#amstreadingresponse

In “Dummy Smart”, Victor Rios studies Black and Latino youth. Rios figured out that these two youths were creating their own social capitals. Resulting from poverty, and lack of basics needs the boys received their respect in numerous ways. Often they resulted to criminal activity to just prove a point that there are in control and respected. Growing up in poverty stricken areas they were denied the means to be successful in the capital and social markets of school and the work force. Often criminalized and seen as deviant, their idea of professional behavior did not correlate with mainstream ideas. So when the youth intended to do good and the right thing, it was almost never recognized and seen as deviant behavior. “The developed their own alternative to social and capital culture, which they used to survive property, persists in a violent and sociology punitive ecology, prevent violence, avoid incarceration and attempt to fit into mainstream institutions.” All they were trying to accomplish was gain respect from society and in social institutions. Though seen as criminals, the minorities craved a sense of equality and dignity. They satisfied these cravings through violence and theft. Minorities are being conditioning that the only option is violence and that they will alway be seen as minorities and deviant to society. Not fitting into a system, they searched for alternative ways to gain respect and acceptance. We see this throughout history with so many minorities that this happens often. People are resulting to extreme measures to fit into society. Just as the Salvadorian youth did with hang violence, the Latino and Black youth are doing here, what the Zoot suitors did with their clothing and so many more. We are seeing patterns in these behaviors, instead of resulting to criminalizing these youths why don't we observe the common factors. Something is wrong with society is such thing are happening in multiple cultures just to be accepted. In societies were youths are wanted and respected they are doing what they can to create their own form of dignity and acceptance in their communities. While doing so they deemed as delinquent, criminals and such by the people who aren't accepting them and granting them basic things. It's so unfortunate because they aren't being accepted and they take matters into their own hands and then they are distanced and unaccepted even more.

A personal tie in I have to this reading deals with the place where I work.  I work at nursing home in Lafayette next to St. Elizabeth Central.  The diversity in the employees and residents both are very low and extremely noticeable.  There are a total of two black CNAs and one black dietary aide (the department where I work).  It is all too noticeable the way these select few present themselves.  Though none of them are men, they do seem to try to bend the simple rules (such as time limits) and make it known to everyone by announcing how they do not care if they are not where they need to be in time.  They try to use their “nonchalant” yet still forcibly noticeably to bend the rules of their work society and feel more empowered in their fewer numbers.

In "Dummy Smart", Rios discusses what is known as "going dumb". Rios explains this concept as the act of disenfranchised minority youth pretending to be stupid or ignorant in the presence of authoritative figures. The youth use this as a form of protest in rebellion because they feel that they are showing flaws in a system that stereotypes them as being stupid or dumb. Rios argues that youth also use this as a way to gain a reputation and respect amongst their peers. Due to their lack of opportunities and resources, these disenfranchised youth seek a different form of revenue. With the struggle to earn money, they instead seek to earn street credit. These youth see establishing a reputation as a way to earn wealth in the only world the rest of society as afforded to them. Rios also are use that such labels that have been attached to these youth from a young age and have a great deal of effect on later development. Essentially, Rios is trying to point out that minority youth turn to going dumb or criminality due not only to their lack of opportunities, but also due to need to rebel a system that has stereotyped them. If we treat these children like criminals, we are only increasing the chance that they become such. This chapter made me think about the previous chapter we read about women in corporate America and government. Like that of young minority youth, our society has an effect on the way young girls can grow up to see themselves. Like our society teaches women to believe they cannot hold positions of power, we are also teaching minority youth that they cannot be more than criminals.

This reading from the book Punished by Victor Rios was titled “Dummy Smart” and it illustrated the study that Rios did on African American and Latino young men and the reasons that they were deviant or committed crimes in America.  He looked into their reactions to social pressures and expectations as a cause of their actions, and attempted to explain this based on their desire for recognition in society.  Victor Rios states that the urban poor make conscious efforts to understand and engage in the world around them.  This is often met by upperclass citizens with doubt or unease.  These young men are a part of a minority that is deemed untrustworthy and generally just bad.   I enjoyed this article because, being a sociologist myself, I tend to profile people initially, and analyze them later.  I like to think about all of the societal influences that shape a person and their actions as I analyze them as well.  More often than not, these men are simply reacting to the very low societal expectations of their race when they behave in deviant ways.   Societal expectations of certain groups is an evident cause of deviant behavior in the past.  There has almost never been a time in American history that there was not a group of people who were facing adversity, who acted out and caused trouble.  If this does not speak to the capacity of the American society, I do not know what will.  The bottom line is that society shapes deviance, and this is what Rios is focusing on in this article.

Rios’ ultimate argument is that even though the solution these boys are seeking is mostly temporary, it has also proven to empower some of the boys long term as they have continued to fight for their freedoms.

Rios’ examination of male delinquent youth was very eye opening. Though there were many theories on the origins of the criminalized population and the foundations that lead to its emergence, Rios believes that there is a more logical explanation behind the motivations to act as these trouble male youths in American do. In short, he explains that as a response to their criminalization, an identity bestowed upon them by the social systems they dwell within, male youths of ethnic minorities embody the negative characterization as a way of resisting against the system. This made me recall the situations of the different youth groups and identities that were covered in the film Teenage and Zoot Suit Youth that we covered earlier. Similar to Rios theory, as a result of a lack in social and/or economic support new youth identities were created to defy and resist the social system that had abandoned and then labeled them. The only difference between the hooligans, flappers, jitter bugs, hobos, and freaks is that these groups are ethnically specific and their label has not passed with time like the fashion of the aforementioned groups. Another difference that I’ve made note of is that in the minds of these young boys there is little to no hope for them when it comes to ‘making it’ within the system as a result of their ethnic background and how they are subsequently profiled.  As a result of this hopelessness these youth found ways in which they could regain the one thing that mattered most when living in a society that is geared to criminalize and marginalize you at every turn, respect. Though Rios states that their acts of defiance were for the sake of changing the system, I believe that it was more so for the purpose of making an impossible system easier to deal with, because to the young boys it doesn’t matter that they have no hope of succeeding the ‘right’ way, because at the end of the day they know their worth and will at the very least be respected for it.

The recent case of Michael Brown who was shot to death by a police office in Ferguson, Missouri after openly stealing cigars from a convenience store and then walked down the middle of the street, in broad daylight, is a good example of a disenfranchised youth attempting to gain social capital, in the absence of other options, regardless of the consequences. Unfortunately, in his case, as in many others, the consequences were much more extreme than had been anticipated.