My latest read – Gang Leader for a Day

You’ve read Freakonomics…right? One of the most popular chapters Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live With Their Moms? is about Sudhir Venkatesh, a grad student at the University of Chicago who studied a crack cocaine gang The Black Kings in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes (Building #4040) during the height of the crack epidemic in the 1990s.

I wanted to learn more about Sudhir. His book Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets is now available.

Having worked at the University of Chicago I recall my own orientation was similar to Sudhir’s story about being warned by police where NOT to walk around campus. The tragic killing of a grad student last Friday, January 25th is such an example of the danger facing faculty, students and staff members.

My daily commute from Glenview via Metra to Citigroup Center, then to the Midway Plaisance (map via Google) via the University’s charter bus service passed the Washington Park Lagoon everyday. Sudhir mentions his exploration of the Lagoon and lessons learned from speaking with older black men about Chicago and its history. Sudhir allows readers to see another side of America.

Sudhir brought to life people who controlled “access” to buildings in the Robert Taylor Homes. This reminds me of the Soviet’s Nomenklatura system. The Black Kings’ nomenklatura permitted the type of alternative lifestyle controlled by Ms. Bailey, a building president who could be just as power hungry as JT, the drug gang’s leader who Sudhir studied for almost seven years.

This book will surprise the reader who has never been in Chicago’s inner city or driven around “the projects” of a major city in the world. The corruption of the drug dealers and their soldiers, building presidents to the police are all apart of Sudhir’s research. One of the most interesting outcomes from Sudhir’s efforts is learning a financial structure of the gangs and the operating structure of drug gangs that mimics the organizational chart of McDonalds. The kid selling drugs on the corner makes $3.50/hour (with a 25% chance of dying over a four year period) while the gang’s Board of Directors income tops $400K/year.

If you want to dig deeper into the research of Sudhir and Freakonomics author Steve Levitt, you can download a copy of their detailed publication online:
Steven Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh. “An Economic Analysis of a Drug-Selling Gang’s Finances,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 2000

Tags: Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh, sociology, Freakonomics, Chicago, trends