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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: In the projects, though all are officially jobless, enterprise thrives.
Chapter 2: Emergency calls from the projects often go unanswered. Honest cops are mocked; crooked cops feared.
Chapter 3: The Black Kings show a charitable side, aiding local elders and working to keep kids in school.
Chapter 4: The gang’s presence in the projects makes drugs, violence, and shootings the norm there.
Chapter 5: Gang boss, or a CEO? Managing dealers in the projects closely mirrors running a company’s sales team.
Chapter 6: The author plays gang leader for a day, and finds it’s truly much harder than he expected.
Chapter 7: Status in the projects revolves around power. The building manager partners with the gang to keep her own.
Chapter 8: After so much time in the projects, the author struggled to remain fully impartial in his academic research.
Description
Gang Leader For A Day is based on author Sudhir Venkatesh’s ten years of personal, in-depth research conducted on-site at the notorious Robert Taylor Homes public housing projects in Chicago. Ignored by city government and law enforcement, residents in the close-knit community rely only on local gangs and each other for basic services and social support.
Who Should Listen
- Anyone interested in the influence of gangs in the United States
- Anyone curious about what it takes to be a gang leader
- Anyone interested in how poor communities are supported by underground economies