Description
Book SynopsisThe color of clothing, the width of shoe laces, a pierced ear, certain brands of sneakers, the braiding of hair have long been seen as indicators of gang involvement. The author provides rich descriptions and stories to demonstrate that gang identity is a carefully coordinated performance with many nuanced rules of style and presentation.
Trade ReviewI cannot recommend this book enough. I should add that it is highly readable at undergraduate levels. They should make it mandatory reading for criminologists and law enforcement members. * Global Sociology Blog *
[A] beautifully complex picture of youth identity.Who You Claim is a & must-read for scholars interested not just in gangs, but also in youth identity, education, urban neighborhoods, and violence more generally. -- Andrew V. Papachristos * Contemporary Sociology *
Garot should be commended for his well-written, exceptionally insightful school ethnography... I teach graduate courses on cultural differences and educational research, and plan to use this book as an example of how to design, execute, and present exemplary research, and most importantly, how to represent historically marginalized young people accurately, ethically, and in a manner that reveals their humanity in dehumanizing circumstances. -- Annette Hemmings, Teachers College Record
Garot has provided deep insight into an inner‒city alternative school showing how self identity can change and adjust to the surrounding circumstances and why gang identity is a variable that defies a fixed characterization. -- Diego Vigil,author of The Projects: Gang and Non‒Gang Families in East Los Angeles
Path breaking and precedent-setting. Robert Garot has appreciated what no one has before, the essential shadow quality of urban gangs, which are not so much things one can be in as they are things danced around, avoided, played with, and very occasionally, practically invoked -- Jack Katz,author of How Emotions Work
Written with the ink of theory, passion, fine attention to method and ethics, Garot represents with dignity the complex and strategic maneuverings of youth in gangs as he represents with humility the equally complex negotiations of a white guy ethnographer working with, for and beside urban youth.- -- Michelle Fine,co-author of Silenced Voices and Extraordinary Conversations: Re-Imagining Schools
