Finally, things should start slowing down a bit around here.  Friday was our annual Halloween Cookout party which is more properly titled Work My Butt Off Trying to Get Ready for a Party.  Now that is behind me, I can focus back on Rock Band 2, oh, I mean the Blog.  My travel book for my recent Vegas vacation was Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh.  I actually found out about this particular body of work from reading Freakonomics.  There was a chapter in that excellent book discussing why drug dealers still live at home.  A lot of the information in that discussion was based on Sudhir’s information gained while befriending one of the gang leaders of the Chicago based Black Kings.   I was actually intrigued enough from that brief introduction to go out and purchase Sudhir’s book to get a little more understanding of what it is like in the gang realm.  Just trying to broaden my horizons a little bit and understand life from a different viewpoint.

The basis of this particular book is an account of Sudhir’s friendship with a gang leader in a poor Chicago housing district.  At the time, Sudhir was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  As a part of his coursework, he wanted to understand what it was like growing up in a poverty stricken Chicago neighborhood.  With the advice of his professor, he embarked on a survey mission in the Robert Taylor Homes.  I consider this a pretty gutsy move for a son of a South Asia immigrant who grew up in the well off Southern California suburbs.  In this situation, I am not entirely sure a white individual would have had as much success.  During the course of his survey efforts, he came in contact with the gang leader of the locally established Black Kings.  The leader’s name was given as J.T., but upon confession at the end of the book, he did disguise the names for safety (his and the subjects).  T.J. became fixated by the thought of having an autobiography about him and therefore accepted Sudhir into his fold and gave him access to a tremendous amount of information on his gang operated, the organization hierarchies and probably more interesting, the daily social interaction with the residents of the housing project.  It did bother me a little bit while reading this account if there was not a line being crossed – especially when the author had the opportunity to act as the leader for a day in order to understand what it was like to lead a gang.  He did eventually get some legal council to set some boundaries on his engagement, but I would characterize it as a little gray.  I think the most fascinating aspect of the book was the small business ecosystem that was created within the residents.  Beyond the easy revenue streams of prostitution and drug dealing, there were not so obvious aspects of renting out stairwells, ad-hoc car repair services and a clever barter system orchestrated by the tenant housing authority representative (for example, recommending which store their tenants should shop at for free alcohol which is then given to another merchant for coats.  I was also amazed about how much the gang actually contributes to the local housing economy in order to gain their friendship and quite frankly to guarantee they can operate without hassle.

As a summary, I thought it was a pretty entertaining read.  Sudhir’s style is candid with a good amount of introspection and analysis.  I still disapprove, but clearly have a better understanding as to what motivates individuals in this situation and the context of which their decisions are made in.  My hat is off to Sudhir who actually pulled this off without getting killed.

My summary points can be found after the jump.

• Most of the accounts take place at the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago and focused on the Black Kings street gang lead by T.J.
• There are actually two camps within Sociology  – quantitative who whose stats and ethnographers who study life through direct observation
• The author was previously a deadhead… thinking this might have given him a little better familiarization with the world of illicit drugs
• Beyond the obvious hat tilts and colors, star tattoos can identify gang affiliations based on the number of stars
• The gang Sudhir befriended was the Black Kings (thriving on selling crack cocaine)
• The gang leader (T.J.) was actually college educated (athletic scholarship) but became frustrated with perceived lack of opportunities (race) and eventually returned to the projects
• T.J. made around 30K/yr, but was increasing that to 75-100K as he took on more and more gang factions
• Above T.J. were another level of gang leaders known as the board of directors
• Apparently T.J. also liked to take trips out to Vegas
• J.T. required all of his gang members to participate in voter registration drives – and now the kicker… he would tell them how to vote when it came time.  The power to influence votes in Chicago has been notorious and now I know one way it is accomplished
• The Black Kings stretched from Milwaukee, to St. Louis, to Cleveland and west to Iowa – apparently Iowa is a tough market to crack, but due to the high potential they were always trying to recruit in their local high school basketball and football games
• T.J. mandated all his members get a high school diploma and stayed off of drugs – smart enough to lead and less risk from theft
• Gangs actually do not want their members stirring up trouble – this brings the police around and disrupts the client flow
• They actually spent a lot of time planning gatherings (T.J.’s gang was 250 strong) since they didn’t want undue attention – they even rented out local social services buildings for a donation to the proprietors cause
• Pride is the organization (run by ex gang members) that orchestrated the voter registrations
• There is no researcher-client confidentiality privileges like there are for lawyers, doctors and priests and journalists
• By 1990 IL and many other states eliminated welfare aid for adult males (I did not know this) and in 1996, public aid time limits were set for men, women and children (also something new to me)
• Apparently in Chicago, cops rarely arrested gang leaders preferring to have a known person in control as opposed to an unpredictable leader.  – in general the authority organizations were not put in great light in this book – refusing to respond, having alternative motives etc.  I also found it interesting that ambulances and other health related services rarely journeyed into the area.
• The fate of J.T. is left up in the air.  The author slowly drifted away from their friendship and the housing projects that were the primary setting for the events was being closed down