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July 31, 2003
Hobbes and Black Gangs
One of my problems is that I'm a fast grokker and generally have no patience for detail. I get it and move on. It's a habit born of insatiable curiosity and the abstraction theory of computing. Be that as it may, I did read at least 15 paragraphs of this excellent essay.
One of the most dangerous errors of our time is the belief that human beings are uniquely violent animals, barely restrained from committing atrocities on each other by the constraints of ethics, religion, and the state....
And, in fact, less than one half of one percent of the present human population ever kills in peacetime; murders are more than an order of magnitude less common than fatal household accidents. Furthermore, all but a vanishingly small number of murders are performed by males between the ages of 15 and 25, and the overwhelming majority of those by unmarried males. One's odds of being killed by a human outside that demographic bracket are comparable to one's chances of being killed by a lightning strike.
What I found especially interesting was the following. It immediately reminded me of the memoirs of Sanyika Shakur aka 'Monster' Kody Scott, the infamous Los Angeles gangbanger. We had a short correspondance back in the day and he was transfixed by his independent discovery.
Human beings are social primates with social instincts. One of those instincts is docility, a predisposition to obey the tribe leader and other dominant males. This was originally adaptive; fewer status fights meant more able bodies in the tribe or hunting band. It was especially important that bachelor males, unmarried 15-to-25 year-old men, obey orders even when those orders involved risk and killing. These bachelors were the tribe's hunters, warriors, scouts, and risk-takers; a band would flourish best if they were both aggressive towards outsiders and amenable to social control.
I cannot recall what Kody named his theory, but everything about what he was saying could be summed up in that paragraph.
Monroe, I know you're not reading this, but I hope you do.
You see one of the other discussions we had, Monroe and I, was on the nature of pledging. I suggested rather strongly that fraternities are less influential in society because they are not independent. Everything a frat does to create brotherhood must take place within the ethical constraints of bourgie university policy, which means no hazing.
I've been an advocate of old school hazing in the pledge process because as I was going through it, this same insight hit me. If you are willing to submit to the relative brutality of hazing for your brothers, then the slings and arrows of ordinary life become mere pinpricks in comparison.
If young black males are out of control of schools, parents, churches and other middle-class institutions, it most certainly is related to these facts. What stresses and forges cohesion in young men? Who is delivering that stress? If it is street life, then they will belong to the streets. If it is the justice system, then they will belong to the system. This is basic.
It doesn't take a Leviathan justice system to control the young man. It takes pledging hard and rites of passage. I hope Monroe can step up.
Posted by mbowen at July 31, 2003 11:33 AM
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Tracked on March 15, 2005 02:18 PM
Comments
gays
Posted by: andrew at October 10, 2003 02:42 AM
need the email address for sanyika shakur ... monster kody scott
Posted by: sylvia deaderick at December 12, 2003 07:56 AM
Hey i think that we should keep Gangs because kids are more happy and satified when there are with older kids and there feel perteced but the thing we should try to talke out like ten year old because they coul like get killed we should have a age limmet so that when some kids want to go in a gang the gang memebers should ask how old they are inted of saying yes come with us the age limet shoul be the age 14 because they can defend there selfs and help the gangs be more out going.
Posted by: Sasha at May 14, 2004 06:51 AM
To Whom It May Concern:
I'm a doctoral student doing research on prison gangs. Would love to interview Mr. Sanyika Shakur wherever he might be. If anyone could help me locate him (email), it would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by: Elizabeth at June 1, 2004 08:50 PM
Elizabeth,
Call my office, I might be able to help you.
Posted by: Steve Cole at June 8, 2004 07:18 PM
450 Bauchet Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
1-(213)473-6100
Sanyika can be reached via mail at the above address. He is currently being held on a CDC hold and is facing a possible third strike as he stands charged with assaulting a police officer. He is not allowed visitors at this time.
Posted by: Stag at August 22, 2004 10:05 PM