Customer Reviews

Do or Die

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Do or Die is written in the best tradition of great American chroniclers of horrifying social conditions, societal and political neglect,and the breakdown of social and human norms. Leon Bings tells the story of South Central Los Angeles' teenage gangs of the late 80s and early 90s,who - in a frenzy of uncontrolled violence - set out to defend their part of the hood and put in work for the set - in other words, kill members of a hostile gang. It's a shocking tale of innercity 12-year olds entering enemy neighborhoods to blast other gangmembers' heads off, just like 12-year old suburban kids enter the opposite soccerteam's penalty area to score the decisive goal.
The main narrators are the kids themselves, Bing only providing necessary background information and the thread that links individual experiences into a whole. Throughout the book she stays remarkably objective - never trying to hide her sympathy for G-Roc, Sidewinder, and Co., but not shying away from breaking with political correctness' irrevocable laws by describing one kid she visits in juvenile detention as somebody she "wants to be kept inside forever".
As far as I know, Bing, who by the way is an ex-model turned journalist who comes from money, which makes her undertaking even more remarkable, was the first author to seriously investigate ganglife and write about it. Thus, one might not find in Do or Die some information and analysis contained in later books. The lack of the latter has its plusses, though, since one is not forced to follow a particular line of thought, but has the opportunity to arrive at one's own conclusions.
Last but not least, the book is very well written. Bing's calm style alternates with the agitated torrent of gang speech. Relaxing moments, which, after all, still exist even in South Cental, take turn with descriptions of violent action. Overall, a great book. Required reading for anyone with only the slightest interest in gangs and urban America.

This book is real, in your face, account of LA's street gangs. It is amazing that the author gained the trust of the people she interviewed. This book adds no "fluff" or drama. It is a real-life account what our young people face in the street everyday. This book is a MUST for those wanting to learn about gang members, their lives and our youth who are incarcarated. Whether you are a professional or student wiritng a paper, read this book.

I am a gang cop in California. I will say that from my perspective, Ms. Bing has done an excellent job in portraying the life and times of gang members in Southern California. Excellent reading material for those that are not privy to what is really happening on our streets and with our youth today.

This book has accurately protrayed what gang-life is like more so than any other book or movie that I have ever seen. It helps you have an understanding of how and why someone has chosen or been dealt this life, and shows you that there is so much more to the people Leon Bing has protrayed than just a color and a gun. I only wish she had done a follow-up to this book.

My friends think my recent interest in gangs is a little "weird". So many people only know what they see in the main-stream media--scare tactics, which dehumanize gangs so people never stop to think about WHY this happens. Most people don't know that gangbanging has been going on for decades, covered up by "The Man". Unfortuneately, more media coverage has glorified gang activity, but Ms. Bing gives an honest and accurate view. She turns faceless "thugs" that cops say are "harder to exterminate than cockroaches", into human beings, molded into what they are by their society and environment. As members of this society, are we going to quell the symptoms, or go to the roots and cure the disease itself?

How can I say this in as few words. This is the perfect training manual for students who aspire to be professional journalists, sociologists, or news anchors; anything that requires training to be OBJECTIVE. How often do I see a television anchor jump up and say, "why that no good!..."? I don't have to understand it or even like it, but this is their story, their life experience, and Leon Bing had the courage to get out there and get the story. I had the incredible experience to interview and work with these inmates for the past six months. This book really should be accompanied with training and supervision as I gratefully received, because it takes a lot of professional self discipline to learn to stay objective and merely observe. It was difficult for me many times in reading this book to not interject my own biased feelings and opinions. But I decided to keep my cheap shot two bits out of this review, as I did with 'La Vida Loca' by Luis Rodriguez, another excellent account of gang life.

This, the (existential) mantra and title of this book is a fitting one as it aptly sums up both the gang's rallying cry and the nihilistic life styles the kids of the Crips and the Bloods are forced to fashion out of a brutal and scary reality as they go about trying to survive on the back streets of America's inner city underclass.

I resisted reading this book for more than a decade because seeing Monster Kody's picture on the cover, I thought it would just be a way of further glorifying the gangbangers without coming to any meaningful conclusions about the seriousness of the social problems of which gangbanging is the answer to. "Juicy expose" has become a cathartic genre of analysis "a la Americaine." By "paying lip service" to a problem one gets the same feeling (without any tangible benefits) as actually having done something about it. Lip service via exposes, is America's way of pretending to be concerned about problems it otherwise has no real intention of ever addressing. The inner city problem of gangs is just such a problem.

What I had not counted on before reading the book, however, was that as much can be gleaned from "reading between the lines" of the book's interviews as can be acquired directly from the text. It becomes clear only in relief and after reading the book that the subtext is at least as potent and as important, if not more so, than the text itself.

