Growing up I had never wanted to be a teacher, both of my parents taught at local high schools. My mother worked in Special Education and my father worked in Independent Studies, it was something that I had never considered until I started serving with the high school youth group at my church. I discovered my love for high school age students by leading a Bible study, I realized how much of an impact I can have on students lives. Looking back I am able to think of several teachers that I have had over the years who have had a huge impact on my life, teachers who have supported, and encouraged me, teachers who I could go to if I have a problem in or outside of the classroom. It was not long after my mother passed away, that I realized that I belong teaching Special Education. My mother passed on to me the patients, understanding, and the love for students, needed in a Special Education classroom. I am currently attending Cal Poly Pomona, where I plan to get my bachelors degree in the Winter of 2010, shortly after receiving my degree I plan on enrolling the in the teaching credential program at Cal Poly Pomona.

SOC 204 Final

Travis Taylor 

Dr. Hill

Sociology 402

Final Exam

11 December 2008

Final Exam 

Long Essay:

All quarter long our class has been discussing what influences our society, and what exactly causes the complicated process of socialization.  Their are many factors such as family, race, peer groups, and the education system.  However their are still some that we did not have much time to study, such as the media, social class, ethnicity, race, sex, and gender.  In Gerald Handel’s book Children and Society, Handel discusses all of these factors in the socialization process.  

Mass communication and the media is both a curse as well as a good thing.  A couple of wonderful things about it, we are able to send and receive information much faster than we ever have.  With this new technology we are able to keep in touch with people around the globe.  The problem with this is the things that we are communicating  are not healthy.  Through the television internet, and radio, we are sending negative, violent, inappropriate, messages not only to our youth but our whole society.  I believe that garbage in is garbage out. For example when all you listen to is bad things such as music with offensive cursing language you when you speak you will be more likely to use offensive language.  The same goes for watching violent movies, when you watch a lot of violence you are more prone to be violent.  Take for instance I have a friend who loves to watch Ultimate Fighting, however whenever he watches it the next day i always see him trying to wrestle somebody he can’t help himself. If this does this to my friend who is 25 what can it to to the children?  According to Handel, “During the 1990’s there were reports on this issue from three prestigious organizations, the Center for Disease Control, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Psychological Association; all concluded that the mass media contribute to aggressive attitudes and behavior” (Handel 212-213).  The media is putting so much in the minds of people in this society.  

Our society relies so much on the media to tell us how we should think.  The media portrays what they believe to be ideal for our society.  They define success as well as what our family lives should be like.  They make it appear that our lives should be that of the people in the movies, or on television.  They tell us how men and women should be treated differently, as well as what to thinks of people who come from different socioeconomic statuses, people who have different racial backgrounds.  

Their are six different social classes according to Handel.  First is the upper class, there are very few of them however they have the most wealth and power.  The upper class typically live a life of luxury, with multiple vacation homes, fine dining, and many other perks that come along with being extremely wealthy.  Below the upper class is the upper middle class.  This class consist of “doctors, lawyers, architects, and other professionals that have either been born into or ‘made it’ into the upper middle class” (250).    These people are almost always well educated, and have professions that require some sort of degree.  The middle class consist of mainly whit collar workers,  many of which have a college education.  These people are your average business men, teachers, social workers, nurses, police officers, and fire fighters.  The working class comes next they consist of your average blue collar workers.  They tend to be machine operators, factory workers, auto mechanics, truck drivers, and construction workers.  These people have physically demanding jobs that can take it toll on the body.  The working poor includes supermarket cashiers, servers in fast food reastraunts, as well as the lowest paid workers in working class occupations.  The underclass, “are people with low level of education and few or no marketable skills who work erratically or at part time jobs.  Depending on what social class you are from has a impact on how you are socialized and what type of education you will recieive, and what profession will are most likely to go into.  

