Comments on: Elijah Anderson comments on ‘The Wire’

By: Elijah.anderson

Elijah.anderson — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:45:25 +0000

Almost everyone residing in poor inner-city neighborhoods is struggling financially and therefore feels a certain distance from the rest of America, but there are degrees of alienation, captured by the terms “decent” and “street” or “ghetto,” suggesting social types. The decent family and the street family in a real sense represent two poles of value orientation, two contrasting conceptual categories. The labels “decent” and “street,” which the residents themselves use, amount to evaluative judgments that confer status on local residents. The labeling is often the result of a social contest among individuals and families of the neighborhood. Individuals of either orientation may coexist in the same extended family. Moreover, decent residents may judge themselves to be so while judging others to be of the street, and street individuals often present themselves as decent, while drawing distinctions between themselves and still other people. There is also quite a bit of circumstantial behavior—that is, one person may at different times exhibit both decent and street orientations, depending on the circumstances. Although these designations result from much social jockeying, there do exist concrete features that define each conceptual category, forming a social typology.

The resulting labels are used by residents of inner-city communities to characterize themselves and one another, and understanding them is part of understanding life in the inner-city neighborhood. Most residents are decent or are trying to be. The same family is likely to have members who are strongly oriented toward decency and civility, whereas other members are oriented toward the street—and to all that it implies. There is also a great deal of “code-switching”: a person may behave according to either set of rules, depending on the situation. Decent people, especially young people, often put a premium on the ability to code-switch. They share many of the middle-class values of the wider white society but know that the open display of such values carries little weight on the street: it doesn’t provide the emblems that say, “I can take care of myself.” Hence such people develop a repertoire of behaviors that do provide that security. Those strongly associated with the street, who have less exposure to the wider society, may have difficulty code-switching; imbued with the code of the street, they either don’t know the rules for decent behavior or may see little value in displaying such knowledge.

– Elijah Anderson, author, Code of the Street

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 09 May 2008 23:27:13 +0000

I have to say, I don’t understand Anderson’s interpretation of the show as “cynical” or “leaving out the decent people” at all. For me, the entire theme of the show is moral ambiguity - the idea that the distinction between “thug” and “decent” is much murkier than most of us like to believe. Many of the drug dealers in the show are portrayed as decent, caring people who are just doing their best to make it in a very tough world, and many of the cops and politicians are portrayed as corrupt. In The Wire, being a decent person has little to do with which side of the law you’re on, since there are “good” and “bad” people on both sides.

I’m actually thinking of creating a seminar called “The Sociology of The Wire,” if I can convince my department to let me teach it, which pairs each season of the show with an appropriate book (e.g., Gang Leader for a Day for the season that focuses on the street gangs, Savage Inequalities for the season that focuses on the school system). If anyone has any suggestions for books, I ‘d love to hear them!

By: louie

louie — Sun, 04 May 2008 19:41:12 +0000

Read Anderson’s book, Code of the Street. He is right - he isn’t glorifying religion.

In the book he establishes that often, those whom overcome the plight of violence and drugs in the inner-city are people who cling to the ideals of the “greater power” of religion and the ideal of a nuclear family.

By: racismreview.com » Blog Archive » Sociologists Critique “The Wire”

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:33:46 +0000

[...] TO ADD: Amelia posted more of Anderson’s comments a few days ago over at Contexts Crawler.) Cook counters that this [...]

By: jon

jon — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:02:49 +0000

Jessie at racismreview.com posted about an AlterNet article on the Wire that talks about research by Bruce Western and Katherine Newman.

By: amy

amy — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:36:57 +0000

Because atheists use and sell drugs, bite the heads off babies, and sacrifice bunnies, of course!

What I think is interesting is that Anderson doesn’t seem to allow for the fact that this is a drama, and an HBO drama at that. It’s television, of course it’s an exaggeration! Ever been to a hospital? Is every surgeon as beautiful as Meredith Grey or McDreamy? The Wire is not real life nor, I think, is it meant to depict such. It’s not documentary. It’s meant to draw people to paying $15/month to get HBO and then sit there and watch it.

(Maybe Anderson understands that and just wasn’t quoted as saying such. No way to know that.)

By: jon

jon — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 18:35:58 +0000

I’m not sure what God-fearing and churchgoing has to do with it. Does lack of religion have anything at all to do with drug addition or drug dealing?