Specific Color Patterns In Neighborhood

By the 1980’s,problems with gang violence led to dress codes that attempted to do away with gang colors.Dress codes have routinely been used to prohibit clothes with threatening language,insulting racial slurs,alcohol or drug related messages.Uniform policies began to spread in the late 1980’s and then steadily increased throughout the 1990’s. Though parochial and private schools have a long history of mandating school uniforms”.School uniforms are always discussed in Chicago 's public schools.Why? Due to the fact that school officials feel as if these set of rules will help improve their schools. Something about CPS makes people cringe when brought up to a suburban family or school official.The majority of Chicago 's public school require uniforms yet little to no learning is going on in these classrooms due to their surroundings. A 2013 study reported in the NCBI Social education by Burdick-will, concluded that “For many student attending public high schools,violent events either at school or in their neighborhoods are frequent and routine.This is clearly not the case in all parts of the country and means that the experience of students in chicago may not be representative of students nationwide.It is unclear whether the effects of school

School uniforms were first implemented in the early 1900s and were used for the schooling of minorities, specifically Native American women (Dussel, 2006). In 1996, the US Department of Education reported that only three percent of public schools mandated uniforms. As a result of the belief that uniforms make schoolrooms more orderly and disciplined, President Clinton encouraged schools to adopt uniforms (Gentile et al.,2012). Shortly after, uniforms were widely adopted in urban communities to counterbalance students wearing gang colors or being identified as poor. Since urban communities have often been stigmatized with narratives that are colored by violence, many of the current research studies associated with uniforms focus on the relationship between uniforms and misbehaviors, attendance, and teacher retention.

In James Howell’s “Gangs in America’s Communities” book he mentions that a gang should be looked at more of as a social network rather than an “organization” (Howell, 2012, p.60). This can be especially true for the youth who get involved in gangs. For the youth it is normal for them to want to belong somewhere so their peers have major influences in what they do and even how they think. The emergence or involvement of a gang among youth is identifying with each other and eventually giving themselves a name. Howell then describes the next step as grasping the gang culture by wearing distinctive clothing, colors, having rituals, gatherings, and the exclusion of other youth. Most youth join gangs between the ages of 11 and 15, the peak of gang involvement usually occurs between the age of 14 to 16. Some of the risk factors that get them involved in a

Adolescents are the majority in the gangs, and it is because the older member allure them into the lifestyle. Gang culture has major effects in neighborhoods. The fashion and the money are two attributes that attract the adolescents. For initiations, young men are involved in violence, drugs, and all sorts of crime. These attributes are deeply attach to the gangs. Because of these attachments it is difficult for kids to break away from gangs, or it is complex for kids to engage in productive activities. Moreover, aside from the crime, the culture is enticing. The colors, the details of the thread, and the logos allow for the fashion to be presentable. The money gives access to many things that is not accessible to someone who is employed in a minimum wage job. The notoriety of the culture allows for the gangs to be alluring. In Scorpions, Walter Dean Myers tackles gang issues in ways of doubting gangs and admiring the arts.

An issue in school that effects many inner-city schools is gang relations. “Uniforms add measures of safety in identical dress. Gang identification is obscured. Group violence and theft are dissipated... Children are no longer identified by their 'colors.' Uniform dress alleviated the feelings of imminent danger for students who were afraid they might inadvertently dress in gang colors.” (Should Students Have to Wear School Uniforms?). This serves as a way to get rid of gang violence and affiliation in the school environment. Without gang recognition, there is less gang violence.

This paper was done in response to an article that I came across in which a child was convicted as an adult for homicide. The homicide was supposedly gang-related; the young child that was only 14 years of age was painted as an entrenched gang member. This article made me think what contributed to this situation and how it can be eradicated from today’s society so this will never happen to any of our youth.

Gang violence has also caused great concern in public schools today. Gangs today plague all areas of the country and achieve status and recognition through clothing, jewelry, hand signals, tattoos, and graffiti. Recently, the American public has seen an increase in gang related crimes over clothing, especially in the school environment. Stabbings, carrying weapons under clothing, threatening teachers and students, and selling drugs on school property have all become regular occurrences with gangs in the school setting. Many schools and administrators are beginning to enforce dress codes and uniforms in these schools as a way to divert the violence. In the court case of Jeglin v. San Jacinto Unified School District, a district court held that a

