Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

“Gang Leader for a Day” – Sudhir Venkatesh

Chapter 1:
I thought that Donald Norman’s “Design of Everyday Things” was interesting, but it has nothing on Sudhir Venkatesh’s “Gang Leader for a Day.” Sudhir is a graduate student at the University of Chicago, studying sociology. During his studies, he volunteers to help William Julius Wilson, who Sudhir regards as the most prominent scholar studying African Americans in the field of sociology. He sets off to ask a bunch of survey questions to the poor black families residing in the projects surrounding the University of Chicago. By the end of his journey that day, he had realized a few very important things. The first thing that he learned is that you cannot just walk up to the projects with a bag and a clipboard and start asking typical survey questions. The other main thing that he learned was in order to get a real glimpse into the life of the poor black Chicago project inhabitants, he was going to have to hang around them and observe what their life was really like first hand.

While reading this book, I find that I am hooked, hardly willing to set it down. I really like how brave, or naïve, Sudhir is when confronting gang members, which I believe is the main reason why Black King’s leader J.T. prevented his gooney’s from harassing Sudhir further. At this point, it is hard to tell how high in the organization J.T. is, but it is obvious that he is in charge of the group in chapter one. It was also very interesting when Sudhir uncovers that J.T. attended college, which apparently was one of the last things that he was expecting to find out. Also, the preface foreshadows that Sudhir will get much more engrossed in the Black Kings gang operations, so there is a sense of foreboding of what Sudhir is getting into. I worry that he may get in too well and end up in situations that he is not comfortable with, but I am excited to read more and find out either way!

Chapter 2:
In chapter two, JT moves to Robert Taylor projects to take over for Curly, which seems to be a more prosperous venture for JT. The Robert Taylor projects were built from 1958-1962 and almost immediately after became more of a problem than a solution. Shortly after Robert Taylor opened, it became too dangerous for police to patrol, which meant that no police support, or medical support, was provided in Robert Taylor. While Sudhir was observing JT at Robert Taylor, he was assigned a guard to meet him at the bus stop to protect him. However, it seems that this guard may also protect JT and the Black Kings from Sudhir seeing things they did not want him to, at least until they find out how much they can trust him. Sudhir also meets JT’s mom, Mrs. Mae, who seems very nice to Sudhir, feeding him whenever he is researching in Robert Taylor. However, it also seems weird that Mrs. Mae knows everything that her son does, but seems okay with it. Sudhir accompanies JT on his routine surveying trips of the BK controlled buildings. JT explains the complex web of the building dynamics. Bums and crackheads pay a small fee to live in the stairwells, or they could pay a higher fee to live in a squatter apartment. Prostitutes also can use apartments for a fee. All of the fees are controlled by JT and enforced by his thugs.

Chapter 3:
Chapter three starts off with the aftermath of C-note getting beat up for working on cars where and when he was not supposed to. Sudhir has been hanging around the BKs for one year and it is now 1990, which appears to be the peak of the crack epidemic. Sudhir goes with JT and attends a meeting hosted by Lenny Duster, who tries to teach the young gang members about rights and voting. The gang foot soldiers then proceed to go around door-to-door “registering” people to vote. However, they are so ignorant about the voting system, they are actually registering people to commit to voting for a candidate that is good for gangs’ rights. There is a big incident with Boo-Boo where a local “arab” store clerk was sleeping with her daughter, and Boo-Boo thinks he gave her a disease. She threatens to beat him up and to appease the gang and keep the mob from tearing the store apart, the owner offers free stuff to all of them. Apparently, a lot of girls sleep with store clerks for food and baby stuff, so this is a common occurrence. This chapter also dives into more about how the gang polices the area for certain things, protecting the community. JT believes that the gang presence is doing more good for the community than bad, meaning that the policing is more helpful than the drugs are hurtful.

Chapter 4:
Chapter four fast forwards a bit, so that Sudhir has already been researching JT for three years. Sudhir finally explains what he has been doing to his advisors, who are less than thrilled. They want more focus on poverty, violence, and guns in the community, and less on gangs. However, I do not think they really understand that the gangs are in all of those components of life in the projects. At this point in the book it is very obvious that JT enjoys have someone from another culture document his life. In a moment of stupidity, Sudhir lets slip that he thinks that JT’s job is easy, so JT challenges Sudhir to try it for a day. During Sudhir’s short stint as the leader of JT’s part of the BKs, Sudhir is tasked with finding a meeting place for a large portion of the gang, which he never makes a final decision. He also has to settle a dispute between a selling team manager and a member, Billy and Otis respectively. Sudhir tries to judge the situation logically and decides that they both messed up and the penalties should offset, and JT seems pleased with his decision, but ends up punishing Otis anyway to keep his respect. Sudhir also accompanies JT while he deals with someone who has been cooking up crack for the gang, but also who dilutes the product to try and skim extra money. By the end of the day, it is obvious that Sudhir is stressed out and would not want to do it again.

