Class Exercise: April 29th

Write a brief essay on the following topic:
"Street Smarts" - Surviving in Today's World

Student Responses and Feedback from Instructor

Henry: "I think that my way of thinking closely resembles that of Mr. Turnbow. If people smile, greet them with a smile back. If they greet you with displeasure, greet them back with displeasure. My motto is treat people how you want to be treated."

Taylor to Henry - It seems to me you are saying two different things here, each one with something practical in it.

One: Treat people like they treat you.
Two: Treat people the way you wish they would treat you.

These aren't exactly opposites (though they might look like it at first), but I doubt that you could do both at once. The first is a reactive method - you wait and see how they treat you, then you respond in kind. The second is more "aggressive" - what some call "pro-active" - where you take the initiative, and don't wait to see how they treat you.

Of course, if you say Hello in a friendly way, and get a sour response, you can shift from the Golden Rule to Mr. Turnbow's Rule. But you can't really do both at once.

Martin Luther King's method was to continue, no matter what, to treat people with respect and hope - even when they were hostile. Of course, there was plenty of "attitude" in Dr. King - his acts made his enemies very uncomfortable. But he was always nonviolent in his aggression.

Was he "street smart" then?

Ralph: [Ralph preferred that his writings not be reproduced.]

Taylor to Ralph - I love that phrase, the "bootleg version of life." It captures the feeling that goes with your definition of street smarts.

It's interesting that you say it's "another name for common sense." If this is so (I'm willing to believe it), then does it follow that a person "living by the book" doesn't have common sense?

Or maybe this is the way it is: Everyone naturally has common sense, as part of human nature, but it is destroyed in some people (or they are deprived of it by their narrow educations). There is also more to intelligence than common sense. For example, there are things that are true that common sense doesn't tell us. So a person who lives only by common sense is one who has to do without certain other advantages of intelligence - and he's street smart.

But then, what else - what other kinds of knowledge - exist, and what would we call the sort of intelligence that combines common sense and all the rest?

Fernando: "To survive these days you better hope you have family that would help you through thick and thin. If you don't, then you're on your own, which is harder. Someone to push or influence you to become a better person for the future. Sometimes you could have the family and still don't do anything, because you want the easy way out.

To survive you need:

Job
Education
Shelter
Love
Communication
And staying out of trouble."

Taylor to Fernando - It's interesting to me how you define the task. It's in terms of difficulty and struggle.

That's why you say that without family it's harder. And why you say you need someone to push you. And why you say that the danger is wanting the easy way out.

It's interesting because "street smarts" usually puts all the emphasis on brains or cleverness or common sense - and not on effort or work.

So I'm wondering if the way you see it comes from the way you have to live it. What exactly is "hard" in your life at present? I know that there are a lot of things happening to you - looking forward to being a father, looking for a job, things like that. But the sense of difficulty seems so strong, I wonder what else is influencing your attitude.

Bill:

Self-Discovery and Self-Fulfillment: "Well, my stand on self-discovery and self-fulfillment starts when I became a leader or took my position to lead, teach a group of young men. I won't call them boys (even though technically that's what they were) but in the poor household these boys are the men of the house. I took them with me from ages 10 to 15, 16. I opened up an experimental school, what some would call an after-school program, like the Boy Scouts.

Well, it was, but I did not fit the role of Scoutmaster, since I believe in tearing down all stereotypes. I took on the challenge as Black Scoutmaster, and I love the fellowship of me and the boys going fishing, biking, camping. Role model, mentor - to see them happy also gave me great happiness. And what I self-discovered and fulfilled me so much was to find out that you don't go direct after happiness (you will never find it), but if you go out of your way to make another person happy, it (the good) will come back to you.

I have experienced what Frederick Douglass has experienced - "The delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race." Me too.

Helping them young black men in the project (Frederick Douglass helping to teach his fellow slaves how to read) and the fact of being caught up in such rapture made one year of his life in slavery go by with ease.

And that he was indebted to the society of his fellow slaves. That they were interlinked with each other. ("I loved them with a love stronger than anything I have experienced since.") I can't say my experience with my boys was up to Douglass's standard, but to me it was all the world of happiness."

