Making the most of his `double life'
Escaping Oakland gangs to forge a remarkable academic career, Dr. Victor Rios says his success boils down to opportunities
“Sometimes I'd like to think that I'm unique, and that I'm brilliant, but the truth is that a lot of the friends I grew up with were equally unique and brilliant. It's just that I happened to encounter more opportunities than they did.” — Dr. Victor Rios
Dr. Victor Rios is not your typical professor. While growing up on welfare in Oakland, Rios and his three siblings learned to fend for themselves as their single mom bounced from one low-paid job to the next.
In his teenage years, Rios' friend group got sucked into the West-Oakland gang scene, where violence and drug abuse were the norm.
The toll of that adolescent gang life was staggering. Some of his childhood friends died before reaching adulthood. Many ended up in prison, or lost themselves to drug addiction. Few graduated from high school.
Dr. Rios, meanwhile, graduated with a Ph.D. in comparative ethnic studies in 2005 from UC Berkeley and now serves as a MacArthur Foundation chair and professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara. He has written six books and gave a viral 2015 TedTalk about his life that got over 1.7 million views.
Dr. Victor Rios, 46, survived a rough childhood in the West Oakland gang scene and now serves as a MacArthur Foundation chair and professor of sociology at UC Santa Barbara. His latest book about his life, “Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a Ph.D.,” documents his stunning life trajectory in gripping and graphic detail.
We spoke with Dr. Rios about the newest edition of his book, “Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a Ph.D.” which documents his life journey from gang life to renowned academic.
Q
So you grew up in West Oakland, right? Can you talk a little bit about just your early childhood?
A
I didn't have a father; my mom was a single mom. She had three other kids. … She was on her own, trying to make ends meet. We were struggling to get by; she worked as a dishwasher and made minimum wage . ... She didn't have the skill set or resources to really parent us correctly. So a lot of times, we were kind of on our own … A lot of my friends were also some of the kids that came from the Civil War in Central America, El Salvador specifically. So those kids were just part of trauma back in their home country. And then we started to form little cliques. And little cliques started to turn into gangs. And then we got caught up in the street life.