context, transnational gangs typically refer to organized networks of peer groups that are connected to one another and operate across national borders.) In addition, the processes of globalization have led to human migration and the marginalization of many families and children. Importantly, similar processes are unfolding in other regions of the globe, as witnessed by the appearance of transnational gangs in places such as Europe and Latin America, where immigration has brought different peoples to urban settings. Marginalization for many in these communities began before they entered the country. The entry into the United States of both Salvadorans and Vietnamese entailed global, cold-war political ramifications. The dual nature of Chicanos’ relationship with dominant society-as natives and immigrants-is similarly distinctive, as is the dual relationship of Puerto Rico’s status vis-à-vis the United States. Race has been a more overtly dominant issue for African Americans, among whom it is more pervasive and salient in all aspects of life. Nevertheless, each group has unique aspects. Race and class are both heavily implicated in the marginalization of each of these ethnic groups, and in the resultant social and cultural repercussions that have led to street socialization. Race, racism, and the attitudes of prejudice that have devalued and disparaged each group, and the groups’ subsequent segregation and isolation into ethnic enclaves, are central to understanding the emergence and perpetuation of gangs. They have all also faced race-based discrimination, though the impact of race and racism on each group varies. Most of the ethnic (i.e., Chicano, African American, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, and Salvadoran) communities examined here are made up of members who are, for the most part, physically distinguishable from dominant whites. Remarkably, most families in these communities have been able to weather these conditions and maintain a semblance of stability. In tandem with institutional racist barriers, this has worked to historically establish an oppositional attitude and lackadaisical approach to the dominant culture’s education routines. These groups have a long and well-documented history of exclusion from or isolation within public schools, along with other forms of unfair and unequal scholastic treatment, such as the racism that affects testing and “tracked” learning programs. Schooling problems, in particular, have plagued the lives and careers of blacks and Latinos (and in some cases, Asians) in the United States. For example, schooling for minority youth and relations with law enforcement both affect family life, particularly because poor people often receive short shrift from authorities in these major public institutions. Toward this end, long-term racism and persistent poverty have lingering effects on how life is structured and organized, including basic family dynamics. Los Angeles is a major city marked by these dynamics, and it will serve as the major multiethnic focus here to highlight broader gang issues. There are various factors involved in understanding gangs, such as racism and its repercussions in other realms, including socioeconomic segregation, breakdowns in social control, education difficulties, and antagonistic interactions with law enforcement. These situations and conditions tend to be especially persistent when the immigrants are defined as a distinct race from the dominant society based on physical rather than simply behavioral differences. These populations typically face problems with jobs, living conditions, isolation and segregation from mainstream society, and abrasive interactions with public institutions. Further, gangs are an outgrowth of the strains and stresses that immigrant and historically marginalized populations experience in urban settings, a phenomenon that can be traced back to the nineteenth century. According to several researchers (Morales 1982, Short 1996, Vigil 2002), only about 10 percent of the youths in most low-income neighborhoods join gangs. Oftentimes, the gang is a multiple-aged peer group, with older members in their late teens or early twenties acting as role models for younger members. Gangs are primarily made up of groups of male adolescents and youths who have grown up together as children, usually as cohorts in a low-income neighborhood of a city. THE GHETTOIZATION OF CHICANO AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN POPULATIONS
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