On Gangs

Sudhir's Gang Leader for a Day was a very interesting book. I thoroughly enjoyed all but the last few pages. In those pages, I was really disappointed that he said they had never been friends. It seems to me that when you go through that many things together for that long and still enjoy being around one another, you have become friends. Even to this day, Sudhir visits JT whenever he is in Chicago; that says friend to me. I suppose he needed to say that (according to lawyers) in order to acquit himself and show that he is and was not associated with any gangs, but it still seems to be a terrible way to end the book.

During the book, it astounded me to see what the people living in the projects did and endured to survive, especially the women. Some of the things they did I had previously associated with third world countries; that it was happening here in the US and especially in one of the most influential cities made me sad. Although thinking about it now, I suppose it should not have come as a surprise; you'll find poverty anywhere.

When Sudhir was a gang leader for a day, I felt that he embellished on a lot of it. I think that his decision about the guy who stole and the guy who withheld pay was correct; but it still wasn't his decision in the end. Throughout the day he was sort of riding shotgun instead of driving; JT would do most things and occasionally ask what Sudhir thought, then took it as advice rather than as instruction. There are reasons he couldn't truly make any of the final decisions: JT couldn't afford to lose face in front of his subordinates, if he made a wrong decision it could cause the loss of a lot of money, etc. But I still don't think 'gang leader for a day' is a proper description for what he did; 'gang leader adviser for a day' is a much more apt description.

When the projects were torn down, I felt bad for JT and his two long time friends. Yes, they were gang leaders and yes, they were perpetuating the use of drugs, but they truly believed that what they were doing helped the community as a whole (or so they claimed). Although they were perhaps rough about it and obtained the money for it through unethical means, they did what they needed to to survive; with those methods they also helped the community in many ways, whether or not they had an ulterior motive for it. I felt really sad when T-bone died; he truly had a plan for after the gang life. He wanted to get a degree, live normally and honestly. He seemed to me one of those that truly got caught up in something they didn't want and couldn't get out.

All in all, I really enjoyed the book. Sometimes sad, sometimes happy, but most of the time just interesting. The end was disappointing, but that by no means made it a bad book. I would definitely recommend this book for the future classes.