Taylor to Bill - This is a great story, and I for one am convinced that your Truth is equal to Douglass's Truth. It's the same discovery and fulfillment, in the act of giving to others. It's always the same Truth, no matter where it's found - one of the few really basic Truths of human life. I admire you for it.

Bill, here's your opening exercise:

Street Smarts: "Well, this is a term used to indicate that one is aware and knowledgeable about how things work in the world. Away from home or school, church, the rules on how things work or go in the street are not like at home. For there, there is trust in each other, and on the street you got to know that you can't trust everybody or turn your back on anyone. That life outside of home is dangerous, preying on the weak or unaware. And all around in the street, you should watch out for everything, all your possessions, money, clothes, car, home - for bad people are out to get all those who are not hip or street wise to what is taking place in the fast-moving lane or fast track. There are traps and con games to be played on marks or square people who don't know how to walk, talk the language of the street, or the code. You don't rat on no one to police. This ain't Kansas no more.

Taylor to Bill - So here's my question: How do you put together the two things you wrote this week? On the one hand, there's your work with boys, which seems quite wonderful to me. But you are not teaching them (so far as I can see, or imagine) how to be "street smart." On the contrary, you are teaching them to be "country smart," if you know what I mean. You are taking them fishing, hiking, giving them the natural world, the out of doors. And you are teaching them to trust the world, not to distrust it.

So does that mean that you think you are giving them something more important than the skepticism and defensiveness that street smarts seem to be?"

Ernesto: "If you don't have street smarts, I think you're basically lost in today's world. With street smarts you can get around, you can get things your way, you can get certain deals done. And it some cases it gives you access to places and things you won't get without it.

Street smarts often prevents you from getting "played," and by that I mean getting overcharged, underlooked, and people taking advantage of you.

A person with street smarts can go a long way and get a lot done, but you have to be careful because someone can have more than you, and then you can be in trouble."

Taylor to Ernesto - It's interesting how your argument develops. It starts by saying all the important advantages of knowing how to play the games of the street - so that you don't get "played." But at the end, your reader begins to wonder. Because the final warning is that if you decide to "play" this game, especially the side of it that allows you to "get certain deals done," you are risking yourself.

Is there a way of not entering the game, not being a player?

Lloyd: "Street smarts is a couple different things. Knowing what's around you at all times. Being able to read certain situations. Being alert. Knowing what not to do. And knowing how to get out of certain situations.

Taylor to Lloyd - Your emphasis is on knowing how to read situations. That was what you emphasized in our group discussion too. It seems to be your rule of life - to get a correct reading on things. Until you feel that you have the correct reading, you are cautious. I remember how at the beginning of the semester you were being careful to watch and see what was up, what was really being asked of you, what the strings were.

Now, it seems to me that you've decided that you have a correct reading, and are able to enter into the class wholeheartedly.

I wonder what the key moment was - when you decided you didn't have to be street smart any more in our group, but could join in.

Leo: "I can only imagine that in order to survive in an environment that is primed or saturated with violence, we would need to know the language that applies to the environment in question. I am not sure how to apply this, to be "street smart" you would need to understand the "lingo" or language of that group in the society that survives through tough times by roaming the streets searching for an easy prey (someone) who is lost or misplaced, and influence that person or try to persuade them or mislead them into some form of belief that there is nothing wrong doing some of the things that groups of people believe to be smart. In every society we meet people who choose not to be a member of, or be a part of the normal "norm," but challenge everything that society does who uphold the law. It is more like the Devil's Advocate sort of thing, because most people know better than they claim not to ...."

Taylor to Leo - I hope I've done justice to your statement in typing it. As I understand you, you are saying several things:

That street smarts means knowing a lingo, and belonging to the group that uses that language as a kind of code - not quite a secret language, but a mark of belonging to a sub-culture that is at odds with the "normal" culture.

That one may learn that lingo (and the rest of the sub-culture's habits and ways) as a means of protecting yourself from it.

Does that fit your ideas?

What interests me most is your emphasis on the language side of it. I think you are particularly sensitive to style differences, and the way that language signals other qualities - values, status, attitude. This seems correct to me, but I guess I'd also say that the street-smart person has a similar view, though perhaps not so sophisticated. For him, too, language is a key to behavior and action - though for all his street-smarts, he's usually the master of only a single dialect, the language of the streets, and therefore he's trapped in that world. What do you think?

