Gangs

After discussing the story “Male Gender and Rituals of Resistance in the Palestinian Intifada” by Julie Peteet, in class, I began to notice the similarities with the issues pertaining to the Palestinian men and of gangs here in the United States. Gangs are known for their excessive beating methods as a way of initiated for new members. Once you have paid the price then you are considered an official member of the group. These rights of passage also happen to young Palestinian men before joining the underground resistance movement. As the result of being beaten and tortured, both gangs and the Palestinian men are given a stature in the community. In this story, after becoming apart of the resistance movement, one of the men declared, “I’ve already paid the price, I might as well be active.” This idea is also true of gangs, which is why there is such a great deal of violence associated with these groups. These men feel as though all of the suffering they have endured will be worthless unless they follow through with the other activities their gang is associated with. These activities include killing innocent people, robberies, and much more.
On a less severe level, some fraternities and sororities can also relate to the ideas and concepts in this story. They too have an initiation process that new members must go through before they can official join. Even though this procedure usually does not contain excessive beatings from the members, it can however involve rituals called hazing. Hazing is way for people to show their dedication to a certain group that involves embarrassment, harassment, ridicule, and sometimes injury.