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[Return to previous screen in chapter one: about Tribalism.]

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Gangstas on the World Wide Web

by Theodore Walker, Jr.


Gangs,
including Bloods, Crips and others,
are often described as tribal and tribalizing entities.

Back in 1979,
building upon work by Alvin Toffler and Marshal McLuhan,
Vine Deloria, Jr. of the Sioux nations predicted that electronic networking technologies would have a retribalizing influence upon the modern world.

[See THE METAPHYSICS OF MODERN EXISTENCE (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) by Vine Deloria, Jr.]

More recently,
Derrick de Kerckhove, successor to McLuhan, described the internet's world wide web as a powerful retribalizing influence.

[See "What Would McLuhan Say?", an interview of Derrick de Kerckhove by Kevin Kelly in WIRED magazine, October 1996, p. 149. (Kevin Kelly (kk@well.com) is executive editor of WIRED.)]

To the extent that gangs are tribal and tribalizing entities, and
to the extent that the world wide web is a tribalizing medium,
gang interest in the world wide web is inevitable.

To be sure, according an October 1996 report by Tessie Borden of the Fort Lauderdal Sun-Sentinel, gang sites are already cropping up and creating a "Cyber'Hood."

Tessie Borden writes:

"Sinister, a gang member from Detroit, is scrawling his graffiti on a new wall that stretches across the nation - the Cyber'Hood.
He belongs to Glock3, a gang that's vying, on the Internet, for the most accessible yet most uncharted turf to date.
Glock3's is part of a group of "gangsta sites" appearing on the Internet, with names like Gangsta Net Crew and Hustlerz Crib.
Gangs are using World Wide Web sites to reach out for new recruits, promote street-gang alliances and post the names and addresses of those they consider enemies. ..." (pJ1)

[See "'Gangsta sites' cropping up on the Internet" by Tessie Borden of the Fort Lauderdal Sun-Sentinel, printed in the Sunday, 6 October 1996 issue of The Dallas Morning News, pp. J1, J10.]

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[See a Glock 3 web page providing history and other information/"411" about Glock 3
at http://www.voyager.co.nz/~sinister/411.html
and
see a Glock 3 web page listing of "Glock 3 Memberz"
at http://www.voyager.co.nz/~sinister/membaz.html
and
see a Glock 3 web page tribute to Tupac Sakur and other "homiez" "relocated to tha cemetery by rival gangz"
at http://www.voyager.co.nz/~sinister/poursome.html.]

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[Also,
see the November 1996 issue of VIBE magazine. This issue is devoted to reflection on the music and tragic murder of world famous gangsta-hip hop musician Tupac Sakur,
and
see a VIBE Online web site created as tribute to Tupac Sakur "one hour after his death was confirmed" (on Friday, 13 September 1996)
at http://www.vibe.com/docs/tupactribute.html.]

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[Go to http://members.gnn.com/hustlerz/NEWZ.HTML for other web news about the gangsta-hip hop world.]

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[Return to chapter one: about Tribalism.]


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most recent update: 24 March 1997
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NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT: copyright 1997 Theodore Walker, Jr. This copyright covers all content and formatting (browser-visible and HTML text) in this and attached documents created by Theodore Walker, Jr. c@Theodore Walker, Jr.
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