Cameron Mitchell
April 22nd, 2015
HSCI:3630
Gina Burton
Tally’s Corner Research Assignment
In the book “Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men” written by Elliot Liewbow, the author, Liewbow uses a certain methodology to study their subjects. This methodology is called participant observation. Elliot Liewbows purpose for this method was to investigate the theory of proletariat societal stereotypes about the African American race in Washington D.C in the 60’s. He observed the group of men for nearly 18 months straight.
This group of men were poor men, unemployed, uneducated. These men lived through failure after failure and therefore, they look to the street corner as “a sanctuary for those who can no longer endure the experience or prospect of failure” (Liebow p.139). Their names were Tally, another Sea Cat, and Leroy. He observed the friendship between these corner men, and their involvement amongst other activities. Liewbow accompanied them to bars and parties, he appeared in court with them, and visited them in jail. Tally’s Corner provided a look at the connection and relationship of streetcorner men to their whole lives. Their jobs, family, affairs, friends and networks throughout the low income ghetto neighborhood surrounding Tally’s Corner, Washington D.C.
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The “Negro” streetcorner men of the “Tally’s Corner” had the some of the same traditional goals and beliefs of society at a picture scale, such as pride and honor, but they have been subjected to models of failure throughout childhood to their adult life.
Most African American sons and daughters grew up without father like figure and while wives hope their husbands are a not failures, they sort of have an expectation of them to fail. These men had family to provide for and failing to do so is embarrassing and humiliating so many men leave their families before they fail. This adds to their problems and causes anger, resentment, bad life choices and
violence. The 1960’s was a decade of extremes, rebellion, revolution, racism, and remorse. The Civil Rights Movement finally surfaced in this era and encompassed a social movement that involved the whole United States of America. Civil rights activist rallied to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans. They wanted to receive legal and equal recognition, federal protection of the citizenship rights listed in the Constitution under the federal law. The Civil Right Movement was distinguished by major campaigns of civil resistance. In the early stages of the movement there non-violent protest acts like “sit-ins”, which is a form of direct action that involves people occupying an area for protest, often to promote non-violent political, economic change, or social change. When Martin Luther King Jr., an African American civil rights activist delivered his “I have a dream” speech in 1963, his words proved to be a guide and inspiration to the understanding of social and political change of the era. King’s overall message in his speech to his people expresses a cry for equality. The United States has experienced race related civil disturbances all throughout its history, but the events that happened in the late 1960’s were deadly and resulted in large numbers of injuries, deaths, and arrests, as well as property damage, predominantly in black areas. The deadliest riots were in Los Angeles (1965),Detroit (1967), Newark (1967), and Washington D.C in 1968 following MLK’s assassination. King’s death let to and outrage of anger and frustration among black Americans. It was a period of mourning for blacks that catalyzed an equal rights bill that would eventually be the last legislative achievement of the civil rights era. Following the riots African Americans like Tally, Leroy, and Sea Cat experienced negative economic effects. Employment and income rates decreased significantly. The racial gap narrowed. Poverty in highly populated African American neighborhoods increased which led to residential segregation and created bad socioeconomic outcomes among you blacks.
Social reproduction is examined closely by Jay Macleod in his book "Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood." His study examines two groups of working class teenage boys residing in Clarendon Heights, a housing project in upstate New York. The Hallway Hangers, a predominately white peer group, and the Brothers, an all African American peer group with the exception of one white member. Through the use of multiple social theories, MacLeod explains social reproduction by examining the lives of these groups as they experience it, being members of the working class in society. These social theories are very important in understanding the ways in which social classes are reproduced.
Wilson created the atmosphere of not only binding black race with economical and social issues when there are other contributing factors as well. The plight of low-skilled inner city black males explains the other variables. He argues “Americans may not fully understand the dreadful social and economic circumstances that have moved these bla...
...is was an excellent book that discussed a lot of information. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. Within the book in each chapter it talks about every aspect of the street code with great information on each topic. The information that each chapter discusses are the, Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, the decent daddy, the mating game, and the black inner city grandmother. Each one of these chapters has major points and good information within them and I would personally want anyone to read this book because it helps you understand and give you a better view into someone else’s world.
Women, black women in particular, are placed in a society that marginalizes and controls many of the aspects of a black woman’s life. As a result, many black women do not see a source of opportunity, a way to escape the drudgery of their everyday existence. For example, if we were to ask black mother’s if they would change their situation if it became possible for them to do so, many would change, but others would say that it is not possible; This answer would be the result of living in a society that has conditioned black women to accept their lots in life instead of fighting against the system of white and male dominated supremacy. In Ann Petry’s The Street, we are given a view of a black mother who is struggling to escape what the street symbolizes.
Every black male's plight in America can be regarded as a provider for his family. However, society does not afford black males the benefit of feeling secure about providi...
