Author: Sudhir Venkatesh
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Sociologists liked to use survey questions that their peers had already used, I learned, in order to produce comparable results. This was a key part of the scientific method in sociology.
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I asked Michael and Kris whether beating one customer might in fact deter other customers. The reply taught me a lot about the Black Kings. “When you got a problem, I bet you call the police, right?” Michael said. “Well, we call the Kings. I call T-Bone because I don’t have anyone else to call.”
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That Ms. Bailey saw me, a middle-class graduate student, as having “connections” said a lot about how alienated her community was from the powerful people in philanthropy and government who could actually make a difference.
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J.T. could even put a positive spin on the fact that he made money by selling drugs. A drug economy, he told me, was “useful for the community,” since it redistributed the drug addicts’ money back into the community via the gang’s philanthropy.
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They all learned to keep track of which restaurants and churches offered free food and which abandoned buildings were available for sleeping.
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In the media all you heard were politicians’ promises to help CHA tenants forge a better life. On the ground, meanwhile, the lowest-ranking members of society got pushed even lower, thanks to a stingy and neglectful city agency and the constant hustling of the few people in a position to help.
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“I’m not sure I’m ready for another big research project just yet,” I said. “Oh, yeah?” he said, handing me one of the beers. “What else are you going to do? You can’t fix nothing, you never worked a day in your life. The only thing you know how to do is hang out with niggers like us.” I nearly choked on my beer when he summarized my capacities so succinctly—and, for the most part, accurately.