Gang Leader For a Day

Four years into his research, Venkatesh realizes that he could get into a lot of trouble. One day, when he is discussing gang tactics with his professors, he is told to consult a lawyer. After seeking legal advice, he learns that there is no such thing as researcher-client confidentiality and that if he is ever called on to testify in court he will have to tell them anything he knows and if he hears of a plan to physically harm someone he is obliged to report it to the police. Venkatesh is shocked at first, but thinking about the legal dimension of his work forces him to reconsider his research and how he might turn it into a dissertation.

He decides that he needs to make the tenants at Robert Taylor aware of the legal issues and wants to learn more about the kinds of illegal economic activities—or “hustling”—that people engage in to survive. At first he wasn’t sure if people would talk to him about hustling, but he finds they appreciate having their work taken seriously. The tenants are also interested in learning about their competitors. With J.T. and Ms. Bailey’s blessing, he starts interviewing candy-sellers, pimps, prostitutes, tailors, psychics, and squeegee men.

When he tells Ms. Bailey and J.T. about his legal situation they are shocked at his naiveté: they knew the risks involved in talking to him and have taken precautions. For instance, J.T. has never told him anything that could get him arrested. Ms. Bailey tells Venkatesh that she expects him to go to the police even as she warns him of the possible consequences of doing so. She then calls him a hustler, because he’ll do anything to get information.

Venkatesh focuses his new economic study on the three high rise buildings that form the core of J.T.’s territory. J.T. is very enthusiastic about this research and assures Venkatesh that he’ll make people cooperate. He arranges for Venkatesh to talk to some pimps and explains the financial arrangement they had with the Black Kings. With Clarisse’s help he also managed to interview some freelance prostitutes.

He asks Ms. Bailey to introduce him to women who sold things other than sex: food and clothing, and services like hairdressing and babysitting. Ms. Bailey is more cautious than J.T. and only introduces him to a few people she trusts. Like J.T., Ms. Bailey takes a cut from these illegal activities and she is careful to control who Venkatesh talks to.

One of the women Ms. Bailey introduces him to, Cordella Levy, is a close friend who runs a small candy store out of her apartment. When she moved to Robert Taylor she started working for Ms. Bailey’s mother, Ella, who was a madam. When Ella died, Cordella took over the brothel; she has also made clothes, sold food and drove people around to make money. Venkatesh asks her why she stopped running the brothel and she explains that the business of “making friends” (117), as she calls it, was taken over by men in the early 1980s. Many of these new pimps were made violent by their drug abuse and demanded high taxes from madams like Cordella. She was forced to give it up. She tells Venkatesh that life in Robert Taylor was different when women were in charge: they tried to help people, not just make money. Cordella’s story reminds him of Catrina’s insistence that women in the building help each other out.

After meeting Cordella, Venkatesh focuses on the matriarchs of the high rises: more than 90 percent of households in Robert Taylor are headed by a woman. He tries to learn more about women’s past experiences, as well as their current business. Many of the women he speaks to were active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s but from the 1980s, gangs started to take over and their main concern became protecting their families and they became marginalized.

According to official statistics, ninety-six per cent of the adults living in Robert Taylor were unemployed. Many of them tried to hide any form of income they did have so they wouldn’t lose their lease or what little welfare they were entitled to. This meant that working men were often absent from Robert Taylor, which, in turn, made it easier for the gangs and pimps to take over. Venkatesh learns that women’s earnings from hustling were very small and that many of them participated in networks of exchange to stretch their resources between a few households. This sometimes included sharing apartments or facilities, as well as things like caring for each others’ children.

Venkatesh’s access to male hustlers in Robert Taylor is facilitated by C-Note, who lets the others know that it was OK to talk to Venkatesh. These men had a number of occupations, from carpenter to preacher, musician to truck driver. Many of them were no longer eligible for welfare and, like the women Venkatesh talked to, also had a network to pool their resources.

