Skinheads in the Antelope Valley :: essays papers

Skinheads in the Antelope ValleyWilliam Finnegans essay The Unwanted explains the history andmake-up of the Antelope Valley and then explores the lives of someteenage citizens in secern to discover reasons that both rival inner circles havesuch a significant role in the community and on its sight. Absentp atomic number 18nts and lack of education are just two factors facing teens thatultimately led the Los Angeles Suburb into becoming a society whereSkinheads and Boneheads are a norm and accepted as a part of everyday manners. C. Wright Mills idea of the sociological perspective, lookingpast the facades, is useful when analyzing the micro individual, andmacro broad, causes of teens becoming skinheads. Each day Americaseems to blend more and more diverse. Some people learn to accept thefact that America is made up of many different ethnic groups, whileothers deal the only ethnic group should be their own. There arevarious reasons for discrimination and it is a very contro versialissue. In Finnegans article he describes two gangs with opposingviews concerning racism and how each group expresses their beliefs.The racist and anti-racist beliefs dont always end at the individual.Death is an all too common end and when an opinion becomes lifethreatening a problem arises. According to Finnegan, one of the twomajor gangs that occupy the streets of Lancaster and the AntelopeValley is, a white-supremacist skinhead gang, the Nazi Low Riders(N.L.R.s) and the other is, their rival gang of anti-racistskinheads, the Sharps (1998, p.88). One major quality the two gangsshare is their lack of education. Most, if not all, of the teensFinnegan interviewed, dropped bulge of school, even though later someused other center of getting a high school diploma or acquiring a highereducation. Also it appears both gangs tend to resolve their issueswith violence. Most people would agree that some violence is ineveryone, but it seems that well educated people often find ot her meansto conquer their problems or go about solving them. Through historyknowledge has proved to be an unavoidable part of life. As children inthe community began dropping out of schools in vast numbers these kidswere forced to, willingly or not, gain knowledge elsewhere (1998). Amacro cause for the growing numbers of students dropping out of schooland joining the gangs, could be that the ideas and values of thosegangs quickly spread through the streets and classrooms. This Leadsthe teenagers to make decisions about wether or not they agree with the