Gang Leader for a Day. Venkatesh, Sudhir.
The Penguin Press, New York.
978-1-59420-150-9.
“I woke up at about 7:30 a.m. in a crack den.” So begins Gang Leader for a Day, Venkatesh’s account of befriending a drug-dealing gang in the Projects of Chicago in the 1990s. Calling himself a “rogue sociologist”, Venkatesh, interested in urban poverty and eager to perform field research as a first-year graduate student, accidentally stumbled into the Robert Taylor Homes – the worst housing project in Chicago – and into the middle of an inner-city gang. The story that follows illustrates how he befriended the gang’s leader, became involved in the resident’s lives, and even was allowed to be the gang leader for a day. Although writing years later, Venkatesh relates all the emotions a reader can expect from a naïve middle class college boy flung into the projects: confusion, fear, anxiety, elation, resignation, outrage. Gang Leader for a Day offers a unique insight into urban poverty, how gangs, residents, and the police must compromise just to survive, and details the day-to-day life of those society has seemingly left behind.
