The Sociology of...Gunshots in my Neighborhood

It's a good thing I stay up late.
Two nights ago I was laying in bed, watching TV, and dozing off to sleep when I heard a loud POW! I always sleep with my window open, so it sounded like it was in the backyard. I muted the TV, crawled out of bed, and went over to my window. Everything looked tranquil and typical. Then I heard multiple voices talking and yelling. I got this sick feeling in my stomach, and I could feel fear rising inside of me like air inflates a balloon. I went and woke my parents up. My mother came into my room to hear what I was hearing. And it happened again. Another POW! and voices yelling. She called the cops and we sat by the window for a long while trying to figure out what was going on in our neighborhood.

I had grown accustomed to crime in my college town. Poverty and homelessness were high there. Drug dealers had been relocating from bigger cities. Domestic violence was high. Seeing the cops on my street had become almost mundane. But it's different here, here in this small town that is amidst a transition from rural to suburban. This is a subdued, middle-class, family neighborhood. What's going on??

I have a theory about this. Atlanta is an interesting city that has experienced a tremendous amount of growth even since 3 years ago when my parents moved here. It's a booming metropolis with a lot of opportunity. As a result, I think many people have experienced or are experiencing upward mobility economically. But economic upward mobility doesn't necessarily mean social upward mobility. In other words, class is not just about how much money you make or what neighborhood you live in. It's also about intangible values and immaterial culture. And those things can't be purchased. Rather, they are embedded through the process of socialization. So, could it be that economic progress has exported inner-city values into the suburbs? Perhaps the "struggle mentality" still prevails for some. The mentality that uses aggression, violence, and deviance as means to ends. No doubt, this mentality meant survival in some places. But in other places it is just unnecessary disruption and deterioration of an otherwise lovely community.

I wish I hadn't been awake to hear the gunshots and the yelling and to see the blue lights swirling on my neighbors' houses. But that's what progress is about--being awake to what is going on around you.

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