Little Five Points is a cultural smoothie filled with numerous, demographic ingredients. Inside of one business, you can find people dressed from head to toe in Black, studded and spiked clothing. Inside of others, you will be able to find cowboy western attire and hot pink tutus. It makes you wonder, “Who is Little Five Points trying to attract?”Well, that is what makes this place stand out from all of the other social settings in Atlanta. Little Five Points reaches out to give people an illusion of what Jeffery Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux would call, “self”. The setting allows people to feel like they are “unique” and gives a sense of “self” to the people who were inevitably subjects of their societal backgrounds. Although this feeling of “individualism” is a false impression, Little Five Points offers an atmosphere of acceptance for people with all different types of identities.
At first glance around the vibrant, graffiti filled, close-knit area of Little Five Points, you would think it was a place for the eccentric human being. Everything about this area implies that people are allowed to be who they are. There are people with tattoos and others without. There are people who wear very modest, earthy attire mixed in with women in six inch stilettos and flashy handbags. There are men in their forties, reading self-help books at a café. Meanwhile, next door there are men in their forties who are unloading their truck full of music equipment for their gig in three hours. Everyone seems to have a different agenda and interest in this quaint area. It also seems like they are exclusive. Yet and still, different hobbies are only results of different circumstances. The people here are subjects of the world’s social experimentation, “From the very beginning, it seems that the supposedly ‘free’ self is already a responding ‘subject’” (39). We often like to think that the young man with the blonde and black afro with the bull ring in his nose is in touch with his “who he is”. We often like to think that he is untouched by what society has to say. Nevertheless, this man is who he is as a result of society’s tampering (whether that is something he saw on television or the criticism he received from his parents).
Even ethnicity seems to be a diverse concept here. During my time at little five points (for approximately two hours), I met people of African, Caucasian, Black, European, and Native American descent. While this mixture of culture could be found in other places in Atlanta, Little Five Points embraces these differences. Nevertheless, how different are these people? According to Nealon and Giroux, “Race- what it means to be ‘white’ or ‘black’ or ‘Asian’ or ‘Latino/a’- is a culturally constructed phenomenon” (40). So, when African Americans walk into stores like Vinnies, an urban street wear store, they are only following the implications of society. On a wider scale, When I walked through little five past the Hookah shop and book store, I felt like I was “artsy” and that the limitations of “self” were non-existent. When I shop at Rag-o-rama (the vintage thrift store), I am only doing such because of my liberal, Los Angeles hometown.
It may seem as if Little Five Points is using some false advertisement in order to draw many different kinds of people in. However, this place is not embracing “individualism” as much as it is embracing the acceptance of all types of different people. Nealon and Giroux explain, “There is no ‘escape’ to some place of perfect freedom where we are untouched by culture, no longer subject to our surroundings. In fact, the dream of such a place is one of the most profound and continuous myths of culture that we have in the west” (47). Little Five Points offers the people a different kind of dream. It brings together the extremes of all types of cultures and identities into one place. Little Five Points is the place where you can see a line of men camped outside of Wish for the third day, waiting for a pair of shoes to premier. Little five points is the place where you can hear hard rock and hip hop within inches of one another. Little Five Points is the place where women can shop for Easter Sunday or a nightclub. Instead of another shopping center or area that marginalizes people from one another, Little Five Points applauds every type of person for their interests, passions, style and societal influence.
Cite source:
Nealon, Jeffery, and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox. United States of America: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003. 35-47. Print.
At first glance around the vibrant, graffiti filled, close-knit area of Little Five Points, you would think it was a place for the eccentric human being. Everything about this area implies that people are allowed to be who they are. There are people with tattoos and others without. There are people who wear very modest, earthy attire mixed in with women in six inch stilettos and flashy handbags. There are men in their forties, reading self-help books at a café. Meanwhile, next door there are men in their forties who are unloading their truck full of music equipment for their gig in three hours. Everyone seems to have a different agenda and interest in this quaint area. It also seems like they are exclusive. Yet and still, different hobbies are only results of different circumstances. The people here are subjects of the world’s social experimentation, “From the very beginning, it seems that the supposedly ‘free’ self is already a responding ‘subject’” (39). We often like to think that the young man with the blonde and black afro with the bull ring in his nose is in touch with his “who he is”. We often like to think that he is untouched by what society has to say. Nevertheless, this man is who he is as a result of society’s tampering (whether that is something he saw on television or the criticism he received from his parents).
Even ethnicity seems to be a diverse concept here. During my time at little five points (for approximately two hours), I met people of African, Caucasian, Black, European, and Native American descent. While this mixture of culture could be found in other places in Atlanta, Little Five Points embraces these differences. Nevertheless, how different are these people? According to Nealon and Giroux, “Race- what it means to be ‘white’ or ‘black’ or ‘Asian’ or ‘Latino/a’- is a culturally constructed phenomenon” (40). So, when African Americans walk into stores like Vinnies, an urban street wear store, they are only following the implications of society. On a wider scale, When I walked through little five past the Hookah shop and book store, I felt like I was “artsy” and that the limitations of “self” were non-existent. When I shop at Rag-o-rama (the vintage thrift store), I am only doing such because of my liberal, Los Angeles hometown.
It may seem as if Little Five Points is using some false advertisement in order to draw many different kinds of people in. However, this place is not embracing “individualism” as much as it is embracing the acceptance of all types of different people. Nealon and Giroux explain, “There is no ‘escape’ to some place of perfect freedom where we are untouched by culture, no longer subject to our surroundings. In fact, the dream of such a place is one of the most profound and continuous myths of culture that we have in the west” (47). Little Five Points offers the people a different kind of dream. It brings together the extremes of all types of cultures and identities into one place. Little Five Points is the place where you can see a line of men camped outside of Wish for the third day, waiting for a pair of shoes to premier. Little five points is the place where you can hear hard rock and hip hop within inches of one another. Little Five Points is the place where women can shop for Easter Sunday or a nightclub. Instead of another shopping center or area that marginalizes people from one another, Little Five Points applauds every type of person for their interests, passions, style and societal influence.
Cite source:
Nealon, Jeffery, and Susan Searls Giroux. The Theory Toolbox. United States of America: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2003. 35-47. Print.
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