Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Gang Leader for a Day
Sudhir Venkatesh,
Allen Lane 4.99 pounds
A rogue sociologist experiences life in the inner city
Sudhir venkatesh, then a student of sociology researching urban poverty at the University of Chicago, spent many years from 1989 hanging around with a gang leader in the Robert Taylor Homes project, a huge housing project gone awry and was subsequently torn down. This book is the story of his association with J.T., a leader of Black Kings who trafficked in crack cocaine.
The narration is remarkably wide-eyed. It could be because of the academic environment Venkatesh comes from. Sample the questionnaire he takes on his first forays into the housing project. 8220;How does it feel to be black and poor?8221; he asks. 8220;Very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good.8221; Predictably, he draws laughter. When the choice is put to J.T., he answers: 8220;I8217;m not black8230; I8217;m not African-American either. I8217;m a nigger8230; Niggers are the ones who live in this building8230; African-Americans live in the suburbs. African-Americans wear ties to work. Niggers can8217;t find no work.8221; Then J.T. asks, 8220;How8217;d you get to do this if you don8217;t even know who we are, what we8217;re about?8221;
J.T. offers to show Venkatesh what he8217;s about. It takes a recap of American inner-city crime of the 1980s and 1990s to know the boundaries he was crossing for his 8220;research8221;: 8220;During my first weeks at the University of Chicago I had to attend a variety of orientation sessions. In each one8230; we were warned not to walk outside the areas that were actively patrolled by the university8217;s police force8230; even the lovely parks across the border were off-limits.8221; It was in those parks that Venkatesh finds company amid out-of-work African-Americans, who guide him to the housing project.
Venkatesh never loses a sense of awe at the stories he8217;s stumbled into. Some of that 8212; though it is surprising that his ethnographer8217;s eyes do not explicitly see 8212; has to do with his own ethnicity, his very different trajectory as a member of an immigrant group that is expected to do well for himself.
When Venkatesh tells his parents that he8217;d like to study sociology at university, his father is aghast that he8217;s giving up a good South Asian goal, a degree in bio-engineering. By way of compromise, he majors in theoretical mathematics. When he again shows inclination for sociology at graduate school, his father is resigned to it, but he counsels him to diligently read all the course material that8217;s recommended, not just what the professor says.
8220;I have a few sociology classes8230; in college,8221; says J.T. to Venkatesh in their first conversation. Why it turned out so differently for the two of them is the story told between the lines in this book. Venkatesh first found fame when his work was cited in Freakonomics, the bestselling book by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. Something about Gang Leader for a Day gives the assurance that it will soon be the subject of a big film.
