April 06, 2008

Poverty is a universal human condition. And despite centuries of progress in all fields humans have not been able to eliminate poverty. When we think of poverty we imagine slums and the absence of basic necessities such as water and food. Strangely though, the places we imagine are most likely to be located in underdeveloped countries and rarely in a country like America. Yet much like Karachi’s Kala Pul, the invisible class barrier separating Defence and everyone else, the slums in American cities are also thriving alongside their elite neighbourhoods. And it is likely that an average middleclass American has only driven past such a slum or housing project.

According to the US Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, 36.5 million people were living in poverty in 2006 and African-Americans had the highest poverty rate at 24.3 per cent. But numbers and percentages cannot answer what it means to be poor and black in America. This is precisely what sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh has attempted to inquire in his ethnography Gang Leader for a Day.

Venkatesh, an Indian by birth, was raised in the privileged and educated suburbs of southern California. In the late 1980s he started his PhD research at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His study of Robert Taylor Homes, Chicago’s poorest neighbourhood and America’s largest housing project, took an unexpected turn when he met J.T., the leader of a drug-selling gang called Black Kings. He tried to ask his survey questions and soon saw the absurdity of this situation. Surprisingly, J.T., a college graduate who had returned to gang life, told him that the only way to understand what it meant to be poor and black was to ‘hang out’ with him and live among his people.

Fearless and curious, Venkatesh accepted the offer. He knew that a sociologist doing research among the notorious and extremely violent gang members of Black Kings is entirely on his own. His only protection was his loyalty towards them and the trust he gained in return. His survey research instantly became a qualitative study of the lives of the Black Kings and the poor housing projects they lived in.

Over the next seven years Venkatesh ‘hung out’ with J.T. and the other members of Black Kings on their terms, that is, when, where and for how long. Early into the book Venkatesh admits, ‘It was pretty thrilling to have a gang boss calling me up to go hang out with him.’ But after he had gained some trust J.T. made Venkatesh gang leader for a day and that’s when the romance of it all finally ended for him.
 

Fearless and curious, Venkatesh accepted the offer. He knew that a sociologist doing research among the notorious and extremely violent gang members of Black Kings is entirely on his own.
 

In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR)Venkatesh explained, ‘I think the hardest thing for me while writing this book was not to romanticise these folks. And not to give a one-sided portrait of what they were like, and the fact is that they were extremely violent.’ And the more he became involved with them the more he had to reconcile with his moral dilemmas, as well as ethical obligations of sociological research.

During his interview with NPR, Venkatesh expresses his frustration at the studies that try to scientifically understand cycles of poverty and says he still struggles with the notion of what his contribution should be as a sociologist and regarding ‘how to be a good sociologist?’ Advocating ethnographic research he says, ‘I think it is valuable to get really close to people and step in their shoes just to understand what life is like for them.’

Other critics have found his book to be a biography of J.T. the leader of Black Kings and even a story about male bonding. It is true that Venkatesh offers a detailed portrait of his central character and weaves a narrative around his every move, which at times can overwhelm the reader. In his book review for The New York Sun, Prof Tyler Cowen writes, ‘Yes, evil really can be attractive, and the biographical achievement here is splendid, but when I return to the thought of encouraging and feeding the ego of a gang leader for six years running, I can’t bring myself to be attracted to this book.’

But this is precisely what Venkatesh had to do to quench the needs of his sociological inquiry and to bring to his audience a product that I believe is unbiased and reveals J.T.’s rogue mind as well as his doubly disadvantaged status of a poor black man. However, Venkatesh could have done without many details and sometimes the academic tone to reach out to a wider audience.

Venkatesh offers a unique insight and an eye-opening account of an underground economy and a city within a city abandoned and forced to police itself. This ethnography is as raw and vivid as an ethnography should be. Ethnographies are a rare sight these days since sociological research has become more and more immersed in statistical analysis of social phenomena. Michelle Stander, a sociology instructor at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee (US), found it to be ‘approachable for scholars and people who are simply interested’ since it offers a ‘useful frame for examining poverty’. After reading this book, I believe sociologists and general public alike will find that poverty cripples humans of all races in a similar way globally. And it is up to us to find lasting solutions in our own communities.
 

Gang Leader for a Day: A rogue sociologist takes to the streets
By Sudhir Venkatesh
Allen Lane, New York
Available with Liberty Books, Karachi
ISBN 0-7139-999-34
320pp. Rs795