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Effects of being in a gang
Essays on gang culture
Effects of gangs on youth
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Gang life The lives of gang members was challenging, risky, and could get you killed, but they lived like this to escape the trauma at home. In the article, “What’s it like to be a Gang Member,” by Bill Lee, he was young when he joined the gang life as a way to get away from the drama home. In the poem, “We real cool,” by Gwendolyn Brooks, he is describing gang life in eight lines. Both show that it’s hard to be a gang member and what they go through, what the gangs are like, and what they do in the gangs. In the article, “What’s it like to be a Gang Member,” by Bill Lee, Gang life was a sanctuary for him because he hated all the drama at home. In the article, he shows how old he was, how they got more members, what he did
Kody Scott was born into the gang life weither he liked it or not. Born on 1963 in South Central Los Angeles Kody?s life would be affected by the growing number of gangs inevitably. Kody knew he had a choice to be made, be a gang member or be a pedestrian. He viewed pedestrians as spineless nerds who were always victims of someone?s ridicule or physical violence, who never responded to an affront of any type. He himself had a taste of pedestrian life in grade school were he was picked on and had his lunch money taken from him. ?Early on I saw and felt both sides of the game being played where I lived. It was during my time in elementary school that I chose to never be a victim again, if I could help it?(Shakur 100). Being in a gang gave Kody a feeling of security in a city of violence. ?I felt very different, older, more attached than any of...
The book emphasizes the idea of how difficult it is to leave the gang lifestyle. There are frequent cases of relapse by individuals in the book, who were once out to again return to gangs. This case is brought by what gangs represent to this in the book and what leaving entails them to give up. The definition of gangs presented to the class was, three or more members, share name, color, or affiliation, or must exist in a geopolitical context. To members associated with gangs, this definition can include your family members, neighborhood, everyone that they associate with. Take for example Ronnie from Jumped in by Jorja Leap it states,” Ronny’s role models are gangbangers. His family is a hood. His mentors are older homies in county jail.”(102). Ronnie and other gang members like him do not
The poem 'We Real Cool' by Gwendolyn Brooks is a stream of the thoughts of poor inner city African-Americans who have adopted a hoodlum lifestyle. Though many can have different interpretations of this poem, it is fair to look at the life and career or the works and influences of Gwendolyn Brooks.
Morch, S., & Andersen, H. (2012). Becoming a Gang Member: Youth Life and Gang Youth. Online Submission
As he exclaimed, “Gangs are not alien powers. They begin as unstructured groupings, our children, who desire the same as any young person. Respect. A sense of belonging. Protection”(pg. 250). Gangs represented power and trust to many of the teenagers because each gang was in charge of an area of territory and the trust within the gang gave protection to its members, thus symbolizing a second family. Many of the new members had to do something illegal or immoral in order to initiate into that particular gang. Some had to allow the gang members to beat them up while others had to go to the extent of violating a law. Once someone was in the gang, the member could not opt out and was considered a recidivist because the gang member was continuously falling back into criminal habits. In continuance, the social structure at that time period was based on racial oppression, and prejudice. Rodriguez felt the needless choice of being associated with a gang. He had to make a decision of which gang to join in order to survive the discrimination and the maltreatment presented by the society he lived in. Once he joined a gang, he became limited and forced to commit criminal actions. He described his wanting to resist one of the situations as the following, “I didn’t want to do this. But once you’re asked to do a hit, you can 't refuse, can’t question or even offer an
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
Brooks conveys her message in an ironic manner, which is presented in the title of the poem. Before actually reading the 10 line poem the first thing that grabs the reader's attention is the title. After reading the title "We Real Cool" one would assume that the intent of the poem is going to be about a group of people who are fortunate and live a flamboyant lifestyle. This is not the case for the "seven players" in Brooks's poem. After reading the entire poem, the true meaning is revealed. "We Real Cool" focuses on the life of "seven players" who drop out of school. Their daily life is carefree and consists of playing pool, drinking alcohol, and using vulgar language. Brooks elucidates that this "cool" lifestyle only leads to death.