Ones race as well as ethnicity also plays a major role in the socialization process.  Ethnicity is based more off of ones culture, it incorporates the language as well as some other social cultural aspects.  In order for one to be in the same ethnic group to have a “shared identity they must have a common ancestry and a common culture” (Hadley 265).  In an ethnic groups culture it usually involves one or more of the following cultural elements: “a language that is different from the dominate language in the society, a religion, a shared awareness of a historical background that is preserved in stories, legends, songs, costumes, and holidays, and some values and norms that are distinguishable from those of the dominant majority and other ethnic groups” (265-266).   Race is considered to be more of a physical labeling it does not truly define who one is, but who society expects them to be.  Race and ethnicity plays a important role in the socialization process it is how one is raised and it is part of who they are.  

Sex and Gender are one of the most important aspects as to how one is socialized.  Sex is the biological part of whether one is a male or a female originally at birth.  Gender is what is influenced by society, with gender one is in some way given the choice as to wether be male or female.  From birth boys are given blue clothes and girls are given pink clothes, starting the socialization process. From an early age boys are encouraged to do male things and girls are encouraged to do girly things, such as play with dolls and play dress up.  Males are taught to be the bread winners for their families to provide a house and to put food on the table.  Women are taught how to cook, clean and how to care for the children.  Society forces males and females into these positions.  Throughout history males have always been considered to be more superior to females.  in many cultures women must serve the men.  Many of these old fashion ways are still done today although they are considered to be unfair.  From birth boys and girls are conditioned and socialized to their specific functions in society.  

The media, social class, race and ethnicity, sex, and gender all individually play a huge role in the socialization process. These are all important factors in the way that one is socialized, it is these things that make an individual who they are.  

Short Answer:

  In the United States a person born of the white race typically has much more of a privilege then one born from any other race.  Over the centuries it has be thought that whites should take care of other whites.  They believe in building each other up so that they would be able to put people from other races down.  

In Tim Wise video he discussed how whites for hundreds of years would fight each other and force the poor to work in the fields of the rich.  It was the goal of the rich to never have to work but to have a life of leisure.   When the British started making colonies in the Americas they brought over indentured servants to work for them.  Eventually these indentured servants received their freedom and received land.  Once the indentured servants received rights they worked along side the rich in repressing any non-white people.  Slavery became increasingly popular in the colonies and it actually took jobs away form the poor white individuals who had a hard time finding work.  

Tim Wise also discussed how the civil war was not fought for states rights but for the right to own slavery. Once the war ended it did not make life any easier for the Blacks, they were still really poor and had to do a lot of physically demanding work.  

According to Wise rich white people do not care about any one who is not rich wether they are black or white.  Yet the poor whites hate the blacks and feel as if they are so much better then the blacks, even though they have a lot more in common with the poor blacks than they do with the rich whites.  

 My favorite panel that we discussed so far was the very first one, the panel on education.  Although the Symbolic Internationalist did not say much other than labeling children in the education system can be harmful, the Conflict Theorist (CT) and the Structural Functionalist (SF) were arguing back and forth on several different issues.  The CT were dicussing how the education system is messed up and unfair, they were complaining about the the school boards, and senators.  Then the SF brought it to their attention that the community votes for who they want in the school board as well as the state senators.  This of corse made the class laugh because the CT could not come back with a rebuttle.   

The next arugment was about how nothing the SF were saying was actually fair, and then one of the SF said that he never said that it was fair it is just the way that it is. I think the class as a whole agreed that the SF did the best job at portraying their perspective.  Even though the odds were against them going against the CT they were able to hold their own and I you could have won or lost a panel then the SF would have won.   The Structional Functionalist believe that things are the way they are because it works that way it also puts the rich white people a head of the game and makes it harder for other to catch up or get a head.  The Conflict Theiroist just find problems with everything they have a difficult time coming up with solutions because they are so focused on finding problems with things.

