In my advisory today we were missing three or four people, and I was missing a lesson plan, so we had a whole lot of kick it time. During this time four of the kids in my advisory sat in a group and talked the entire time about gangs. 2 are in a gang (Bloods) and I think the other are either in it or have someone who is in it that won't let them join yet.
That's just the start, there are scores of kids coming in to our 9th and 10th grade claiming blood, kids who aren't even 14 or 15 years old. We don't have any other kind of gang in the school and so there is not much violence along those lines. In fact, I don't see much evidence of any violence along gang lines. The kids who are supposed to be in gangs talk alot of crap, they act like they are going to fight people, but they usually wind up not actually doing anything.
Moreover the gang seems to be pro-school. Today I saw a kid on the street and my friend susie asked him why he skipped her class. Someone who was obviously the leader of this little crew walked over there, hung up this kids phone call, and said "you skipped class, thats it take off your flag, take off your beads" (Red beads are the new way of saying you're a blood). Another kid won't get sponsored by their older brother until they get finished with high school. It kind of makes me wonder if there are other positives about the whole gang thing. It could be something for kids to do during school to keep them safe and then they leave behind once they go to college. I hope that it is this way, that these grizzled career criminals realized the error of their ways and impress education and progress to their young recruits.
Most of the kids who ultimately get recruited are the ones who are akward and out of place. The ones who none of the girls like, who have nothing to do after school. The ones who love to play basketball but aren't good enough to get on a team. The ones who can never find a date because they are too socially akward, and when they do she's fugly. These kids who would probably be outcasts at a normal highschool, probably border line trenchcoat mafia. These are the kids who get targeted, who memorize all the gang traditions and recite to all their friends, or anyone willing to listen. Quick to threaten the "Goon Squad" is coming when someone makes fun of them, though this crew is never to be found. The students in my advisory today talked about how the gang would always get these kids to do stupid shit, to fight people bigger than them, etc.
The organization is so big and so prevalent I keep telling myself "there's no way this thing is full of all bad people, there must be a good side to it." "Maybe they provide breakfast programs for kids, and leadership opportunities for the teenagers." But the truth is the fight against this gang thing will be a very big ordeal, too big of an ordeal for me to even visualize what the fight will look like. So for now I will take solace in the academically oriented gang member and hope they can work with us to keep the kids on track. Maybe I could even call them when kids don't do their homework.
2 comments:
1) i know you don't have time for it, but there's a great chapter on the natural origin and historical function of the "boys gang" in a book by thinktank scholar Lee Harris called "Civilization and Its Enemies." Obviously, the boys gang is an enemy of civilization.
So, if you had the time, you would totally see what I mean.
2) the detrimental encouragements of older gang members to the younge outcasts (man that word is tough to write without using a 'k') is exactly how muslim fundamentalists recruit suicide bombers. psychological domination and coercion by application and deprivation of affection and attention.
Its really weird though, some of the gangs out there are positive. Like a frat, or the boy scouts. The role of the gang in urban areas may be changing to provide more social structure in areas where there is little. On face value, gang member making the younge members go to school seems to be a different than what muslim terrorist organizations, but are dangerouls in a different way. If the gangs become socially accepted as a positive group that just has criminal roots they would either go mainstream, or scarier, run the lower in come areas they inhabit like the brazilian gangs that run their favelas.
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