Upper-Middle Class Suburbia and the Gang Culture

The above picture is an accurate representation of the most spineless, wimpiest people in high school.

I went to a high school where there were a lot of, what do you call it, privileged people where they could get pretty much anything they wanted if they whined and begged their parents enough. Throughout my years of high school, I felt more and more out of place, as students would show off their newest cell phone, or their shiniest jewelry, and I didn’t have any of that (I didn’t get a cell phone until Grade 12). But there was a bunch of people that I just looked at, and I don’t know whether to laugh at them, or feel sorry for them. These were the kind of people that would wear their uniform pants extremely low, have some sort of bandana on the back pocket of those pants, and walk like they have some sort of limp leg. That’s right, these were the wannabe gangsters.

At first, I never really understood why these White, Black, and Asian people would try to be someone they clearly aren’t. I know that certain people want to try to fit in, by not being their true selves, to be considered “accepted” by mainstream society. But these wannabes at my high school live very privileged lives, their parents make six-figure salaries, and these people have all kinds of material things. These people would all try to act “thug” and would ultimately try imposing themselves by threatening others into doing whatever they want. A few of these people realized that being “gangster” was only a phase and quickly stopped acting that sort of way, but there were others who acted like they came straight out of South Central Los Angeles (or to use a local neighborhood, Jane and Finch)and continued to act that way throughout their years at high school.

One day in Grade 11, one of these wannabe gangsters was causing trouble in the hallway with his red flag under his back pocket. Now I knew this kid, so I said something at him and this kid started talking shit to me. Dude then pushed me against the lockers. I knew that time that I had to teach this kid a lesson, so I gave him an ass-whooping. No teachers were around. It was just me, him, and whatever crowd that formed. It was probably one of my proudest moments in high school. After the scuffle, he said that he was “gonna get his Bloods after me”.

To this day, neither he nor his friends even dared to come after me.

I guess the moral of this story is to not to try to be something that you aren’t, but rather to forge your own positive path towards personal greatness by being your true self. Those punks who like to act “thug” will only see negativity and will end up in jail rather than the glory they seek. We are all good people; it’s up to us to realize it.