 The talk of death is something that gets avoided in may societies.  It is an uncomfortable conversation, which varies among societies.  Depending on the culture in which one comes from as one ages and is no longer able to care for oneself they either go to live with family members who care for them, they may go into a nursing home where care will be provided for them, or in some cultures they may commit suicide.  I think that it is everyones dream to go quickly and quietly with out any suffering.  

Even though death is a normal thing, one day will come where we will die and our life will be over.  This is something that will happen to everyone at one point, yet this is something that we avoid talking about because it makes us uncomfortable, we tend to look at death as a negative thing, when in actuality it can be a positive thing depending on what you believe  as to what happens to you once you die.  Growing old is something that most people go threw and something that mot people have to adapt to, and depending on the socialization process as well as what culture one comes from depends on how the individual will be when they get older.

 When Malcolm made hid pilgrimage to Mecca it was a real eye opening experiance for him he began to see society in a way that he had never seen it before.  He realized in Mecca that everyone was wearing white it did not matter what color your skin was.  It a peared to him that the color of your skin only mattered in America.  It was here where he realized that he did not hate the white man, but he did hate the system in which the white man created.  Malcolm from here on out that it is not personal and their fore he can not take things personally, but in fact it is the structure that has cause all of these problems, and that we should take all of our anger and frustrations out on the structure and not individual people.  It was his spiritual growth that helped him see this, it was not something that he came across on his own.  

Malcolm learned a valuable lession from Elijah Muhammad about blindly trusting someone.  Malcolm learned at some people are corrupt, including Elijah Muhammad a man who Malcolm really looked up to.  Elijah had ordered for Malcolm to be kicked out of the temple and then to be killed.  This was a man that Malcolm trusted, but this man also taught Malcolm a valuable lesson about living blindly.  When we look up to some individuals we tend to overlook their flaws we do not want to believe that they have any problems or that they are doing anything wrong.  We can not have this kind of blindness we should never look the other way we should help each other through rough area’s of our lives not just simply look away.  

If Malcolm would have lived I thing eventually the socialization process would have changed.  I think he came in at the wrong time in American cicilation I think if he were to come around mayby twenty years ago as a posed to the 1960’s he may have made more of a larger impact on American society.  I think their was just too much change too fast during that time in American history,  and if Malcolm would have come along a little bit later he may have had a larger impact.  

response paper

Travis Taylor
Dr. Hill
Soc 204
11 December 2008
Response Paper #3
In Gerald Handel’s book Children and Society, Handel spends a great deal of time focusing on peer groups. Peer groups can have just as much of an impact on on individual as the family unit. This is because as human beings we long for intimacy and connection with others we are wired so that we strive to connection with others, we must fit in with some group. Groups are a natural occurrence almost every person considers them-self to be part of one group or another.
Within peer groups socialization takes place. Through peer groups is where an individual learns about the world around them, this is where the learn and are made aware about things through others their own age. It is a place where most feel as if they are on common ground with all of them. In no other place other than peer groups is where everyone makes an attempt to fit in.
Friendships are one of the most important things that one needs to develop properly. I know personally I have no idea where I would be today with out some of the friendships that I have. Most people are willing to go out of their way for a friend, for the most part friends are a positive experience. However friends can have a negative influence on an individual. Friends often influence each other to do bad things such as try drugs or to cheat on their homework or something negative. But the bennifits of friends deffinatly out ways the bad.
Cliques from what I have experienced throughout my life, can do a lot of damage. It is easy for groups of people who all have similar things in common to all hang out together. A problem with cliques is that it causes some to be in them and some to be out of them, but they are considered to be vital in the socialization process.
Bulling is one of the worst parts of the socialization process. Every year thousands of kids in playgrounds and hallways across America are bullied. Bulling can have some major psychological damage. It is proven that student who grow up being bullied often have a low self-esteem and a low self-efficacy. When bullied students often feel belittled and worthless, often their is little a parent can do to help their child and prevent them from being bullied. Often if a parent intervenes it makes it much worse for the victim. Many times when an individual is bullied they themselves end up being bullies to others to help them try and improve their own self esteem.
Peer groups play a huge role in the socialization process. It is where friendships, cliques, and bulling comes from. It is also where one learns to work along side and socialize with people of their own age and status. Peer groups play a key role in how one develops, and how one interacts with others. They can have just as much of an impact on on individual as the family unit. This is because as human beings we long for intimacy and connection with others we are wired so that we strive to connection with others, we must fit in with some group. Groups are a natural occurrence almost every person considers them-self to be part of one group or another. For many of individuals one finds them selves on an equal playing field with their peer groups. This is the area where we practice with each other on how to act it is considered to be a trial and error process.