What does a gang member look like? We as a class were asked that question the first day of school to highlight our group naivetés of what a gang member is. The class spouted of stereotypes of what the media has told us was the appearances of gang members, the clothes, tattoos, the walk, the ethnicity. We were not born knowing these stereotypes; we were taught by society that we should be careful of people who have these certain traits, like they were predators of our society. Society as a whole paints people whom they fear in a negative light, people generalize appearances as a common denominator of a person’s character. People who wear certain colors, wear baggy clothes, or Nike Cortez, for example, are generalized by society because it does not matter the socioeconomic or culture that inspires their expression, it is the fact that these supposed gang members appearance has a connection to gangs and thus anyone who wears it is a gang member. That is the issue with anti-gang loitering laws, these ordinances breeds ignorance of communities, and generalizes individuals in it. These laws spout convictions, not by the crimes they commit, but the crimes that they might commit in the future. Loitering laws have been deemed controversial in the past, as they are criticized for their racial profiling, and their targeting of very specific individuals in a community. Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2007 passed a loitering law that

A primary focus of schools is to make their students feel safe, and to help them in any way they can. If gang association is affecting, or has the potential to affect the students' safety, something should be done. Gang associated clothing has been a puzzling conundrum for schools for a long time. School uniforms would be an easy fix, but some schools refrain from initiating school uniforms because some families cannot afford the specialized clothing. So, what should schools do? I think that, in order to address gang violence, a school uniform must be initiated, but an advantage should be given to those who cannot afford the uniforms, to ensure everybody is equal.

With the gang activity growing throughout the 80’s school officials realized that implementing uniforms or strict dress codes may help combat the problem with gang apparel in schools. Previously dress codes have been seen in the form of uniforms or strict rules in parochial, private and public school systems across the country. In private schools, uniforms were first implemented to mark a student’s social status (Motsinger par 8). Many people, according to Alfie Kohn, author of What to Look for in a Classroom…and Other Essays most people associate uniforms with, “the good ole days [when uniforms] symbolized [. . .] obedience.” Uniforms were a sign of respect, children respected their elders and presented themselves well while wearing them. As stated by Anderson in “School Dress Codes and Uniform Policies,” “[t]he first public school known to have adopted uniforms was Cherry Hill Elementary in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1987. In 1994, Long Beach (CA) Unified School District (LBUSD) was the first school district to adopt a districtwide uniform dress code policy” (par 11). During the Clinton administration the talk of school dress codes and uniforms in public schools first surfaced after his State of the Union Address in 1996. Since Clinton’s speech, schools all around the country have revised and implemented new dress code policies.

Gangs have become a large problem in areas of the United States. Teenagers are initiated into these groups when they are younger than ever before. Parents and teachers want to stop the gang activity, starting with cutting down on gang colors and insignia on

Gangs have existed in America since the early eighteenth century, they first rose a outsider institutions that provided membership and sense of self to individuals who were not seen as part of the community. Traditionally, gang membership correlates to familial membership; parental and family membership in a gang elevates the possibility of youth also joining a gang. Though these outsider institutions have developed overtime, they pose some of the most violent threats to public safety, but also to those they say they will protect. It is this violence and lifestyle dominated by power associated with gang memberships that create an appeal to black youth and change the course of their lives. Gangs are a creation of an ongoing cycle, in which society has failed to improve conditions for teens who are looking for new ways to belong in the community.

The main reason for implanting a school uniform policy would be that it increases the safety for the children at school. Gang violence in schools is at an all time high. In 1989, a high school student from Baltimore was shot and wounded in a fight over a pair of sunglasses that cost $95.00. Since this incident educators started restricting what students could wear. (Brunsma, 2006) By doing this, the violence in the school has decreased. According to Holly Charlonne with Life Script, she states that gangs have a need to wear a certain color to distinguish them from other neighborhood gangs. If our children are required to wear a uniform, this will lessen the chance of any possibility of violence out break at school associated with gangs. (Charlonne, 2007) Since everyone will have on the same colors, the uniforms may be viewed as a way to bring the children closer together by having the same effect as would sport uniforms. The decrease

    Gang violence is a huge problem in America today. More and more children are joining gangs every day. It has become evident that these gangs made up of young people are causing numerous problems. Gang violence and gang activities impact all of those around the gang members. The kids in these gangs are hurting themselves, each other, their families, and the communities around them. Those who are associated with the gangs through family ties or just those who are associated with the gangs through geographical location. Before we can understand how gangs effect the people and communities around them we must first understand what gangs actually are. We must try and understand how the gang members think,

1. King also points out,” More specifically, many have argued that school uniforms assist in reducing school violence and theft; preventing gang activity, such as students wearing gang colors and gang insignia; providing discipline in students; helping students concentrate on their school work; helping students to resist peer pressure; and helping school officials easily recognize school intruders. (P.32, P.33)