 he
headlines hit close to home: a 16-year-old Trotwood youth was recently
found dead alongside Wolf Creek, apparently a victim of gang violence.
What has brought us to this place? Why are kids killing kids?
Noted sociologist and author, Elijah Anderson, Ph.D., will offer a unique perspective into daily life in our inner cities with "Streetwise: Code of the Street," this year's Metropolitan Lecture Series presentation. Anderson will speak from 11 a.m. to noon on Friday, Feb. 21, in W169 Student Union. A luncheon and community issues roundtable with the author will be held from 12:15 to 2:30 p.m. "Of all the problems besetting the poor inner-city black community, none is more pressing than that of interpersonal violence and aggression," Anderson wrote in the May 1994 cover story of Atlantic Monthly magazine. Anderson believes that the despair found in our inner cities has spawned an "oppositional culture" whose norms are often consciously opposed to those of mainstream society. This street culture, as Anderson calls it, has evolved into a code of the streets governing interpersonal behavior, resulting in such things as teen pregnancy and gang violence. "At the heart of the code is the issue of respect- loosely defined as being treated 'right,' or granted the deference one deserves," Anderson wrote. "Dr. Anderson offers valuable insights into the culture of the inner city that can help us understand what is happening right here in our |
 community,"
said Marlese Durr, organizer of the lecture series and assistant professor
of sociology. "According to published reports, the young man from
Trotwood was beaten to death for insulting a gang member's girlfriend.
Perhaps if we can begin to understand the forces at work that would cause
that death, we can begin to work to change those attitudes and offer our
young people new hope and new opportunities."
Anderson is the Charles and William L. Day Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. An expert on American sociology, he is the author of the widely regarded work A Place on the Corner: A Study of Black Street Corner Men and the numerous articles on the black experience. His second book, Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community, was honored with the Robert E. Park Award of the American Sociological Association. His new book, The Code of the Streets, expands on the 1994 Atlantic Monthly article. Anderson is the associate director of Penn's Center for Urban Ethnography, associate editor of Qualitative Sociology and a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow. This second annual Metropolitan Lecture Series presentation is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and the other campus organizations. The lecture and community issues roundtable are free and open to the public. The cost for the luncheon is $9, and reservations must be made by Feb. 17. To make luncheon reservations or for more information, call the Office of Conferences and Events at 775-5512. Coming March 12, Julianne Malveaux will speak at 7 p.m. in the Medical Sciences Auditorium. Her topic, "Race, Class, Gender and the Labor Market," will initiate the Women's Studies Lecture Series. Anderson and Malveaux merge the African American and Women's History Month celebrations at Wright State. |