pue-blows

[bluepickle]

So we're getting my Jen Jenny all moved in to her new place down in Pueblo, CO. It is a nice place, really. Same cost as her old apartment downtown, but has a HUGE kitchen, two bedrooms... it is nice. Quiet neighborhood near a retirement complex and two elementary schools. So even though there is graffiti EVERYWHERE, it's crappy,

Comments

[bluepickle]

I get nervous because I don't know the group. I don't know how much is their front, I don't know how to read the individuals. I've never been even close to having a friend in a gang. It is wholly new territory for me.

I figure I just treat them like I do anyone else; politely and mostly non-interactive. Like, the group split up so Jen and I could ride through (they were walking on the bicycle path) and I said good morning and thanks. Same thing I'd said half a dozen times to other people that we passed earlier.

I have worked with a very very few individuals that were friends with or family members of gang-members... these individuals tended to be highly volatile and unstable emotionally. They would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. Pins and needles around them, man! I don't know what I could/would do that might offend, I don't know enough about the gang-culture to understand how to not piss someone off, I don't know how to read the situations as they occur... and it isn't like I'm going out LOOKING to be involved either. Like I said above, it was a chance pass. But my ignorance and the propaganda about gang folks makes me nervous. *shrug* I dunno what to do.

[phoenix_ri5ing]

When you think about it, a real gang is formed around an economic injustice. The poor are getting poorer and are living in squalid ghettos, while the wealthy are living it up in Beverly Hills. It is a reaction to an inequality that forms gangs, not a "need for protection" or any such bullshit. Unfortunately, they didn't get the memo that it was a better reaction to dye your hair orange and spike it into a 'hawk. :D

"I never ran from the Klu Klux Klan
and I shouldn't have to run from a black man "
- KRS One (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRS_One)

[bluepickle]

Well yeah, that's kinda like the formation of Unions back in the day too. Maybe someone should write a manifesto for Gangs. Though... that would only postpone degeneration back to something abusive toward Other people. Kinda like Unions.

[bluepickle]

also, thanks for the quote/link. i'm gonna check his stuff out. :)