Name: On the Run
Rating: 4.1 (10 reviews)
Author: Alice Goffman

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Learn about day-to-day life in a crime-ridden culture “on the run.”

Have you ever seen the award-winning TV show The Wire? But have you ever wondered what it’s actually like to live in a poor black neighborhood, to be surrounded by drugs and crime, and wary of police officers hungry for their next bust?

On the Run offers a horrifying picture of the day-to-day life of many young black Americans who live in suburban ghettos. This account of social alienation, race relations and criminalization as a result of America’s prison-industrial complex is based on the extensive ethnographic research that author Alice Goffman, daughter of the renowned sociologist Erving Goffman, collected over the six years she spent living in Philadelphia’s notorious Sixth Street neighborhood.

The reality she reveals through these stories of everyday urban lives is shocking, and you’ll struggle to believe what life may be like for people who could be your neighbors.

In these blinks, you’ll discover:

how some people can make money from urine,
why going to the hospital when injured might not be the smartest idea, and
why Sixth Street women call the police to apprehend their boyfriends.

Key idea 1 of 10

Large swaths of US society live their lives under threat of police arrest.

Sixth Street in Philadelphia is just another poor black neighborhood in America. Those who live there embody a lifestyle familiar to many Americans: a life centered around evading the law, or a fugitive culture.

But from where does this culture originate?

One major source is the US justice system, which has criminalized large parts of society.

US prison statistics show that since “tough-on-crime” and “war-on-drugs” policies were implemented in the 1970s, prison confinement rates have sharply risen. Today, about 3 percent of US adults sit either inside prison or outside under some type of police supervision (such as under house arrest). To put things into perspective, only labor camps under Stalin in the Soviet Union match the levels of incarceration in America today.

Further statistical analysis reveals that black Americans are a group that is particularly targeted. While this group represents only 13 percent of the population of the United States, black Americans make up 37 percent of the prison population. This recent increase was largely driven by welfare cuts that pushed many in black communities into the drug trade to survive – just when the government crackdown on the drug economy began.

We like to think that people choose to be criminals. But most people in poor neighborhoods become criminals as there is little else to do to survive. Living in areas that are plagued by high unemployment, an individual might sell crack on the side to make ends meet. But while selling drugs could help provide needed cash for your family, it could also be the first step in an endless cycle of warrants, court hearings and jail time.

Most of the young people who live in this Philadelphia neighborhood – the Sixth Street boys – are caught up in this cycle and as a result are always on the run.

In this cycle, minor events often balloon into full-scale criminal activity, dragging everyone into its pull. For example, an adult is arrested for possessing marijuana; as a result, he loses his driver’s license. Out on probation, he drives his brother to school, but is then caught driving without a license; he’s arrested and put in jail. Now the brother robs a store to “earn” the bail money...and the cycle continues.

Key idea 2 of 10

In a fugitive culture, it’s usually better to run from the police than cooperate.

You might think that the best way to avoid problems with the law is to respect the law. But unfortunately, for many Sixth Street boys, this simply doesn't work.

Why?

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Key idea 3 of 10

Police can often catch fugitives by targeting their families’ social insecurities.

Try imagining for a moment that you can’t trust anybody: not even your family or friends, people who should ideally always be there to support you.

For many of the Sixth Street boys, this is their reality. They are never sure if their friends or their family won’t turn them in. This is because in a fugitive culture, the police are always able to use information they have on your friends or family to make them talk about you.

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Key idea 4 of 10

Avoiding the police means living outside mainstream society and its benefits.

On Sixth Street, you’ve got to make sure you’re not in the wrong place at the wrong time – which can be pretty much anywhere. And because the police are always looking for their next arrest, people on Sixth Street have to make sure the police can never predict where they’re going to be.

This means you can never develop a regular routine, because as soon as the police want something, having a routine means the police’s extensive surveillance system will quickly track you down.

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Key idea 5 of 10

If you can’t get out of the fugitive culture, you might as well make the best of it.

You know the saying: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And the lemons in a fugitive culture are so bitter that the residents of Sixth Street have to make a lot of lemonade.

For example, when living on Sixth Street is no longer safe, residents will try to get themselves locked up in prison instead.

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Key idea 6 of 10

The fugitive status is used as a tool in social relationships.

Fugitive culture affects almost every area of an individual’s personal life. Even the person you choose as your romantic partner is also affected by it.

Consider the story of Lisa, a Sixth Street girl. When she got pregnant, her partner Reggie was quick to deny all responsibility. But as soon as she had the chance, Lisa got back at him in a normal Sixth Street fashion: by threatening to call the cops.

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Key idea 7 of 10

The penal system gives meaning and structure to criminalized youth.

Imagine this situation: Your mother sits in the front row in her best dress, your girlfriend looks stunning sitting next to her and you are surrounded by well-respected representatives of society. Sound like a graduation ceremony? If you come from Sixth Street, this is more likely your first big court trial.

This is how the fugitive culture replaces the typical coming-of-age structure in society.

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Key idea 8 of 10

Fugitive culture is a phenomenally entrepreneurial society.

Can you believe that it’s possible to exchange urine for cash? Or that you could make a living smuggling drugs into prison? These are all services and commodities within the fugitive economy.

Inhabitants of Sixth Street often have to resort to such “entrepreneurial” activities as they are cut off from the normal economy.

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Key idea 9 of 10

Fugitive culture creates extreme divides.

While Mike, Reggie and their friends – typical Sixth Street boys – spend most of their days hustling in the streets and hanging out, there is also another community living on Sixth Street: the clean people.

If you live in the fugitive culture and have three warrants on your record, Sixth Street considers you dirty; anyone who has managed to stay out of the penal system is considered clean.

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Key idea 10 of 10

In trying to manage a rise in crime, the US government has produced ineffective solutions.

Regular drive-by shootings, crack sold openly on the streets in front of children – this has been the day-to-day life in places like Sixth Street for years. But during a wave of crack-related crime in the 1980s, concerned mothers and citizens decided enough was enough, and pushed politicians to act.

So why do problems still exist?

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On the Run summary