Now that we’ve fully dealt with the account given to us by the Wu Tang Clan, and before we dive into more contemporary theorists, let’s recap some of the themes we’ve been grapping with. First, the idea of abstract space versus social space, and the relationship between them. Second, how the Wu-Tang has described their social space and how that influenced this “C.R.E.A.M.” lifestyle, where money dictates success. Third, how urbanization creates a distinct marginalized class, given to us by Georg Simmel, and may create a culture that has adapted to social disorganization, given to us by Louis Wirth. Lastly, Wu-Tang forever.
The single “C.R.E.A.M.” comes at us in the early 90s from the album that was one of first Wu-Tang collaborations. Most of them were in their early twenties and, as we’ve seen, were talking about their proverbial dreams from their teen years. So the question that sociologist could be interested in answers is, what structural changes happened to influence this account? Where there other neighborhood that experienced this same type of poverty? The answers are yes and yes. In fact many of the neighborhoods now experiencing poverty experienced similar structural shifts as Shaolin Land (see part 1).
For example, William Julius Wilson attempts to explain these same effect in Chicago as he watched the
neighborhoods shift. Neighborhoods in the 40s and 50s that were having Champaign parties once a week. Then by the end of the 70s, there was a huge drop. Wilson says it all starts with the D: deindustrialization. Where there were once factory jobs that brought people from all over to the city and provided work for migrant workers pouring in from the south, now there weren’t. Those factories either weren’t needed anymore or, more commonly, were moving to other countries where labor was cheaper. But this wasn’t the only thing happening, in addition to deindustrialization causing factories to leave, depopulation was another side effect as people left to follow the factories. Additionally, deindustrialization caused social isolation where people no longer were coming to the city, as they had no reason to come. This isolation also occurred with a disproportionate concentration, with specific areas being more effected by these ramifications.
Each of these issues can be talked about at length and demonstrated by the accounts from the Wu, but for now, let’s focus on social isolation. Wilson is proposing this as an alternative to the culture of poverty. It’s a bit of a dance. His idea is that there are structures affecting these communities and the communities then have to adapt to those structures.
Fast forward to about twenty years later to the early 90s, and we see that these issues haven’t shifted much. In, “C.R.E.A.M.” Wu gives an account of how that plays out within an area that has transformed their area to one in which their experience is dictated by money. Let’s jump back to Inspectah Deck’s verse where his mom is attempting to persuade him to go after a “traditional” job. Typically, folks in the drug trade don’t focus on traditional school roles either. That’s a generalization, of course, but presuming that reflects Inspectah Deck’s character in “C.R.E.A.M.” we can also assume he would have been in the tenth grade around the time he went to jail for the first time. Assuming he got out and went back to school, odds are he had a tough time before hopefully graduating. So this character has a record, struggles in school (again this is an assumption), and suffered from addiction and depression. In the end, he’s attempting to figure out how to navigate the world from this foundation. Besides the traditional work, which at the time was probably a minimum wage job, the only other thing to turbot was Hip Hop.. As Wilson suggests at the end of the book, huge policy changes will have to be made in order to redirect these types of communities that are saturated with issues of poverty.
This still leaves many unanswered questions. How does urbanization play a role with urbanism? Will there always be a battle between abstract and social space? What are the right policies to reconcile issues of the urban underclass? And, what is the best urban sociology approach to studying these issue? Later, Wilson will describe his prescription of the illnesses that we see in the urban ghettos. For now, it is best to end with Raekwon's last warning. Respect the struggle and, most importantly, respect the people within it just trying to survive.
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