Some people assume
that gang members are individuals who wear baggy clothing and are involved with
drugs and violence. People are only paying attention to the things that are
noticeable to the naked eye, but do not look closely enough to see that young
women and men in gangs are struggling to make it everyday in the Bronx. Gangs are
in the Bronx because of the historical events that occurred before gangs
started and the lack of support they got from the government.
Before gangs evolved,
African American and other minorities were struggling through the time period
of deindustrialization. This time period starts the downward spiral for the
urban people and leads the minorities to start gangs. The event caused a lot of
people to lose their jobs and their stability to take care of their families.
These companies decided to lay off their workers because technology was
advancing and it was cheaper to pay for workers and goods overseas. No one seemed
to care about what would happen to the people of the Bronx once the industrial
companies left. It was as if they were leaving their child to
help fend for them self, so that they could do their own thing. The decline in
the economy and employment had people in a bind. People were thinking what
their next move was going to be because they did not have the money to go
somewhere else. There were people who did have the money to move to suburban
housings, but those who could not afford it were left in the Bronx. The
government only cared about the wealthy and left the poor to take care of
themselves. Everything had to do with money. To make matters worse, the city
reduced the funds for social services, education, and public utilities.
Reducing these necessary resources caused some people to resort to gangs.
Perhaps these young teenagers joined gangs because their city failed to
financially keep the only safe haven they could go to, to stay out of
trouble.
With the decline of reliable organizations,
and the white flight effect, the young started to separate into different
territories, so that they could feel safe. These boundaries created their safe
haven since the government could not afford to pay for safe and reliant
facilities for the public. The locations consist of the East Bronx, South
Bronx, West Bronx, Soundview, and Tremont (Chang, Can’t Stop p. 43). In each boundary there was a different gang
and they were starting to affiliate with political parties such as the Black
Panther Party uniting with the Blackstone Rangers, Mau Maus, and the Black
Disciples (PowerPoint: Transformation of Gangs). Although the political parties
were about harmonizing, the gangs had a different take on society. “They were
the children of Moses’s grand experiment, and the fires had already begun… They
did not burn for a distant ideology. They idolized the
Hell’s Angels” (Chang
p. 49). The men and women in the gangs were doing their thing and not following
anyone else’s lifestyle. They wanted to show the city that they were in control
and that when someone stepped on their turf they would have to follow their
rules, or otherwise.
The generation of the
late sixties through eighties, knew that they were being surveillance by the
media, police force, and everyone in their city because of their despicable
mindset and actions. After the killing of one of the Ghetto Brothers, the
Ghetto Brothers decided to make a make a treaty in remembrance of their brother
and to stop the violence. In a way, it
seems that the only people who truly cared about the cause
were the gangs
themselves. The media viewed the case as a propaganda for news and the police
force took it as warning that something worse could occur. Police officers were
even resorted to being undercover gang members, so that they could catch the “bad
guys”. It was as if the public saw this as an opportunity to show how troubled
society was in the Bronx because of the gangs. When truthfully, society was in
a state of panic and did not clearly nderstand that the treaty would make
things better. The peace treaty had only truly effected the gang members. Some
members even saw it as a chance to make things right and give back to their
community. One of the leaders, Africa Bambaatta took the treaty seriously, “He
had been with Bam Bam as they cleared the blocks of drug dealers. Now he and
other Spades assisted with community health programs” (Chang p. 63) Instead of
relying on the government for help, the gang members themselves took action to
help make their community better.
Gangs may be seen as
troublesome individuals who live in the ghetto, but they are caused to live and
act this way because of the troubles they had to go through. Starting with
deindustrialization and the decrease of financial funding’s by their government.
Luckily their determination to change, from being seen as media propaganda of
violence to showing the community they want to help them out, shows people that
they are not dangerous. They are just like everyone else; they are people
trying to make a decent living for themselves and their families. Like
Hollywood said, “We have to live in
this district. The whitey don’t come down here, man, and have all the, the
fucked-up, fucking no heat in the wintertime. You understand? We do, jack, so
therefore we got to make it a better place to live” (Chang p.59).
JKW
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