Reddit reviews Ain't No Makin' It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood, 3rd Edition

You could show them the Fair Sentencing Act which was to re-mediate the damages of sentencing laws for possession of crack versus possession of cocaine. This issue was both heavily race and class based.

> In the three decades prior to the passing of the Fair Sentencing Act, those who were arrested for possessing crack cocaine faced much more severe penalties than those in possession of powder cocaine. While a person found with five grams of crack cocaine faced a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, a person holding powder cocaine could receive the same sentence only if he or she held five hundred grams. Similarly, those carrying ten grams of crack cocaine faced a ten-year mandatory sentence, while possession of one thousand grams of powder cocaine was required for the same sentence to be imposed.

In the book Ain't No Makin' It, Jay Macleod reveals how his study participants were more inclined to do crime or not had a lot of impact on whether family members or people within their in-groups had been to jail or not. This doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with the overall question, but it's an important qualitative aspect that needs considered when thinking about how we view inter-generational crime. It's kind of analogous to how economists have found the representative trend is children earn about the same amount the families they are born into[1] [2]. All in all, the idea is: families pass on skills they've accrued to their own offspring - aka if you're from a wealthy family you pass on ins and outs of not doing crime (or doing white collar crime). If you're from a poorer, crime background family you pass on ins and outs of doing crime.

important detail that isn't opaque

There is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander where she went into her research completely against the idea that there is still a racial caste system in the U.S. The most prominent things she discovered were court cases that upheld random street or bus searches where police harassed (on a daily basis) poor or/and communities of color. Another one is that prisoners count as 3/5ths a person for a lot of census counts. Further from that is that many prisons are being built and located continually further and further away from communities.

There is On The Run by Alice Goffman who conducts ethnographic research on poor, black subjects she tutored and how they conducted their everyday lives, from criminal to non-criminal, and why they were so active in learning to run from law enforcement (as well as teach youth how to).

Note: Idk if tutor is the right word here, light verbatim

I'll address a glaring issue on how the legal system works both structurally and socially: Have you ever texted while driving? Have you were drank underage? Have you ever been suspended in school? Etc etc - depending on who you are, where you live, your race, class, and a myriad of other things impacts the reportability scale. The likelihood that an authority figure is apt to instruct you not to do something or access the system to punish you. Like with the Fair Sentencing Act, another dimension of the crack versus cocaine dynamic was that people who could afford powder cocaine was they were giving lesser sentences and less likely to be reported (aka let go). The biggest take from this is: the legal system works differently both on a structural level and on a social level. For many people who exit prisons, they are still treated as pariahs even though they've "paid their debt to society."

There's also a dialogue on why Prohibition of heroin, marijuana, and alcohol had a lot of racial tones to it. I can't remember my research sources off the top of my head, but I remember during my studies how political slogans and people would speak out during attempts to get the Harrison Act passed that heroin, "inflames the negro to rape" and marijuana was something that made the Mexican immigrant lazy. Interesting note: white, rural women were more likely to use heroin as noted by documents of them being admitted for treatment (before it being outlawed), doctors using heroin on them for treatment, and individual diaries.

All in all, there is a lot to consider. I'll leave with this: given the circumstances and plight of PoC in the U.S., we should think about why they commit crime or why certain things they do [or people think they do] are disproportionally outlawed? As well as a broader question, what is a crime? What makes something or someone criminal?

Not a real textbook but a good read ain't no makin' it

I have used this one before berko

inequality reader

very big and probably more for a grad course but nonetheless a good resource grusky

I'm someone going into school psychology and I've read a number of really good books that have had a huge impact on the way I view people and recognize a lot of both macro and micro-level issues that people, and especially children, deal with. That said, my favorites would be Outliers and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and Ain't No Makin' It by Jay MacLeod.

> I know it is used in many situations that deal with kids around the same age (rich or poor, white, black or purple) but when it gets the loudest, it's being used as an excuse for really terrible things.

I agree, however... it seems that most often the accusations of treating children like adults to dealt to people of color (note: this is the first time I mention race on this entire thread). And my first reply to this post was essentially that comment. When kids of color do awful things, people tend to burn them in effigy. This issue is captured well in a book (its a little dated but very good) by Jay MacLeod that shows society has outrageous standards for the behavior of minority teens, while similar behaviors of white teens are see as "boys being boys" and/or "rehabilitation is needed" rather than simply locking them up.

I agree this excuse is used when horrendous acts are done. But as I've said again, these kids are essentially raised this way. If not by their parents and family, by those in the neighborhood they look up to. Last night I sat in on a hearing of two students fighting. The mother of one of the students was there, she was less mature than the students who were fighting. The daughter... in my eyes...see this behavior as normal. And not fighting is the abnormal means of handling things. I know this isn't armed robbery, but it a sample in socialization.

My overall point was that is we truly want fix this, we need to stop simply locking people away and/or shooting them, and simply saying "this is a bad individual". People on this thread are telling me "they" as in the black community... we live in the same society! We need to start saying "our society is dysfunctional and we need to do something about it". If we don't this will continue. It won't just fix itself.

> This kid has a serious criminal record and has no doubt run across his share of social workers and interventionists.

Your jaw would drop if you saw how lacking the city and state are in social workers. Just this week the federal government cut a grant to social workers who help rehab teens.

I'm sure if this kid were in my classroom. My mind would label him as bad/toxic. I would assume he would drag others down who think who he is is appealing. I would try to intervene, but I would guess they would fail.... most of the time they do (sometimes they don't). They see me as a white man from a different world, while they have countless facets in their social spheres that pull much more weight than I ever can/will.

> In both situations, no amount of money is going to change them.

Though I believe people can change, I will be the first to say it's hard and uncommon. But the root of the problem is how they're socialized. I do believe money (in the sense of a valuable living standard, not rich) it the root of that problem. People with realistic, and valuable goals and dreams usually don't behave this way.

> For those raised in poverty, it means they may no longer be poor but that doesn't mean they will suddenly be different.

No but if they weren't raised/socialized that way, the problem wouldn't be as such. The widening inequality gap means this is going to conintue, and it's getting worse.

> Money is only a small part of the problem.

This is where we disagree. I think it's the ultimate root of the problem that it the chain reaction to all the other major issues. Are there anomalies? Certainly, but they are far from the norm.

Ain't No Makin' It by Jay Macleod is a pretty good source. Or you know, any sociology 101 textbook. And nobody is claiming its the "only" way.