Travis Taylor
Dr. Hill
Sociology 402 Self and Society
Autobiography
11 December 2008
The Story of Me

BHS 204

Running Head: Distractions form mobile phone use and helping behavior










Distractions from mobile phone use and helping behavior:
Do people look the other way?
Travis R.Taylor
California State Polytechnic University of Pomona




























Abstract
Research has shown that bystanders are often slow to react if to react at all to a situation that dose not appear to be an emergency when other bystanders are around. The study presented in this paper looks into the the amount of help received when someone appears to be busy and distracted talking on a mobile phone as opposed to a person whom appears to be unengaged in any mobile phone conversation. In the experimental group the confederate is talking on a mobile phone and drops papers to see if they will receive assistance in picking up papers. In the control group the confederate uses no mobile phone and drops papers to see if they will receive assistance.


































As a poor innocent woman falls victim to a violent murder, many observers stand in their apartment windows a safe enough distance away watching as a woman is stabbed repeatedly in the middle of the street. Not a single phone call to the police was recorded during the attack. This is the small story that turned big of Kitty Genovese who was violently murdered in New York City. Although this story started out as a simple murder investigation, it later grew as people were interviewed, and it was found that at least 38 people witnessed the brutal killing of Kitty Genovese.
According to Lane & Darley (1970) the bystander effect is when people are not likely to help, or are slow to help victims when other people are around. This is because more people are around a situation in which a victim may need assistance the diffusion of responsibility takes place, and the person may feel that it is the other people’s responsibility to help rather than theirs, When more people are found in this situation they are more likely to give reasons for not helping such as, “I didn’t want to get involved”.
As in the case of Kitty Genovese, the witnesses had many excuses for not helping, and in a lot of cases this can be attributed to the bystander effect. There are a variety of reasons in determining why some help and some do not. If the witnesses deemed the situations to be high danger due to the sight of young kitty being violently attacked; then conceivably they may have feared for their own lives and been less likely to help Kitty. The study of the bystander effect has been repeated many times to see if people are more likely to help, and if they are quicker to help when situations appear to be more dangerous. Fisher, Frey, Grietemeyer, and Pollozek (2005) found that when a participant was alone with low danger they were more likely to help the victim than if alone with high danger. In other trials, the participant was assigned to be in the company of a confederate. In this particular trial with the specific conditions the participant was more likely to help when the danger level was higher as opposed to lower even when placed with the confederate. In the low danger situation the bystander effect could have been displayed with the confederate around, but in the high danger situation the participant may have felt more adequate in helping with the aid of the confederate.
In other settings, a person who feels more adequate in assisting in a dilemma possibly will help more often than a person who does not feel very adequate to help in a particular situation. When Nelson and Norton (2005) performed their experiments they wanted to know if students were primed with superhero thoughts were they more willing to help as opposed to those manipulated to think about mundane thoughts of helping the had better results in helping behavior, as opposed to those given mundane thoughts and then being asked to help.
Research has found that when several people are around and a person needs assistance, but it is not a dangerous situation people are more likely to look the other way. In a study done by Thornberg (2007), he found that when a person was in need of help, and the situation was not dangerous there were man reasons behind why the bystander effect began to be displayed. In multiple interviews he found that if a leader was aware of the situation than this person should automatically take charge. Also if the person was not an acquaintance of the victim they felt less accountable to offer their assistance.
