The message

The excerpt from Gang Leader for a Day put a lot of different aspect about being a sociology in perspective. 


For one, I thought it was interesting how in a way society tells us how to act around different types of people. Some are more obvious, others are more hidden. When Sudhir Venkatesh was attending U of C, people told him to stay away from the poverty neighborhoods that surrounded the school. This created a blind fear in the people that lived in the projects. Vice versa, the people that lived in the projects were afraid of the people that were not impoverished. Venkatesh's study was done in the 80's. During that same time, musical artists like, Grand Master Flash, were coming up with songs like "The Message." The whole time I was reading this excerpt, the lyrics kept popping in my head. The opening line is "it's like a jungle sometimes, it keeps me wonderin' how I keep from goin' under." This line itself could create a sense of fear into people that live in the projects of what life is for them. 


Also I never realized how there are two different methods to studying people. If I had to preform a study, I think I would gather some quantitative information, but most of it would be qualitative. I would want to be an Ethnographer; I would want to go out in the world and experience different ways of life. I think talking to people, not as if they are data, will actually give you the answers you are looking for. 


This sociology stuff is pushing me to the edge, I'm trying not to lose my head ahahaha :D