Identity In Dorothy Allison's A Question Of Class

It is no news when we hear about recent riots in the city of Baltimore, violence in the streets of New York City, and drug wars in Los Angeles. For many citizens, urban violence does not come as a surprise since many impoverished cities in the United States lack job opportunities, police protection, and in which many citizens feel unwanted. Cities such as Baltimore is the home to 63% of African Americans who live in poor conditioned homes, and are surrounded by drugs and violence within their communities. Many of us do not acknowledge these obstacles that African Americans, Latinos, or unprivileged whites encounter in urban communities where they feel hated, hopeless, and judged. Social unrest in the United Sates has been the result of many

But for many members of poor communities, it is difficult to meet their own needs, because of stressful relationships, the lack of financial security, and the desperate need of acceptance from others. In “ A Question of Class,” Dorothy Allison speaks about being born and raised into a dysfunctional family, which she considers to be the “bad poor” and feels the need to keep her true identity a secret from society. Where one’s identity is meant to represent the values and goals of one, Allison’s is the opposite; she fears that her family’s reputation of having an alcoholic stepfather and a working mother will decrease her chances of being accepted as anything, especially as a member of the LGBT community. “I’ve have never been able to make clear the degree of my fear, the extent to which I feel myself denied: not only that I am queer in a world that hates queers, but that I was born poor into a world that despises the poor” (Allison 1). Just like Allison, many Americans today feel the need to change who they are, because it allows them to alter factors in their lives that hold them back from progressing in life. For Allison, her family and her past represent the despair in her life that has caused her to hate who she has become and the reason why she cannot be accepted by society. This explains why many people today turn to

In “ Code of the Streets,” by Elijah Anderson, we analyze how in poor inner-cities, many residents feel the need to wear a mask to portray this power, honor, and anger that many use to keep others away so that they will not be messed with. Because those who live in urban communities are not allowed to interact with the upper and middle class, “the inclination to violence springs from the circumstances of life among the ghetto poor- the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, the stigma of race, the fallout from ramping drug use and drug trafficking, and the resulting alienation and lack of hope for the future.” (Anderson 1). Survival in cities like Baltimore is very uncommon, because of poor living conditions and the lack of resources that enforce help, such as the police department. With no protection around, many feel the need to use violent behaviors to avoid being messed with and like Anderson quotes “the trophy does not have to be material. It can be another person’s sense of honor, snatched away with a derogatory remark” (12). Many Latinos and African American in urban communities turn to street fighting for the exchange of money or participate in the beatings of others to give one a sense of power that makes him or she feel more superior than their surroundings. Some hide their true identity by