Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

     Gang Leader for a Day answered some questions I had concerning the topic and raised many more. Among those answered was how people get trapped in the projects of major cities and, even more important, how they manage to survive there. Some questions this book has me asking now are how objective can an observer remain when participation becomes necessary to continue observing and what is the state of poor neighborhoods in 21st century America.
     My first thoughts on this book concern the subject being studied, low-income housing. Sudhir explores this world by diving into it head first when he meets JT in one of the buildings within his territory. Throughout the book I gradually became more aware of the environment Sudhir was studying mainly because Sudhir decided to go further than JT in his studying and branched off into the community on his own. In a way I was learning about the projects at the same time Sudhir was in the book which is an interesting way to present information given that most instructional books are told by someone that clearly already understands everything being said making it harder to pick up from a beginner's perspective. Mrs. Bailey helped in learning about this setting the most as she was the director of the community. What I quickly picked up on was that the whole system is unregulated in the projects and selfishness is allowed to run freely leading to some of the most corrupt individuals being put in power. The most interesting elements I got from Mrs. Bailey were actually from everyone else's view of her. Anytime Sudhir talked to anybody that he wasn't studying, he learned something new about the people he was studying like Mrs. Bailey's "death grip" on the residents of Robert Taylor. If someone made any money they surely owed some of it to Mrs. Bailey and JT was more than happy to loan foot soldiers to here cause at any time because she helped him in return, and so the vicious cycle continues. JT and Mrs. Bailey loved to talk about how the police and government were ruining people's lives but they were actually doing just as bad. I would've liked to have seen Sudhir study some of the residents in more detail than he does but I have a feeling that the reason this didn't happen is because JT and Mrs. Bailey didn't want that at all.
     The horror stories presented in this book regarding some of the people's lives were truly terrifying but the hopeful stories were just as potent in the opposite way. For all of the rapes and shootings mentioned in this book, their was an equal amount of success stories such as Autry running the boys and girls club at one of the other Robert Taylor homes. It was especially interesting to see how the women worked together to get things done such as pitching in to have a certain number of working showers and kitchens between many families.
     Some of the book's most interesting moments were the ones in which Sudhir took an active role in the gang or community such as being gang leader for a day. The physically involving actions, like the stairwell with Bee-Bee or helping Price when he got shot, were the ones which I think confused everybody the most because after them people treated him differently. The more social actions, like teaching the women how to write or Sudhir's "school"-turned-babysitting job, offered a diverse look at the residents of the communities affected by JT and Mrs. Bailey. As an ethnographer, Sudhir may have been overstepping his bounds here but each action got him deeper into the community and gang so I'm not sure this question can ever really be answered. When it works out, like this, and an ethnographer accomplishes his goals through participation people will think positively of it but, when an ethnographer gets hurt or worse from involvement people will turn against it. In either sense the outcome can never be predicted and the risk will always be high.
     The last question I have is one that I do not have an answer to yet but I am more motivated than ever to really look for some answers. The state of the poor in America in this century is not really known by me or most of the people that I affiliate with which tells me that the social divide in this country is not in a good place. I'm not sure if we're any better off than we were than at the time of this book but I am interested in looking nonetheless.
     Overall, I think this book provided me with a great look into a part of this country that I have no experience with and also showed what ethnography can do to expose information in the best way. While methods can be controversial much can be learned through risky behavior and we can all learn something from each other.