Essay Sample on Elijah's Code of the Street: Exploring Civility & Conduct in Metropolitan Centers

Elijah's "Code of the Street" carefully explores the significance of realizing and abiding by "a code" that people naturally adhere to when residing in their neighborhoods, as a way of expressing civility and conduct in their daily operations. The book provides a lot of information concerning what most of the metropolitan centers in the USA today are experiencing ranging from the diverse ethnic residential areas with people from different socioeconomic settings cohabitating (Andersen, 1999). Elijah has been able to describe the social ills that face most advanced societies such as financial strife, poverty, drugs, high levels of delinquency, as well as teen pregnancy while trying to look for and calling for a certain level of respect through a universal comprehension of the "Code of the Streets."

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The code regards the street knowledge of the rules that any person is trying to resettle into such an environment must abide for survival. The author believes that citizens tend to adapt to their cultural settings via a set of street norms that they take on to help them identify areas within their societies that are habitable or not or cases that hold the potential of becoming dangerous (Andersen, 1999).

The most exciting act presented by Elijah is that people live their lives carefully by learning their environments to the point that they come to "know what time it is- not by the clock but by reading people, places, and situations" (Andersen, 1999). Thus, the main argument presented by the author is that people are acutely able to recognize signs and are set to understand how to react to any given situations that could arise in their neighborhoods.

The book carefully explores the way popular culture and social perceptions tend to romanticize violence as well as criminal life. Also, Elijah provides sufficient details regarding the way media depicts urban areas as a region that is made up of mainly minority societies who are overrun by violent criminals who are, in most cases young African Americans (Andersen, 1999).

It is essential to point out that the book is based on a typical ethnically diverse neighborhood of Philadelphia which is employed as the backbone for explaining the struggle for respect, identifying it, and comprehending the code in areas plagued with aggressive acts in various parts of the USA today.

In his study, Elijah (1999) seeks to create awareness about life in dangerous residential areas and help people realize the way their preconceived views concerning how families within such neighborhoods interact amongst themselves and coexist via this code. Since most of the social ills noted in urban centres are caused by structural forces such as lack of adequate job opportunities, affordable housing, and high illiteracy levels, then it can be argued the economic discrimination or relegation determines the behavioural patterns acquired by the people for them to thrive in harsh surroundings.

The author provides more information on the delicate balance of gaining full comprehension of the "code of the street" and residing in a hostile neighbourhood is not indicative of all its residents. Elijah has efficiently demonstrated that people various backgrounds could easily cohabitate in dangerous societies, but for them to survive, they ought to respect the code as it stipulates those who succeed and fail and live or die.

Through this, the editor has been able to identify a dual commonality as a result of the fact there are different ethical codes for decent and street families in inner African American societies (Andersen, 1999). The idea is that most families coexist mainly through a moral code but also as a result of their current environments are coerced to use criminal street codes as a reaction to their predicaments for survival that could have otherwise detrimental effects if broken by any groups.

The book provides that the code is developed because of a lack of faith in the law enforcement bodies as well as the judicial system, which is because such entities are more representative of the dominant societies making them be perceived as less helpful to the African American residents. This, in turn, results in the need for self-precaution, safeguarding, or and being prepared to everything to do anything that ensures the survival of the family.

The author claims that this form of subculture tends to govern behaviors as a survival technique arising from racial discrimination that many minorities have been subjected to by mainstream America. Importantly, stressing a strong image that helps one to gain respect in the society lowers the chances of the affected person getting hurt and solidifies the view that people can "handle themselves in violent environments" at all times (Anderson, 1999). Through the use of personal interviews from the Philadelphia society that has been employed as the subject of the study, the residents provide an in-depth insight into the dynamics of the code by stating the difference that exists between decent and street families along with the ways they each adapt to violent residences via their testimonies.

The most important thing one could gain by reading Elijah's book is that social construction of racial discrimination in the USA hurts the minorities, especially African American demographics. This prejudice has resulted in a generation of systematically oppressed individuals in America today. A considerable number of those who have been victims of such unfair practices report having issues accessing medical, educational, employment, and residential services that continue to impact their lives (Andersen, 1999).

However, in my view, the book suffers a limitation such that the author does not focus entirely on structural issues as well as their underlying causes, which is a gap that needs to be filled. At the end of the material, Elijah quickly and shallowly analyzes the structural issues by recognizing all that needs to be done to improve the lives of those who reside in dangerous neighbourhoods.

However, I believe that the latter cannot be achieved without deeply determining the factors and reasons behind challenges affecting residents in such societies. As such, it could be argued that the author is adversely presenting African American societies as uncivilized, illiterate, dysfunctional, and aggressive. This would have been avoided if the author had paid more attention to explaining the complexities of these structural concerns that plague these societies.

Thus, Andersen's (1999) survey needs to include a vital assessment of the significance of institutional social racism on social economically disadvantaged communities, particularly for African American neighbourhoods and the way their challenging living conditions determining the urban environments. Lastly, the author should have carefully analyzed the way the latter impacts the prevalence of violence in these societies.

Reference

Andersen, Elijah. (1999). Code of the Street. New York, NY, USA: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.