Gang Leader for a Day

Sudhir Venkatesh is a graduate student at University of Chicago, pursuing a PhD degree in sociology. He ventures to go to the projects for black people to study lives of local people and more specifically how the local gangs perform and exist in places which has never been studied in detail before. Most of the sociologist studied the census data and other statistics to make conclusions about the poorest area in Chicago, but Sudhir felt the need to go and talk to people personally in detail to have a better insight of lives of people in there.

The start was not a good a one as he had to spend his first day with gang members of the Black Kings on stairs over a really messy place. However, he was able to have some connection with JT, the gang representative for the region of Robert Taylor, which was considered to be the most popular area for drugs business. He was finally a friend with JT and would spent days and hours with him and the area in Robert Taylor observing the way JT ran his business of drugs, delegated the lower members of crew to different works and as well how the different housing and apartments were run.

With time, Sudhir was able to study the impact Black Kings had on local businesses, like women in prostitutions, stores, and more He was able to see how the members in projects were more dependent on gang members for security and other needs than police and local government. There were cases where he personally witnessed shooting between two different gangs.

JT would take him to various meetings with higher gang leaders as well at meeting on local level where conflicts within the society would be resolved. That was an ample opportunity for Sudhir to have a real experience of true politics and governance in the projects. There was virtually no influence of police and government. He could see how the hierarchy within the police, the gang and the local influential people from housing departments and apartments were corrupted. There were cases of violence, rapes, police arrests, shooting and drug dealing that he could witness in real like no other sociologists had done before.

He was there for more than 6 years studying something that was risky and novice. However, his study was showcasing something that was really crucial to have an exact knowledge of real life in the projects.

He finally completes his doctorate and the projects were demolished by the government to built better hosing apartments and different other infrastructures. However the life of people in there never improved. There was always tension, no sufficient effort from the public sector and competition among the gang members to rise among the ranks, make money and make a way out for a better life. Education was not priority but how to survive was important thing. Many people had to live on worse places after demolition.

I was really surprised when I read this book and came to know about the life of people in there. I never expected to have such places and way of life in a place like Chicago. I felt bad about the people and the way administration was run in there. The effort from the author to go and conduct such a study for 6 years is laudatory. The book has further incited interests in me to learn about such unique cultures and behaviors in various other parts of the world. I was really surprised by the lack of proper research from the side of government to improve lives of people, which seemed pretty misery to me.