Book Reading #4: Gang Leader for a Day

Chapter Thoughts:
Chapter 1:
This chapter was very descriptive and seemed like it was just setting a back-story of the author and his entry into the gang. It talked about a little about J.T and the author (Sudhir Venkatesh) stating that he wasn't that familiar with the gang surrounding and environment, thus thought his means of inquiry and study would not prove that useful. This chapter was interesting in that I was amazed how someone would freely someone would jump into an area so dangerous and be so naive about it. If I were in his shoes, I don't think I would be able to or frankly just want to jump into an area that I don't know much about. I like to get acquainted before I do what he does.

Chapter 2:
This chapter talked a lot about the introduction the author made into the gang and went more in depth on how J.T. had such an interesting background. The author was shocked to hear that the gang leader had an actual education but found it easier to make a living where he was now. They also talked about more of what the gang did in terms of who they were (Black King gang), and spoke a little about the community he would be living in as a community instead of just a project. There was also a little violence at the end of the chapter towards C-Note that filled expectations I had before reading this book. I knew there would probably be more conflicts to come at this point.

Chapter 3:
This chapter went more in depth about the author's actual experience and not just from testimonies from J.T. and the women he had met. As I anticipated last chapter, there was sure enough more violence, especially by the gang leader at this point, towards other members of the project. When the author had asked why this had to occur, J.T. stated that it was important to let the people know his position and the people under him their own place as well. The author sees at this point first-hand how the community is a community instead of just a place and how people are willing to lie and hurt others just to prove a point.

Chapter 4:
This chapter reflects the book's title in that Sudhir (the author) was allowed to be the leader of a gang for a day. He was told to deal with the issues J.T. normally encountered and had tried to stay away from violence and weapons to make his point towards the community. In my eyes, he really didn't do much as a leader and was apparent that he lacked the skill needed to manage others. Even the community had noticed this when he took charge as well. He encountered a problem later on in the chapter where someone stole money from Billy and punished the person responsible in the end. This chapter was really boring for me and seemed to lack a lot of interesting qualities the previous chapters have had.

Chapter 5:
This chapter talked about the author's encounter with everyday life for the community outside of the actual gang. To show this, J.T. became close in this chapter with Ms. Bailey (a member of the community) and found out what exactly she does to help manage the community members not a part of the gang. The author's initial approach on how Ms. Bailey handled and took charge of her area was really critical. I'm not sure if it was because he didn't respect her as much as J.T. or if it was because she was a girl during that time who took charge. But the author was shocked after getting to know her in that she handled things on her end a bit like J.T. in that she likes money and is really controlling. She did good things as well though as she lobbied a group to get things done for the families who needed it in her community as well as trying to raise donations to help the people in her community from businesses.

Chapter 6:
This chapter was really interesting in that it caused immediate conflict for the author between him and the people he had worked hard to get acquainted with. In this section ,the author began interviewing and getting to know people of the community outside of Ms. Bailey and J.T. He found out that there is a lot that goes on and many businesses practices that he did not know about initially before. After getting close to a lot of members in the community and establishing a neutral name for himself, he eventually got those residents to open up and talk to him about how they survived in the community and a few of them even their own business practices to make money. After finding out all of this information, he went back to J.T. and Ms. Bailey with what he had learned. They in return used the information against the others to try and boost their own status. This only created conflict to the author between him and the people he just met. It got me a little angry at this point how easily he betrayed every one's trust to gain a higher relationship between him and the leaders.

Chapter 7:
This chapter was a bit more violent than the others and made it apparent on how dangerous the lifestyle of a gang member is. Later on in the chapter, we learned that the author's status in the BK gang had become more important than it was before and he was learning more how people with authority worked. Related to this, he got to know an officer (Reggie) who was familiar with that community and tried to gain his perspective as an officer. He learned that the officers weren't as nice as the world portrays them to be and took great offense that he was relating to the gang. He learned that being seen with the police had very bad consequences and started to become questioned not only be the police, but by the members of the community as well. Towards the end of the chapter, one of J.T.'s men gets shot and the author helps him out dealing with the crisis. This only heightens his relationship between the two.

Chapter 8:
From the previous chapter, we can see that the author's research is coming to a close and things start to get a bit less interesting at this point. We eventually learn that the building they stay in (Robert Taylor) is scheduled to be demolished and the community is forced to evacuate. During this time, the author is introduced into actual King members and learns that things get less chaotic and more civil as you move up in gang rank. Everyone's true side comes out during this chapter and even the author starts to notice how he was now compared to how he was before. Ms. Bailey's true side in that she didn't help for free was really apparent when members of the community came to her for help in the evacuation process. All in all, this chapter was very neutral and felt it was an appropriate end to such a violent topic. For things to get from chaotic to more in control was something I had liked.

Book thoughts:
A lot of what I thought about the book was written in my chapter summaries, but I enjoyed reading this book. I would not probably go out and buy this book to read on my own, as I try to avoid topics like this and take a naive view on people like this. But for a school book, this was more interesting than other topics I had read in the past. It gives an insight on to how exactly a gang works and shows that most gangs (even during these days), have such of an importance on people's lives, that the gang becomes their life. When you have something that can be as potentially dangerous as this situation is, every small thing done in that environment carries over to your everyday life.

As for the characters, I did not like a majority of the them. Most of the people there didn't try to better themselves and let themselves get stuck in the lifestyle they were living in. Even the author annoyed me a bit on how naive he was an how he was so ready to betray people he had gained trust with just to move himself higher in rank. He didn't seem to understand how bad things actually were and became heavily biased (although he said he was not) towards everything that happened. A normal person with a conscience would disagree with the ways done here and try things in his power if strong enough to make a change. He just watched and adapted. I guess that is what you have to do to survive in an environment like that though. What got me annoyed though was that even in the end of the book, the author still had the same views and didn't see much wrong with that he had done in the past.

What shocked me was that the cops weren't as nice and benevolent as I had used to think they are. When you think about it, they are normal people. So it doesn't surprise me (after thinking about it) that they eventually got corrupted and were so violent in their ways.

I thought this book was an interesting read, but there were a lot of events that didn't seem to flow and follow. I found myself reading about problems in the community one page and him talking about his life before he had met J.T. the next page. I think he broke a lot of rules in both in terms of morals and ethnography. I myself would not put myself in his shoes in the first place. Our goals and interests are extremely different.