Living in a Turf War
How do teenagers live and spend their money in low income communities?
By Alonso Miranda
By Alonso Miranda
When you think about San Diego, the things that come to mind are beaches, nice neighborhoods, nice weather and diversity. San Diego is filled with many different kinds of people from many different parts of the world. With this comes different ways of living. Neighborhoods like National City and Mountain View are looked at as dangerous neighborhoods. On November 29th, there was a drive-by shooting in the Skyline area, which is not far from the Mountain View/ National City area where I live. The area is looked at as unsafe and somewhere you wouldn't want to raise your kids. But living here is not always how it's perceived to be. Focusing on how teenagers live here is something I'm interested in, and questioning how teens make choices that involve in money, people they hang out with and what they do in their spare time.
A bunch of the websites I choose either dealt with crime in the neighborhoods I'm studying, what their economic situations are, and what living in these types of neighborhoods is like. A bunch of the sites have percentages on how much money families are making, how many are unemployed, and a lot of info on what ethnicities live in these areas. I’m interested in how people live in areas where there is crime happening and not a lot of wealth. I've interviewed someone that I've known for years who knows what these neighborhoods have to offer and how these neighborhoods have impacted his life and his persona. He lives in between Mountain View and National City, which he says most people know as shelltown. I asked him why it was called Shelltown and he said “I don't know, maybe because we are close to, like, the bay or something. All I know is that this is a gang neighborhood.” I wanted to ask him more about this but I wanted to ask him some of the questions I had written down. “How long have you lived in the hood?” “15 years.” “Did you have any prior knowledge about the hood?” “I knew you can't show weakness, don't let anyone punk you and keep to yourself and don't go looking for trouble.” I wanted to know more about what was considered “weak” here, and the mentality of not letting people walk all over you. I asked him later on about what were examples of weakness and he said that a big one was showing fear. “If you show fear, you might as well live your whole life in fear. Even if you're in a scary situation, you gotta be strong no matter what.” He said that when he was a child, his father taught him to stand up for himself and for what he believes in, and to keep his chin held up high. This mentality was something that not only he had, but many others that I came across with had. I continued to ask him if living in the hood was different when he became a teenager. “Things became much harder. People were constantly testing how hard you were.” “And what does being hard mean to you?” “Speaking up for what you know, not backing down from anyone and not letting anyone clown on you for what you like doing and who you like hanging out with.” This “hard“ attitude sounded a lot like the tough, no-weakness mentality from earlier. I asked him if there was a difference between the two and he said yes. He said normally people who act hard or think that they are hard go look for trouble. He said that people like that would take things so literally. “That’s why I talk to certain people a certain way. It’s like if I talk to someone from one side of the neighborhood and talk to someone from the other side. They have different ways of talking and understanding. If I ball up with someone from the hood, I can't clown on how they play because that could stir up things. But if I play with someone that’s from the hood and know how they act and how they are, I can joke around with them like that.” I was starting to get an idea of how the average teenage male mind is set up. I still had many others to interview, but I noticed that people that I know that live in the same area or similar to me have the same type of mindset. Many of them have been taught these ways since their childhood, and others since they started living here. Now just because they have the same mentality doesn't mean they live the same lifestyle. In this case, the person I was interviewing. He was a friend of mine that wanted to remain anonymous.
“How has the hood changed the way you act, dress and talk?” “I would say I had to act a certain way like being strong mentally, but more so I just changed because I did live in the hood.” “In what ways did you change?” “The way that I dress was a noticeable one, and the way that I talked of course. I just talked with more slang.” “Now did you ever felt like you were unsafe in the hood?” “Hell yeah! But like Tupac said, ‘that’s just the way it is.’ And that was just because I dress more like a gang member I guess. A lot of people would say, “damn, you’re all looked G’d up [that means dressing like a gangster],” but I never considered myself a G just because I wasn't ever in any gang. I know gang members but never was in no gang. I don’t know, I guessed I got used to seeing people like this that I decided to try it out myself. I've been approached a couple of times by some gang members and asked where I'm from and asked if I bang. I just tell them nah and they walk away.” Being around gang members is something that comes with living in areas like this. If you're not in a gang, there's nothing to worry about, you just keep moving. At the end of the interview, I asked him how a regular day in the hood was like. He told me about how he would go smoke weed and drink with his homies, go eat and play basketball. “Weed, ciggs and liquor was a big part in the day. We would pick up, grab some swishers, roll a couple of blunts and kick back.” “How much money would you spend on these things?” “Ummm, I smoked every day so I would spend 40 bucks every week. Usually someone already has bud and we smoke out with them. I was around a lot of potheads so that was an influence. I’m still around them now but now I just don't give in anymore. Ever since I started to get really bad anxiety I stopped. I didn't give in because of peer pressure, it was just curiosity, and then I started to become something I enjoyed.” “So you smoked because you were curious?” “Yeah, I wanted to try it and see what was the big deal about it and then I started to like it and I enjoyed it. It was a routine of mine. But like I said, ever since I started having bad anxiety I quit. My chest started to hurt a lot, and I was soon hospitalized twice. Yeah things didn't start to look good ounce that happened. Now I've learned just to live without weed. Now it’s just like whatevers, I miss it but it’s not something I can't live without it. Plus I've spent a lot of money on it. I remember I spent around a hundred dollars on weed. I was supposed to buy me some shoes and get myself a haircut, but I decided to get those things later, hahaha.” I was kind of surprised on how much money was being spent on weed. He gave up getting a haircut and new shoes just to smoke. He told me that he’s done that more than once so that was crazy. He also mentioned how he has had friends that have spent their money on more extreme drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines. “Those guys are idiots and that’s why I don't talk to them anymore.” Just by one interview, I was able to get an idea of what types of things to look out for in my research, to see if anybody else in my neighborhood has a similar lifestyle or completely the opposite. Just by talking to my friend, I was able to get an idea of how a teenager’s life is affected by the area he or she lives in and the people around them. |