Pedro: "Street smarts - surviving in today's world. Well, being street smart is a good thing because you know your way around, you think, and are very aware of your surroundings, things that don't look right. Being street smart can help you making good decisions in your life."

Taylor to Pedro - I can't decide from your comments whether you think of street smarts as basically a defensive stance, or whether you think of them as more positive too. Most of what you say suggests defense ("things that don't look right"), but at the end you speak of "making good decisions in your life," and that has a positive ring to it.

I wonder whether in your own life, you see street smarts operating positively. One person in the class says it's just common sense. Do you agree with that?

Paulo: "Street smarts really is when you know the person whom you are making the transaction with, because these days shit ain't all the good, so that's why you have to remind a good hustle at all times because the next man might call the boys after you - UNDERSTAND?"

Taylor to Paulo - It's hard to read your handwriting, but I think I got most of it. If I'm correct, what you are doing here is trying to give an example of the way people talk in the streets.

That's my guess. It goes with your rap lyrics - not really trying to say anything, so much as to be something - the way music is something rather than saying something.

That doesn't leave the other person in the conversation (me, this time) much to answer.

Marty: "In this world today "street smarts" can help you more in life than book smarts, in my point of view. Street smart is a form of common sense, from the street's perspective. I think if you have a street personality, you're not acceptable to people who try to get over on you. Having a street hustler mentality (knowing how to stack your dough) can work in bigwig jobs on major companies."

Taylor to Marty - If I understand you, you're saying two things that I have trouble putting together:

First, street smarts really means "common sense," applied to the situations of the street.

Second, a street hustler mentality is "not acceptable" to people who feel you are beneath them.

But then, in the final thought, you seem to be saying that the street mentality actually "works" in the world that those people inhabit (major companies).

When I try to put it together, I come up with something like this: The commonsense of the streets is like all common sense, applicable anywhere. But the style of the streets is not welcome everywhere. So, to use your common sense to advantage in the "big wig" world, you'd have to learn another style - but you could still use your street smarts (common sense).

Is that something like what you mean?

Bert: Here's what you wrote for class this week:

It strikes me that you need street smarts mostly when you're off your own turf and have to accommodate yourself to other people's rules. Street smarts are, in one aspect, a kind of existential etiquette.

When I traveled in Central America, a lot of men carried machetes. That made for an imperative to understand them and treat them with consideration.

Of course, street smarts also involve spotting potential danger before it develops, and avoiding it. In Puerto Rico, shortly after I arrived there, I got into a friendly conversation on the street with a man one evening. After a while, he suggested that I buy him a beer in a cantina down the block. We went in, he disappeared, I had a beer, and was presented with a wildly inflated tab.

I began to protest, and most of the big crowd was now looking at me. That's when I noticed a policeman, who came toward me, smiling. But I knew he wasn't on my side. I paid the bill. I don't think I could have avoided the misadventure at that stage of my stay in Puerto Rico, though later I got wiser.

White guys in white cities don't often need street smarts."

Taylor to Bert - Yeah, that's the bottom line, turf.

Class Notes 4.29.03 (Stoehr)

This was one of those classes that remind you to be ready for anything. Bert and I were a little early, and met Taj McCrae, the assistant district attorney Bobby had invited, standing in the hall looking puzzled. Bobby had told him that we started at 7 instead of 7:30. He'd also told him the wrong building, so Taj had time to look around and figure out we were in Wheatley, not McCormack. But the other (defense) attorney who was also invited hadn't turned up yet - and he too would go to the wrong place.

We picked a room, and students began to arrive. By 7:45 we had about four. Taj decided to go looking for Patrick Sparks, the other visitor. He came back with him about 8. By that time we had maybe eight students. Bobby arrived about 8:10, and two more students. No Matt. So we finally got started about forty-five minutes late, with ten of our fourteen probationers, two visitors, one probation officer, two facilitators. I decided to put the two visitors together in a group with Bill and Pedro, both good talkers. I have decided to keep Ralph in groups with Bert, because they've formed a pretty good bond. Paulo, always a problem, is going to be with Bobby from here on out, and the question is always who to add to that group. Tonight I decided on Marty. Here's why.

