Thursday, Nov. 5, 4:00 p.m., Griffin 7 – Williams students and faculty are invited to attend a lecture presented by a prospective faculty member in the Africana Studies Program: Laurence Ralph, who is completing his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of Chicago (currently an Erskine Peters Dissertation Fellow at the University of Notre Dame), will present a lecture titled “As Soon as I Get Out Ima Cop Dem Jordans: The Politics of Juvenile Shoe-Talk.” His dissertation is about the cultural and political life of gangs in the Westside of Chicago; he also works on Rap, Hip Hop, and youth culture generally. He is one of three finalists for the Africana Studies Program’s Assistant Professor position.

In this lecture, the everyday anxieties associated with living under the threat of violence intersect in an examination of reckless and brash drug dealing gang affiliates. The most notorious amongst them are young gang members who are referred to by their seniors as “renegades.” On the Westside of Chicago, the gang “renegade” surfaces as an intra-gang emblem of disorder. This figure is, more precisely, a symbol of material excess and the need to contain rugged individualism. As gang members try to come to terms with unprecedented rates of violence, and search for a safe scapegoat, all eyes focus on the “renegade” who purportedly breaks rank with gang tradition. Indeed, in the narrative frames that older gang members construct, the flashy renegade’s disregard for the collective is condensed into a critique of his supposed obsession with shoes.