One day, Venkatesh is summoned to Ms. Bailey’s office; she and J.T. want to know who he’s been talking to and what he’s found out. He’s excited to have a chance to go through his research, as it will give him a sense of whether he really understands it or not. He spends hours talking with them and feels grateful for their help and attention.

For the next few weeks, he works on turning his findings into statistics and graphs. When he finally returns to Robert Taylor he finds himself snubbed by the people he meets. He can’t find J.T. or Ms. Bailey, so he goes home. The next time he’s at Robert Taylor, he finds people are still acting coldly towards him and he asks C-Note what he’s done to upset them. C-Note is reluctant to speak to him but eventually explains that J.T. and Ms. Bailey have used Venkatesh’s research to tax tenants even more. Venkatesh is shocked and upset; he apologizes to C-Note and tells him that he really messed up. C-Note thinks he’s being naïve and isn’t interested in his apology; he tells Venkatesh: “You need to think about why you’re doing your work” (123). Venkatesh doesn’t know whom to turn to; most tenants won’t speak to him and he won’t get the truth from J.T. or Ms. Bailey.

He decides to try and talk to Clarisse and buys some wine as a kind of bribe.

Clarisse laughs when she sees him and tells him that everyone knows what he did. When Venkatesh insists that he wasn’t spying, Clarisse reveals that Ms. Bailey is telling all the tenants that he was. Venkatesh wonders how he’ll continue his research, or even leave the building unscathed. Clarisse tries to reassure him, telling him that people in Robert Taylor are forgiving. He is embarrassed that he hadn’t considered why J.T. and Ms. Bailey were interested in his research and struggles to think of a way to make amends. He relies on Autry and Clarisse for support and advice. When he faces the tenants again, they’re polite—he is a friend of J.T’s—but reserved.

Soon afterwards, he attends Catrina’s funeral. Catrina had run away from home and changed her name to escape an abusive father. She was finishing high school while working part time; she loved learning and wanted to make a difference for black people, and especially black women. She was killed accidentally in a family fight and her death was deeply felt in Robert Taylor, where people like Catrina were seen as a source of hope for the future. Catrina would often write essays for Venkatesh and they would discuss them. Writing essays allowed her to develop her own voice and, in tribute to Catrina, Venkatesh decides to start a writing group for young women in the building. It’s his attempt to give something back to the community. It’s also a way to get people back on his side.

Venkatesh is quite nervous about the writing group and his anxiety only increases when a number of older women—such as Ms. Bailey and Ms. Mae—warn him not to get too close to the women, in case they start relying on him. He finds the experience an emotional one as the women reveal their stories of absent men and abusive in-laws. As well as dealing with the material difficulties of poverty, all of them have suffered abuse. One woman, Keisha, eventually stabbed an abusive boyfriend; J.T. had refused to intervene because the man was a senior BK. During one of their sessions, when they are talking about how to survive in Robert Taylor, the women discuss the importance of letting Ms. Bailey sleep with your man: “To keep your own household intact, they said, you had to keep Ms. Bailey happy and well paid” (129). Venkatesh is disgusted but the women explain that people are too afraid to challenge her.

These revelations about Ms. Bailey make Venkatesh uncomfortable in her presence; his own life is moving forward—he’s considering marrying his girlfriend—and he is starting to think about the end of his research at Robert Taylor. Nonetheless, he attends the next tenant meeting at Ms. Bailey’s invitation, where a woman accuses him of sleeping with her daughter. People start shouting abuse at him and telling him to leave the neighborhood. He realizes that they are talking about the writing workshop and tries to explain but can’t make himself heard and starts to feel afraid. Ms. Bailey intervenes and tells the crowd that Venkatesh is helping the women with homework, although she is clearly enjoying his discomfort. Venkatesh is hurt that none of the women from the workshop are there to defend him. He’s not sure how much longer he can spend at Robert Taylor Homes.