8 Ball Chicks by Gini Sikes

1959 Words4 Pages

8 Ball Chicks by Gini Sikes

The book "8 Ball Chicks," written by Gini Sikes is a thrilling yet shocking book about girls in gangs. The book explains in horrific detail the roles and existences of the girls in these gangs. Sikes traveled to several different cities to experience the life of girl gangsters. She traveled to Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Milwaukee. Through these travels, she became immersed in the lifestyles of each gang and had first hand accounts on what it was like to be in a gang.

Sikes met many girls whom she could not believe what had persuaded them to live like they did. Most of the girls wanted to just fit in with something, to have power or be safe. Sikes recognized that all these girls were victims of their environment, so she sought out to see what she could present to show other people that children of poverty need a good education to be able to succeed and have a successful life. How ever they didn't know how to go about it. Gang life was all they knew because they grew up in it, and they were taught it. They would talk about their dreams outside of the gangs. Some of these girls were unable to achieve these dreams due to their lack of education (mainly because of their environment). Most all of the girls she meet grew up in poverty. Also because of poverty, a lot of their parents where just as bad as their kids. Some were raised by single mothers who slept around or were even prostitutes. Other girls were molested by their mother's boyfriends or their stepfathers. These girls had had a bleak out look for their future. Really all they knew how to do was survive . So all of them turned to gangs.

When a girl was initiated into gangs they had a couple of choices, get “jumped in” ( beat up by x...

... middle of paper ...

...gs. They are basically just kids caught up in a wasteland with really nothing to turn to. In turn pressures of the street over come them. We shouldn’t look at the kids as the problem but actually the enviroment that they come from.

Hopefully on day I will become a adolescent counselor. I have always wanted to reach out and help people, mainly kids. Reading this book has giving me more insight into the adolescent mind. We all go through adolescence differently, and seeing from many different angles would obviously help me in seeing why kids turn out the way that they do. We need to study and understand their thought process and why they come to these decisions . Further more makes me want to learn more about the problems kids face today and what ways society as whole can to try to change these problems and help these kids so that they can have a prosperous future.

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