Gang Leader For a Day

“It turned out that the ivory tower was also an ivory fortress”

Venkatesh makes this comment in response to the repeated warnings he receives at university to stay in the “safe” parts of Chicago. The idea that academia is a fortress is interesting because it suggests that academics are removed, even protected, from the world outside, from the very things that Venkatesh is interested in: poverty, race, and gangs.

“But as alien as I was to these folks, they were just as alien to me”

Here, Venkatesh is referring to the black people who watch him closely as he walks through their neighborhoods. They are both utterly strange to each other. At the same time, the word “alien” is suggestive of how they are viewed in American society more generally. 

“‘You got two kinds of whites in this city,’ he said, ‘.... You got whites who’ll beat you if you come into their neighborhood. They live around Bridgeport and the Southwest Side. Then you got another group that just won’t invite you in. They’ll call the police if you come in their neighborhood—like where you live, in Hyde Park. And the police will beat you up”

This is Charlie, one of the men Venkatesh meets in Washington Park, describing the ways in which Chicago is segregated. According to Charlie, segregation is the work of white people who want to maintain their distance from black people and is facilitated by the police.

“It struck me that most housing projects, even though they are built in cities, run counter to the very notion of urban living. Cities are attractive because of their balkanized variety: wandering the streets of a good city, you can see all sorts of highs and lows, commerce and recreation, a multitude of ethnicities and just as many expressions of public life. But housing projects, at least from the outside, seemed to be a study in joyless monotony, the buildings clustered tightly together but set apart from the rest of the city, as if they were toxic” 

Venkatesh suggests that even architecturally, housing projects reflect a desire to separate poor, black people from the rest of society, as if they were poisonous or “toxic”.

“‘How does it feel to be black and poor?’ I read. Then I gave the multiple-choice answers: ‘Very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good’”

This is the first question of the survey Venkatesh attempts to carry out at Lake Park. Reading it aloud he realizes how ridiculous the question is; this incident highlights his naïveté and how much he has to learn.

“‘Niggers are the ones who live in this building,’ he said at last. ‘African Americans live in the suburbs. African Americans wear ties to work. Niggers can’t find no work’”

Here, J.T. rejects Venkatesh’s politically correct terms in favor of the controversial “nigger”. Black and African American don’t accurately reflect his life in the projects. This quote makes interesting connections between race, class and space, as well as suggesting that only certain types of black people are acceptable or accepted in American society; by using a word that many people disapprove of to describe himself, J.T. is both acknowledging and dismissing social disapproval of his lifestyle. 

“‘We live in a community, understand? Not the projects—I hate that word. We live in a community. We need a helping hand now and then, but who doesn’t? Everyone in this building helps as much as they can. We share our food, just like I’m doing with you. My son says you’re writing about his life—well, you may want to write about this community, and how we help each other. And when I come over to your house, you’ll share with me. You’ll cook for me if I’m hungry. But when you’re here, you’re in my home and my community. And we’ll take care of you’”

Ms. Mae is one of the first people to challenge Venkatesh’s understanding of life in Robert Taylor Homes. Like her son, she rejects other people’s terms for her existence—in this case “the projects”—and defines her own existence, in a community. Ms. Mae also makes a comparison between her community and Venkatesh’s, challenging him to think about them as similar, rather than different. 

“‘Everyone wants to kill the leader, so you got to get them first.’ This was one of J.T.’s trademark sayings. ‘I had niggers watching me,’ he said. ‘I had to do what I had to do’”

J.T. makes these remarks when Venkatesh asks him why he beat up C-Note. He justifies his actions in terms of defending his position as leader and his authority with his men. The fact that this statement is J.T.’s trademark suggests that he is constantly struggling to remain in charge. 

“‘Like I keep telling you, our organization is about helping our community, so we’re trying to get involved in what’s happening’”

J.T.’s description of the Black Kings’ political ambitions demonstrates his rather romantic understanding of the gang’s role in the community and its potential to help people. It also suggests his desire to be part of something good.

“‘These niggers make your life hell, but they’re family. And you can’t choose your family!’”

Michael Johnson makes this comment to Venkatesh when trying to explain the dynamic that exists between the gang and the wider community. His remark implicitly points to the fact that many of the gang members are actually related to other tenants, making it more difficult to reject them completely. This attitude also suggests that the tenants are trying to make the best of a situation that—like your family—you can’t change.

“‘Like I said, you’re with me or you’re with someone else. You decide’”

J.T. demands that Venkatesh choose a side in Robert Taylor: him or Autry. In some way, J.T.’s proprietary attitude towards Venkatesh is an extension of the gang’s territorial logic. At the same time, Venkatesh makes several references to the fact that his attention is a form of validation for J.T. so he could just be jealous. Venkatesh isn’t willing to risk his friendship with J.T. and doesn’t attend the meeting Autry invited him to.

“Perhaps the very strangest thing was how sanguine the community leaders were about the fact that these men sold crack cocaine for a living. But at this

moment it seemed that pragmatism was more important than moralism” 

This comment refers to the attempt to prevent a gang war between the Black Kings and The Disciples after a drive-by shooting and highlights the way that Venkatesh’s middle-class background influences his perspective. While he is disgusted that community leaders are speaking with drug dealers, they are more concerned with preventing the outbreak of large-scale violence in their community. In this instance, Venkatesh is the moralist, while everyone else is pragmatic.

