Picture This

I read Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. For my symbol I drew a canyon with houses. In my picture the canyon represents the gap between the blacks and whites in the community. The houses on the white side of the canyon represent the education, justice, wealth, jobs, safety, etc. that the blacks are struggling to get.

Venkastesh notices this gap in his book by saying "...the Robert Taylor Homes were thousands of families struggling to survive. It was the epitome of an 'underclass' urban neighborhood, with the poor living hard and virtually separate lives from the mainstream." (Venkatesh 38). This really hits Sudhir hard and he has a sort of realization where he empathizes with the black community. He sees how most of these people got to the point they are at and how they do not have the opportunities to do what they want.