Gang Leader for a Day Essay

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

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 “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

In chapter 5 in the novel Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh he writes about his experience of how he began to tag along with Ms. Bailey more often. Venkatesh says the more time he would spend with her, the more he would understand her work ethics and why she is so important to the community. Since Venkatesh was spending more time with Ms. Bailey he began to help her with food drives and food donations in the community as well as go to meetings that she would run. Venkatesh says the reason that Ms. Bailey was helping the housing projects, community and their building was because it was low on clothing and food for the winter. This portion of the novel teaches us about how many people out there have needs and the altruism in the way some

Gangs of New York (2002), a bold and violent movie directed by Martin Scorsese takes us back to a New York without skyscrapers and modern-day lavishes that shows the rise of violent gang power and political corruption. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis, the film features a personal struggle placed within the context of gang warfare between Nativists and immigrants, which is set in the larger context of the Draft Riots and the Civil War. It is a reconstructed historical narrative that uses interlocking events filled with gang violence and political corruption to show how the modern New York was born.

Picture Manhattan in 1860, a time before the city had been dolled up and gotten ready for the silver screen, before the glamour and allure took over. Amsterdam Vallan (DiCaprio) is a young Irish man that migrates to the USA at a young age. Amsterdam’s story takes place in Five Points District of New York, a filthy and dangerous part of the city before it was deleted form history. As a young boy Vallan witnessed his father’s murder at the hand of William Cutting or Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis) during one of their many gang wars. As Amsterdam’s story progresses along side The Butcher they become inseparable, but Amsterdam had ulterior motive. Ultimately, Amsterdam attempts to betray his new found ally in order to avenge his father’s death.

“You can hire half the poor to kill the other half.” Boss Tweed spoke these words in reference to the Draft Riots. It shows that you can easily turn the poor against each other, if you bring money into the situation. Gangs of New York is about the separation of the Irish and the Natives, which eventually led into larger conflicts. In this film there are two important characters, Amsterdam Vallon and Boyle McGloin, who were both Irishmen in the Five Points. Amsterdam was the son of Priest Vallon and he became a positive Irish Leader who was looked up to by many. Boyle McGloin was an Irishmen who was a Dead Rabbit, but later joined Bill “The Butcher” Cutting and became a “Native”. The character

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

This chapter is about a man named Sudhir Venkatesh he is 25 years old. He is a University student studying Sociology. After Sudhir has attended two seminars by the college he is invited to do a study on how black people live day to day. After finding a specific building he was looking for, the Robert Taylor projects, he walks right in. When walking in from left to right he could see the use of drugs. Right off the bat Sudhir is treated like an intruder, even though he is there for information and is not known around the city of Chicago. The gang that Sudhir runs in to in this book is everything but pleasant if you’re not their "own kind". Sudhir is called a Mexican, the only reason he was called Mexican was because of the way he looked. The gang, the

Prison gangs are originally formed by inmates as a way of protecting themselves from the other inmates. These gangs have turned out to be violent and thus posing a threat to security. This paper will have a look at the different gangs in prisons, their history, beliefs and missions, and the differences and similarities in these gangs.

and the Black Disciples are similar to a franchise like McDonald’s because of their structure. The gang was part of a whole drug industry and only made up part of it, just like a McDonald’s store composed only one of the thousand stores of the franchise. J.T.’s gang, “...reported to a central leadership of about twenty men that was called...the board of directors” (96). McDonald’s like any other business or organization also has a board of directors. Not only that, but both, the gang and McDonald’s both keep records of their monthly revenues, expenses, employees and leaders. The drug trade is also similar to the hierarchy in the American Business because even though it may be illegal, it’s still a business. The salary of, “the top 120 men...represented just 2.2 percent of the….gang membership but took home well more than half the money”(100). In the drug business the hierarchy is also taken into effect, the ones who truly make business and win the “bottomless supply of cash” are the ones at the top of the hierarchy. The ones at the top are motivated by the money while the ones at the bottom are motivated by their dreams of being recognized, having money and

I grew up in a small town in Illinois, on the north east side of the state called Waukegan. I was once a kid full of energy, confidence, hope, believe, and goals. As I grew up I noticed that my generation was different, kids wanted to be thugs, drug dealers, pot smokers, party animals and gangsters.

this is how to take care of yourself clean yourself wear nice clothes smell good. don't join no gang that's not good for a young boy like you once you join a gang it leads to a lot of stuff you could get caught by a police and end up in jail for life without bail and that could mess up your career in life. Or being in a gang you could end up shot and that could bring pain to your mother which wont be good for a mother to see her kid shot. because she will be in pain crying and stressing out in life worrying too much about her child. no mother should have to bury her child at the hands of some senseless violence. Boy wake up everyday go to school educate your mind do sports in school so you can end up in a professional football league or soccer

This paper seeks to exploit what makes a gangster. Over a period nearing two decades, since the 9/11 terror incident in United States, a notion gained currency across the globe and America in particular that some religious faith, Islam specifically, promotes acts of gangsters. However, such understandings are based on misinformation and misconceptions about the whole idea phenomenon of gang activities (Johnson, 2016). There seems to be other factors that promote gang activities, ranging from economic and political factors. As such, some criminal activities are homegrown and very difficult to single

Photography is a field that is steeped in ambiguity, it is an art form, a form of evidence both in scientific and legal processes, it is used heavily in advertising and also in journalism. Photojournalism relies on the “truth claim” of photography, that if a subject was photographed it existed in that way. Yet the majority of a photographer’s photos do not make it into the display whether in a magazine or exhibit. While showing the entirety of the photographer’s series might be argued to have more truth since it removes some of the curatorial process, photography’s power is found in showing a specific scene. Freezing time in a key moment to convey the overall feeling is effective for conveying a message, one can be impacted by the photograph. However photographs cannot express the story they capture on their own. Whether they are displayed in magazines or exhibits, photographs are accompanied by text giving the context of the situation. In the exhibit “The Making of an Argument” Russell Lord focuses on Gordon Park’s first feature for Time magazine, “Harlem Gang Leader”, to deconstruct the process from the photographs to the resulting magazine article. Taking into account the selection of photographs to fit a narrative and the relationship between the captions and the photographs. Using this initial analysis as a base I will be analyzing the editing and manipulation of photographs in “Harlem Gang Leader” to analyze not only Time’s argument but Lord’s, to prove photographic

Youth are exposed to gang life at an early age, sometimes as early as 10 or 11 years old. Observing older and respected gang members can often lead to impressions among youth that lead them to believe gang life is the way to gain access to things such as status, money and prestige. Research states that older more established gang members will utilize youth to their advantage by having them steal for the gang, buy and sell drugs, carry weapons and commit other crimes in hopes to evade police attention. (Grabianowski, 2015). Crime, violence, drugs, tattoos, signing, culture and slang are all part of life within a gang.