To Do or Die

I believe that these interviews of a dozen or so incarcerated or street prowling Crips and Blood, gangbangers, from 8 to 18, male and female, reveal more about an uncaring American culture than it does about the gang members themselves. The first and most important thing to note is that the interviewer did not approach them as normal human beings. For instance, the normal background information was not collected on the subjects. It is as if the interviewer expected their lives to have no context, at least not one important enough to record. These subjects apparently had no home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, driver's licenses, or even names: just nicknames, or noms de guerre. This is fitting, as the state too has no recognizable interest in, and does not recognize them as human beings until (or unless) they enter the criminal justice system, after which they still lack a name but do acquire a prison number. However, once they enter the criminal justice system, no amount of expense is then spared to apprehend, prosecute and then keep them incarcerated for as long as, and as often as, necessary. Each year, more than the equivalent of a Harvard education is spent on the upkeep of each prisoner. But before a whole class of people can become disposable, it must first be rendered invisible. In this regard, the interviewer held close to this rule: interview them but keep them invisible.

But the truth of the life conditions of these societally-defined incorrigibles is that these young black men (G-Roc, Tiny Vamp, Sidewinder, Bopete, Baby Track, Quacker, Monster Kody, and Faro) are not invisible but come into this word very much lost. They are lives without a certifiable pedigree in the American social scheme, and in this sense they are indeed context-less individuals: that is to say, they are virtually "social free radicals," bouncing through life knowing very little about it; but nevertheless being forced to negotiate it, forced to become "streetwise" before they know the rudimentary rules of life and survival itself. Often without families, or with incompetent ones, always someone in prison or strung-out on drugs: everyday is a struggle for survival and a struggle to learn how to impute meaning (any meaning) into their lives. Out of a brutal and a scary necessity, and out of whatever debris that happens to be lying around at the time, they are forced to cobble together a life story from the "mean streets" of the U.S. generally and LA in particular.

From this scattered social debris, and on the outskirts of normal society, a complete life must be fashioned. And despite what society thinks about the gang-bangers (and I am far from being an apologist for them), their world has to make sense to them too. These disposable humans, whose lives have no context, however crippled and diminished, are still "whole human beings."

They have a code of conduct, a morality, a philosophy of life, hope and dreams for the future, an intellect, etc, Unfortunately for them what is left over for them in American society are only the dredges, the residuals of a wealthy self-conscious and self-absorbed society. What is left for them to choose from are only cruel options indeed: petty crime, drugs, drug-dealing, pan-handling, prostitution, and turning to gangbanging as a last resort way of living a heroic life. These options of course do not include such ordinary life-enhancing and typically developmental childhood things on the other side of the "known universe" such as the Cub Scouts, Little League, Boys Clubs, church clubs and activities, dinners and vacations with family, or even breakfast, or school.

Even as early as early as 8, these kids already know that society has dealt them a lethally bad hand: labeled them "damaged goods," and has provided no positive place or space for them in its social scheme of things. Nothing could be more "context-less" than that. For the gangbanger, life begins inexorably as a long wait for the executioner's song. What the interviews in this book reveal behind the false bravado of these scared youths is that even as early as eight, they know in their heart of hearts that for them life is already over: Living it out is just an impersonal form of slow suicide. The only choice they get to make in this life is how they want to go out: still invisible, with a whimper or alive and in a blaze of glory? Which would you choose?

That is where the gangs come into play.

Gangs provide context to a context-less and often meaningless life. What is normal for these "left behind souls" is "Do or Die Crips or cry." Their only respectable role models are their fellow gangbangers, who at least for a very brief spell, have learned to survive and often to thrive on their wits. (Role models do not get better than that!) The OGs (old gangsters) become replacement parents, the teachers "in place" and of last resort, imparting valuable lessons of the streets and of life on to the next generation (which has a half-life of about 10 years). They drill into them the only important norm and rule of street life: Your identity is your "rep." Without a "rep" you are nobody. Defend it to the death; don't ever let anyone "diss" you. And only your "homies" (fellow gang members from "the hood") will stand by your side.

Society hates you and can only teach you two lessons: How to better hate yourself and how to be a punk. The race is not to the swift, or to the one with endurance, but to the slick: The one who can "get over" and "get paid today;" that is the winner. Going to jail "is just something else to do." The only "real" connection you have in this world is with your "hood." The only thing valuable in this life is defending your rep: that is, fighting to the death for respect. Defending your "rep" requires heart, the heart to kill, to destroy and not look back. "That is what makes a man a hero in this world and especially in the gang world; that is what makes him tall." Beyond this, there is nothing, no purpose in life, period. The only thing worse than death is being alone, that is why without your homies, life is not worth living.


Three Stars

An outsider can only portray something fairly and Leon Bing has not shown a bias to either the blues or the reds. I've read this book a few times and I love it, and it does provide a valuable insight into the way of life for some gang members. However, at times I found the key at the bottom of the page distracting - you become more involved in a book if you realise what certain terms mean for yourself, and I would have preferred a truer picture rather than editted stories and name changes.

This book was great and I would reccommend it to anyone who wants to learn about really happens in L.A. and how most all gangsters are born into the system and there is no way to get out. A very detailed and fact filled book. One of the best that I have ever read.

i first learned about this book when i read an interview with leon bing in time magazine. after reading i instantly went to the book store and found a copy. i dont enjoy reading but this book caught my attention and i couldnt but it down. bing lets the real gangmembers speak for themselves and tell it like it is. im a teenage who is around gangmembers often and i learned alot about them through this book and now after reading this book and a little research i understand what they do and why they do the things they do. in the inner cities its all about survival no matter how one must do it. im glad bing let the members speak out instead of hiding them or tryin 2 cover up reality.