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Gang Violence In Gregory Boyle's Tattoos On The Heart

1370 Words6 Pages

In the world we live in today, people who have been sucked into the world of gangs and violence have become pariahs in society. The moving biography of Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart, captures the extent of gang violence though memoirs of numerous ex-gang and gang members. Boyle’s mission is to help these people with his endless compassion, fostering a sense of kinship, and helping them find self-love, ultimately forming a community unlike any other. The entire book revolves around compassion. When asked what compassion is, one of Father Greg’s students replied, “Compassion ...IS...God” (Boyle 62). Compassion is described as “total, unflinching love for other people, the kind modeled by Jesus Christ during his time on earth.” Father Greg uses Jesus’s compassion as a model for all things in life. …show more content…

He was a twelve year old boy; funny, smart, precocious and “the real deal.” One day Betito was playing with his cousins when some gang members opened fire on him. Betito died in the hospital. Father Greg found it incredibly hard not to hate the two men who killed Betito. Father Greg found out who the two were, and writes, “Kids I love killing kids I love.” This quote was so powerful. Father Greg looks up to Jesus especially in times like these. He makes the connection that when Jesus says to love your enemies, it doesn’t mean you have to cease loving those who love us. Just because it is harder, doesn’t mean it is better, it is just harder. When we are able to love our enemies we will start to truly live in a world who God is. I think this story is extremely important. Father Greg sets an example for his homies through his actions. By forgiving the “damned,” he is showing other gang member that they can do it too. Compassion is prevalent throughout the book, and is present in every single encounter with the

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577 Words | 3 Pages

During his time studying these boys, he found that most cases of conflict were resolved without the use of weapon(s), but rather with “harsh conversation”. This observation highly contradicts the typical view of gang members who are commonly stereotyped by their local community and justice system in Oakland. Rios describes how the boys “Conversations often involved references to guns as analogies for resolving conflict and demonstrating manhood”. The fact that most conflicts are dealt with in non-violent ways, highlights the negative role

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Victor Rios, author of Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Youths grew up in Oakland, California. During his childhood there he had an experience that made him return to Oakland to question and study the current issues that the youth’s their face. At the age of 14 he had joined a gang, he did this mostly for protection from other gangs and threats in the area, and during his time in the gang he met another kid named “smiley,” nicknamed because of his knack to smile during every situation, good or bad. Rios would become good friends with him, and even steal a car for him to use as a home at one point when he was kicked out of his own home. Although this would eventually lead to one of his first encounters with bad police officers, as he was severely beaten for what he had done.

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1297 Words | 6 Pages

Life’s what you make it Can you imagine not being able to choose whether or not you want to be a part of a life filled with violence? Some people are just sucked into it because of choices other people make. For instance, Geoffrey Canada’s mom moved him & his three brothers into to the south Bronx where the journey of violence then began. In the memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun the narrator Geoffrey Canada goes through a series of events that eventually influences him to become the man he is today. Geoffrey Continues to reflect on his experiences and shows how he learned from them being that he grew up very poorly compared to an average kid in a rough neighborhood in the south Bronx where he went through a number of life-changing or eye

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Fist Stick Knife Gun Summary

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Geoffrey Canada does an excellent job of bringing his readers to the streets of the South Bronx and making them understand the culture and code of growing up in a poor, New York City neighborhood in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In his book, Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun, Canada details, through his own childhood experiences, the progression of violence in poverty plagued neighborhoods across America over the last 50 years. From learning to be “brave” by being forced to fight his best friend on a sidewalk at six-years-old, to staring down an enraged, knife wielding, “outsider” with nothing to defend himself but nerve, Canada explains the nightmare of fear that tens of thousands of children live through every day growing up in poor neighborhoods. The book

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1905 Words | 8 Pages

Victor M. Rios was born in Mexico. When he was two years old he immigrated with his mother to Oakland, California. He went through a tough childhood and he and his mother moved several times throughout poor neighborhoods such as West Oakland, The Fruitvale District, and Elmhurst. As a result of growing up in this kind of environments he was forced to be part of Latino East Oakland gangs. Stealing cars, selling drugs, getting into street fights and having problems with police was all he would do until he was 15 years old.

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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.

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Also, from my observation of the author’s interaction with the gang members, he acted in a way, that was out of respect, and in no way condemning of the gang members or their culture. He befriended them and truly showed great interest in their personal lives. He also knew that he couldn’t’ approach these gang members in a hostile manner, as he learned this from a gang member, who stated that “You can’t just walk into the neighborhood and act like a tough guy, you get beat up.” Moreover, I also observed that the author seemed mild mannered, and certainly did not come across as this know it all, arrogant researcher. I can only imagine how scary this entire experience may have been for him, but nonetheless, he allowed himself to “hang around” the gang members as they drove him around their dangerous neighborhood.

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Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion is Father Gregory Boyle’s memoir. Father Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries and in his book, he recounts his time working with homies in Los Angeles. Boyle emphasizes the sacredness of every life, reminding the homies they are part of God’s jurisdiction, deserving love and compassion just as everyone else. Through the power of love and compassion, Boyle broke down the homies’ walls of anger and pain. This book broadened the parameters of kinship, not only putting a human face on the gang members, but making us see there is good in everyone.

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Sometimes when asked to define a word that everyone knows the meaning of, it can be hard to articulate the true meaning of that word. Compassion seems to be one of them. Gregory Boyle does his best to define compassion by saying “compassion isn’t just about feeling the pain of others; it’s about bringing them in toward yourself” (75). If we are to be as compassionate as God is compassionate, then we must destroy stereotypes and break boundaries that separate the marginalized from the non-marginalized. Boyle goes on to try to further explain compassion by giving explicit examples from his life where compassion was shown, by either him or another human being.

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619 Words | 3 Pages

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1254 Words | 6 Pages

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