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Summary Of Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader For A Day

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“Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets” by Sudhir Venkatesh is a book that described the recollection of Venkatesh’s time with the Black Kings, a crack-dealing gang, in the Robert Taylor Homes. Venkatesh was a sociology student at the University of Chicago and began a project in which he conducted years of research in the urban poor of Chicago. He “ditched the questionnaire in favor of just spending time with his subjects…as he tried to learn about their lives on their terms, not his”. He wanted to discover how people, such as the crack-dealing gangs, tenant leaders, and cops in the projects buy, sell, and use drugs. Hierarchy and social structure was described in Venkatesh’s autobiography of what occurred in the Robert Taylor Homes. After …show more content…

For example, I was both a sales and back associate. At HomeGoods, the lowest-ranked individuals are the sales, back, and merchandise associates. The lead associates, supervisors, or department managers are second, assistant managers are third, and the store manager is fourth. The highest-ranked level is above the store manager, which is the CEO. Hierarchy is similar in both cases because there is a leader to follow. The gang members followed JT because he was the boss and they also feared him. “He runs things around here, so I have to play by the rules” (Venkatesh, pg. 57). Although the members committed violent acts and illegal activities, they did what they were told. Many of the members are also allowed to rise up in the ranks and be promoted, such as JT receiving a new job in the Black Kings hierarchy. At HomeGoods, associates who were ranked higher, especially managers, were perceived as leaders. We, the lower-ranked associates, followed what they instructed us to do. Consequently, a few associates who were consistently working hard and pleased the managers were often promoted or had higher

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In his Book, Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor, Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, explains that in the early-nineties while doing field work in the Southside of Chicago he gravitated to a predominantly working-poor black community near his field site (ix). Venkatesh describes the ten-squared block community as being in disrepair very much like the high-rises that were being torn down in the surrounding area (iv). In the presence of some “greystones” and “brownstones” Venkatesh noticed vacant lots, beat-up homes, and what he perceived to be inadequate city involvement in the community -streets need fixing, and trash pick-up was lacking (x). There were also closed storefronts and burned-out buildings in the area (Venkatesh, 92).

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Off the Books Report In this book we see Sudhir Venkatesh as he dwells among the people of Maquis Park, a poor black neighborhood in the ghetto of Chicago. He comes to tell us about the black market economy that keeps this neighborhood alive; although mostly illegal, the mix of “licit and illicit” goods and services serves as a way of making a living for almost everyone in this neighborhood, ranging from prostitutes and drug-dealers to pastors and nannies. This economy is incredibly interesting to read about and observe through lens of Venkatesh. He could not stand idly by as a bystander as he took part in the community of these people and after years of being there he slowly became a person of interest in the neighborhood who was sought out

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Getting Ghost, an ethnographic research carried out by Luke Bergmann in 2000, shows how culture shapes and gives meaning to the lives of the adolescent African American males in inner city Detroit. Many African Americans had migrated to Detroit in the 1920s at the promise of employment in the automotive industry, however, after the industry began to dissolve in the 1970s, Detroit’s inner-city population began to be hit with a strong economic downfall (Background Sheet 2014,1). Subsequently, drug dealing in Detroit became widespread in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to a strong drug and convict culture which has affected many of the youth over multiple generations (Background Sheet 2014,1). A common practise in the African American population

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1. “African-American crime groups used the drug trade as much as their Irish, Jewish, and Italians predecessors used bootlegging” (Abadinsky, 2013, p.170). It wasn’t until the time of the Vietnam War that black crime groups were exposed and succeeded in the heroin business. Prior to the war Abadinsky (2013) explains that “black crime groups were dependent on American Mafia Families for their heroin” (p.170). In time, black crime groups were able to conduct business with suppliers in Thailand, without the American Mafia.

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In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have

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It is apparent that I will not be the first to delve into strain theory as my topic theory when discussing Gang Leader for a Day and the entwinement we see between this theory and the world depicted to us by Sudhir Venkatesh. When he began his journey to collect surveys it is obvious from his own perspective he could not perceive how much field research would become available to him due to J.T.; this entrance into a life that he had always literally circled around but did not delve into and how the “American Dream” may not be achievable as it would seem on the outside for every “American”. Within this paper I will address key points that were either noted on by Venkatesh or explained to him from the perspective of the residents of the Robert

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Some might say that in neighborhoods plagued by drugs and violence, the police have little choice but to arrest large numbers of young men and zealously run down outstanding warrants, particularly when those on the run may carry guns, become involved in serious violence, and/or deal drugs in the neighborhood. But around 6th street the street trade in drugs, neighborhood rivalries, and their potential for violence are all deeply woven into community life (201). Alice Goffman, a student from the University of Pennsylvania attending an urban ethnographic class for undergraduates, and was assigned an assignment to study an urban life through firsthand qualitative methods. Through a series of trials she intended to study the people at an independent movie rental store in downtown Philadelphia. However, because she had no knowledge of films she wasn 't granted the job to work there making it impossible to observe the workers of the film store.

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Prison gangs have been and are a growing problem. Prison organizations throughout the United States have tried many different strategies to address the issue of prison gang members. One of the problems is that gang members are more of a threat to the staff and other inmates than regular inmates who are not in a gang. The prisons have problems begin able to house certain serious offenders that need to be kept separate because of the limited spacing. Gangs in the prison have a higher disruption and incident rate then non gang members.

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