Sudhir Venkatesh’s ethnography Gang Leader for a Day is a summary of his research through the University of Chicago in the 1990s. Venkatesh chose to do research on poor African-Americans in Chicago, and their experiences in public housing developments. He concentrated his study on the Robert Taylor Housing to better understand how residents lived and differentiated from those in other parts of the city. Venkatesh’s target population was those living in harsh living conditions, primarily black and poor. Throughout this paper, I will be addressing Venkatesh’s research and its limitations. I will also share my opinion on Venkatesh’s analysis and understanding of his findings about the residents, and how his experiences mesh with my own. In …show more content…
Toward the beginning, I thought that being involved with a gang would be very dangerous. Gangs did ended up being threatening for Venkatesh, with all of the shootings, fights, and other drama that occurred during his research. I learned that it is hard for people to just to able to walk into a foreign area and be accepted. For Venkatesh it was hard, but once he was able to bond with the gang leader, JT, he helped Venkatesh which greatly helped him with his research. Moreover, if I was the one who was walking into the resident’s building I think I would get looks even more than Venkatesh because I am younger, innocent, and of the opposite sex all of these characteristics would have an effect on me. This would have made all the difference, because I someone who would not know what to do with people of a different culture. I learned that everyone acts differently with other social classes and …show more content…
Moreover, my beliefs on poverty and gangs were different once I analyzed Venkatesh’s ethnography. In my views I thought that the poor were people who suffered without the essentials of life such as food, shelter, water, and the feeling of being safe. I would see people on the streets begging for money and donations, but I was always afraid that they would go and buy alcohol or cigarettes which are unhealthy for people. In my view, the poor are the ones that need help the most. They are the ones who have to scavenge for the necessities of life. When I was in middle school I was afraid of gangs, I was afraid that I would get shot from one of
In the last chapter titled “The Stay Together Gang”, J.T. becomes promoted to the highest ranks of the Black Kings which he then invites Venkatesh to tag along to these high-level meetings. At this point, Robert Taylor is being threatened to be demolished and this would make Black Kings and tenants anxious because everyone would have to relocate. Also, in 1996, Venkatesh would be offered a fellowship position at Harvard, soon making him need to leave Chicago.
1-The story tells, Real facts occurred in the 1940s, where it was a racist society. Gangs were scattered throughout the cities, and regions, and the streets. To live, you have full get away, or belonging to one of them. You should help the gang members that they were right or on falsehood. Also, it is a kind of bigotry, not much different from intolerance, national, ethnic, and sectarian That were prevalent in American society. in fact, it is the inevitable result of this society. When the corruption becomes prevails, injustice and lawless prevails too, and justice will disappear.
JT suggested to Sudhir the only way he would know what it is like to be black and poor is to actually experience it. “You need to understand how young people live on the streets,” JT states (21). Sudhir took JT up on his offer and ended up conducting research on JT and his gang for many years. Sudhir was under JT protection and got to know the ins and outs of the gang operation. The relationship was complicated, but Sudhir was willing to work hard to understand the black community.
Wilson, William J. More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. New York: Norton & Company, 2009. Print.
Throughout There Are No Children Here, a continuous, powerful tension always lurks in the background. The gangs that are rampant in the housing projects of Chicago cause this tension. In the Henry Horner Homes, according to Kotlowitz, one person is beaten, shot, or stabbed due to gangs every three days. In one week during the author's study of the projects, police confiscated 22 guns and 330 grams of cocaine in Horner alone (Kotlowitz 32).
