Hey guys,
I wanna tell you about a little trip I took in my 97' Toyota Camry this Wednesday before class had started. I went to what is commonly accepted as "the hood". I went from the 405 S to 105 E and kept going East until I hit Alameda St., went south on Alameda St. and went straight through the heart of Compton, CA.
I didn't go to Compton just to check it out, I went there to buy a t.v. That's right, a 50 inch, old school flat screen with HD that a guy was selling on Craigslist for 250 dollars. He lived in NE Compton right by the 105 and said it was a good t.v. but he was too old to lift it up and get it out of his house. So, naturally me and my roommate were inclined to try and see if we were big enough and strong enough. This train of thought landed us in the heart of Compton, in a 50 y.o. African-American's living room. His living room floors were purple shag with a shiny gold stripper pole right in front of his fireplace, with only a t.v. to accompany the pole. This was a clear sign of cultural differentiation. And I want to delve further into this differentiation.
After talking to this man for a little while, I realized I had seen living proof of what Durkheim said about man being double. According to Durkheim, "Man is Double", and there are two beings in him. 1) An individual that goes his own way; and 2) a social being. This man said he was born and raised in Compton, from a low income house and went to schools growing up where there were gangbangers and thugs. I could tell by his stripper pole and his whole vibe of the living room that he was a social guy. But, he also stated that he never got into the gangs, and I think it's because Durkheim is right in saying man is two beings in one. This man was a very friendly, personable and had two kids in the Cal State university system, which he even stated was a huge deal around his parts. You could tell he still like to hang out with old friends and be around people like him, but had obviously went his own way in life. He had a good job at one of the factories in West Compton and had raised his kids well enough to get them into college.
After we got the t.v. and said goodbye to our new friend, we head back west on El Segundo Blvd. to see the other side of Compton and simply to travel somewhere in which we have heard a lot about but had never seen. We hear about Compton through such folklore like hip hop and gangster rap. They imitate a Moral Society in the way have symbols and stories synonymous with the surrounding culture. A culture much different from the culture around UCLA. The difference between UCLA and Compton were extraordinary. The billboards didn't have a model with Gucci shades on, they had numbers for bail bond companies, for example. It is a good example of the cultural diversity Los Angeles has. I also noticed that there it was an extremely populated with what looked like 1 or 2 bedroom houses, all with very little backyard. I can see this causing a problem, and from what I've heard through music and film folklore the Modern Differentiation and Material Density have definitely created social complexity through spacial issues, and crime.
What I saw in Compton was cool because it truly showed Durkheim's cyclical interpretation of a city filled with differentiation like we have here in Los Angeles. It starts with density, which brings on complications, which leads to differentiation. Because Los Angeles is so densely populated there are parts with major complications with crime, pollution, and space (traffic). This is part of the reason why it is a city with so much differentiation, which is also why I love it here.
Here's some of the music that made me want to see what Compton was like in the first place. Head up though some of this is really vulgar and descriptive.
Eazy E- Real Compton City G's
Hi Mitch,
ReplyDeleteI was very intrigued by your post since I have never visited Compton myself; it was very interesting to read your experience. There were many aspects you mentioned that I thought could be tied into this week’s lecture on nature in the urban area. Like the blog post mentioned in the post, Compton is definitely considered “the hood” or “the ghetto” where people from lower income classes reside, not as well maintained neighborhoods and typically have higher crime rates. There tends to be less criteria and considerations for the urban planning of these types of neighborhoods, especially for “nature” or “green area” such as parks, courts, etc. In addition, these places have more factories or plants in the vicinity that are harmful to the health of the residents. In this case, it seems true of Compton since the person who was selling the T.V. had stated that he worked in one of the factories of the city. Despite these existing factories, there is no “nature” to counter the harm caused by them that allows residents to lead a healthy life. Majora Carter mentioned in her “Greening the Ghetto” TED talk that when the air is polluted and their surroundings are detrimental, no one wants to be outside, no one would take walks or runs, which in turn becomes a deleterious lifestyle. Additionally, these houses have limited green space, which the blog post described as little backyards. I assume these conditions do not encourage outdoor activities either.
