Gang Leader for a Day Quotes

“I'm not sure I'm ready for another big research project just yet," I said.
Oh Yeah?" he said, handing me one of the beers. "What else you going to do? You can't fix nothing , you never worked a day in your life. The only thing you know how to do is hang out with niggers like us."
I nearly choked on my beer when he summarized my capacities so succinctly - and, for the most part accurately.”
― Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh , Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

“As he met now with each sales director, J.T. would begin by grilling him with a standard set of questions: You losing any of your regulars? (In other words, customers.) Anybody complaining? (About the quality of the crack.) You heard of people leaving you for others? (Customers buying crack from other dealers.) Anybody watching you? (The police or tenant leaders.) Any new hustlers been hanging around? (Homeless people or street vendors.) You seen any niggers come around? (Enemy gangs.)”
― Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

“J.T. once asked me what sociologists had to say about gangs and inner-city poverty. I told him that some sociologists believed in a “culture of poverty”—that is, poor blacks didn’t work because they didn’t value employment as highly as other ethnic groups did, and they transmitted this attitude across generations.”
― Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets

“Everyone wants to kill the leader, so you got to get them first. -JT”
― Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets