Alice Goffman On The Run Sparknotes

Goffman Exam
The news often reports on crime within Black, urban neighborhoods, but seldom does that same viewing public get to see what is truly happening in these communities, and their thoughts and views are shaped just from what they perceive of TV. In Alice Goffman’s book On the Run, Goffman takes a deeper look into urban, Black men’s relationship with the police, and lets the reader see the situation from a side not commonly shown on the news.
It is important to first understand how Goffman went about crafting On the Run. Goffman writes her book in a very narrative style, one with distinct characters and reoccurring settings. This makes sense because she is documenting people’s lives and one’s life is a narrative, but this also seems

to dull down the sociological aspects of the study. This is a style that makes it easier for the general public to interpret, but also one that is heavily criticized by the sociology community, especially sociologists like Loïc Wacquant have written extensively to critique this way of conducting ethnography. But in recent years publishing companies have had a “[m]ad scramble for accessible books on ‘sexy’ topics and controversial issues liable to catch the fancy of a broad, educated audience and thereby generate high sales and quick commercial success” (Wacquant 1524). The general public is so used to narrative, easily comprehendible topics that providing ethnography in this format is the only way to get a group like this to embrace the study. But this irritates scholars like Wacquant who believe that sociology needs to keep their academic prestige, and that this format of writing is just to increase sales. Now, Wacquant is fine with this style as long as it “[d]oes not … constrict one’s questioning, curtail conceptual complexity, and streamline one’s writings, in short, compromise scientific standards” (Wacquant 1525). He believes that there still needs to be the academic standards that are so for set. But does Goffman’s book meet his standards?
It is important that a sociologist stays neutral with her subject, and it is fairly easy to see that Goffman had a very personal relationship with the residents in the neighborhood. She state it flat out that her role “[g]radually chang[ed] from tutor to friend and resident” (Goffman 219). But this possibly could have been the only way she was able to get an inside look into this community. Without this friendship she would not have been able to become what she calls a “Fly on the Wall” (Goffman 237), because she would never be able to get on the wall. Without the status she acquired, the residents would have never opened up the way they did, and her study would not have been as thorough.
Throughout her book, Goffman tends to use a number of broad statements like when she writes “I witnessed a number of situations in which the police pressure never materialized” (Goffman 75).

This constantly appears throughout the book. She will state how many times she saw a certain event, but then fails to evaluate what she has just said. It does not let the reader understand if what she is saying is supposed to be a lot or a few. Some might say that this is in an effort to help the reader come to their own conclusions. But if this was the case, why would she then opinionate other observations that she made. Goffman fails to give the reader the proper context to understand her standard observations, but then uses rhetoric that helps lead the reader’s thoughts in a certain direction during other parts of the

book.
What Goffman does not fail to do is include her personal experience in the book.

As an outsider—and as a white woman—her experience on 6th Street is far different than that of the residents. Throughout the books she talks about the different ways that she is treated compared to that of the tenants. But she also experienced some of the same treatment. Like on page sixty-one, the police are raiding the house, and she is given the same forceful treatment as the others in the house. The benefit that this provides is that Goffman is able to experience more closely what these residents go through throughout in their lives, and it helps bring emotion into her writing. But this is not necessarily a good thing. Yes, Goffman is able to give an in-depth description of what it is like to experience a forceful police raid, but the emotion that can come from this has the potential to sway her writing from an objective

position.
But is Goffman a claims-maker? Most of her books is written as a documentation of what is happening on 6th Street. She pretty much lays out what she observes, which allows for the audience to come to their own conclusions and make their own claims. Goffman is contributing to the claims making process by rendering viability, but she is not necessarily the claims-maker. The books seems to frame the events that occur on 6th Street as cruel and unwieldy, and they very well are, but Goffman’s writing helps to view the situation in an objective light. She will take what she observes, analyze it, and then explains it to the reader. Take for example when she writes about how when people protect their loved ones, it can often back fire. She then goes on to give examples, and she closes it with saying that “protecting others opens people up for the humiliation of being scorned or used” (Goffman 132). This is the way she goes about most scenes in the book.
What is so interesting is different ways in which people have the ability to view the contents on the book, and even how Goffman, coming from a privileged life, views the circumstances in the book. These different views coming from the values people hold in their lives and the different ways they contrast to a community like 6th Street. Spector and Kitsuse write that “We view values as linguistic devices that participants use to articulate their claims, or to persuade others to legitimize [endorse] them” (Spector Kitsuse 74). Goffman’s values from how she grew up and how she was raised affect how she views the events that she witnesses and is a part of during her time on 6th Street. And this has a tendency to influence her writing. Though she does well to lay out the facts as she sees them occur, it, more often than not, slips into her writing. Just through her choice in diction, she conveys a certain feeling about the circumstances, and these sway her writing in a way that can push the reader one way or the other, which Spector and Kitsuse would say has her contributing to the claims-making process.
But Goffman’s writing does bring up some ideas that help the reader to further understand what they experience on the news. This book helps answer the “why” question. The first thing to look at is the relationship between Black men and the police in the poor, urban areas of Philadelphia, and how this relationship has manifested over the years. These men are being taught from a young age that the police are something to fear, and that “[o]ne of the first things that such a man develops is a heightened awareness of police officers” (Goffman 23). The older boys teach the younger ones to have this awareness; this is all stemming from the tough-on-crime days, which has been placing Black men in a bad light for years. As this progresses, police officers are connecting the young, Black men with the “drug problem” the country is facing, and this leads to more and more stop and searches.
These men will go to any lengths to cease interaction with the police, because any interaction can lead to the discovery of unpaid warrants, which will land the man back intro jail or prison. Warrants are put out from everything from missing a court date or missing a payment to robbing a store. So, any contact with the police is seen as dangerous. But then these men are no longer are protected by the law, because “[a] man […] cannot call the police when harmed, or make use of the courts to settle disputes” (Goffman 29). A man can be beaten or robbed, but if he has an outstanding warrant, he is not able to take it to the authorities. The whole system is working against him. They are stuck in an endless cycle. This leads to many men and gangs taking their protection and justice into their own hands.
There is increased violence in these neighborhoods, because people can get away with it. If nobody is going to report that they got robbed, it makes it appear as free game, but this leads to even more disputes. A man can take measures into his own hands to avenge a friend or even himself. They’ll find themselves trying to resolve the issues with more violence, which could lead to even more arrests.
The police do not just run warrants when a man is stopped, they actively use places where people are vulnerable to collect information. Police will come to hospitals and run the names of all the visitors. A man could be watching his son or daughter being born and have the police burst in and take him out in handcuffs for a missed court date or unpaid fine. This kind of treatment goes for funerals as well (35). Police will sit at a distance identifying people going into a service and arrest them as they come out.
A whole man’s life revolves around the police and their actions. A man might not go to the hospital if he is shot or wounded, because the police could run his name and arrest him on the spot. A man could not go to work because of an outstanding warrant, because one never knows when the police might show up. This behavior leads to them losing their jobs, which could stop them from paying a court fee, placing another warrant on their head.
A Black man’s life in the poor, urban community can be completely run by the law, and all of his actions are decided based on the police. Alice Goffman’s documentation of these people’s lives is a great way to shed light on a different perspective that is not often told.