Paulo and Marty were among the early arrivals. First Marty, who sat in the back of the room, then Paulo, who always sits in the back, and chose to sit next to him. Paulo arrived with his cell phone out, dialing. He made several calls, and got several, but in between these he and Marty seemed to be talking comfortably enough. I gave back the writings from last week, and Paulo looked at his and said, "You must like me." He meant that it surprised him to see his writing typed up, with comments. "Sure," I said. "But you weren't here last week to get it back. It's been waiting for you."

Meanwhile, Bert, sitting up in front, was fuming about Paulo's cell phone. We've told him - Bert and I and Bobby - at least twenty times, probably more, to turn it off when he gets to class. I heard him saying to the person he was talking to that he had to turn it off or he would be kicked out - saying this, but not turning it off, and saying it loud enough for us to hear. Bert called out, "Turn it off!" Paulo ignored him.

Since class was obviously not going to start until more students (and Bobby, and Matt) arrived, I thought, Oh well, what's the harm? But Bert got more and more annoyed. Finally I said to Paulo, it's okay to use it till class starts, but do it in the hall, people are reading in here. (They were.) So Paulo dragged his ass out into the hall. If Bobby had been on time, we could have avoided all this, since Bobby represents authority to Paulo, and I think they "understand" each other by now. When he did arrive, and it was time to form small groups, I put Marty and Paulo and Fernando in Bobby's group. From time to time I looked up and saw Paulo doing a lot of the talking. It seemed like a pretty active conversation, though I don't think Fernando was in it much. Mostly Bobby and Paulo. It's hard to judge whether it's of use to Paulo. Maybe the best we can do for him is give him a sense of boundaries and connections - Bert and Bobby representing the two versions of these. The phone business is clearly an addiction, not just his defense mechanism for this particular situation. But it's impossible to know what he's warding off, how it serves him.

Before breaking into groups I had several other things I wanted to do. First of all, I am still experimenting with reading aloud, more and more determined because I think fewer and fewer students are reading the assignments. I have a theory about why that is so - which there's no way of testing, but which I think is right. It has to do with our loss of Judge Thomas May and Probation Officer John Christopher, who used to be regulars along with Bobby. Their presence made the difference. Students were unwilling to risk being in a group with either of them, unprepared. It wasn't that Tom and John were authoritarian in manner, or even very stern in appearance, though Tom had white hair and John held himself like a champion athlete. But somehow the vibes were there. No one else has that quality. Bobby is late, jovial, a bit scattered. Matt is too young, though he has the dignity and some nights the costume to demand respect. If he were ten years older, his clerical dress and self-possession would do it. But both he and Ean are also obviously volunteers, not part of the System. Bert and I are teachers, the ones you learn how to "get around." So we would have to bear down hard to get "obedience" to the rules, and we're not willing to do that. We could play good cop/bad cop with them, but I'd rather not play any games.

So, the upshot is to find another way of getting the material up in front of us, and the reading aloud is my temporary solution. Tonight I read about Martin Luther King, Jr., first as reported by Bayard Rustin, a long time civil rights activist, and then by Hartman Turnbow, a black farmer from Mississippi who was among those who resisted, with firearms, when the Klan tried to intimidate them during the voter registration drives of the early Sixties. Turnbow met King twice, and they discussed nonviolence, Turnbow warning King that he was asking to die. Rustin, who was one of King's earliest Gandhian advisers, had also talked with him about his likely martyrdom.

Last week's passage from Douglass, describing his resistance to the slave-breaker, had prepared the way for tonight's more explicit setting forth of alternative ways to respond to violence. The class was pretty interested in the conflict of ideas. Bill immediately wanted to comment on the issues, and I could have opened it up at that point, but time was passing and we needed to get into the small groups. I wanted the issue of nonviolence in front of us, but in order to address still another topic, in the opening exercise: "Street Smarts: Surviving in Today's World."

It seemed to me that people finished writing earlier than usual, maybe ten minutes. Perhaps this was because everyone was aware of how late it had gotten, and wanted the small group discussions to begin. It was a big relief to finally move to them. I could see it in everyone. I guess you could say that at last we were going to "recess," after too much talking from the teacher.

