While many families in America feel a deep pride for their suburban towns where they reside, the readings for this week forced us to explore and reflect upon the shortcomings of suburbia. Both “Codes of the Suburb” by Jacques and Wright and “Blue-Chip Black” by Karyn Lacy highlight and analyze the level of dissatisfaction with suburban life felt by two groups: middle-class blacks and high school youth. Both have different ways of responding to what they feel is the inadequacy of suburbia; however, both coping mechanisms involve the formation of sub-communities to fill their respective cultural voids. These communities allow middle-class blacks and high school youth to forge interactions and construct personal identities rather than getting lost in an environment with little excitement and opportunity for self-expression. It is interesting to look at these sub-communities alongside one another and analyze the ways in which they do and do not reflect community as we defined it at the beginning of this course. Moreover, it is important to reflect on the suburban community itself as some of its members are feeling the need to create their own sub-communities to meet their needs.
For the middle-class blacks in our reading, living in suburbia requires them to “travel back and forth regularly between the black and white worlds” (Lacy 151). For instance, in Lakeview, a suburb that is (like many others) predominantly white, the black population frequently seeks out connection to the black world through participation in black churches, fraternities, and other social organizations. By doing so, they are able to participate in middle-class, predominantly white schools and workplaces, but also set themselves apart from these white spaces at the end of the day by reconnecting with their black communities. In the suburbs referenced in this reading, “seeking spaces where black identity is nurtured, a community where they can socialize and reconnect with other blacks after spending the bulk of their day in the white world” (Lacy 170). Middle class blacks in Lakeview form an ecological and symbolic sub-community to compensate for the lack of cultural stimulation in suburbia to construct and maintain black racial identities.
On the other hand, high school youth in Peachville respond to lack of stimuli in suburbia through drug consumption and dealing. The young population in Peachville does not have the “foremost signs of social status: a professional career that generates enough money to buy what they need and want” (Jacques and Wright, 5) and therefore must look for an immediate source of social capital- coolness. While Peachville seems to provide other outlets such as sports to achieve a ‘cool’ status, many of these adolescents turn to the drug world, as it allows them to demonstrate coolness. Moreover, it becomes clear that their desire to be cool is rooted in a much more fundamental issue they have with suburban life: “Drugs were the glue that bonded these adolescents’’ social lives. Drugs gave them something to do, a reason to be together. This provided them with an opportunity to interact with their peers and demonstrate their social desirability in the process, which in turn served to increase their perceived subcultural status” (Jacques and Wright, 21). It is interesting that the young people in Peachville must engage in drug use in order to forge these social bonds, and it points to the fact that their overarching suburban community is lacking stimulation. Like the middle-class blacks mentioned in Lacy’s reading, the Peachville high school students’ needs are not being met by suburbia so they feel the need to form this sub-community. Although the community formed by these students is fleeting and arguably not comprised of individuals with much more in common besides an interest in achieving a certain social status, they all feel a common frustration with the lack of entertainment and opportunity for social engagement with their fellow peers, which is something that nonetheless bonds them.
Although there is a difference in the sub-communities formed in response to the inadequacies of suburban life by both groups, the fact that two completely different social groups feel the need create them in the first place reveals something about the cultural and diverse stimuli that suburbia lacks. While suburban life does provide certain opportunities and a perceived community, these readings make us question whether or not a suburban town can serve as a community that will satisfy the needs of all its residents. Jacques, Wright and Lacy make us ponder that idea that perhaps social division and creation of sub-communities is inevitable and a reality of suburbia.
I think an argument can be made that instead of the high school youth turning to drug consumption and dealing as a response to lack of stimuli in suburban youth, or a desire to reach a certain level of social status, but rather because dealing drugs offers a sense of individuality and freedom from the strict lifestyle they’re expected to live. In many competitive suburban high schools, students are constantly competing with each other for being top of their class or getting into select prestigious universities that often these students do not have time or an interest in making lasting friendships. Like we have discussed in class, many suburban communities hold themselves to a high standard and do everything to portray that image of success. Drugs then can be seen as the act of rebellion against trying to fit that perfect mold all the time. Jacques and Wright argue that teenagers engage in this type of behavior to make some extra money that they can then go and spend on other activities, however; I would argue that the drug dealing is not for the money at all. For many of these suburban teenagers, lack of money is of no issue because their parents are happy to keep supplying money to their kids for events and activities. Many suburban kids know this as a privilege and know it would be dumb to risk getting cut off to participate in illegal drug trade; therefore, the drug dealing is not about the money but rather the escape of trying to always be the perfect suburban child.