Laurence Ralph: Renegade Dreams

Laurence Ralph is an assistant professor in the Departments of Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and his new book-Renegade Dreams: Living through Injury in Gangland Chicago-takes a deep look at a West Side neighborhood most Chicagoans only know from news reports, a place where children have been shot just for crossing the wrong street.
Recounting the stories from people in the neighborhood, Ralph wrestles with what it means to be an outsider in a place like this, whether or not his attempt to understand, to help, might not in fact inflict its own damage. Ultimately he shows that the many injuries these people carry-like dreams-are a crucial form of resilience, and that we should all think about the ghetto differently, not as an abandoned island of unmitigated violence and its helpless victims but as a neighborhood, full of homes, as a part of the larger society in which we all live, together, among one another.