“‘You want to understand how black folks live in the projects. Why we are poor. Why we have so much crime. Why we can’t feed our families. Why our kids can’t get work when they grow up. So will you be studying white people?’”

Ms. Bailey is determined that Venkatesh should understand how external forces, such as structural racism, contribute to the problems faced by people living in public housing. 

“That a tenant leader—one who was respected by politicians, shop owners, the police, and others—would praise a crack gang and work so closely with its leader made me realize just how desperate people could become in the projects. But I was learning that Ms. Bailey’s compromising position also arose out of her own personal ambitions: in order to retain her authority, she had to collaborate with the other power groups, in this case the gangs, who helped shape the status quo”

Venkatesh recognizes that Ms. Bailey works in difficult circumstances and that her cooperation with the Black Kings is due to her desire to make her tenants’ lives better. However, he also suspects that she has less altruistic motives and enjoys being more powerful than the people she helps.

“Militias were regularly put together to track down stolen property, mete out punishment, or simply to obtain an apology for a victim. In a neighborhood like this one, with poor police response and no shelter for abused women, the militias sometimes represented the best defense” (106).

It takes Venkatesh a long time to accept the fact that people in Robert Taylor don’t call for an ambulance or the police when there’s trouble. Instead, they find other ways to police their own community. This comment also points to the fact that without services like shelters, women in Robert Taylor are particularly vulnerable.

“Jimmy’s gave me a place to take off one hat (the fieldworker) and put on the other (the student). I needed this break, because I was starting to feel schizophrenic, as if I were one person in the projects—sometimes I caught myself even talking in a different way—and another back in Hyde Park”

Venkatesh’s research gradually takes a toll on his sense of self; he feels torn between the projects and his own life away from them. This feeling is exacerbated by the fact that he can’t talk to anyone about his work, and he becomes increasingly isolated.

“‘As long as I’m helping people, something ain’t right about this community. When they don’t need me no more, that’s when I know they’re okay.’ But she’d been helping people for three decades and didn’t see any end in sight” 

This is what Ms. Bailey tells Venkatesh one of the first times she meets him, that she will be a necessary part of the projects until all of the community’s problems are solved. After thirty years, she doesn’t see anything changing; she’s still needed.

“But you are also hustling. And we’re all hustlers”

Ms. Bailey accuses Venkatesh of being a hustler, just like everyone else. In doing so, she refuses to grant him any kind of special status or superiority in relation to the people of Robert Taylor.

“‘[W]hat I’m saying is that the women ran things around here, before the gangs and the rest of them took over. It was different, because we also helped people’”

Ms. Bailey’s friend, Cordella, explains that before the gangs took over in the 1980s, women were in charge of the underground economy of Robert Taylor Homes. Significantly, this resulted in a stronger, community focus. Unlike the gangs today, those women were more concerned with helping other people. The gang takeover marginalized women and their role in the buildings’ public life, making them—and others—more vulnerable.

“‘You knew. Yes you did. But you were too busy thinking about your own self. That’s what happened. You got some shit for your professors, and you were getting high on that. I know you ain’t that naïve man’"

C-Note accuses Venkatesh of knowingly betraying the buildings’ hustlers to J.T. and Ms. Bailey. He is angry with Venkatesh because, despite his claims to want to help the community, C-Note argues that he is really only concerned with himself and pleasing his professors. As a result, he has caused trouble for a lot of people.

The Author’s Note provides more context for understanding what happened to Lina and her family, putting it in the stark terms of genocide and the deaths of over twenty million people. Sepetys places the emphasis, however, not on the violence done to the peoples of the Baltics, but on the power of hope and love. She defines love as “the most powerful army”—that which “reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit,” a phrase which echoes the description of Elena Vilkas’s “beautiful spirit.”

The older residents of Robert Taylor Homes relate the impending demolition of the projects to earlier efforts to “remove” black people from Chicago, or at least from the more desirable parts of the city. In this way, the demolition becomes part of a larger history of racist politics in the city that is alluded to throughout the book. Venkatesh later suggests that the demolition was really part of a land-grab on the part of politicians and real estate interests.

“‘They’ll…they’ll be okay,’ I spluttered. ‘Hell, they lived through the projects.’ ‘But you see, Venkatesh, I know that and you know that, but they sometimes forget. It’s like I told you many times: What scares you ain’t what scares them. When they go to a new store or they have to stand at a bus stop in a place they never been to before, that’s what scares them. I wanted to help them feel okay. And just when they need me, I can’t be there for them’”

As demolition approaches, Ms. Bailey feels increasingly helpless and doesn’t know how to help her tenants. Venkatesh’s comment about the tenants having survived the projects is interesting but, as Ms. Bailey notes, the challenges they faced in Robert Taylor were familiar to them; she’s worried about how they’ll cope with the challenges of relocation.

“‘I’m not sure I’m ready for another big research project just yet,’ I said. ‘Oh, yeah?’ he said, handing me one of the beers. ‘What else are you going to do? You can’t fix nothing, you never worked a day in your life. The only thing you know how to do is hang out with niggers like us’”

J.T.’s assessment of Venkatesh’s abilities undercuts his feelings of success. He may be a Junior Fellow at Harvard, but he got that position as a result of his relationship with people who are now scrambling to find somewhere to live. J.T.’s comments also call into question the potential for Venkatesh’s research to “fix” or change anything.