Collogero's World

Calogero lives in what appears to be a neighborhood with strong Italian ties, probably from immigration by Italian immigrants in the early 1900's. After an initial stream of immigrants, families most likely followed suit over the next few decades, becoming a part of the cultural tradition of Calogero's neighborhood. The organized crime scene, headed up by Sonny in the movie, was once needed to hold the 'hood together, and probably still was doing so in the movie. Sonny and his men, while an alarming and oftentimes dangerous crowd to be involved in, use fear and illicit funds to improve the neighborhood. (to their advantages, albeit)

Then there are Sonny's stupid friends in the little "gang" of their own. However, this is an example of a social club with no positive impacts on the community. They just sit around all day, ditching school, smoking, drinking, hollah'rin at fine ladies on the street, and beating up black people. This group collided violently with Sonny's real gang when they were caught trying to sell guns out in public and driving Calogero to a firey death, and luckily, Sonny saved him from all sorts of horrible fates on different occasions.

Finally, we have the black neighborhood in 'Da Bronx, where Calogero's lovely lady Jane resides. Race relations during this time were HOT in the bad way, so even simply by walking through the black 'hood, Calogero's life was in danger. Back in the 60's, blacks and whites were still segregated, and most who live in a world like that begin to accept it as the fitting reality, which is why he was shunned callously from the scene of his friends' "accident." His love for Jane certainly, at the time, was a radical idea, and although his Italian family and friends did not support interracial relations, Sonny told Calogero to follow his heart, which today would be much better advice than what Calogero's rather racist (Going with the times, not necessarily a cold-blooded racist) father told him.

All of the groups come together with Calogero serving as the common link between each of them. Some conflicts are for better, others for worse, but the social interactions between them all make up the world that Calogero lives in.

Where's the Gangsta's Soch Cred?

I thought the article on Venkatesh's "Gang Leader for a Day" was a really neat way to do some real micro-sociology work. As I read through it, I kept thinking, "Sudhir, you dumba**! You are an uppper-class Indian graduate student.. what the hell are you doing in the projects of Chicago?!!? This guy is naive in the gravest sense..." When they had him holed up on the stairwell as a "hostage", I was just amazed that he wasn't questioning the nature of his captors. However, once J.T. and him were all good with each other, I could tell this would make for an amazing sociological study; living the life of a gangsta in Chicago.

I think J.T. and his gang should be at the very least be given credit in the book if they weren't given such credit already, and possibly some sort of help to get them off the streets too. (Although probably not hard cash, since that would, if the past shows us anything, be spent on alcohol, cars, or "bling-bling") Then again, a lot of gangstas are on the streets because they don't want to live the normal life of working a 9-5 job, not "making bank", and not indiscriminately killing people who wear their hats differently than they do. However, J.T. without a doubt himself deserves a little extra-credit for not popping a cap in Mr. Venkatesh's backside when it seemed like Sudhir was a Mexican spy, and then showing him the ropes of being a gangsta as an outsider looking in.

"The Freaks and Geeks" of Stevenson

In Stevenson, the cliques are not nearly as confrontational as in "Freaks and Geeks." Being a TV series, they had to over-dramatize the conflicts between the groups, kind of like Greasers vs. Socs. At Stevenson, there's no group each person is trapped in like F&G's makes it seem like. There are jocks, nerds, alternative-stylers, rockers, sports-fans, sportards, people who like Aerosmith, people who don't like Aerosmith :|, floaters, and many more. I consider myself a "floater" because I float between a few of those groups, and am not really permanently grounded anywhere. Stevenson is such a massive school that no group has a significantly larger number of bodies than another, and no groups have much power. Well, except for the teachers, but that is a given in most high schools. In a way, it's nice that Stevenson is as enormous as it is, because that makes the kind of diversity we have here possible.