Ain't No Makin It

Chapter 9 revisits the Hallway Hangers in Clarendon Heights eight years later, highlighting the impact of socioeconomic changes and personal choices on their lives. The neighborhood has evolved due to gentrification, displacing long-standing Italian and Portuguese communities with young professionals, and altering its cultural and economic landscape.

The chapter studies the bleak realities faced by the Hallway Hangers, marked by unemployment, incarceration, and reliance on the underground drug economy. Individuals like Steve, Stoney, and Shorty represent the group’s struggles, cycling through low-paying jobs, prison, and ongoing personal crises. These narratives illustrate the harsh consequences of the transition from manufacturing to service-based employment, a change that leaves those with minimal education, like the Hallway Hangers, in precarious positions with few stable or well-paying job opportunities.

MacLeod explores themes of racism, substance abuse, and violence, showing how these factors intertwine with economic hardships to shape the Hallway Hangers’ lives. Chris’s story is particularly poignant; his addiction to crack cocaine leads him into a downward spiral of theft and despair, underscoring the destructive impact of addiction on relationships and self-worth.

The underground economy, while offering immediate financial gains, proves to be a perilous alternative, exacerbating their struggles with addiction, eroding social bonds, and deepening criminal involvement.