Black Noise

"Sometimes you have to beat a nigger to teach him a lesson.  Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a while," says Black Kings gang leader J.T. in Sudhir Venkatesh's book Gang Leader for a Day.  "That's just the way it is around here" (70).

In the projects, unfortunately, that is that way it is.  Everywhere you look, you'll see drugs, violence, prostitution, and gangs. 

On the other hand, in White Noise, Don DeLillo mocks the viewpoint of an inhabitant of the exact opposite type of neighborhood: "I'm a college professor…We live in a neat and pleasant town near a college with a quaint name.  [Bad] things don't happen in places like Blacksmith" (112).  

Jack, the character who say this quote, feels completely safe and above danger because of the community he lives in.  Meanwhile, the people in J.T.'s community are accustomed to feeling threatened by the possibility of danger anywhere they go.

Sometimes, these opposite communities can be just blocks apart, so what makes them so different?  Why is it that some communities have no threat of gang violence while in others gangs dominate the town?

Some people believe the answer to this question is simply because our cultural stereotypes say it should be this way.  In other words, we have developed stereotypes that label poor minorities as criminals, and therefore, poor minorities begin to believe that they should be criminals.  This is called the "culture of violence" theory, meaning that people in poor communities are taught not to value being part of society and having a job and instead join gangs because they see no problem with it.

Don DeLillo in White Noise also mocks this idea when Jack wonders that his children might be developing symptoms just because the radio said they should: "Is it possible to have a false perception of an illusion…I wondered whether her palms had been truly sweaty or whether she'd simple imagined a sense of wetness.  And was she so open to suggestion that she would develop every symptom as it was announced?" (122).  In this case and the "culture of violence" theory, things are happening simply because people believe they should.

While I think this theory makes some sense, I don't buy it because I don't think that it's in poor people's natural culture to not value a real job and join a gang.  I think instead it's because the jobs our society leaves open to them are so undesirable that it is much more attractive to join a gang where you can have money and power.  

The gang leader J.T., who I mentioned earlier, echoes my beliefs: "So you want me to take pride in the job, and you're only paying me minimum wage?" he asks in Gang Leader for a Day.  "It don't sound like you think much about the job yourself" (28).  Before he was a gang leader, J.T. attended college and then took a job selling office supplies at a midsize corporation.  I bet you didn't expect to hear that--I certainly didn't when I read it.  That doesn't sound much like a guy who's been destined his whole life to be criminal because of where he's from; he tried to have a "normal" job.  However, he then became frustrated that he wasn't making much money and that lesser skilled whites got promoted over him, so he quit to return to gang life where he could hold a high position and get paid more.

It's not right to say J.T. was  "meant" to be a criminal because of his race or class.  He became involved with gangs because the community he was raised him presented him with no better opportunities since it is marginalized from the rest of society.  This is the true reason for why gangs come to dominate some communities and not others.  They are disconnected from other communities, who just see and hear their problems as white noise.  Or maybe I should say, black noise.