The poem “We Real Cool” is a very powerful poem, although expressed with very few words. To me, this poem describes the bottom line of the well known “ghetto life”. It describes the desperate and what they need, other than the usual what they want, money. Without actually telling us all about the seven young men, it does tell us about them. The poem tells of the men’s fears, their ambitions, and who they think they are, versus who they really are.
The poem “We Real Cool”, by Gwendolyn Brooks was a great piece. I chose this poem because I could relate to the choice of words the author had chosen to use. The choice of words the author had chosen led me to believe the teens that the author described in her poem had to be a part of an African American. I understood this by the cultural similarities that I have often shared. A lot of the time in my culture we have a tendency to shorten many words, which are identified as “slang”. I felt this poem was a powerful piece by the author’s choice of words that captured the cultural sound. The phrase that she used was “ We Real cool”. I felt that the author focused cultural references such as language to catch the attention of the youth within the African American communities. Brooks wrote “We would skip school, yeah we real cool.” identifying that it is a young crowd because they are skipping school and chanting “We Real Cool.” I figured the characters she is talking about are younger because as an adult you often do not refer to being “cool” and skipping school and going to play pool.
This paper will cover issues that young minorities encounter in the movies; Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008), Gran Torino (2008), A Better Life (2011). Movies will be summarize, and compare and contrast youths experienced. Criminological theories shall be utilized to further elaborate issues. Finally steps and theories will be utilized towards solving issues, also possible methods to correct the issues will be addressed in the end.
In a nutshell, “We Real Cool” exhibits a sense of morbidity and mortality in that a group of boys who are living a carefree lifestyle will die soon if they continue to live that way. This gives a strong message about daily life that if one lives carelessly, there will be repercussions. One such repercussion could indeed be death. From this poem, one can learn that living rebelliously and carelessly will not work to his or her advantage. One can also learn to think about his or her actions more deeply as is done in this poem. Although short and simple, “We Real Cool” packs a punch that is worth taking.
However, there are clear signs of inspiration from Langston Hughes’ jazzy rhythm in poems such as, “The Weary Blues” (Gross). “We Real Cool” also has a jazzy rhythm when being read out loud, possibly because of the three beats in every line excluding the first and last line. In contrast of this upbeat rhythm, the message of the poem says a lot about the youth and society. Brooks shows how some young people will go through great lengths to defy society and “live for the moment.” She however, does not determine if this is good or bad, but the audience is left with the impression that defying society’s expectations can put people at risks. Even today, it can be difficult for some people to show off their individuality and be independent without running into risks that may affect their lives
In “We Real Cool” written by by Gwendolyn Brooks, Brooks adds to the meaning and tone of the poem by showing a theme that doing rebellious things gets you no where in life, even if it is considered “cool”. Brooks’ poem is about a group of people who do bad things like “leaving school” and “lurking late”. In the end of the poem, they say “We die soon”. In “We Real Cool”, Brooks is communicating that even if you’re “cool”, bad behavior ends up hurting you more that helping you. In the beginning of the poem, Brooks follows up after saying “We Real Cool” with “We Left School”. This helps establish the tone of a lostness because the narrorator is revealing that the only way he/she felt they could ‘be cool’ was to leave school with his ‘group’. Continueing
Choices make people who they are, and often times, children who inhabit societies practically run by gangs make the mistake of joining one. Coolio captures this in his song with the lines, “I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the streets/ So I gotta be down with the hood team.” He portrays that once a person is in a gang, there is no escape. They can either live with the gang and its ways, or get killed in the brutal reality of things. Life as a gangster is a tough one, even from the perspective of a veteran.
Hallswort, S. And Young, T. (2004) Getting Real About Gang. Criminal Justice Matters [online]. 55. (1), pp 12-13 [Accessed 10 December 2013]