Gang Leader for a Day Essay - 2292 Words

Innovate Your Life In the book, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology student from the University of Chicago starts out simply trying to understand â€Å"how it feels to be poor and black,† and ends up spending years and years figuring out the ins and outs of a gang society (Venkatesh 14). Sudhir receives the chance of a sociologist’s lifetime to see first-hand what life is like in the projects. He follows gang leader, J.T. around and studies his life at the Robert Taylor homes for years. Throughout Venkatesh’s experience he witnesses many things some people go a lifetime without seeing. For example, he was no stranger to seeing people use drugs or get beat up by gang members. One interesting aspect of Venkatesh’s experiment†¦show more content†¦He makes his money in various ways. Besides selling drugs through his gang, he also runs three buildings. He would allow people who were known as squatters to stay in the building when it was cold out. They were allowed to hang out in the stairwells and the gang provided them protection for a little bit of money. The gang was always finding ways like this to collect money. They would allow prostitutes to come and live there and some of them would do business there but they also had a fee to pay. Anyone who J.T. allowed to stay in his buildings without a lease would get taxed on their earnings for whatever type of business they were doing. But in return the Black Kings would provide them with protection. Venkatesh learned a lot about the gang’s hierarchy and J.T.’s â€Å"business plans.† Early in their relationship, J.T. explained the structure to making money in the drug game to Sudhir while he planned his move to running the Robert Taylor homes. He calls the Robert Taylor homes â€Å"easy money† because of how convenient the location was for white people to drive over. He also says he would go from making thirty thousand dollars a year to seventy-five thousand dollars or maybe even a hundred thousand a year (towards the end of the book J.T. is making somewhere around two hundred thousand dollars a year). This is where J.T. begins to explain the ladder of moving up in the gang and how he wants to move up. Throughout the book VenkateshShow MoreRelatedGang Leader For A Day957 Words   |  4 Pagescompared to only 5.4% of unemployed white people (Street,2007). These statistics represent racial inequality which caused a lot of internal, and external damage to the black population. Rogue Sociologist, Sudhir Venkatesh’s (2008) novel called Gang Leader for a Day, reveals this disparity. In 1989 Sudhir participated in qualitative research, by studying the lives of people from the projects of Chicago. The projects are a subsidized housing development, provided by the government which requires low rentRead MoreGang Leader for a Day Essay2388 Words   |  10 PagesGang Leader For A Day SECTION 1 1.) How would you respond if a graduate student from an elite university turned up at your door and announced his intention to study you? If a graduate student from an elite university showed up at my door with intentions to study me, I think that I would allow him access. I would like the chance to hear what they had to say about my lifestyle. I’ve always questioned the way I live and if other peoples lives’ are similar. I don’t think that I live an oddRead MoreGang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh1376 Words   |  6 Pagesunfamiliar with the black culture within Chicago. In his book Gang Leader for a Day, he tells of his sociology research within one of the roughest housing projects in Chicago. Sudhir starts his research by talking to a few elderly gentlemen he played chess with at the park. His conversation with them led him to the Robert Taylor Housing Projects which was described as one of the worst Ghettos in America. His research began the first day he arrived with his clipboard of questionnaires ready to askRead MoreGang Leader for a Day: Book Review1413 Words   |  6 Pagesà ¯ » ¿ Gang Leader for a Day Book Review It takes a lot of guts and no small amount of courage and cunning to infiltrate a street gang in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago, but that is what Sudhir Venkatesh did as a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Chicago. In order to find out first-hand how a gang that earns its money selling crack cocaine functions from the inside, Venkatesh dared to get involved on a superficial basis with the gang. But Venkatesh wasnt seen as person who wasRead MoreGang Leader For A Day : A Rogue Sociologist1589 Words   |  7 Pages Having read the book Gang Leader for a Day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets by Venkatesh (2008), based on my childhood education (formal and informal), life circumstances, personal and professional life experiences, I perceive JT to be a lawbreaker. Moreover, based on how our society informally defines a criminal or lawbreaker, JT is clearly someone who does not or will not conform with our collective legal standards or requirements based o n the majority opinion of the wider publicRead MoreGang Leader For A Day Chapter Summary2784 Words   |  12 PagesAP English Language Ms. Donohue Gang Leader for a Day Chapter Summary CH. 1- Characters 1 s Name: Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir is Indian, he was born lived in California. He walks into the projects and stays overnight with a gang even though he knows he doesn t fit in.ï » ¿ Sudhir respects J.T. s rules and isn t intrusive with the gang. Sudhir is a university student wanting his degree in Sociology. Sudhir is also intelligent because he goes undercover into a gang for his project that will gain himRead MoreEssay about Gang Leader for a Day1786 Words   |  8 PagesIn the book, Gang Leader for a Day, a rogue sociologist passionately dives into the lives of one of Chicago’s toughest housing projects in an attempt to develop an insight as to how the urban impoverished lived. Throughout the text it becomes clear that a conflict paradigm is being reflected. A conflict society is based on social inequality, in which some individuals benefit and thrive more than others, which tends to lead to conflict and thus change. This is evident both in the housing projectsRead MoreThe Gang That The Author, Sudhir Venkantesh1148 Words   |  5 Pages I would describe the gang that the author, Sudhir Venkantesh, studies in this book as a deviant group because they are not following usual or accepted standards in social behavior. â€Å"Deviance is a behavior, trait or belief that departs from a norm and generates a negative reaction in a particular group†. (Real World, Kerry Ferris, Jill Stein, p 153) According to this definition we can definitely see gangs departing from a norm by committing many crimes and not obeying the laws. One example to deviantRead MoreSocial Control And Its Impact On America s Public Housing Essay1658 Words   |  7 PagesChicago’s public housing soon found themselves in dilapidated, drug-infested, crime-filled, isolated centers of despair. During a time in which most American citizens could easily turn their eyes from the struggles of the poor, Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day took readers into the depths of the world in which the poor resided. Through Venkatesh’s wor k, readers are inadvertently introduced to broader sociological concepts such as, collective efficacy within communities, the concentration effect,Read MoreEssay about Street Gangs in the United States1399 Words   |  6 PagesStreet gangs in this country can probably be traced back to the first wave of Europeans who migrated to the colonies for a better life for themselves and their families. Many of the first gangs were formed as a means of self protection, with the thinking that there is simply strength in numbers. The missions of gangs in today’s society have grown and emerged to include many violent criminal avenues, including drug trafficking, prostitution, money laundering, and extortion but the original thinking