Download Election of 1912 Debate: Day 2

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Street Wise by Elijah Anderson
DO NOW: How would you judge day to day interactions in our high school, using the
interactionist approach?
“Because public interactions generally matter for only a few crucial seconds,
people are conditioned to rapid scrutiny of the looks, speech, public behavior, gender,
and color of those sharing the environment…. [T]he central strategy in maintaining safety
on the streets is to avoid strange black males….
Many blacks perceive whites as tense or hostile to them in public. They pay
attention to the amount of eye contact given. In general, black males get far less time in
this regard than do white males. Whites tend not to “hold” the eyes of a black person. It is
more common for black and white strangers to meet each other’s eyes for only a few
seconds, and then to avert their gaze abruptly. Such behavior seems to say, “I am aware
of your presence,” and no more. Women especially feel that eye contact invites unwanted
advances, but some white men feel the same and want to be clear about what they intend.
This eye work is a way to maintain distance, mainly for safety and social purposes.
Consistent with this, some blacks are very surprised to find a white person who holds
their eyes longer than is normal according to the rules of the public sphere. As one
middle-ages white female resident comment:
Just this morning, I saw a [black] guy when I went over to Mr. Chow’s to get
some milk at 7:15. You always greet people you see at 7:15, and I looked at him and
smiled. And he said “Hello” or “Good morning” or something. I smiled again. It was
clear that he saw this as surprising…
Many people, particularly those who see themselves as more economically
privileged than others in the community, are careful not to let their eyes stray, in order to
avoid an uncomfortable situation. As they walk down the street they pretend not to see
other pedestrians, or they look right at them without speaking, a behavior many blacks
find offensive….
Moreover, whites of the Village often scowl to keep young blacks at a social and
physical distance. As they venture out on the streets of the Village and, to a lesser extent,
of Northton, they may plant this look on their faces to ward off others who might mean
them harm. Scowling by whites may be compared to gritting [looking “tough”] by blacks
as a coping strategy. At times members of either group make such faces with little regard
for circumstances, as if they were dressing for inclement weather. But on the Village
streets it does not always storm, and such overcoats repel the sunshine as well as the rain,
frustrating many attempts at spontaneous human communication. (Anderson 1990:208,
220-221)
This study of “eye work” was part of extensive research into life on the street that
sociologist Elijah Anderson conducted in two adjacent neighborhoods of Philadelphia—
“the Village,” a racially mixed area with mixed incomes, and “Northton,” mostly Black
and low-income. Anderson became intrigued with the nature of social interaction
between strangers on the street shortly after moving into the Village community in 1975.
Over the next 14 years he undertook a formal study. Using the interactionist perspective,
he focused on how such a diverse group of people related to one another in everyday life.
In particular, he was interested in their “public behavior,” including the way they used
eye contact in their daily encounters.
Like any good scientist, Anderson was thorough in his research. He interviewed
residents, videotaped street scenes, took extensive notes, photographed settings, and hung
out for hours at a time in the local bars, Laundromats, and corner stores in the course of
his observations. As a black man, he was also able to draw on his own experiences with
the Whites in his neighborhood. Anderson systematically traced how social changes—
including gentrification of previously low-income areas, increasing drug use and crime,
and declining city services—affected social relations and the ways people negotiated
public spaces. Three of his books, A Place on the Corner (1978), Streetwise (1990), and
Code of the Streets (1999), came out of this research, and he hopes other researches will
make use of his database for their own studies.
Critical Thinking Questions:
1.
Why do we make assumptions about people’s intentions based merely on their
gender or age or race?
2. Is there truth to Anderson’s conclusions? Explain your answer.
3. Have you ever encountered an instance where you feel you have had people make
assumptions about you or your intentions? Describe the instance.
How does studying Street Wise and Anderson’s methods help us understand the
process of sociological research?