Ethnicity & Subcultures

• Venkatesh 


  • Young black men were forced into a crack gang 'Black Kings' due to their lack of other opportunities - 80% unemployment in that area of Chicago
  • Outlaw capitalism - regular wages, working way up through hierarchy, colleagues, and a job/purpose.
• Alexander 


  • Young British Asian men were likely to be seen as deviant or gang members even when they did nothing to suggest this, like hanging out with friends
  • The idea that ethnic minorities are more deviant is a social construction based on racial stereotypes
• Scraton 


  • Ethnic minorities do commit more crime, but do so out of a 'culture of resistance' to years of racism and discrimination that led to a worse socio-economic position
  • Origins in anti-colonial struggles - political act, not criminal!
• Sivanandan 


  • Rastafarianism (as a YSC in Britain) among 2nd generation Afro-Caribbean immigrants is a response to racism and unemployment in 1970s
  • Helped create an identity distinct from white British culture - dreadlocks and reggae music
  • Culture of resistance to the oppression that was responsible for their social and economic marginalisation.
• Murray 


  • Black families are twice as likely to be single parent households so often fail to provide adequate socialisation, control, and discipline.
  • Leads to criminal and deviant subcultures
• Back


  • New hybrid identities in London council estates
  • Experimented with traditions and symbols
  • Lots of cultural borrowing in inter-racial friendships - black girls straightened their hair, British Asians had dreadlocks.
• Hutnyk


  • Hybrid subcultures are negative due to the cultural appropriation
  • White people should not steal from other cultures as it devalues the cultural symbolism
  • E.g. Dreadlocks are a symbol of resistance to white oppression and slavery
• Cultural Appropriation definition


  The use of a symbol which belongs to another culture
• Vale & Juno


  • 'Modern primitives' - young people felt drawn towards tattoos and scarification (cutting patterns into the skin)
  • Non-tribal people adopted these traditions, showing hybridity