A neighborhood study regarding the relationship between social identity and street corner drinking

<p>This study offered valuable insight into a sub-cultural setting where heavy drinking on the street-corner occurs among a group of African-American men. Data were collected via participant observation, with two primary goals: first, to study street-corner drinking within its larger contextual settings--the family, the neighborhood and larger society--in order to more fully contextually ground this practice; second, to describe the many facets of the identity of the man who drinks on the street corner, rather than view him only as a drinking man. It became evident that the corner drinking men could be considered heavy or problem drinkers, yet ones who had reached a level of functional tolerance: even though they consumed alcohol throughout the day, the men were able to perform chores for their neighbors, and they were clearly well integrated into, and an important element of, the neighborhood’s identity. They appeared to have developed “racial victorization,” the ability to value who they were in spite of the uncontrollable external force of everyday racism. Rather than be ashamed of their lives, of which they knew the “outside” world disapproved, their public displays of drinking came to be understood as a political statement in defiance of society’s labels.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Year

2005

Author dc:creator

• Heard, Irene Hoskin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Denise Reiling, PhD, Chair
• Paul Leighton, PhD
• Michael Nusbaumer, PhD

• Drugs of abuse
• Drinking of alcoholic beverages
• African American men Alcohol use
• Sociology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/116

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-1115