In the world we live in today, we don't associate gang members having authoritative control; however, "Gang Leader for a Day" by Sudhir Venkatesh portrays how business oriented and organized gang members can be. Sudhir Venkatesh, a graduate student at the University of Chicago, is doing research on the different gang members governing the streets near his university. He gets particularly involved with "The Black Kings", and a man named J.T who is one of the men that helps keep the gang organized. During his time spent with J.T, and even being a "gang leader for a day", he comes to learn how difficult and challenging it can be to be in charge of such a dangerous and precarious organization.
             Growing up in Philadelphia, the only time I ever heard about gang members on the streets was usually thanks to the media. However, I never knew the amount of patience and determination it takes to run a gang. The culture and the media gives us only one perspective of the gangs, but never shows us any other side, just the criminal and unjust side. Reading this book completely changed by outlook on gangs. Of course there is an unsafe and harmful side to each gang, but the Black Kings do a lot more than just shoot each other and sell drugs. They organize basketball games for the young children in the neighborhood, have picnics and family get together, and several meetings to discuss how they can improve their gang "business". None of this is ever mentioned on the news, or even in any books associated with gangs. I believe there's always more to a story than the information given to us by the media.
             Society associates young gang members as people who are uneducated, some even drop out of high school, and college isn't even in an option. To my surprise, we learn in the book that J.T was a college graduate, but decided to quit his job as a salesman in corporate America in the late 1980's becaus...