When it comes to day to day living, one might ask, “Would the typical person walking by offer their assistance if a fellow human being needed it”. Is this question strengthened when the typical person encounters someone who appears somewhat busy or distracted. In this study I looked at whether your typical coffee shop patron was more willing to help if the person needing the help appeared to be somewhat distracted or busy. I looked into studying this because when a human being appears to be busy or distracted one does not evoke the feeling of sympathy for this person, and in return people will be less willing to help, and slower to offer their assistance when made to feel this way for another human being. Thus, I predicted that people would be less willing and swift to help someone who is distracted or busy.
Method
Participants
Participants in this study were 20 patrons at average coffee shops between 12 and 4p.m. on a Saturday afternoon. Excluded from the study were those patrons who were accompanied by one or more people, and/or had both their hands full. Prior to the study two locations were chosen to perform the trials with one hour designated to each group. The first hour was assigned to the study group where five people would be put through the trial followed by the next five to be in the control group. The same routine was repeated at the second location.
Materials
During the study the materials needed were a stack of 20 papers loosely held together and not stapled to ensure papers to go everywhere when dropped on the ground. The confederate used a mobile phone to appear to be distracted and busy. The confederate carried a coffee drink as well. The experimenters used stopwatches to record the time it took for patron to help if at all.
Procedure
The participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions based on the time of trial. First was the study group from 12-1p.m. Every other person to enter enter or exit the coffee shop was in the study group until five samples were collected. The same procedure was repeated for the control group, and trials were form 1-2p.m. The same routine was repeated at the second location starting with the study group from 2-3p.m. and the control group for 3-4p.m.
As the participants tried to enter or exit the coffee shop, the participants were met by the confederate. The study group met the confederate who was a young female college student, with brown hair, light skin, and dressed in shorts and a shirt, talking on a mobile phone and caring a cup of coffee, while attempting to carry papers. The control group met the same confederate without the mobile phone.
Two procedures were taken to ensure that the participants did not witness previous trials. The first was that two different predetermined coffee shop locations were used for trials, and second, only every other person was used to participate in my trial to allow for enough time to pass between trials.
In each condition trained observers sat at a nearby table as if they were having a study group, but they actually were recording the time it took for participants to assist the confederate. Helping was defined as the participant stopping what they were doing and assisting the confederate in picking up the papers. Timing began when the confederate dropped the paper and stopping when the participant began to help the confederate.

Forever Running

Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez Always Running

Travis Taylor 

HST 370.03

Travis Taylor 

Dr. Lindsay

History of California

4 December 2008

Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez’s Always Running

Gang life is is a common lifestyle for many many Americans growing up in heavily populated urban areas, where gangs, violence, and drugs are considered to be everyday things.  It is a lifestyle in which it affects everyone in the community, not just one individual or a particular gang but everyone living or even working in the community.  Gangs, violence, and drugs, were prevalent in Rodriguez’s neighborhood in East Los Angles and these problems shaped and affected the community in several ways.  

Violence has always been apart of Luis’ life.  When Rodriguez was young he lived with his parents who frequently fought and had several problems. They lived in Watts area, and were very poor moving  from different house to different house very frequently.  “For months we had been pushed from one house to another, just Mama and us children” (Rodriguez 14).  They never lived in what is considered to be a safe neighborhood, when Luis  was six his mother had sent him and his older brother to the market to purchase some groceries.  On their way home they were attacked and beaten up, “They punched him in the face, in the stomach, then his face again, cutting his lip, causing him to vomit” (25).  Situations like these are an everyday occurrence for some communities.  When Luis was a bit older his family moved to the San Gabriel Valley which had a large gang population.  Their house was located in between two large gangs.  “You guys live between the the two largest ‘hoods’. You got to figure out which one to claim or you’re going to get fucked by both of them” (54).  In San Gabriel you had to be part of a gang it was considered to be protection, form getting jumped or worse.  

