Code of the Street

Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

By: Elijah Anderson

Narrated by: Vince Bailey

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk.

The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative. Unfortunately, the culture of the street thrives and often defeats decency because it controls public spaces, so that individuals with higher, better aspirations are often entangled in the code and its self-destructive behaviors.

Writing in the tradition of Jane Jacobs and William Julius Wilson, the author delineates the true workings of city streets. His most interesting characters are not the bullies and dealers, but the decent folks, young and old, who through entrepreneurship and creative self-help strategies are forging a viable alternative, an escape from the code of the street.

Winner of the Komarovsky Book Award, this incisive book examines the code as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope. An individual's safety and sense of worth are determined by the respect he commands in public - a deference frequently based on an implied threat of violence. Unfortunately, even those with higher aspirations can often become entangled in the code's self-destructive behaviors.

©1999 Elijah Anderson (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great very insightful

The cognitive dissident involved in knowing right from wrong but still trying to adhere to the code of the streets is very well explained

Still a great read in 2021

A long story about how F*cked up society is for about half the population in the US.

ok book

i needed this book for a class. the narrator talked so slow i had to listen to it at double speed.

Awesome research

This really gives me a better understanding of life in some of the most impoverished communities. I teach in S.E. Washington D.C and this definitely helps me cope with the way students operate. Thank you so much Mr. Anderson, I am looking forward to more of your books.

2nd half is worth reading the 1st half

The buildup and background information was a bit slow and took a long time. I almost stopped reading a few times until the book finally turned. The last half of the book is a very personal look at the factors outlined in the beginning. The ending is very powerful.