What I found really interesting about Saint’s article Why Can’t Everyone Fear Me Like That? was that his life is/was so drastically different from mine. For as long as I can remember I have lived in New England. My family first lived in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Maine before finally settling in New Hampshire. I have lived in New Hampshire for pretty much my whole life – I think we moved here when I was about 6 or 7 and I’m 21 now…so, that was about 14 or 15 years ago. I have never lived in a big city let alone New York (Brooklyn, Crown Heights to be exact) before so I did not really know what to expect of Saint’s life.
At first it seemed pretty normal – living with family and having a nice childhood and getting everything you wanted, but soon it changes to something pretty scary. On page 205 he describes how his neighborhood “was known for shootouts and a lot of gang activity and stuff like that”. I was pretty shocking to hear that right outside his house he could hear gunshots all the time. They were so close that he had to get down on the ground or risk getting shot himself. I have never had to experience that before. In fact, I have never even heard a gunshot in my life. I cannot imagine living in that type of situation. But like what Saint wrote on page 206, “after seeing the same thing every day, you see a kid get stabbed every day, see a kid get shot every day, it’s just another part of life”.
Another interesting thing that Saint touched upon was the reason to join a gang. He mentioned all the benefits like money, girls, respect, fear, but he never really talked about all the bad things that come with joining a gang apart from hurting his mother, all the work he had to go through to get respect, and going to jail for the crimes he committed. He was not very specific about what sort of “work” he had to do in order to become a respected gangster and it would have been interesting to know what exactly he meant. I would guess something like killing people, but I do not know if that is all he means.
I also have lived in New England my entire life and I would not know what it is like to live in a large city. Living in a neighborhood full of Gangs must come with a lot more downfalls then benefits. The author may talk about all the good things with being in a gang however the fact that gang members have to worry about their lives on a daily basis is not worth it.
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