Gang Leader for a Day
In 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 projects where a gang known as the “Black Kings” take over and also in the surrounding neighborhoods where the more elite citizens, including persons from the authors university, shy away from associating with the nearby poor black nearby public, thus creating unbalanced communities.
In the text the author, Sudhir Venkatesh, observes how elites use their power to control the less powerful. This is evident in the Robert Taylor Homes, where the Black Kings profit from drug sales that control the community, while the rest of the families are struggling to survive. There even appear to be hierarchies within a hierarchy. For example, within the Black Kings gang there were leaders such as a man known as “J.T.”, who would make thousands in profits from commanding others and then there were young teenage men who actually sold the drugs and barely earned minimum wage (256). Aside from the drug sale employees, other workers such as those who ran shops or did menial work from their high rises were also controlled by the gangs, who would use fear tactics to implement various taxes upon them. Clearly the majority of the society is being controlled by the middle and upper-class from surrounding neighborhoods and also the gangs in the lower-class community, creating social inequality. However, conflict and change do appear by the end of the book when the Chicago Housing Authority along with President Clinton decides to demolish Robert Taylor Homes in hopes of eliminating the hierarchy of
In the text the author, Sudhir Venkatesh, observes how elites use their power to control the less powerful. This is evident in the Robert Taylor Homes, where the Black Kings profit from drug sales that control the community, while the rest of the families are struggling to survive. There even appear to be hierarchies within a hierarchy. For example, within the Black Kings gang there were leaders such as a man known as “J.T.”, who would make thousands in profits from commanding others and then there were young teenage men who actually sold the drugs and barely earned minimum wage (256). Aside from the drug sale employees, other workers such as those who ran shops or did menial work from their high rises were also controlled by the gangs, who would use fear tactics to implement various taxes upon them. Clearly the majority of the society is being controlled by the middle and upper-class from surrounding neighborhoods and also the gangs in the lower-class community, creating social inequality. However, conflict and change do appear by the end of the book when the Chicago Housing Authority along with President Clinton decides to demolish Robert Taylor Homes in hopes of eliminating the hierarchy of