Maroons without a cause by rifraf / October 21

While I think that Wall Street execs, the Boys in Blue, and politicians were left off of the world’s 10 most dangerous gangs… its woefully aparent that 8 out of the 10 deadliest gangs are representative of the African and Latin Diasporas.

Whether its by design for this article’s purpose or just a cold hard fact, its obvious that people living on the fringe in developing countries ( and our own for that matter) create separate sub-cultures and societies as a means of survival for lack of integration into society at large. But what happens when the aim for survival doesn’t ever fully establish an independent society?  How do you get beyond the reactionary stage when escaping the social ills really only perpetuates the cycle of violence, disenfranchisement, and eventual eradication? Do these sub-cultures ever break from the same counterproductive behaviors that make them a tool of the societal constraints they’re trying to escape - or is it all just a fabled attempt to gain legitimacy and statehood for people who never really belonged or were accepted by a given society? Who/How/Can you inject cause and purpose into sub-cultures that live and die in a cycle of existing on the fringe?

Sidebar: Also checkout Area Boys, a short film about the Area Boys gang in Lagos, Nigeria

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