Chapter 5:
Chapter five focuses a lot on Ms. Bailey, who takes a role of leader and official, who operates in parallel with the gang. Ms. Bailey protects families and provides services, but always makes sure that she benefits from the transactions. One example is when a family loses a front door, Ms. Bailey takes a steep fee from the family, gets JT’s boys to protect the house from vandals and looters, and gets the family a new door. However, it takes much more money and time than should be required to replace a door. Ms. Bailey also protects women and helps provide items (food, baby stuff, etc.) to them, but only if they are not using drugs and are in good standings (paying their fees if they are doing anything illegal). To get all of the helpful items needed, Ms. Bailey trades and barters with local merchants, but always making sure that she benefits something as well. Sudhir is finally gaining trust with the tenants and he is also not sharing much about his research with anyone, because he realizes that he is too involved.

Chapter 6:
At this point in Sudhir’s research, he had been hanging around JT and the Black Kings for four years. When Sudhir discussed his dissertation topic with his professors, they advised him to consult a lawyer. Through a lawyer, Sudhir learned that if he learned of a plan to cause someone else harm, that he was legally obligated to inform the police. He discussed this with JT and Ms. Bailey, and they did not seem surprised at all. They basically said, “don’t be a snitch.” Sudhir decided to broaden his research topic to include the economy of three Robert Taylor buildings controlled by the Black Knights. I think that this was a smart decision, but he still seems like he is in too deep. He also begins hanging out with hustlers outside of the BKs, including mechanics, candy sellers, and recyclable gatherers. Sudhir turns around and blabs to JT and Ms. Bailey, without realizing that he is betraying the trust of all of the people he interviewed. When he returns to Robert Taylor, nearly everyone is against him because they got in trouble. I think that Sudhir should have seen this coming and should definitely take more care not to piss people off. Sudhir also realizes for the first time that he is as much of a hustler as JT and the other Robert Taylor residents. Sudhir also attends Ms. Bailey’s assistant’s (Catrina) funeral, who was shot and killed. He is inspired by Catrina and decides to teach a reading/writing workshop.

Chapter 7:
While hanging around Robert Taylor one day, Sudhir is involved in the receiving end of a drive by shooting. Price was shot and Sudhir pulls him inside a building to help him. Later, JT asks to borrow Sudhir’s car to get Price to the hospital and Sudhir says yes. This seems to be another major landmark in Sudhir’s personal involvement in the gang’s activity. Sudhir also gets exposed to the cops’ point of view. He interviews Reggie, the cop that grew up in Robert Taylor, and learns about parties that cops bust to get a cut of the gangs’ money. Sudhir personally witnessed on event a while back, but he had not realized that it was cops busting the party. Reggie takes Sudhir to meet some of the cops involved in the busts and he is threatened to leave out the cops’ involvement or else. A couple of weeks later, his car is broken into in attempt to steal his notebooks. I think this is another landmark in Sudhir’s research, because now he is in deep with the BKs and the cops. It seems like Sudhir needs to be much more careful and find a way to bow out slowly and gracefully from the BKs and Robert Taylor projects. If I were Sudhir, I would move to another state, preferably far away from Illinois.

Chapter 8:
In chapter eight, Sudhir is invited to a BK senior leadership meeting, where he learns more about the top BK officials. I was surprised that it ended up being a bunch of older guys with families. I expected it to be more of a hardcore party and if their were older guys, I expected them to be as rowdy as the younger guys. Also, JT starts showing signs that he is scared and trying to find a way out, which should be a huge hint to Sudhir to get out of there while he still can. I thought it was amazing that the CHA would say that they plan on helping everyone, but in reality they only provided assistance to a quarter of the Robert Taylor residents. It was even more ridiculous that they were allowing the Robert Taylor building managers, who are also residents, to choose the families that deserved the help. To me, this seems like the CHA is asking for bribery and corruption. I think a lottery would have been more fair than this, but even that would have still been very unfair. I think that Dorothy seems to be the only non-selfish person who is trying to help people successfully relocate. She doesn’t seem to care at all about what happens to herself, and she is not taking a cut or taking bribes to do it.

Reflection:
Overall, I thought that Gang Leader for a Day was a very interesting book, allowing readers to view into the lives of Chicago’s extremely poor and gang-ridden projects. Over half of the time, I thought that Sudhir was a complete lunatic for wanting to be that deep in a violent gang. I was very surprised that nothing bad happened to him, because I was kind of expecting him to be harmed or have to run for his life. However, I am glad that he did what he did, because it allowed a glimpse into a world that most people do not understand at all. Also, it seems that Sudhir did not follow the normal guidelines for an ethnography. It definitely seems like he got too attached to the subjects of his research, to the point that he actually interfered in some of the gang’s activities. I know that part of an ethnography is sometimes to participate, but I believe that when it comes to gangs and violence, the ethnographer should abstain. I believe that it is easy to tell which classic ethnographer virtue category Sudhir falls under. It is obvious that he is the “kindly ethnographer,” because while he seems interested in helping the poor community, his main interest is personal success.