In the story of how “A Rouge Sociologist Takes to the Streets”, Sudhir Venkatesh finds himself in the projects of Chicago documenting his first hand experiences of his journey on how he is introduced to the black culture. Sudhir, a first year college student in the University of Chicago, decides to participate in a research project regarding “how young blacks were affected by specific neighborhood factors”, when he realizes how ineffective these questionnaires are, he decides to proceed in unconventional ways to retrieve his answers. Sudhir’s accumulated a growing fascination with the housing projects in Chicago the longer he spent in the community. Before long Sudhir had befriended a gang leader, by the name of J.T., who had given him a powerful
In the novel Poor People, written by William T. Vollmann asks random individuals if they believe they are poor and why some people are poor and others rich. With the help of native guides and translators, and in some cases their family members, they describe what they feel. He depicts people residing in poverty with individual interviews from all over earth. Vollmann’s story narrates their own individual lives, the situations that surround them, and their personal responses to his questions. The responses to his questions range from religious beliefs that the individual who is poor is paying for their past sins from a previous life and to the rational answer that they cannot work. The way these individuals live their life while being in poverty
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
There is a deep seated hatred between rival gangs, which makes it difficult for the gang’s members to let go. Gangs became a source of income for some people, which made it difficult for many young African Americans to escape the gangs. Significance: This film shows how the police saw activist groups such as the Black Panthers and the U.S. Organization as a threat, which led to repression despite the Civil Rights Movement. This repression leads to anger and hatred and the need for a sense of belonging amongst the African American community.
This text also persuades readers about how race is an issue of gentrification. The author’s claims on the issues show that gentrification is mainly influenced by race and income. The writer wrote the text also to show how the media can be influential to be discouraging poor colored communities, criticizing the views on gentrification in those areas. There are some persuasive appeals that are supported by the author in the text. The first is Ethos, he is a credible source in his claims retelling his own experience as a paramedic and how his patient impacted his criticism on how the media portrays the “hood” as being atrocious and worthless in the community. The author also attempts to convince his readers through his own emotions, including specific evidence and claims for his appeals. The second persuasive appeal used is pathos when he explains how these communities are dealt with moving place to place being invaded from their own residence and businesses. The third persuasive appeals he presents is logos, which he describes the situation of the the people being affected by this issue first hand to show the reader it is a mistaken
Venkatesh, S. A. (2008). Gang leader for a day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets. New York: Penguin Press.
Growing up in the city we experience more than those who did not. We are accustomed to seeing things other people would not be used to. One thing we are accustomed to be violence, more specifically gang violence. Gangs are a group of people who join together because of a common interest. Gangs are that have been around for ages. Dating back to the mafia in the roaring 20s all the way to present day gangs like the Bloods and Crips. It’s hard to imagine if gangs will ever cease to exist. They are too big and too strong for all of them to disappear one day.
The notion of poverty has a very expanded meaning. Although all three stories use poverty as their theme, each interprets it differently. Consequently, it does not necessarily mean the state of extreme misery that has been described in ?Everyday Use?. As Carver points out, poverty may refer to poverty of one?s mind, which is caused primarily by the lack of education and stereotyped personality. Finally, poverty may reflect the hopelessness of one?s mind. Realizing that no bright future awaits them, Harlem kids find no sense in their lives. Unfortunately, the satisfaction of realizing their full potential does not derive from achieving standards that are unachievable by others. Instead, it arises uniquely from denigrating others, as the only way to be higher than someone is to put this person lower than you.
The story, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, is a ethnographic study of a Black King Gang in the Robert Taylor community. Venkatesh accidentally stumbles upon the gang lead by J.T. and decided to study them. Throughout his journey he learns from the violence and illegal activity he witnesses that “in the projects it’s more important that you take care of the problem first. Then you worry about how you took care of it”’ (Venkatesh. 2008:164). He witnesses beatings, selling of illegal drugs, and exploitation of residents; but he also gained a lot of knowledge about the community. He works with J.T. and Ms. Bailey, the community leader, closely through his study. J.T. has taken a sociology class and he allows Venkatesh to shadow the gang
According to Frederick Thrasher, gangs are characterized by a large amount of transience, great numbers of immigrant youth, poor living conditions, and a state of social disorganization. Both Vicky and her sister were part of poor living conditions, social disorganization, and family