The smell of urine plague the location you’re at in a stairwell somewhere in the projects of Chicago. Young men, ages of high school students believe you are a spy from a rival, threatening to kill you. You know you can’t do anything at this point to convince them you are not a rival nor part of any gang but a student surveying poor African Americans from the University of Chicago. Their leader, J.T. after spending the night with them, releases you, just to get an invitation to learn about the poor community they live in and experience their everyday lives. To be honest, I have never experienced something like Sudhir Venkatesh, author of Gang Leader for a day has. He was a sociology grad student when he wrote this book, interacting with gangs and their struggles. You can say that Venkatesh went from being a sociologist to a sociologist “gone wrong” by following around Black Kings for about seven or so years within the Robert Taylor Home community, jotting down notes and meeting up with citizens of the community. You can debate whether or not, Venkatesh was being ethical and not. Venatesh formed relationships with his study, which was unethical by his lack of consent, which in return, disrespected the community. He misunderstood their rights, writing down notes whenever he could behind their back or even remembering everything before he got home, making sure no one would see him doing such things. Academic writings like For Whom, written by Michelle Fine, specified the
I commence with this anecdote for several reasons one of which is to humbly acknowledge my unique, and privileged position as a Black female scholar in the midst of a war waged against Black bodies. Another reason is to recognize police brutality as a national endemic that plagues Black communities, unveiling remnants of anti-Black racism that legitimately suppresses the lives of Blacks in America . The non-indictments in each case concerning the sanctioned murder of Black youths evoke a
As a young colored women living in LA County, I have always been fascinated with the police approach and attitudes towards minorities and rural part of LA. I was aware with the gangs’ situation in major cities of country, including LA. Yet, I was unaware of the history and rise of gangs etc. When I came across the movie,”Bastards of the Party”, I was thrilled and excited. I could relate to this documentary with the theories such as racial segregation and white supremacy. I was also able to relate to this documentary with Coates reading the “between the world and me.” Coates work is not a work of inspiration or optimism. It is not written for white people - not written to comfort them, pat them on the back for their occasional acknowledgment
Frank Gottie is one of the most well known gang member of The Eight-Tray Criminal Hoover in Memphis. Gottie believes that gangs are becoming to spin out of control, that it needs to be a solution to gang activity. On July 10, 2016 Gottie says “I ain’t never seen heaven before, but it was like a Memphis heaven everybody was on one accord “, if the gangs could be on the same page for Black Lives Matter (Jones and Fretland, 2016) . Why can’t it happen for the youth? Ar’tavius Brown was 18 years old and joined a gang called the Pirus the Blood Alliance. Brown joined gang activity in South Memphis because he saw “people with the cars, with the money”(Goggans, 2014). Brown was put with the ramifications of having a gun shoot out at Central High school,but the judge saw something within Brown and gave him a second chance.
Anderson’s theory examined African Americans living in America’s inner cities that are driven to follow the “street code” and work to maintain respect, loyalty, and their own self-image. The “street code” Anderson is referring to is “a cultural adaptation” which is the cause of violent crime in America’s inner cities (Anderson Article PDF, 3). Since these people are living in mainly
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
Even though gangs provide a sense of support, the "values" instilled in members are horribly dangerous to society. Murders and drive-by shottings go unpunished more often than not in areas like the Henry Horner Homes. Gangs have become powerful enough that high-ranking members who are forced to face the law are protected by high-priced attorneys and investigators (163).
However, as Billy Lamar Brooks Sr. explained in “The Case for Reparations,” if “you got a nice house, you live a nice neighborhood, then you are less prone to violence, because your space is not deprived.” But if “you grow up in a place like this, housing sucks. When they tore down the projects here, they left the high-rises and came to the neighborhood with that gang mentality. You don’t have nothing, so you going to take something, even if it’s not real. You don’t have no street, but in your mind it’s yours” (Coates). By Brooks’ standards, people turn to gang violence because they have no space and want something that defines them as a person. Once again, the negative assumptions associated with Blacks today, such as that all Blacks are criminals, derive from the segregation in the past. While some African Americans are criminals, they often are such because they were forced to live in segregated communities with fewer opportunities. To reduce crime, the government must open more programs that provide impoverished communities with “something that defines
* Sense of the tragic nature of the life of African Americans in poor areas (para 5): “the pimps, the whores, the junkies”
The look and study of street gangs have been shifting over the past 4-5 decades due to changes in the tactics taken by sociologists. There were many books written about these gangs including “The Gang” , by Thrasher, which was recognized as one of the first or if not the first gang related to sociological views. People ask questions such as, “Why do people join these gangs and why do most of them end up causing havoc and violence within a city.” This is a question a normal person that isn’t looking at these people as subjects due for change but rather people who aren’t “normal”. Sociologists look at these people and ask questions like, “Where do they live? Who are they friends with? How and why did their social practices and cultural values change?” These are questions a sociologist would ask simply because there are many factors which come out when determining the choices of deviance within a person.