The tenement was the biggest hindrance to achieving the American myth of rags to riches. It becomes impossible for one to rise up in the social structure when it can be considered a miracle to live passed the age of five. Children under the age of five living in tenements had a death rate of 139.83 compared to the city’s overall death rate of 26.67. Even if one did live past the age of five it was highly probable he’d become a criminal, since virtually all of them originate from the tenements. They are forced to steal and murder, they’ll do anything to survive, Riis appropriately calls it the “survival of the unfittest”. (Pg.
In chapter three of this report a section is established exclusively for matriarchy in the Negro American family. Based on the Moynihan Report, the role of the black woman in the family is to be aware her sense of self, financially, academically, and emotionally, while also uplifting and solidifying the status of the Negro man, as well as her children, both male and female. The genesis of matriarchal dominance amongst the Negro family is, according to Moynihan, education. Moynihan compares various educational rates of white males and females and nonwhite males and females. Statistically sh...
Richardson, Riche. Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta. University of Georgia Press, 2010. Print.
...owitz, 2005). By subjecting these fatherless children to life in the poverty stricken ghettos of urban America, generations of children continually become unable to capitalize upon the opportunities for a better life, not only for themselves but also for their children, that the Civil Rights Movement had created. This has ultimately become the failure of Black America and has increased juvenile delinquency in Black neighborhoods in the United States.
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
Decades of research has shown us that African Americans have been depressed for hundreds of years. Although the Declaration of Independence states “All men are created equal,” that rule did not apply to African Americans. By the end of the Civil War more than 180,000 black soldiers were in the United States Military. After the Civil War, many Africa...
First I want to speak in unambiguous and unequivocal terms: I repudiate all the rappers promoting failure through their rhymes about selling drugs, abusing women, and abandoning their responsibilities as men. You are all lost and a shame upon our people. Your values are decrepit; your values are out of sync with the norms of society. It amazes me how you promote a lifestyle that only leads to incarceration, broken families, and mass ignorance yet the youth still gravitates towards your message like it's the blue print to success. A lot of our men are a shadow of what they should be. A lot our men have failed their women, failed their daughters, failed their sons and most importantly failed themselves. Not all black men are walking zombies with dicks but at times it seems that good black men are outnumbered by these buffoons. What of the black woman who gives birth to multiple children with different fathers? She has been an accessory to a culture of "baby mammas," child support experts, and extreme mismanagement of money. Black men who are noble and becoming of kings you must wrestle the reigns of your people from the lost, if you won't we will continue to succeed as individuals but fail as a people. They can do you know harm, they aren't as smart as you, nor do they live longer than you. I do not jettison teaching and educating but we are in a perilous state in which we might not have time for niceties. Black men in America are two moves away from being checkmated and when our women abandon us en mass then the final piece will be played. The white man is not to blame, our fate always was, always is and always will be in our own hands. One day, I do not know the exact minute or the hour, we stop being lions, we stop being the ligh...
While I never knew my father, I did grow to know the challenges faced by African Americans. I first began to feel different when I transferred from public to private middle school. People began asking about my ethnicity for the first time in my life. Until this time, it had never seemed important. Although I had never been overly fond of my curly hair, it, along with other traits deemed too 'ethnic' looking, now became a source of shame. I had a few not so affectionate nicknames because of those curls. I was shocked to realize that people considered me different or less desirable because of these physical traits. Being turned away from an open house in my twenties was just as shocking as being ...
Sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh sets out on a journey within the Chicago housing projects with a quest of finding out how it feels to be black and poor. Sudhir was an Indian native from a middle class Californian family and he was unfamiliar with the black culture within Chicago. In his book Gang Leader for a Day, he tells of his sociology research within one of the roughest housing projects in Chicago. Sudhir starts his research by talking to a few elderly gentlemen he played chess with at the park. His conversation with them led him to the Robert Taylor Housing Projects which was described as one of the worst Ghettos in America. His research began the first day he arrived with his clipboard of questionnaires ready to ask the question, “How does it feel to be black and poor?” His intent was to interview a few families within the projects and then go home but something unexpected happened. He ended up spending much longer gaining an insight of the lives of poor blacks, gangs, and drug dealers.
With Doc’s help, Whyte gains entry to the community where he became a participant. After he has entered the community, Whyte demonstrates his effort to assimilate into the society. In Street Corner Society, Whyte mentions “Gradually, as I got to know the men better, I found myself becoming one of the Norton Street gang” (Whyte 64). As Whyte began to establish good rapport with the people, he attempts to conduct unstructured interviews. But he soon learned about when to ask question and when to listen. His informant, Doc also offered an advice to Whyte, he told Whyte that he will “learn the answers in the long run without even having to ask the questions” (67). Whyte subsequently learnt that what Doc said was true, but he did not forsake the non-directed interviews. He simply learnt to asks the right questions at the right time. Besides using participant observation, Whyte also collected the firsthand accounts from Doc. Once Whyte gather together all relevant information that has been collected, he began to analyze the structure of the community. Whyte then shared his findings by published this ethnography entitled Street Corner