6th Street By Alice Goffman Essay

When Alice Goffman began her research project on the neighborhood of 6th street that eventually evolved into her thesis and this book, she dropped herself into a society and reality she was unfamiliar with. The men and women and 6th street lived by a very real set of rules and guidelines that helped them navigate external and internal pressures Alice and living in a less prosecuted environment would consider bizarre. Yet these actions are so ingrained in the community that they aren’t just learned over time, but actively passed down and taught from generation to generation, mentor to pupil, as a way to live and survive. The code of this community undoubtedly helps many inside of it consistently enough. If actions such as running from the police, or the use of fake documents, did not work and provide benefits in life they would never have become the status quo. Yet even accepting that,
One of the men in particular, Mike, has both marijuana and cocaine on him, and is subsequently arrested and taken into custody. When Goffman assembles the resources to bail Mike out as quickly as she can, Mike is highly disappointed that Goffman doesn’t understand the “sacrifice,” he made by taking the blame for his drugs, instead of placing them in her car and, in his words, ‘letting the chips fall where they man.’ While Goffman correctly asserts that he was indeed the one committing the crime, and may have been playing up his “heroic act,” he certainly acted in a way that, according to the reality of 6th street deserved thanks and appreciation. She likely took for granted the fact that she wouldn’t be placed in legal jeopardy just by associating with these men. Facing confusion, she explains her confusion with those around her close to the situation, and they mostly agree Mike would have acted differently were she not around, appreciation may have been