Mary Pattillo-McCoy lived in an African-American middle-class neighborhood on Chicago's South Side that she gives the name "Groveland" for three years, and her studies of life in Groveland culminated in the publication of Black Picket Fences.
The differences between the middle-class black neighborhood of Groveland and the lower-income surrounding neighborhoods are definitely apparent, but so are the differences between Groveland and comparable middle-class white neighborhoods – possibly even more so. Black Picket Fences illuminates the several ways in which informal race-based residential segregation makes upward mobility among the children of newly middle-class African-American families nearly impossible.
Social Networks in Groveland and their Effect on Crime
Pattillo-McCoy argues that one main flaw of social organization theory is that it assumes that dense social networks always work to deter crime. In Groveland, it seems that high levels of neighborhood familiarity have led to the development of what Pattillo-McCoy calls "organized criminal subcultures."
This is significant because organized criminal activity in Groveland, especially in the drug-trade business, leads to the deterioration of surrounding neighborhoods which become a market for drugs and this activity provides middle-class African-American teenagers an apparently quick path to riches while at the same time providing a self-image similar to those they have idolized in movies or on television.
The Drug Trade and Deterioration of Surrounding Neighborhoods
The deterioration of surrounding lower-income neighborhoods by Groveland drug dealers who turn them into markets for hard illegal drugs is one of many important factors when determining the upward mobility chances of middle-class African-American children living in Groveland.
The case of William “Spider” Waters, Jr. makes evident the fact that surrounding influences can change the course of a person’s life. In Spider’s case, he was influenced by both the culture of the white middle-class, especially working at the Merc (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), and the culture of the black lower-class in nearby neighborhoods.
The influence that surrounding neighborhoods have on the children within middle-class African-American households is strong, which makes it even more troubling that middle-class drug dealers in Groveland are sapping the little money away from the nearby residents who need it most by getting them addicted to hard drugs.
The property within lower-income neighborhoods decline in value as the trade of hard drugs is inflicted upon these neighborhoods as well. However, the residents of Groveland do not mind as much as they perhaps should, because the drug dealers are caring and loved family members and members of the community who many times donate to local organizations and help to keep their own neighborhood safe and clean.
African-American Youth and the Media
On top of all of this, popular music, movies and television have a drastic influence over any youth, but especially African-American youth in terms of style. Mrs. Grant telling the story of her past to Mary Pattillo-McCoy provides a perfect example, when she states that she was "tantalized by the hustlers on the big screen and taught by the ones in her own neighborhood."
African-American youth in the middle-class can sometimes become consumed by what is described as ghetto culture, which generally means that the person really believes that they are just like the music or movie star they idolize, and they become a part of a life full of consumption, illegal income and close calls – and the style to match. Drug dealers in middle-class neighborhoods offer this fast path to riches – a path that the media drills into middle-class African-American youth as necessary.
Mary Pattillo-McCoy's Contribution to Urban Sociology
It is not hard to see why the cycle of middle-class African-American youth choosing these fast paths to riches so often over education, and lower-income neighborhoods continuing to be exploited as a market for drugs persists when Pattillo-McCoy describes that “in riches there is showy extravagance and poverty demands a noble struggle, but to be middle-class, and more precisely lower-middle-class, is to be blah."
The book Black Picket Fences describes how and why it is so hard for residents, especially the youth, to care about the crucial importance of a slow inter-generational upward mobility within middle-class African-American racially segregated neighborhoods when the media makes them out to be “blah.”
References:
- Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among the Black Middle Class. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1999. Print.
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David Boston - Hey! A bit about me: I'm a young American activist, researcher, student and aspiring writer, and I've met the love of my life, Caitlin. ...