Violence and Gangs usually go hand in hand, in most cases it involved turf, or areas where certain gangs claimed for their own.  When they were young, around middle school their gangs were not highly organized, they were more like a group of friends who hug out and fought others if they had a particular reason to.  When they got in high school things changed a lot if you walked down the wrong street their could be problems for you.  As they got older the more organized the gangs got.  They would organize who they would hit or in other words shoot.  An individual needed a gang it is considered vital for ones protection.   

At this time in history the San Gabriel valley saw racial tension and violence among Blacks, Whites, and Latinos.  Not only was their discrimination between races but when the Latinos weren’t fighting other races their gangs were fighting each other.  Neighborhood violence was something that these people were raised with it was an everyday thing.  They were forced to adapt to the circumstances that they lived in.  They became desensitized to violence.  Nearly all of them have experienced violence directly in their own lives.  When you grow up and live in a violent life style it becomes all that you know, making it extremely hard to break the vicious cycle.  

Many of the young people involved with gangs never graduate high school.  Many of them drop out at the age of sixteen.  This is for several reasons the first being, their families do not value education greatly.  Their families believe that education is a waste of time they should be working and making money to contribute to the household.  Another reason is because they do not believe that enough people within the school system care for them.  They feel as if the teachers and the principles could careless about their needs.  In Rodriguez book he talks about how the teachers and educators taught a racist curriculum, and many of the teachers had racial prejudices.  Eventually several students from the surrounding high schools were able to get together and organize walk-outs.  With the hopes of making some much needed changes to the education system. When they leave the school system they would turn to the streets where many of them turn to more violence as well as drugs.  

For many growing up in the San Gabriel, they believe that the odds are against them they feel as if they are constantly running, “I never stopped this running.  We were constant prey, and the hunters soon became big blurs: the police, the gangs, the junkies, all smuggled into one.  Sometimes they were teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if we were a hideous stain. We were always afraid. Always Running” (Rodriquez 36). Just imagine living a life in which you are constantly running.  What kind of life is that?  This is some thing that millions of people are living with in urban areas across the country.  

Drugs and gangs usually go hand in hand with each other.  Many gangs deal drugs because it is a quick and convent way of making money.  This is something that is embedded into their everyday society.  It is a part of life for many people.  When people live in poor areas which face a lot of crime and gang violence they often need to escape and and for many individuals drug use is considered to be their escape.  

Another thing that sometimes comes areas such as San Gabriel is prostitution.  One day Luis and his friend were driving around and saw two girls on the corner.  They pulled over and offered them a ride.  Both Luis and his friend developed relationships with these two women later to find out that they were prostitutes.  Luis was hurt by this and he ended the relationship with her.  The woman had very limited options, she needed to help support her family, with what few resources she had.  This is the same story for many women out there who are forced to sell their bodies in order to make ends meat.  

The communities try to create activities to encourage the children and young adults to stay out of the gangs.  In Rodriguez’s book he discuses community centers which were suppose to be a safe place for children and adolescents to go, it would be free of violence, gangs, and drugs.   The community centers also worked between the families and the school.  They helped with the communication between the two.  These seemed to be helping things for a while their was even a time where Luis was working for them painting murals.  The problem with these is that they never seem to last long.  As soon as their is a budget cut these are the first programs that get cut out.  The community is fighting an uphill battle,  it is hard to win the war against the gangs and other factors that exist.  

Although the odds are against them their are some cases where some of the people from theses communities actually beat the odds.  Luis eventually found their way back to the the classroom where he finished high school and even went to college at Cal State Los Angles for a while.  Some people are able to beet the odds and get out of these violent, gang and drug infested communities.  

