The book being reviewed in this papers is Code of the Suburb: Inside the World of Young Middle-Class Drug Dealers by Scott Jacques and Richard Wright. This book is written on the context of 30 different individuals from a small location referenced as “Peachville” in Atlanta Georgia (Jacques & Wright 1). Each of these known individuals during their time in high school were selling drugs. Marijuana was the particular substance to be sold, but few dove into other illicit drugs including ecstasy, cocaine etc. (3). Generally speaking, the first questions that appears is what pushed these students to dive into the prospects of peddling and using drugs? Better yet, why continue to use them? The 7 chapters included in this book contain various stories of popularity and financial gains and losses along with the destruction of relationships.

In Randol Contreras’s The Stickup Kids, Contreras explores the South Bronx through the lens of a sociologist. He describes the lives of the stickup kids such as Gus, Pablo, and other teenagers living in the South Bronx. Contreras uses the research method of ethnography to provide a sociological analysis of the drug trade and business in the South Bronx. His research shows how social factors impact the lives of these stickup kids to become active in the drug trade. Through his field notes and interviews with the stickup kids, Contreras examines in depth of how social factors such as, socialization, social class, the thrill of crime, deviance, and culture affect the individual.

The issues in this case study involve Melinda Smith, a veteran special education teacher, Derrick Yate, a student with behavioral disorder, Greg, the school principal, Barba Cole, the school social worker, Mrs. Yates, Derrick’s mom and Mr. Douglas, a general education teacher. Besides being a student with behavioral disorder, Derrick was low achieving and had developed a notorious reputation around school. According to Karen, one of the fifth-grade teachers, “Derrick has terrorized everyone”. Despites all the putdowns on Derrick, Mrs. Smith decides to take on the challenge to straighten his behavior.

Prior to being assigned the reading of the memoir “Always Running”, by Luis Rodriguez, I had never given much thought on juveniles involved in gang life. Rodriguez achieved success as an award-winning poet; sure the streets would no longer haunt him - until his own son joined a gang. Rodriguez fought for his child by telling his own story in the vivid memoir, “Always Running.” “Always Running” is the compilation of events Luis experienced during his youth in San Gabriel. The theme of the book is to always strive for the best things in life and to always take a stand for what you believe. Lured by the seemingly invincible gang culture of East L.A., he witnessed countless shootings and beatings, as well as senseless acts of street crime against his friends and family members. As a Latino in a poor neighborhood, Luis struggled through criticism, stereotypes, and mistreatment. With the help of his mentor, Chente, Luis saw a way out through education and the power of word to successfully break free from years of violence and desperation.

In Always Running, Luis J. Rodriguez recalls his time growing up in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s. Rodriguez writes of the hardships that his family had first encountered while trying to assimilate into American society and how he would often, while growing up, be criminalized by his teachers, law enforcement, other people, his peers, his community, and eventually people who cared most for him. Rodriguez recalls the times where he and some friends came together and created a family, a brotherhood of sort, in order to fulfill his need of belonging, but as other people in the community had also formed groups to consolidate power, thus marked the beginning of rivalry and the introduction of gangs. Rodriguez’s gang life had been filled with tragedies and filled with great times, but ultimately he tried to leave the life of crime and commit to an education. Rodriguez tried stepping away from the gang lifestyle by going to school and writing poetry, but ended up back in the life of crime after a serious altercation with the police. When Rodriguez went back to his gang lifestyle, he found the same gang that treated him as a brother, had shunned him away after Rodriguez had offered a solution to wither away the gang violence.

Tony had started dealing drugs in those shadowy hallways of Murphy Homes before he was ten. By the time he was fourteen, Tony had built a fierce reputation in the neighborhood. Despite his skinny frame and baby face, his eyes were lifeless and hooded, without a hint of spark or optimism. Tony’s dead-eyed ruthlessness inspired fear. He spent much of his time in West Baltimore but had decided to try to open up a drug sales operation in East Baltimore as well.

Phillipe Bourgois explores the struggle Puerto Rican residents of inner city Harlem face in surviving both economically and socially as they use selling crack as a vessel to find meaning and value in their lives. His ethnographic approach to understanding the culture and economy of the inner city in Spanish Harlem reveals the deeply entrenched values and ideologies in dealing drugs. Bourgois found that rather than simply an economic means of survival, selling crack had an impact upon dealers’ lives and identities. Far from simply a job, the crack trade was a way to gain respect and take a stand against the menial entry level jobs the residents of the inner city found offered to them – often with no opportunities to advance their careers, with racism rampant and employers found to be abusive and discriminatory. Compared to these conditions, partaking in the drug trade was seen to be an effective way to build a career and pursue the American Dream.

