In the wake of the killings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Tamir Rice in Cleveland, and many others in cities across America, there has been an increased focused on life in overpoliced, underresourced black communities. While many have pointed out the harmful ways in which the criminal justice system has affected these communities, the response, particularly by conservatives, has all too often been to point out the high levels of black-on-black violence in these communities, and the blame is often put squarely on the shoulders of the gangs that operate in these neighborhoods. Yet readings like On The Run, Black Picket Fences, and Renegade Dreams have painted a more nuanced picture of the role that gangs play in these communities, which can often be positive. Lawrence Ralph describes how the Divine Knights had roots in the civil rights movement, and continued to play an important role in pushing for policy changes on behalf of community members. Alice Goffman described how drug dealers used the money they made off the drug trade to fund funerals, help residents pay their rent, and mentor youth in the community. And Mary Pattillo wrote that both gang members and law-abiding residents “share many of the same values for an attractive and safe neighborhood, and both groups want socioeconomic security, but they have divergent strategies for achieving these goals.” (88)

It is true that gangs are involved in a great deal of violence in poor black communities, as these authors also documented. Because of this, many outside observers assume that the gangs are responsible for the violence. But just as the high levels of poverty in black communities aren’t a result of individual shortcomings of residents of the communities but of structural forces, high levels of violence are also structurally constructed. Because of the context of poor black neighborhoods—characterized by extreme levels of poverty and isolation from wealthier neighborhoods and jobs—gang life fills a vacuum that would otherwise be filled by legal employment. In order to address the problems that black communities confront, a paradigm shift is necessary in the way we view gang life, from a negative force in the neighborhood to a product of structural forces, which can play both positive and negative roles.