Gangs dominate urban areas because their is so much poverty in the inner cities.   When their are high percentages of poverty their are higher crime rates.  People are constantly trying to get ahead any way they can.  One way an individual may get ahead is to join a gang were he or she works together with other individuals to accomplish something.  Many times this something has a negative impact on society.   However they believe that they need each other and that they need to do what they are doing in order to be able to get ahead.  If poverty is eliminated and if everyones needs are meet, their would no longer be a gang issue.  However this is not a perfect world and people are corrupt and some people are put at an unfair advantage causing poverty and the need for gangs.  

By writing this book Luis Rodriguez opened the eyes to many Americans as to what gang life looks like from the inside.  Many of the people involved in gang activity do not have much of a choice in the matter, it is something they are forced into.  Luis opens the eyes of so many people who are not knowledgeable of gangs,  he discusses what relationships are like between the family unit when members of the family are actively involved in gangs.  He also talks about the relationship between gang members, and how these gangs interact with other gangs in the community.  Gangs, violence, and drugs, are very common in low income communities.  It is these three things that can shape, form, and influence the community. It is a never-ending vicious life cycle, whether one lives in East Los Angles like Luis Rodriguez or one lives in New York or Philadelphia.  These are some things that have a really strong influence in communities that can potentially have an everlasting impact on everyone within these communities.  Gangs and violence creates hate among people, and hate can potentially cause lives to be lost, families to be destroyed, and communities to suffer.  

In order to truly understand how life is living a heavily populated gang community, one must actually live in that community just reading about just could not bring it justice.  Violence, gangs, and drugs are imbedded it to the lifestyles of all who live in these areas.  They have learned to adapt to the struggles that have shaped their communities.  They eithor learn to live around them or to accept what is considered to be normal behavior in their committees, causing some to feel as if they are forever running.  

Works Cited 

 Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running : La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L. A. New York, NY: 

Touchstone, 2005.

Always Running Histor report

Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez Always Running




































Travis Taylor
HST 370.03




Travis Taylor
Dr. Lindsay
History of California
4 December 2008
Forever Running an Inside Look into Louis Rodriguez’s Always Running
Gang life is is a common lifestyle for many many Americans growing up in heavily populated urban areas, where gangs, violence, and drugs are considered to be everyday things. It is a lifestyle in which it affects everyone in the community, not just one individual or a particular gang but everyone living or even working in the community. Gangs, violence, and drugs, were prevalent in Rodriguez’s neighborhood in East Los Angles and these problems shaped and affected the community in several ways.
Violence has always been apart of Luis’ life. When Rodriguez was young he lived with his parents who frequently fought and had several problems. They lived in Watts area, and were very poor moving from different house to different house very frequently. “For months we had been pushed from one house to another, just Mama and us children” (Rodriguez 14). They never lived in what is considered to be a safe neighborhood, when Luis was six his mother had sent him and his older brother to the market to purchase some groceries. On their way home they were attacked and beaten up, “They punched him in the face, in the stomach, then his face again, cutting his lip, causing him to vomit” (25). Situations like these are an everyday occurrence for some communities. When Luis’ family moved to the San Gabriel Valley which had a large gang population. Their house was located in between two large gangs. “You guys live between the the two largest ‘hoods’. You got to figure out which one to claim or you’re going to get fucked by both of them” (54). In San Gabriel you had to be part of a gang it was considered to be protection, for getting jumped or worse.
Violence and Gangs usually go hand in hand, in most cases it involved turf, or areas where certain gangs claimed for their own. When they were young, around middle school their gangs were not highly organized, they were more like a group of friends who hug out and fought others if they had a particular reason to. When they got in high school things changed a lot if you walked down the wrong street their could be problems for you. As they got older the more organized the gangs got. They would organize who they would hit or in other words shoot. An individual needed a gang it is considered vital for ones protection.