The House That I Live In Summary

The documentary, The House That I Live In, analyzes the introduction of the war on drugs in America, why it was called into action, and its respective consequences. The war on drugs started as lawmakers searched to find ways to legally prosecute minorities. Lawmakers identified medicines primarily used by a single race or ethnicity, then outlawed the medicine as a drug to convict that race. As different races became problematic, new laws were created. Now these laws take advantage of the poor community as police are geographically targeting areas for crime. Many of these poor areas contain a high percentage of African Americans, due to Northern Jim Crow laws that forced blacks into economically disadvantaged ghettos. Thus, creating an overrepresentation

First, Agnew’s general strain theory states that one experiences strain, which leads to feelings of anger and frustration, ultimately leading individuals to turn to deviant behaviors. The strain experienced is most likely to lead to deviancy if it is in high amounts, considered unjust or correlated to low self-control. Secondly, differential opportunity theory introduces the idea that deviance must be learned; however, opportunity to learn various types of deviance is not equal among the population. This theory identifies two subcultures useful for this topic, criminal and conflict. Criminal subcultures develop in lower classes where criminal opportunity is available and conflict subcultures develop in lower classes where no opportunities are available, criminal or legal. Lastly, Merton’s strain theory adapts the idea that everyone longs for success, but equal opportunities are not present; therefore, strain is introduced. This essay is focusing on innovation and retreatism because both lack the structural means to achieve success. The difference between these being that innovation accepts societal goals, while retreatism rejects

First and foremost, racism and a lower education often put poor minorities at a disadvantage for employment. In poor neighborhood, families are not likely to have the resources to fund secondary education and the education they receive growing up is also less than adequate. As one individual in the documentary states that the teachers they have do not seem to care about the students or the education. With a negatively impacted education, few are likely to aspire toward a collegiate degree. When applying for jobs, many find themselves in positions that require many hours of hard labor for an extremely low price because they are unable to be hired elsewhere. These low wages result in the relocation of moderately poor individuals, to very poor neighborhoods, further making it difficult to acquire and maintain a job. The repeated frustration of trying to find a job that provides well enough to support a family, while also being able to be an active part of the family, puts a large amount of stress onto the providers. After repeated attempts to support themselves and their family, many are forced to illegal escapades to provide for their loved ones. Others may react differently and seek out drugs as a coping mechanism to their stress and hardships, only to find themselves digging a deeper hole and straining family