When David was 10 years old, he moved to Chicago with his family. It was 1957, and within three years he became a gang leader. He was only 13 years old, but he was the leader of a small gang. There were plenty of small gangs with black people in them, but they were small and seemingly harmless. They were still committing crime and killing, but the effect they had on the community was negligible.
How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.
Many people rather work than go to school to better themselves but drive to work is lost in recession and we can see a never-ending poverty cycle for many people. The public school system is also described as a subpar institution that often contributes to Harlem’s problems. Bullying and rapes play into street culture and subjugation of women. As you move into the inner city the author describes that traditional patriarchal lines are redrawn as women are becoming more independent. Many males use violence against women to try and keep
Most of the gang members come from a poor and unstable upbringing. Many of the youth who are a part of the Crips have dropped out of high school and are
Many of the children joined the gangs to feel a sense of belonging. Children who came to Clarkston were without friends and had hard time at school getting bullied because they were different. Many joined gangs with similar ethnic backgrounds. For example, Tito, a Liberian boy was apart of a gang called “The Africans”. Altercations arose between this gang and the American gang because of trespassing on one anothers turf.
The hood is by all accounts ethically rotted, as it needs good examples to be duplicated by the adolescents and because the economy only supports a minute fraction of individuals in the hood. With the movement of the architects of enlistments to regulate; leaving the young people unproductive within the inner city, to comparing the working class and the lower class males to the males are involved in insubordinate acts. Another variable is disappointment and frustration that drives the youth to adapt to the streets. The families of the slums were portrayed to be conventional with great qualities, while the street families barred themselves from the more noteworthy society. Apart from the two sorts of families being particular they enormously relate and interact in the city, the schools, and other public places (Anderson
The setting in every book is crucial because it is what gives the book a more personal feel for the reader. “A Rage in Harlem” by Himes is an excellent example of how prominent a descriptive settings are to the visualization of the reader. The setting in each book moves around to establish the plot of the novel. In “A Rage in Harlem”, it explains each lace that the character is in very well and helps with the movement of the book. The three best places in the novel “A Rage in Harlem” to show the movement of the plot are Jackson’s apartment, Goldie’s ‘office’, and the police station.
Since African Americans from lower income households don’t have legitimate opportunities available to them but they still want the nice cars and lives that everyone dreams of, they resort to crime because that’s the only way for them to achieve material success and avoid being labeled a failure. The only way for many of them to “make it” and live out “The American Dream” is a lot of times only possible through
Starting at creating and selling drugs to expanding to organized assassinations, the gang hit the radios almost daily. In a recent study by Compton Education, “the Five Point Gang started as dated back to the 1800’s” (8). Back then, people were beginning to become fascinated with gangs and the notorious gangsters. The Five Point Gang was very clever, controlled numerous brothels, gambled at the most luxurious places, and took over most of Brooklyn to earn all of their money.
In the play DeShawn is faced with gangs and violence in his community. Growing up in Harlem with his experiences forced Deshawn to believe he needed to join the problem because it was an obstacle he couldn’t overcome. Joining a gang had an impact on Deshawn, his family and his community. He transforms into someone he is not and ends up hopelessly sucked into the toxic environment around him.
Sonny's Blues was written in 1957, 37 years after the roaring twenties had come to an end. Long after the great Migration, where millions of blacks moved to northern cities to escape Jim Crow, and embrace the new found possibilities offered. During this period African-Americans in New York, collectively gathered in Harlem mainly, it was usually alluded to as the black capital. There blacks shared culturally and also, influenced music greatly. This is also where the "new negro" persona was crafted, blacks were no longer going to be referred to as someone's mammies or boy.
This connects to how the Greasers in The Outsiders live in a poor neighborhood and also struggled to earn enough money. Evidence that reveals this in The Outsiders is, “ We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class.” The Greasers are poorer than others and have to work hard to make as much money as they can. Also, Greasers have a bad reputation because they are extremely poor compared to a Soc. Making enough money to get by is a big obstacle for both immigrants and the
The Irish did not receive a sufficient education and had little to no money to their name which caused men to work on the railroads and women to work as servants. The men often risked their lives on the job site as they were competing with freed slaves for employment. Because they lacked skills other than those valuable in a factory most men took their families to port cities such as New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston where there was a large number of manufacturing jobs. Within these cities, specifically New York City there was a clear distinction in social class which caused a problem with gangs to arise. These individuals with similar backgrounds are what made up the different gangs for the sole purpose of protection and survival because they were often second class citizenship who were trying to make a life for themselves that was better than what they once had.
The first theory used to explain gang behavior is social disorganization. In an earlier lecture, Professor Chamberlain (2016) defined social disorganization as the breakdown, or serious dilution, of the power of informal community rules to regulate conduct (p. 9). Professor Chamberlain (2016) discussed how Thrasher claimed that economic destabilization was a key aspect to social disorganization; this resulted in the collapse of conventional social organizations including schools, church, and family. In other words, conventional establishments were depleted and no longer capable of fulfilling the people’s needs so gradually they lost the ability to govern the public’s behavior in the area. Professor Chamberlain (2016) stated that Thrasher
Gangs activities are frequently portray in the media , the exposure of gang violence have an negative impact on the minds of our youth in our communities . Gangs are described as groups that are involved in gang related crimes and other crimes , such as assaults , rape , and robberies . Gangs are mostly conform of people from the same race or ethnicity , the majority are males and are most likely to be young . The majority of the people that join this groups come from places where they suffer from economic disadvantage and dysfunctional families . One of the issue that is problematic in our society nowadays is the media coverage of gang activities .
