Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson

Code of the Street In his book, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City, Elijah Anderson takes an honest and in-depth look at life in America's inner cities, particularly as it affects African-American families. In Chapter One, titled "Decent and Street Families," he explains that within these communities there are two views of the best way to live one's life and raise a family: the "decent family" approach, and the "street family" approach.

Anderson recognizes that most families in the poorer inner-city neighborhoods face financial hardships. In addition, because of the history of race relations in the United States, most feel at least some degree of alienation from the dominant culture, which is white and middle-class. It is how individuals and families react to this state of affairs that determines whether they are a "decent" or a "street" family.

In the chapter, he also explains that it is particularly difficult for families who do not want their children to join the street culture, because their children must be able to function in the street culture while hanging on to the different values represented by "decent families." As the author says, ".. The street is both dangerous and seductive -- one misstep can cause a fatal fall...." He describes the struggle "decent" families face to protect their children as much as possible from the lures of street culture.

However, eventual contact with the street culture is unavoidable, for young women but even more so for young men. Anderson also explains another difficulty. The extended family is important in the Black community, but within the extended family of a "decent" family there may well be relatives who have embraced a street lifestyle. As the song "It's A Family Affair" says, "Momma love the both of them ..

you see, it's in the blood...." The result is that in spite of parents' best efforts, all the youths in an inner city community will be exposed not only to their parents' standards and expectations but the temptation of living a rougher, more dangerous life, but one that may be both alluring and profitable, at least in the short-term. While current news media tries to emphasize positive changes in inner cities, those positive changes are news precisely because they are designed to combat that lure of the street life.

The Oakland (California) newspaper The Oakland Post wrote about the lure of street life in 1995. They noted an emotional void among teenagers in the inner city of Oakland, which they saw being filled by the growth of gangs. The worst fear of a "decent" family is that their sons and daughters might be lured into aligning themselves with gangs, but some of these teens have a desperate need to feel that they belong to something.

The parents in "decent" families may be at home less than in those families embracing a street lifestyle, because they often work in jobs that pay low wages and consequently, both parents must work, often for long.