I sat with Ernesto and Lloyd. Actually, I think I had asked Leo to join us, but he sat with Bert and his bunch, and that was probably just as well, since Ernesto talked a lot more than usual tonight, and I doubt if that would have happened with another voice in the group. It's curious how Ernesto has been gradually blossoming. I can see he really wants to be part of things, but isn't quite sure how to do it. He's pretty young, and he's obviously settled on a street manner as self-protection - "Never let on," would be one way to put it. Tonight he had a chance to actually talk about his manner, though of course he didn't think he was revealing himself all that much.

He began by saying that "street smarts" means knowing what the "price" is. His example was going into a store, where the shopkeeper tries to get you to buy something that is overpriced. You have to know what the real prices are. I took this example metaphorically, but Ernesto means it literally. He's young, not yet out of the phase where what people are wearing, the phones they carry, the cars they drive, and all the other commodities are the badges of honor and status. Knowing their prices is essential knowledge. Otherwise the entire system of value falls to pieces.

Lloyd didn't warm up to this idea. His example of street smarts is the ability to watch people on the street, from a distance, and size up the situation - the way they look, gesture, interact, tells you to beware. Maybe they aren't a direct threat to you, but the street is full of danger, and you need to be able to read the signs. Ernesto liked Lloyd's idea, and immediately tried to dramatize it. "See, they might be looking at you, like this -" and he cocked his head and looked out of the corners of his eyes like the villain in a silent movie.

"So, you're saying that having street smarts is a matter of self-protection, self-defense?" I asked.

They nodded. "What else?"

More examples, mainly from Lloyd. Someone comes up to you (he grins) and says, "Wanna make $500?" He makes a face, and shakes his head. Or they say, "Need a job?"

"How do you know it's a hustle?" I ask. They look at me in disbelief. "You know! You can tell!"

Lloyd says he asks questions. "Where is this job?" Or, say it's carfare - "Where you going?" Then you know how much it would cost, and if you think maybe he really needs it, you go over to a taxi. Or you say, "Money for a meal? Sure" - and take him to a diner and buy him a meal.

Does Lloyd actually do this? Hard to say. He said something about traveling in other countries, where you are an easy mark. He's traveled in the Caribbean. "They know you by your clothes, your talk."

I said, it's different there, isn't it? People are friendlier. There's more likelihood that someone would be generous, welcoming. He agreed, but Lloyd wasn't thinking about helping strangers; he was thinking about being a stranger at risk. He and Ernesto agree that wherever you go, there's always somebody looking to take advantage of you.

What about street smarts used aggressively instead of defensively? I asked. The hustlers have street smarts too. Both of them lit up. Of course, that's the point, to match wits with these fellows. I asked them to look around the room. Who would you say, in this room has the most street smarts. Ernesto says, "I don't even have to turn around. Everybody in this room has street smarts. That's part of why they're here."

"Yeah, but then they weren't so smart, right?"

He wasn't fazed by this. "Sure. That's another kind of smarts, knowing how to deal with the law. You've got to know, for instance, when a police officer is asking you questions because he's caught you smoking a little weed, whether he's going to arrest you. So he'll be asking you questions, and your answers may be the right ones - and get you off, if he thinks you're basically all right, not dealing, whatever."

Again he and Lloyd agree, but obviously it's Ernesto who has the practical experience. I think from what I heard last week that Lloyd hasn't had much to do with the street. Like he said, the reason he's here is BS. Ernesto is younger but much more experienced. But they both were enjoying the conversation, where they were the experts. As we talked, I thought I saw Ernesto's face grow livelier and less frozen. Lloyd had relaxed his poker-face in last week's conversation. They've both dropped the masks they started with at the beginning of the semester - Lloyd's guarded, blank look; Ernesto's narrow-eyed deadpan.

I asked them whether they thought Martin Luther King or Hartman Turnbow had street smarts. "Not King!" said Ernesto. But he thought Turnbow did, because of his ability to survive. We didn't go into the issue of nonviolence or self-defense in any depth, but it was clear that they both felt that King was foolhardy, Turnbow practical. I suggested that for King the point wasn't self-defense, but building a movement, and therefore a different attitude was called for. In our readings Rustin had said that King's achievement had been to teach people not to be afraid. They agreed with Rustin, but had nothing more to say about it. They talked a lot more about Turnbow, for they saw a fellow spirit there.

