Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Chapter One Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence
- Chapter Two “Are You Claiming?” Methods of Study
- Chapter Three “I'm Down with the Bloods, What's up Cuz?” Membership Issues
- Chapter Four “We Ain't No Worldwide Thing or Nothing”: Gang Structure and Relationships
- Chapter Five “Where You Hanging? Let's Go Banging”: What Gang Members Do
- Chapter Six “I Love to Bang”: Serious Crime by Gang Members
- Chapter Seven “Doing Time” in School and Elsewhere: Gang Members and Social Institutions
- Chapter Eight “My Mom Doesn't Know”: Gang Members and Their Families
- Chapter Nine “There's Only Two Ways to Leave the Gang, Die or Move”: Responding to Gangs
- Notes
- References
- Index of Gang Members, Relatives, and Ex-Members
- Subject Index
Chapter One - Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Preface
- Chapter One Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence
- Chapter Two “Are You Claiming?” Methods of Study
- Chapter Three “I'm Down with the Bloods, What's up Cuz?” Membership Issues
- Chapter Four “We Ain't No Worldwide Thing or Nothing”: Gang Structure and Relationships
- Chapter Five “Where You Hanging? Let's Go Banging”: What Gang Members Do
- Chapter Six “I Love to Bang”: Serious Crime by Gang Members
- Chapter Seven “Doing Time” in School and Elsewhere: Gang Members and Social Institutions
- Chapter Eight “My Mom Doesn't Know”: Gang Members and Their Families
- Chapter Nine “There's Only Two Ways to Leave the Gang, Die or Move”: Responding to Gangs
- Notes
- References
- Index of Gang Members, Relatives, and Ex-Members
- Subject Index
Summary
I'ma die for my colors, that's the first thing they say, I'ma die for my colors. What a color? A color that somebody done painted, red and blue. Say for instance I might be walking down the street and some Crips see me and it may be about five Crips, I'm the one Blood, just walking.
Jump that color, I heard.
They gonna walk up to me and they gonna take me out, yeah, what's up with that color, they talking about they gonna burn me, then we start doing that [pounding on his chest], you know, that mean they finna kill you. (Male #001, “Mike Mike,” twenty-year-old Thundercat)
THE COLORS red and blue are the symbols of street gangs, especially the Bloods and Crips. And as this quote from a leader of the “Thundercats” illustrates, colors can have lethal consequences. These gangs, and others like them, have captured the public imagination in the United States, fueling concerns about violence and drug sales. Much of this awareness is generated by the media; movies, television, radio, and newspaper stories are the primary sources of knowledge about gangs for most Americans. However, the picture of gangs and gang members painted by these images misses much that is of central importance to understanding gangs. Without such understanding, our ability to respond effectively to the threats gangs create or the criminality their members engage in will be severely limited.
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- Life in the GangFamily, Friends, and Violence, pp. 1 - 26Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996
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