Skinheads in the Antelope Valley :: essays papers

Skinheads in the Antelope Valley William Finnegan's essay "The Unwanted" explains the history and make-up of the Antelope Valley and then explores the lives of some teenage citizens in order to discover reasons that two rival gangs have such a significant role in the community and on its people. Absent parents and lack of education are just two factors facing teens that ultimately led the Los Angeles Suburb into becoming a society where Skinheads and Boneheads are a norm and accepted as a part of everyday life. C. Wright Mills' idea of the sociological perspective, looking past the facades, is useful when analyzing the micro; individual, and macro; broad, causes of teens becoming skinheads. Each day America seems to become more and more diverse. Some people learn to accept the fact that America is made up of many different ethnic groups, while others believe the only ethnic group should be their own. There are various reasons for discrimination and it is a very controversial issue. In Finnegan's article he describes two gangs with opposing views concerning racism and how each group expresses their beliefs. The racist and anti-racist beliefs don't always end at the individual. Death is an all too common end and when an opinion becomes life threatening a problem arises. According to Finnegan, one of the two major gangs that occupy the streets of Lancaster and the Antelope Valley is, "a white-supremacist skinhead gang, the Nazi Low Riders (N.L.R.'s)" and the other is, "their rival gang of anti-racist skinheads, the Sharps" (1998, p.88). One major quality the two gangs share is their lack of education. Most, if not all, of the teens Finnegan interviewed, dropped out of school, even though later some used other means of getting a high school diploma or acquiring a higher education. Also it appears both gangs tend to resolve their issues with violence. Most people would agree that some violence is in everyone, but it seems that well educated people often find other means to conquer their problems or go about solving them. Through history knowledge has proved to be an unavoidable part of life. As children in the community began dropping out of schools in vast numbers these kids were forced to, willingly or not, gain knowledge elsewhere (1998). A macro cause for the growing numbers of students dropping out of school and joining the gangs, could be that the ideas and values of those gangs quickly spread through the streets and classrooms. This Leads the teenagers to make decisions about wether or not they agree with the