Moore creates the argument that the social hierarchy in drug distribution groups puts pressure on the drug dealers to complete their tasks. After quitting school in search of a job for his growing family, the other Wes secretly becomes a drug dealer. The author describes the other Wes’ crew and the “unbreakable bond” that many dealers considered “the only support system they had” (Moore 110). Moore claims that one of the reasons why both Wes’ had different lives is because of how everyone in his crew relied on each other to sell the drugs. It would be very difficult for the other Wes to choose to leave the drug industry because of everyone who relied on him to complete his job.

Many people believe in the principle that regardless of what a family member does, family should still always be there for them. However, when does a family decide that enough is enough? Better yet, what does a family do when a member of that family is addicted to drugs and is also selling them? Ideally, many families would try to get help for that member of their family, but what if this member’s addiction was so bad that they were arrested and thrown in prison? A good example of this scenario is illustrated in James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues” which tells the story of a man whose life experiences take him through an inner transformation and spiritual growth while trying to understand the person that his brother was and has become.

The elite outsiders, also known as the white suburbanites, have fueled a stereotypical background for neighborhoods like Bristol Hill. Waverly suggests that “unlike the stereotypical image of drug infested ghettos, this neighborhood is not plagued by crack houses and roaming addicts. Instead, its drug scene is controlled by a local group of young black males whose occupation is selling powdered cocaine to white suburbanites” (1). The elite in this case have created an onset value that shames the drug trade even if they fuel most of the income. The elitists are pushing the drug trade and producing an endless supply of young black men to fill the prisons.

In the memoir, “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” by Nick Flynn, drug use plays a huge role. Throughout the memoir, Flynn describes his father’s struggles with alcoholism and how it continually caused negative events in his life. Along with his father he also explains the drug use of his mother and friends. Flynn not only describes the consequences of other’s drug use, but also his own. During his memoir, Flynn continually gives drug use a negative connotation, through the actions and decisions of his characters.

Mel grew up in an dysfunctional family, that sexually abused young adolescent children as the normal routine. Around the age 15 is when young Mel started to engage in marijuana, one of the possible reasons Mel could have started using the illegal substance is because he was sexually abused at the age of 15. According to (Victims of Crime, 2015) their statistics showed 60% of adolescents are sexually assaulted by someone in their community circle; therefore, the expression stranger danger is a bit deceptive. The thought of knowing that for many year’s educators, mothers, and caregivers have been schooling teenagers to stay away from unfamiliar individuals; all along, the real message that should have been drilled in children is to stay away from anyone who carries a threat of safety, this includes family as well (Tate, 2015).

The short story takes place in 1950s in a neighborhood in Harlem, New York during the time of the Korean War. The story begins with the narrator reading the local newspaper and finding out his brother (Sonny) was arrested for possession, intention to sell, and using heroin. This author of this story sets the tone and shows the audience the symbolizes throughout the story through growing up in harsh neighborhoods,

A father of six children, married to his wife for fourteen years, one day decides to leave his family and never come back. A beautiful couple splits up after the wife gives birth to their first child. A young stud who’s attracted to the same sex, married a female and created children in an attempt to change his desires. The stud has become a middle aged male who has forsaken the family structure. “I am a man of morals, it’s tradition, my family is my obligation.” Argues an emotionally vacant father to himself; as he quietly flees his home in the middle of the night, tiptoeing to not wake anyone while carrying out his preplanned escape. A drunk single father of two, filled with rage over life’s misfortunes, beats his teenage son to death in front of his daughter. When the drunk sobered up enough to realize what he had done, he turned to his daughter apologized and ran away. A sixty-year-old gentlemen, and self-reformed ladies’ man, walks his sixty-five-year-old wife, of thirty years, to church and is never seen in the village again. In addition to these scenarios, all were unemployed fathers in a deteriorating village. Add to the village an infiltrated police force synonymous with a drug cartel. Add to the cartel wars and partnerships with gangs and other police forces. The scenarios of men leaving their home could have been the men of Tres Camarones, a village in Luis Alberto’s book Into the Beautiful North. Unemployed fathers leaving a deteriorating village. Add to this

He liked to walk around the classroom and talk to his friends, even when asked to sit down. On several occasions he was sent to the principal’s office for punishment and redirection. He fights with his brother and sisters and seems unable to take care of his possessions. He cannot sit still long enough to watch television or to play with his friends in a quiet manner his grades at school are poor” (Gibson