As I mentioned in class, Alice Goffman’s privilege was something I felt was a shortcoming for her in this book. Even though see acknowledges her privilege in her methodological notes, I would have liked for her to talk about how she grapples with her privilege a bit more. I think her methodological notes were a very good and necessary addition to the book. I did appreciate that she took the time to explain how she got to 6th Street and how she formed relationships in the book. But I wanted her to talk more about what it meant to live there as a upper class White woman. What preconceptions did she have before going into the neighborhood? How shocking was it going from living at a place like UPenn to living on 6th street?
This book also made me think about how/if the situations described by Goffman would change not only if her race was different but also her gender. If she were a White male, would Mike treat her more like one of the boys or not want to deal with her because she would look like a cop. How would she be treated as a Black man? A Black woman? The list could go on. It’s interesting to considered how her identity would change how people would react to her and act around her in certain situations.
Excellent questions Gabi! I think these are terrific points of consideration and fair critiques of Goffman’s work.
I wonder how the book would have read had she (like Ralph) been transparent in her preface about her positionality. She definitely expects the readers to take certain things for granted but we truly do not have any clue about what her preconceived notions were (perhaps that is the point, to believe that she had none, because she was raised by prominent sociologists). Yet, this does little to alleviate our suspicions , so it would have been more useful to make bare many oft he questions you’ve posed.