Over policing in African American communities started during the drug wars and continue to result in over drug arrests of African Americans. Over policing may also occur when police concentrate their efforts not on illegal activity, but on citizens behavior with the hope that in the process of the investigation some evidence of crime may be uncovered. Some police activities such as undercover drug buys are more common in African American communities than other communities and consequently disproportionate numbers of African Americans are arrested for drug dealing (Nunn, 2002). When it comes to violent or non drug crimes there is a clear victim and suspect, and the police can go to the crime scene and investigate. On the other hand when it comes to drug related offences, there isn’t a clear victim and the police can choose when and where to investigate. Police choose to target African American communities because they are easier to target, which results in over drug arrests (Mauer, 199, p.143). The police focus on substances that blacks buy, sell, and places where they would sell them, which results in high drug arrests rates. For example in 2008, the drug arrests of blacks was 3.5 times higher than whites (Tonry, 2011 p. 54). One would wonder if the government and law
The book “Gang Leader for a Day” by Sudhir Venkatesh is and interesting insight into the life of a gang member, as well as people who live in the projects. When reading this book, several sociological things stood out to me, however three things really captured my mind. Those included social class differences, racial discrimination, and power conflict theory.
Ethical conflicts presented where correction officers purposely, exploiting racial tension by arranging physically assaultive behavior, of rival gang members which was used for sport, entertainment and shooting practice for the correction officers (Dryburg, 2009).
The weather is sizzling hot and tensions are slowly coming to a boil in this Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood. Slowly but surely we see the heat melt away the barriers that were keeping anger from rising to the surface. The Blacks and the Hispanics own the streets the Koreans own the corner store and of course the Italians own the pizzeria, the Cops who happen to be all Caucasian, prowl the streets inside out, looking for anyone to harass. Toes are then stepped on and apologies are not made. Spike Lee creates the perfect set-up for a modern day in Bed-Stuyvesant. Without fail Spike Lee is transformed into an anthropologist. Spike Lee’s goal is to allow viewers to glimpse into the lives of real people and into a neighborhood they
Bacterial urinary tract infections represent the most common type of nosocomial infections. Often, the ability of bacteria to both establish and maintain these infections are directly related to biofilm formation on indwelling devices or within the urinary tract itself (30). Enterococci (especially E. faecalis) are one of the main causative agents of urinary tract infection and Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) besides gram-negative pathogens (31, 32). In these infections Biofilm provides a favorable milieu for microbial survival within the host as the organisms are shielded from the host immune response, as well as antibiotics and antimicrobial agents (33, 34). Several studies conducted to introduce main virulence genes of enterococci that are associated with biofilm formation in these bacteria (11, 13,-17), but virulence mechanism and related genes for biofilm formation are not well understood (35). In this study we investigated biofilm formation of clinical enterococci isolates isolated from Urinary tract infections. These strains were characterized for presence of adhesions and secretory virulence factors. Isolates had diverse presence of virulence from lack to highest amount of virulence genes. Several previous studies investigated relation of virulence genes and biofilm formation, especially presence of esp and gel. Enterococci esp has been implicated as a contributing factor in colonization and persistence of infection within the urinary tract
When individuals decided to get involve in those type of activities many of them do it for specific reasons. For example, people join gang for acceptance, protection, and some are forced into it, because of their family are gang affiliated. Gangs partake endlessly in finding different method for individuals to more effectively get the things they want, particularly power. Therefore, people that are easily influenced tends to gravitate toward gang activities for recognition in the community. According to Goldman, Giles, & Hogg (2014), “Gang members’ actions impact other gang members as well as the wider community; everyone is at risk of being a victim of gang violence” (p. 825). Gang violence goes further than racial issue, but it more intensely touches African American and Latino communities.