When reading this chapter, I remembered something from last semester's Literary Theory class: A discussion about authority and legitimacy of graffiti was discussed one day. Who is to say if a streetcar tagged with graffiti is a more or less legitimate form of art than a Van Gogh painting? Also, who is to say that a poem of sorts scribbled on the side of an abandoned building in New York is less important than one of Shakespeare’s sonnet? I think the question of authority and legitimacy runs deep into a lot of reasons and causes for a gang to be formed in the first place. I think that is the most important thing to try and understand. Cintron, basically, says it is for respect. For example, a person of Latino origins growing up in an American society will not feel like he is respected nor will he respect others not of his background and shared belief system. It is more about a power struggle than anything. Cintron addresses this idea of a power struggle and how the ones in power and the ones trying to subvert said power are actually on the same team; They need each other to, ultimately, identify themselves. This concept made me think of Foucault and his idea of there only being one power at be and the constructs and the subverts are actually on the same team, both tangled in the perputual illusion that each are at odds with another; I digress. So, what does separate a gang member from a Phd? Nothing, really.
Looked at in an askew manner, one could equate the gangs of L.A. to individuals in the academic community; The English Department has certain words and phrases that only a few really understand and could be considered a “gang.” Of course, there isn't any violence or criminal activity, but the underlying structures are comparable. A rhetoric/composition person(s) wants respect and to be legitimized so he/she creates a paper (graffiti) that may “call out” the literature people or, perhaps, show flaws in a certain school of thought he/she doesn't agree with. It's all about the underlying structures and how responses to these structures manifest themselves. To some, it is a subtle symbol spray painted on a wall; to others, a paper delivered at an MLA panel. If you deconstruct the gang symbol and the formal rhetoric and composition paradigm, one can see how they are actually one in the same. One utterance heard in the vast distance of the universe, both struggling to convey meaning and find like minds to seek some form of identity.
I have to agree that the concept of identity and the "making" of the self seems to be a central thread woven throughout Angels' Town. Particularly, many of the chapters focus on how the people of Angelstown are forging and negotiating an identity as they face power struggles. I find it interesting that you compare both sides of the struggle here: the oppressed and privileged. I have to agree with you-- in trying to forge identities, we all perform activities within the communities we are involved in to gain a sense of legitimacy. I wonder, then, what this means to the struggle? If both groups didn't exist, would we need to legitimize ourselves? Would we still need to forge a sense of identity? My sense is that we can never fully address this question, because the power structure will always exist; without it, I wonder if any group could or would exist. Without the making of the group, the individual would have no need to make himself/herself. I digress, but I like the concept of this comparison here.
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JP-
ReplyDeleteI think your assessment is right on. In my response this week, I also tackled the problem of creating respect in environments where it is difficult to do so. Authority and legitimacy motivate violence in gangs, turf wars and the like. But they also motivate the political tensions in academia, as you have mentioned. How do we make comp studies legitimate in the eyes of English studies? Or in the university at large?
I also think that this identification of power struggles could be a meta commentary on Cintron's ethnography. How here does he legitimize his own text within literacy studies? He takes on this hyperbolic, "edgy" way of composing to establish his own respect, just as Latinos who drive low riders (Ch 4) and enter gangs do. I don't know. At any rate, you're thinking what I'm thinking, and thanks for helping me think through these ideas!!!
P.S. "thug life" is a great label