Name: Miles Gaymon

Social Justice Group: Gang violence in NYC (C)

Date of Fieldwork: February 2, 2025

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Ronald Cook Barrett

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork:

In our third fieldwork, we interviewed Ronald “Cook” Barrett. Cook runs a gang prevention program and has been doing this for 30+ years. He was inspired to start this program because of the gang rise in his area as well as losing a 16-year-old to gang violence. This program helps youth growing up in poverty not join gangs.
We also learned that the influence of movies and rappers is sometimes a problem and convinces teens to join gang life. For example, in 21 Savage’s music, he explains multiple times throughout his songs about gang violence. 21 Savage grew up in a low-income area in Atlanta, where he joined the Bloods. He is one of the many examples of rappers speaking this way on their songs.