Some may argue that the concept of “Going Green” is not necessarily a priority in these neighborhoods because the community has much more important issues to worry about. Or low income housing cannot afford to be green. However, in a couple of articles I read online that seems to be the contrary. In Planetizen an article was published titled “Greening the Ghetto,” which brings up the idea how low income housing can also be green. In fact, it is actually a concept that is being implemented. The article also includes a comment made by Jeffrey Richardson, Chief Executive of Imani Energy Inc, one of the few energy companies working with communities in South Los Angles, saying, “There's a tendency to not seek out communities like these. There's the idea that people here don't get it, don't want to get it and can't get it when it comes to green.” This also goes back to the idea that the culture is quite different in these neighborhoods, and the idea of “green” is not yet formally introduced. A resident of South Los Angeles said in an interview with Los Angeles Times for their “Green revolution comes to urban neighborhoods” article that without exposure to green ideas and projects, she hasn't really paid much attention to becoming more eco-friendly. It is certain that it is not due to lack of motivation that greening projects were not implemented sooner. A hairdresser from South Los Angeles said in the same article, “I don't know too much about green, but I'm willing to try anything new." Perhaps if there were more projects on greening South Los Angeles, residents would have a better grasp of it. And it seems that is the direction community organizers are heading in, as they begin helping turn their often neglected neighborhoods into more sustainable places through broad volunteer greening efforts.
(Please continue reading at http://discoveringgreaterla.blogspot.com/ since due to characters limitation I was not able to finish the comment here.)
Hi Mitchell,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog about visiting Compton, which is strangely enough one of the few LA areas that I have actually heard of. In Australia we get a lot of LA stereotypes and the man you met seemed to fit the mould of what I have previously envisioned a man from Compton to be like, with a stripper pole and purple carpet, which must have been an interesting place to live if you were one of his children.
Thinking about the outdated stereotypes I had coming into this move to LA made me realise that what Stuart Hall said is totally right, that race is a 'floating signifier' and is not something that is fixed in time. With African Americans especially, as horrible as it may seem, there are so many different stereotypes that exist today, some modern creations and some existing since the time of the slaves. 100 years ago an African American man behaving in such an overt manner and having material goods of that nature would have been cause for mass upset, but over time the meaning of being 'black' has changed to allow much more freedom. Hall says that race is actually a story that is told, and a stereotype is exactly that, a story. He also says that we must challenge the stories that lead to harmful behaviour, as many of these steroetypes do, not only of African Americans, but of many other races. I feel that living in such a diverse city is challenging the stories I have been told, maybe not everyday, but much more than I have ever thought to challenge them before.
Thanks for your blog, I read all the posts and they are certainly never boring!
Meaghan
First off, this post was great in its exploration of Durkheim's understanding of differentiation in the context of an infamously low-income, high-crime neighborhood. Having been through Compton on the bus, I've been able to check out the visual exterior of the area but never the inside of one of the businesses. I'm impressed with the information you gathered by actually visiting a resident of the neighborhood and checking out his living room! (And let's be real--who wouldn't be impressed by a purple shag carpet and gold stripper pole... in the home?) I really enjoyed reading about your conversation with this middle-aged man who was Compton born and raised.
ReplyDeleteNow that we've read and learned a lot more (seeing as this post was from second week, Durkheim was really the only lens for analysis), I'd like to take another perspective on your post. After reading Elliot and Pais's study on race and class in Hurricane Katrina and learning a little bit more about race from Stuart Hall, I think the "racial" aspect of Compton that looms so unavoidably in discussions of the area is important to your experience. You discuss the man's living room decor as "a clear sign of cultural differentiation," and I find that assessment true. Other people, however, would make arguments about the man's race and social class as they impact his decor choices. Those could also be valid, but the fact that they have to be made irritates me. Some people, upon hearing his story, would laugh and say "only a BLACK guy would have a purple rug AND a gold stripper pole IN HIS HOUSE" (read: things my roommates say). To me, however, his choices are minimally impacted by his race. The culture he grew up in, which admittedly was probably at some point racially determined, has much more of an impact on that choice than his skin color. A Nigerian immigrant to America would be as unlikely to match those two things together as one from Taiwan or Peru or Ireland--so this man's choice was much more likely influenced by his culture and not by his race.
Your video posts were helpful in this post because they underscored the cultural idea over the racial one. You demonstrated that Compton has a very unique and very strong culture that includes unsavory aspects like gang violence, and you showed us the way in which that culture is propagated. Overall, I found this post valuable for its insight into the life of a resident of the area you observed and I think your observations and conclusions apply to lessons learned in class beyond the limits of our early readings.