An Evening with an Original Gangsta

 Potala in Lhasa - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman

Between a disturbing book and a special guest, our book club’s last session was considerably more interesting than most.  The book, Monster, by Kody Scott describes the author’s life as a hard core member of the Crips in south central Los Angeles.  Suffice to say, Mr. Scott’s experience could not have been any more different than the 60+ year olds discussing his book on a Monday evening after work.  There was plenty of material in the book to provoke a lively discussion, but without a former Crip gang member in attendance to share his personal experiences, most of us would have retired considerably earlier that night.

Clarence, not his real name, is one of eleven siblings raised in the heart of LA’s gangland.  Today four of them survive, the others dead by murder or AIDS.  All of the children, men and women alike, spent time in jail, and Clarence’s only surviving brother has spent the last thirty years incarcerated as a convicted murderer.  What makes Clarence’s case unusual is despite joining the Crips at age fifteen and achieving the distinction of an Original Gangsta, he has held a job for the last twenty-seven years and successfully battled to keep his old demons at bay.

The inner city gang scene is violent, complex, and disheartening, but Clarence made several points which go a long way toward identifying and addressing the problem:

With nearly three in four black children born out of wedlock, one of the club members asked Clarence if Bill Cosby’s criticism of this irresponsible conduct had any influence on the behavior of black males in the ghetto.  “No,” he responded, “in the mind of a gang banger Bill Cosby and his message are not cool.”  He went on to add, however, he considers the male’s parenting role crucial and absentee fathers as one of the major causes of chaos in the inner city.  Clarence’s father sired all of his siblings, so his family did not reflect the usual hodgepodge of half brothers and sisters, but his father was an incorrigible alcoholic and took no responsibility raising his children.  That task lay solely with his mother and the gangs of South Central.

“Clarence, do you think gun control would reduce gang violence?”

He chuckled at the silliness of my question, “Gang bangers needs guns and will always be able to get them.”  He then asked our group how many of us owned guns and was astounded that several did not.  

Despite earning his GED in prison, Clarence reads at the grade school level.  He pointed out to the group that he attended atrocious public schools but never failed a grade although functionally illiterate.  At this point one of the members mentioned the movie Waiting for Superman, and the conflict between the needs of students and the stance of the powerful teachers’ unions.  Often union membership is heavily represented by minorities which curiously opt for job security and benefits at the expense of society’s most vulnerable students.

The transition to a law abiding life has not been easy for Clarence; he has struggled with alcohol and drugs, and the temptation to supplement his modest hourly wage with a quick buck lurks constantly.  He has a number of assets in his favor which separates him from his contemporaries who are either dead or in jail:  He detested prison life and swore he would never return.  He married a working woman who cares deeply for him.  Lastly, he is a deacon in his church, where the position affords him prestige and the opportunity to interact with boys and men who are at risk for indulging in criminal behavior.            

One morning earlier this month on the way to the hospital,  NPR aired a report stating more than half of all first born children in this country are born out of wedlock.  Our anesthesia group provides services for obstetric patients, who for the most part receive MediCal.  Although the NPR statistics were sobering, the single parent model is the norm in our group’s practice.  When I arrived on the OB floor to relieve a colleague I mentioned the NPR news report which by the way was reported in the Wall Street Journal the same day.  I expected disbelief and outrage, but she simply responded, “I thought it would be more.”

After the session with Clarence this birthing demographic is hardly reassuring.  His experience represents an extreme, but children raised in single parent homes are far more likely to perform poorly in school, use drugs, fall afoul of the law, and have children as teenagers.  An enormous amount of money has been spent to eradicate poverty–$16 trillion since Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty, but there’s not a lot to show for all the effort.
($16 Trillion for Nearly Naught by Steve Spancake)   The answer has eluded the experts for fifty years, but someday they may swallow their pride and admit that two parents, good schools, and refusing to reward bad behavior are what Clarence needed all along.  

    Tanzania - photo by JoAnn Sturman