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Hoang Diep Nguyen

English 1T
Essay #2
Gang life, Deviance and the American Dream
Deviance Can Have A Positive Effect
Stacy Pershall, the author of the book Loud in the house of Myself, says Not all
deviance is negative; without it, wed never change the world. I believe this is true and
has been proven its credibility through our history that deviance holds our society
together and has made better changes to the world. I believe that there would be no
Martin Luther King Jr.s revolution and his influence on our beliefs about racial equality
as the society at the time would label his action as deviant, and the same can be said for
Susan B. Anthonys influence on our beliefs about womens rights. In Always Running
written by Luis J. Rodriguez about his real personal experiences from a member of an
East L.A gang who spent his youth at risk doing deviant acts and got involved in thugs
activities; however, he overcame all the destruction and become a writer and a
community leader. To have a better understanding, we connect the book and Dalton
Conleys approach about social control and deviance to explain why and how deviance
play a role in Rodriguezs formal deviant acts and how social labeling and social stigma
effected Luiss life and his decisions. Labeling and social stigma direct Luiss life to a
negative direction that he gets deeper to gangs life despite what he really wants. While
he was struggling to find his own identity and his own self worth it was also harder for
him to obtain his American Dream.

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Deviance is defined as an action or behavior that violates social norms, including
a formally enacted rule, as well as informal violations of social norms. Even though, Luis
commits and involves in a lot of formal deviance such as robbery, killing and doing
drugs, his true nature wasnt like that from the beginning. According to Rodriguez,
stealing and taking someones life were two distinct capabilities. You can kill for a lot of
reasons, or no reason at all, but killing for stealing didnt sit well with me
(Rodriguez,76). Luis true nature is pure and innocent. He doesnt want to hurt anyone.
He might follow his friends and commit crimes however he always struggles and
questions himself about what he really wants and if hes doing the right thing. As Luis
describes, we didnt call ourselves gangs. We called ourselves clubs or clicas
(Rodriguez,41). He never thought of he would join any gangs to commit deviant acts.
Luis just wants to have somewhere he can belong to and feel like having power and
protections.
People who commit deviance are considering criminals and delinquent because
deviance are unacceptable social norms. So society would label them under various
categories. Labeling theory is the theory of how the self-identity and behavior of
individuals may be determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify
them. According to Conley labeling on individuals over time would gradually form the
basis of their self-identity and would leads a person to engage in deviant behavior. This
might be one of the reason explain for Rodriguezs deviant actions and how it lead him to
deeply engage in thugs life. If you came from the Hills, you were labeled from the start.
Id walk into the counselors office for whatever reason and looks of disdain greeted me
one meant for a criminal, alien, to be feared. Already a thug(Rodriguez 84). Luis was

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being labeled as a thug, a gang member just because he came from the Hills where gangs
and barrios are common and frequented. As a result, he questions himself why not be
proud? Why not be an outlaw? Why not make it our own? (Rodriguez, 84). Society
already labeled him as a thug, a gang member so why not make it real, makes it become
true as they force him to do it. As Conley states, Offenders are not born; they are made.
Theyre a consequence of how other people apply rules and sanctions to them.(Conley,
Social control and deviance). Society has formed ones self-identity against their owns
will by labeling them who are just like Luis. He didnt want to be a gang member; he
didnt want to be called and to be looked at like a gang. However, our society already
sticks the label on him. The label would lead them to the process of committing
deviance.
Similarly to labeling, social stigma also has a negative impact on ones selfidentity and actions. Stigma is defined as a negative social label that not only changes
others behavior toward a person but also alters that persons own self-concept and social
identity. Conleys theory states that social label and social stigma are intervene and
connect to each other. In Always Running Rodriguez has proven how social stigma
negatively effect his life and society views them. Rodriguez states, Soon the police
came. As usual, they went after the Mexicans. The white dudes got into their cars and
split without any trouble. But the rest of us were pulled to the ground, hands forced
behind our backs. Guns pointed at our heads (Rodriguez, 100). The stigma society has
against Mexicans or Latinos is theyre troublemakers, theyre criminals. Police and law
enforcement would go after them no matter what happened. Social stigma has heavy
influence to Luis life and his decisions in getting deeper into thugs life and deviant

