The Psychology Of Street Racers – Drawing on nearly a decade of ethnographic research in predominantly Brazilian and Puerto Rican neighborhoods in Newark, New Jersey, Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas explores in Street Therapists how affect, emotion, and sentiment serve as landmarks for navigating interracial relationships among Latina-born USA, Latin American immigrants, black and white ethnicities. Dealing with a rarely studied dynamic approach to affect, Ramos-Zayas offers a thorough—and sometimes paradoxical—new articulation of race, space, and neoliberalism in US urban communities.
After looking at the historical, political, and economic contexts in which the heightened connection between affect and race emerged in Newark, New Jersey, Street Therapists engages in close examination of various community sites—including high schools, workplaces, beauty salons, and funeral homes. among others, and secondary sites in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and San Juan to reveal the ways in which US-born Latin American and Latin American migrants interpret and analyze everyday racial encounters through the language of psychology and emotion. As Ramos-Zayas notes, this emotive approach to race reinvigorates Latin American and Caribbean ideologies of “racial democracy” in the US urban context—and often leads to new psychological stereotypes and forms of social exclusion. Thoroughly researched and thoughtfully argued, Street Therapists theorizes the conflictual connections between race, affect, and urban neoliberalism.
The Psychology Of Street Racers
“There are many books that try to look at affect/emotions and contemporary urban life, or the logic of neoliberalism, or even the many complex connections between race/ethnicity/multiculturalism and gender/sexuality, but I can’t think of one that takes them on all of them – and so engaging. Even with the many variables important to street therapists, it never feels like they’re trying to do too much. Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas really does a masterful job of highlighting the emotions/affects that are important to the social science of different urban communities, while bringing all these other topics into conversation with this central concern. It is an immensely intelligent, useful and ambitious piece of urban ethnography.” – John L. Jackson Jr., University of Pennsylvania
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“Street Therapists’ comparative focus on the experiences of various Latino groups and their attention to nuance and detail is unique. Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas uses workplace and beauty salon conversations to open the door to the complex ways Latinos in Newark think about their emerging racial identities, and then shows how these constructs reinforce the structure and hierarchy of race relations in this predominantly black city. Following Bourdieu’s example, he uses the “structured anecdote” to reveal how popular consciousness is framed and reproduced through everyday interactions. Given the growth of the US Latino population and the dynamic processes through which Latino racial and political identities are formed in various social contexts, Ramos-Zayas’s work will serve as a powerful reference point for understanding these processes as they evolve. “–Pedro Noguera, New York University
“Street Therapists offers an innovative way to locate affect and emotion within a critical political economy stance. In her perceptive ethnography of Latino Newark, emotion is analyzed through local urban practices and the politics of everyday life. Ramos-Zayas contributes to a more nuanced study of neoliberal urbanism by developing concepts of the emotional urban landscape in order to capture the richness of embodied and situated understandings of race, ethnicity, and social exclusion.” — Setha Low, City University of New York
Get the latest news, special offers and media updates when you subscribe to our email lists! You lace up your shoes and put on your running gear because it’s something that makes you feel good, that you’ve accomplished something, and that you can often clear your mind. It’s time for yourself and let the world around you spin for a few minutes without you. For some runners, that can change when they step into the race’s starting line. Instead of peace and fun, it is a time of nerves, worries and stress. Even though you volunteered because you have a goal, your stomach is in knots, your heart is warming and your mouth is dry.
This is the last article in a series that was an opportunity to share my journey to learn more about myself and my struggles in racing.
The Race Card
When I said it was time to stop and look within, I realized that I had self-esteem issues and that I was determined to prove and show that I could be successful after struggling with racing in the past. I also learned that the person that shows up at a race is the same person at home and at work. My brain, my thoughts, my problems or issues follow me. The stress of the race simply puts me in a pressure cooker that makes my problems come to the surface. I often perform poorly or fail to reach the finish line.
Talking to other runners showed me that I was not alone. Most people are nervous on race day. It can range from nervous energy to complete crippling from stress, fear, or self-imposed pressure. Some people come up with strategies to overcome nerves, nervousness or pressure and realize that sometimes you can talk to yourself and face the doubts.
Elites I have found also struggle, but sometimes find ways to face their fears and pressures to achieve their goals. Successful athletes analyze, learn and find ways to perform in a race. I’ve also learned that sometimes it’s good to not overthink and trust your training and keep it simple. Olympian and now consultant Leah Pells said: “We often think about our bodies. Trust your body. Let your body do what it needs to do.”
I listened to others and read many books and articles online about sports psychology, which focuses on the mindset of athletes during sports. I confirmed that I am not alone. I started writing daily positive affirmations (the opposite of my doubts and negative self-image) and was given advice on how to visualize what a good race day should look like. I created a self-meditation that I recorded and listened to. But I’m not an expert. The last step would be to talk to psychologists and sports performance experts with training and experience. I signed up for a few easy races and events to test and practice everything I’d been putting together on how to face race day.
The Investors First Podcast
Learning. That’s what life is all about, especially if we want to change and overcome an obstacle in life or sports. That’s why I wanted to learn from the best. I found three experts to help give me advice and insights. The first was Robert Beer, sports performance consultant and co-owner of Mindset First in Concord, Ontario. He said one of the first things I should do is identify my biggest fear of competing – look within and ask myself questions. His top three points are:
1) Train the same way you go racing. If you don’t race with music, don’t train with it.
My second expert was sports psychologist and well-named Noel Brick from Ireland, author of “The Genius of Athletes”. His book specifically focuses on runners and was written with noted running writer Scott Douglas. One of his key philosophies focuses on the fact that humans have brains that respond in primal ways. The “old brain” can take over when we feel threatened, and our brain controls everything in our body. How our brain perceives a situation (such as race day) can affect our performance. If we perceive the race as a threat, our heart rate increases and because we feel threatened, our bodies tense up and our arteries constrict. Our blood is hard to pump, but the blood flow is limited and the oxygen flowing in it decreases. When the gun goes off, our bodies are not in an ideal state to perform well. We feel heavy, not ourselves, not as good as all our training would suggest. If we accept the race as a challenge and that being nervous is normal, our bodies can relax and our brains don’t see things as threatening. Our heart rate increases with nervousness and excitement, and oxygenated blood fills our bodies, preparing us to race and push forward.
1) Build confidence by focusing on mini-goals towards your goal or focusing on parts of your race rather than the end result.
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2) Focus on the things you can control, not the things you can’t – like your race plan, how you’ll approach the day and situations.
3) Choose race goals that you can control, such as breathing, how you start, when you make a move, etc.
The pieces started coming together. What started out as a pure puzzle seemed to become a bit clearer. My final words of wisdom come from Lester Kaplan,
Editor Ben Kaplan’s own father, an experienced psychotherapist and professor. He emphasized how we all strive to fulfill the same basic needs such as companionship, feeling good, happy and finding meaning in life. The difference is in how each of us tries to fulfill these needs. Our genetics and experiences shape our worldview. He told me,
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After all of that