Wilson, a famous sociologist, encouraged Sudhir to take a questionnaire into the projects of Chicago’s South Side, asking respondents “how it feels to be black and poor.” Sudhir does this and meets a group of young men one day who, along with their leader, JT, scoff at his question. This means that a lot of the families survive on welfare and food stamps. Dissertation.

Gang Leader for a Day talks about how people in poverty, like the people in the Robert Taylor Homes, have little connection to the job market or if they have a job it is a low wage one. It’s a contemporary piece of work (the author began his research in 1989 and completed the main body around 1996).

Sudhir uses this data to bolster his observational research on the doings and workings of the BKs within the Robert Taylor Homes. and the Black Knights, his gang, in the Robert Taylor housing complex of Chicago. While, yes it would cost to run this and there would be a need to hire teachers to teach and get supplies, this is a small cost compared to what the communities will get out of it. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. -Graham S. Venkatesh begins his research at the very end of the 1980s, when, as he describes, American society was changing dramatically. Essays for Gang Leader for a Day. And she makes sure that women and their families are cared for, especially when abusive men stop by, demanding money or other favors. Initially, Sudhir was a student of Professor Bill Wilson’s at UChicago. (including. This is what Ben Drew wanted to get across, the violence and youth…, And just like a legal business if customers found out that the product they were being sold was not up to par, the business looses customers. Sudhir says he is not there to do drugs, but to observe people as they buy them, do them, and sell them. Gang Leader for a Day essays are academic essays for citation. Eventually, Sudhir “takes over” JT’s position as gang leader for one day, and sees how JT manages the “foot soldiers” who sell drugs, the community organizers (like Pastor Wilkins, Officer Reggie, and Autry) who mediate between gangs, and the other people like Johnny, who run stores in the area, and whose small businesses often pay financial tribute to the BKs. Struggling with distance learning? Sudhir structures his narrative as a series of observations on lower-class urban, predominantly African-American, society, combined with a description of how and why he came to study this particular group.
“Gang Leader For A Day” written by Sudhir Venkatesh, is based on real life events witnessed by Venkatesh during his research project at the University of Chicago. By the late 1990s, when Sudhir visits, he realizes that he has a successful academic career – that he, too, has “hustled” in the projects to get the information he needed from his subjects. It can be used to illustrate a range of issues surrounding The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. One way for the classes to be free would be for the parents of the children to take turns watching kids in the day care or helping out in the class rooms when they could. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir realizes just how complex JT’s business operations are. In Gang Leader for a Day there are even people who didn 't complete elementary school. These classes could be held in apartments or even in the park. JT, who Sudhir discovers runs a sub-group of a larger Chicago gang called the Black Kings (BKs), tells Sudhir that he can only learn about their lives if he returns and observes them living. This would also help adults who wish to get their GED or even graduate high school so that they could get a better job and be able to support their families better. Patrick’s “Glasgow Gang Observed).

They believe they have no future and drugs and gangs are the only way to go. Instead, places like the Robert Taylor Homes were characterized (as Venkatesh describes) as “blights,” bastions of entrenched poverty, crime and, illicit behavior. JT gets a “promotion” up the BK ladder by the early 1990s, and Sudhir finds himself with a doctorate, a prestigious fellowship at Harvard, and then a faculty position at Columbia. This is why we end up seeing many people who were born in the projects, like the Robert Taylor Homes, end up staying and living in the place, This way children would be able to get an education even if their parents had to work.