In inner city Detroit, the drug trade runs everything. From family dynamics, to source of income, to education, participation in the drug trade is a deep seated practice ingrained in the lives of many African American adolescents. In Luke Bergmann’s ethnography, Getting Ghost: Two Young Lives and the Struggle for the Soul of an American City, Bergmann describes his experience, following the lives of two teenagers and their families engaging the social institution of drug dealing. Dealing is risky work. It includes the dangers of violence from competing drug dealers and customers, along with run-ins with the criminal justice system. The people in Detroit are constantly dealing with the ramifications of the drug trade and a racially divided city,
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While many of the African American males view drug dealing as an inevitability, continuously getting involved even after negative incidents, many females eventually make the decision to give up parts of their lives in order to get away from the drug trade. Males have trouble leaving the drug trade because it has been ingrained as a part of their culture. Conrad Phillip Kottak claims that human culture is learned as the first part of his definition of culture, writing, “The ease with which children absorb any cultural tradition rests on the uniquely elaborated human capacity to learn” (Kottak, 2017, 19). Bergmann first began working on …show more content…
Even when she was younger and first starting a family, Ruby attempted to move away from Marvin many times as he sold drugs from their residences. She says, “Marvin had a lot of jobs. He just never kept them...They about six months and then, he get fired or quit, ‘cuz he used to the street...He would always be selling drugs again before long” (Bergmann, 2008, 90). Marvin, as a male, again, found it difficult to leave the drug trade as it was a part of his identity. During this time, Ruby moved from apartment to apartment and Marvin joined her after a while. Although, she and Marvin were in a relationship and beginning a family together, she made several efforts to leave the home. After the unpredictable death of her daughter Evie, who had sold crack for her brothers before she died, Ruby left Marvin for good. Although this would break up her family, Ruby made a fast decision to end things with Marvin after years of selling drugs from their home and teaching the practice to their
While many of the African American males view drug dealing as an inevitability, continuously getting involved even after negative incidents, many females eventually make the decision to give up parts of their lives in order to get away from the drug trade. Males have trouble leaving the drug trade because it has been ingrained as a part of their culture. Conrad Phillip Kottak claims that human culture is learned as the first part of his definition of culture, writing, “The ease with which children absorb any cultural tradition rests on the uniquely elaborated human capacity to learn” (Kottak, 2017, 19). Bergmann first began working on …show more content…
Even when she was younger and first starting a family, Ruby attempted to move away from Marvin many times as he sold drugs from their residences. She says, “Marvin had a lot of jobs. He just never kept them...They about six months and then, he get fired or quit, ‘cuz he used to the street...He would always be selling drugs again before long” (Bergmann, 2008, 90). Marvin, as a male, again, found it difficult to leave the drug trade as it was a part of his identity. During this time, Ruby moved from apartment to apartment and Marvin joined her after a while. Although, she and Marvin were in a relationship and beginning a family together, she made several efforts to leave the home. After the unpredictable death of her daughter Evie, who had sold crack for her brothers before she died, Ruby left Marvin for good. Although this would break up her family, Ruby made a fast decision to end things with Marvin after years of selling drugs from their home and teaching the practice to their