It was time to quit, and I began to distribute the new assignments. I told Lloyd and Ernesto that Tolstoy, our next writer, is the greatest writer in history, and I gave them a few hints of the nature of the story we're reading. I wonder if they'll look at it. This is not a class of readers.

Most people left in a hurry tonight, but Bill stuck around as usual, talking with the attorneys who had been in his group. He's probably getting more out of the class than anyone else. Or maybe I should say that he's putting more into it. This week he was the only one to hand me any homework, though most people wrote something for the opening exercise. Bill is enjoying himself immensely.

Next week Bobby says he's bringing a couple more attorneys. It's interesting how much public relations work he's been doing for us this semester at the courthouse. This is an important aspect of the program, though I wish he could get more probation officers to visit, not just these lawyers, much as I like them.

Class Notes 4.29.03 (Stern)

I saw my negative energy with painful clarity last night. Not just the way I get into it with Paulo, but also how bleak I can feel about the class. You know, four guys not there, those who were, their heads down and away from you, while you were talking about King. And, of course, Paulo himself, with his eyes dramatically shut. But what I'm saying is that I have a way of latching on to negative energy as a way of nourishing my own. (Is that my loop?)

But then in the one-on-one it all changes. Chatted with Henry for a while before the others arrived, about his health problems. He seems very sensible about the whole thing, though it apparently involves major surgery on his thyroid.

What emerged from the general discussion is that "street smarts" has several overlapping meanings. One is simply the reading of the terrain, knowing what's out there when you move through a particular neighborhood, so you won't be surprised. A kind of map, if you will. Ralph added to this that street smarts are like rules for a "bootleg life." He spoke of it mostly from the point of view of the criminal who wants not to get caught. Not much detail on this, just the idea that if you're hustling, you want to be smart about it - the same line he took with Don last week, scolding him about his dumb bust. Oddly, Ralph by his own account is now solidly grounded in the straight world. He's working several jobs, and taking business administration courses at UMass. But he's still got a lot of anger with him, and I wonder where that goes.

Henry seems past that. He strikes me as very clear and positive. He's got a job as an iron worker. I wonder how his surgery will affect his ability to do that. He said the doctors tell him that he will feel weak after the operation, but for how long I'm not sure. It was Henry who said that he woke up during his last jail sentence of two years. Earlier, he'd done a couple of incarcerations, but these were only for eight months each and didn't really get to him. The last one did, and made him see that he had to make some big choices. I guess he also got into educating himself, by reading, but he didn't give details. Anyway, the upshot is obvious, in the clarity and calm of his mind.

Leo said an interesting thing about street smarts in talking about how, in New York, he'll go up to Harlem just to watch what's going on, and how, when he enters a neighborhood, some guy will come up and check him out, taking him for an easy mark. They'll say something and, by his response, discover whether he's hip, and, if he's not, set up a hustle. Everybody agreed that this happens, but more in New York than in Boston.

I don't get Leo. He strikes me as a mysterious character. Last night he said something about having been some kind of agent for the Army, suggesting that his visits to Harlem were part of a mission. The week before he spoke about this hi-tech company for which he works as an adviser. He comes in the first time in combat fatigues, but seems no longer to be in the army. He's a very good talker, and the other guys get into him. Henry could probably tell me in a minute what I'd need to know in order to understand Leo.

Oh, yes, one other meaning of street smarts came up that everybody agreed on, though maybe it's the same as the first I talked about, the map notion. "I don't live in Beverly Hills," Henry said, in the way of prologue. What it boils down to is that even for the straight people, the family people, lots of street smarts are needed in order to avoid being swept up by the other side. Life's dangerous, and the virtuous people must carefully pick their way.

Eighth Assignment: Due Tuesday May 6th

Reading:

1. Frederick Douglass, Narrative, Chapter 11
2. Handout: Leo Tolstoy, "Korney Vasiliev"

Writing:

Tolstoy's story deals with many familiar issues in our own day - alcoholism, marital unhappiness and unfaithfulness, battering, and homelessness just to name the more obvious ones.

For your writing assignment, please consider the following two responses to "hitting bottom": Forgiveness and Taking It Out on Somebody Else.