Initiations

I have always been aware of gangs and the initiation process people have to go through to be a member. I have never understood how the benefits were worth putting themselves through what they do. I do not know much about these initiations so I took it upon myself to do some searching online. I found the two ones we talked about in class: being sexed in or jumped in. There are many other though they just may not be as frequently used. Some of the more interesting ones I thought were where you are "deeded in". In this case they have to have sex with a female or male that has a sexual disease without contracting it. Another is being "punched in". Here they hit you once very aggressively on the sternum, which consequently people have died from. The third interesting one was called "Freein Hoover". The gang members throw six pennies on the ground and all six pennies have to be picked up, while being physically assualted by several gang members, before the beating will stop.
Being in college you can see something similar to this, called hazing. Soroties and Fraternities do this to their pledges. While talking about this in class I was reminded of a story I heard recently about a sorority here on campus that was partying at a fraternity. The older sisters went out to the bars and made the pledges stay back and drink till they got back from the bars. That is a very dangerous thing to do and one of the girls ended up being taken to the hospital.
I’ll never understand the crazy things people will do just so they can be accepted. It never seems worth it.