Stereotype 1. Gangs are a Black and Hispanic Problem

TOP TEN STEREOTYPES

1. Gangs are a Black and Hispanic problem

2. Gang members come from very poor broken families

3. There aren't very many girl gangs

4. Girl gangs are as violent as male gangs

5. Gangs today are totally different than gangs of yesterday or (or see 6)

6. Gangs today are no different than gangs of yesterday

7. Once you are in a gang, you are "lost forever"

8. Gangs today are organized crime(or see 9)

9. Gangs today are just wild peer groups

10. You can't do good research on gangs

S ome people might reverse this and say that gangs are basically a "white problem." But lets check the research.

Most gang members today are Black or Hispanic, not white. It certainly hasn't always been that way. Most US gangs in the industrial era were second generation European immigrants. African Americans also formed gangs in cities like Chicago, often as protection against racist assaults. In Los Angeles, the immigrant experience of Mexican established a gang tradition that survives to this day.

The latest statistics from the Justice Department, though they must be read with caution, the 1999 Youth Gang Survey by the National Youth Gang Center reports that 47% of the 840,500 US gang members were Hispanic, 31% African American, 13% Caucasian, 7% Asian, and 2% Other.

This survey goes on to estimate that half of all gang members are "underclass" and 35% "working class." In other words, gangs are,by definition, poor urban youth. It has always been that way. to say that most gangs are minority, is to say that minorities make up the majority of the poor within our cities are the poorest and most socially isolated.

The problem is when young people are labeled as gang members because they are Black or Hispanic. This racism has led police in Los Angeles to declare that HALF of all Black males aged 21-24 are gang members!

Eli Anderson eloquently describes the deepseated problem of racism in our society:

"When young black men appear, women (especially white women) sometimes clutch their pocketbooks. they may edge up against their companions or begin to walk stiffly and deliberately. On spotting black males from a distance, other pedestrians often cross the street or give them a wide berth as they pass...Fellow pedestrians in turn avert their eyes from the black males, deferring to figures who are seen as unpredictable, menacing, and not to be provoked — predators."

(Streetwise, p 164. 1990 from the University of Chicago Press).