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behavior. Luis defines social stigma on him as it was a jacket I could try to take off, but
they kept putting it back on (Rodriguez, 84). We can tell that Luis has tried from times
to times to change his life and get out of his gangs life. However, he somehow always
falls back to his same old path. Once again, who could we blame for his deviance? Luis
himself? Its our society to blame for. What could have changed if we label him different?
Or we just dont label and stigmatize people at all. Socials stigma and label are the
invisible force we put on people shoulder. Rather than giving them chances to be better,
we create a negative impact on them, limiting their self-identity and their self worth.
Deviances are inevitable in our society and for myself I wont deny the truth that I
commit deviant acts from times to times. I would jaywalk, pick my nose, or use my
phone in the church during mass time and I would get a warning look from my parents
every time I do that. So thats why society has laws and orders as a social control to
control, oppress deviants and maintain an orderly society. However, not all deviance is
negative and how should we apply social control upon deviants to not only maintain laws
and orders but also turn and label people from at risk to at promise. According to Dr.
Victor Rios- UCSB Professor of Sociology, a former gang member, one of Conleys
interviewee for his approach about social control and deviance, who offers that we should
change how we should label people. I was fortunate enough to attend Dr Rioss talk at De
Anza a couple quarters ago. In his term, Dr Rios would say rather than label people at
risk we should label them at promise and see how different it would be. One of the
approaches that Dr Rios offers is that our society should apply more organic solidarity
rather than mechanical solidarity. Society treats Luis as a thug, a criminal. Police and law
enforcement just come with guns in their heads, handcuff and throwing them into jail

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without giving them any chance. However, Rodriguez was lucky enough that he met
Chente, a community worker, who has passion in changing life of gangs members like
Rodriguez. He offers Luis a chance, an opportunity and a hand to grab onto in order to
make changes and turn around his thugs life. Rodriguez describes Chente as some one
who could influence me without judging me morally or telling me what to do. He was
just there. He listened, and when he know you were wrong, before he would say
anything, he would get you to think (Rodriguez, 114). Chente plays a crucial part in
Luis life. Chente is Luis guidance and mentor. He is more than organic solidarity rather
than mechanical solidarity. Luiss deviant behavior might be just a rebellious act against
society however Chente knows how to control him, offers him opportunities and believes
in him. How would Luiss life different if he didnt meet Chente?
Rodriguez ends the book with a happy ending as he watches Chava vanishes and
disappears "into the black heart of the night. Rodriguez says goodbye to his past life,
his own self as he says goodbye to Chava. However, not everyone is as fortunate and
lucky as Rodriguez who has chances and guidance with helping hands to help him
making changes and to be different than what society labels him. Rodriguez dedicates
this book to his son Ramiro. Rodriguez implies, now I tell him: you have worth outside
of a job, outside the jacket imposed on you since birth. Draw on your expressive
powers. Stop running (Rodriguez, 251). Rodriguez emphasizes the word jacket to
show that societys labeling and stigma still has a lot effect on everyone. He is on his
missions to make changes and help out his community. Rodriguez as an individual has
found his own American Dream, it might not be as same and as fancy as others but he
was lucky to get out of the gangs life and find his own self-identity. However, what we

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should do as a whole society? What would change if we label people different? Or we
shouldnt label people at all just because we are different races and classes. Because ones
self identity is how one defines themselves not by the way society labels them. As a
society, we shouldnt limit anybody growth and dreams by putting them in different
categories because we are human, we are not a product.

Work Cited:
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Touchstone Press,, 1993. 2005.Print.
Conley, Dalton. "Social Control and Deviance." Chapter 6: Social
Control and Deviance | You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to
Thinking Like a Sociologist, Third Core Edition: W. W. Norton
StudySpace. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. 187-214