Hallway Hangers and The Brothers Essay - 1059 Words

In his research Jay Macleod, compares two groups of teenage boys, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers. Both groups of teenagers live in a low income neighborhood in Clarendon Heights, but they are complete opposites of each other. The Hallway Hangers, composed of eight teenagers spend most of their time in the late afternoon or early evening hanging out in doorway number 13 until very late at night. The Brothers are a group of seven teenagers that have no aspirations to just hang out and cause problems, the Brothers enjoy active pastimes such as playing basketball. The Hallway Hangers all smoke, drink, and use drugs. Stereotyped as â€Å"hoodlums,† â€Å"punks,† or â€Å"burnouts† by outsiders, the Hallway Hangers are actually a varied group, and much†¦show more content†¦164). A primary group is a small, relatively permanent, intimate, and unspecialized group that develops a sense of â€Å"we†; a face-to-face group that entails close emotional ties. A type of group that is less characteristic of groups in modern society where impersonality and individualism tend to dominate (Charon p. 327). The Hallway Hangers know as a group that work is highly important in order to support them. The boys have all held summer time jobs. All of them, except for one of the members have pursued fulltime work, but none have been able to obtain meaningful employment. Every time one of them thinks they have a decent job, something happens and it doesn’t work out for them. This type of firsthand experience in the job market further deflates any illusions they might have had about the openness of the opportunity structure (Macleod p. 164). In contrast, the Brothers as a group look forward to a more optimistic future where work is the central goal. For this group, wo rk is an exclusively summer-time affair, in fact only one member is on the job market full time (Macleod p. 167). This is one of the reasons why they still have a positive attitude towards the labor market, they have not been shut out or had a job fall through on them. As a group they may even discuss their goals for school and work in the future and this can lead to even higherShow MoreRelatedAin t No Makin By Jay Macleod906 Words   |  4 Pagesgroups of young males, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers, in housing projects called Clarendon Heights. MacLeod explores these two extremely different groups over a long course of time to see how they develop from teenagers to adults. MacLeod comes to find that the Hallway Hangers, which is a group of mostly white men, are completely uninterested in education and completely interested in drugs and alcohol. These young men have no desire for a better life. The Brothers, on the contrary, are a groupRead MoreAin t No Makin By Jay Mcleod960 Words   |  4 Pagesof men is The Hallway Hangers who predominantly are white youths that ‘hang out in the hallway’. The Hallway Hangers are more associated with criminal behaviors and have given up on their educations almost completely. From the lack of opportunities they saw, the Hallway Hangers were drop outs and had no aspirations for a more successful life. The second group calls themselves The Brothers who are an all black group that are more hard-working than the Hallway Hangers. The Brothers are more determinedRead MoreJay Macleod s Ethnography : Ain t No Makin It, Sheds Light On The Institute Of Education1732 Words   |  7 Pagespredominantly Caucasian and predominantly African American youth who reside in the same low income neighborhood and attend the same school. He soon learned that in contrast to the Hallway Hangers, the predominantly white group who for the majority believed that there was no escape from their socioeconomic background, the Brothe rs, the predominantly African American group do aspire to hold middle class jobs in the future that provided stable incomes and commit to long term relationships with significantRead MoreAn Emphasis on Black Youth in America, Kojo A.Dei,ins book ‘Ties That Bind: Youth and Drugs in a Black Community1541 Words   |  7 Pageswithin the Clarendon Heights housing project, the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers. This research project intimately looks at these individuals, their group and family contexts, school and work settings (school programs, educational tracking, educational outcomes, employment and opportunity), and their aspirations or attainment in these areas. Macleod also offers a second part to the book which looks into their lives eight years later. The Hallway Hangers consist of eight members between the ages ofRead MoreResponse Paper : Ain t No Makin It Essay1054 Words   |  5 Pagesdrank alcohol, engaged in sexual activities and created their own forms of  "lean† which is a drink made from promethazine and codeine. Most students ditched class or just didn’t show up at all. I feel as though my high school had a mix of â€Å"hallway hangers† and â€Å"brothers† except all of the same race end economic backgrounds. The peer pressure was and still is really high in my neighborhood, but I’ve seen for myself the dangers and consequences that came from engaging in those acts, which made me want toRead More Improving the Educational System Essay1568 Words   |  7 Pagestheir struggles of social reproduction. The two groups of teens, the Hallway Hangers and in the Brothers, show the struggle of being in a poverished society. The Hallway Hangers where slackers, drug users, and alcoholics, but not so much by choice, but by the environment that they where raised in. The Hallway Hangers had little asperations, predicting that they would be either dead or criminals in 20 years. The Hallway Hanger lacked in parental involvement, good role models, and came from brokenRead MoreConcepts and Implications in Jay Macleods Aint No Makin It2034 Words   |  9 Pagesbook Aint No Makin It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income Neighborhood. His study examines two groups of working class teenage boys residing in Clarendon Heights, a housing project in upstate New York. The Hallway Hangers, a predominately white peer group, and the Brothers, an all African American peer group with the exception of one white member. Through the use of multiple social theories, MacLeod explains social reproduction by examining the lives of these groups as they experienceRead MoreAin t No Making It Chapter Summaries Essay9177 Words   |  37 Pagesthe Hallway Hangers and the Brothers, two groups of youth that reside in Clarendon Heights. The Hallway Hangers are a group of mostly white boys (with the exception of 2) who are involved in criminal activity (robbery, drug dealing) drink, smoke marijuana and mostly do not favor school with only of the boys in the group having graduated high school. Despite they criminal activity, most of the Hallway Hangers desire to make enough money to move their families out of the projects. The Brothers areRead More`` Ain t No Makin It1813 Words   |  8 PagesSuch phenomenon, known as the social reproduction is closely examined by Jay Macleod in the book â€Å"Ain’t No Makin’ It†. Macleod closely examines two groups of working class teenagers in Massachusetts. One group, known as The Hallway Hangers, filled with white boys, and the Brothers, composed mainly of African American boys. By laying out multiple social theories and bringing in several sociologists’ theories, Macleod reveals his thoughts on why social reproduction occurs in the United States and whyRead MoreAnalysis Of Ain t No Makin 2497 Words   |  10 Pagesconditions. That is so because social behavior is the resultant psychology of interacting with the environment. Projections in the book have been divided into three sections, with portions dedicated to the hallway hangers, who are white kids and other factions to the teenage African American brothers. The presentation cove rs the influence of their mental conceptions on the progress of their financial growth. The two groups are used to illuminate the social conceptions that are developed in the American