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.
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.
Q
Can you talk about that, around what age did that transition start, and what happened to your friend group?
A
Yeah, so like around age
13, we started to experiment with the gang stuff. At age 14, I jumped into a gang out in East Oakland. And then that friend group, we had written our names on an old refrigerator at a friend's house that was in the backyard … We went back a few years later to look at that list of names. And like a lot of guys that I had grown up with either died or went to prison or became heroin or crack addicts. Very few of us, maybe just like two or three, actually graduated high school. And yeah, I mean, it is a lot of violence. My really good friend got shot and killed in front of me. And then a couple years later, my uncle was also murdered in front of me. He was shot in front of the whole family. It was kind of this family gathering party, little kids, little cousins … And the whole family's there waiting and he's just there bleeding and we are waiting, waiting, waiting for the ambulance.
Q
Can you talk about how you went from such a dark place after your uncle's death to where you are now — getting a Ph.D. at Berkeley and being a professor?
A
For me really it was caring adults, most of them educators and mentors, that started to teach me that what I was going through wasn't necessarily only my fault — that those crimes of survival that I was committing, and ended up in juvie for — there was a reason, a systemic reason for it. It's not normal for law enforcement to take so long when you call them in other neighborhoods … So once I started to learn that it was systemic, then I started to believe that I could actually change that system.
Q
And you mentioned the names of the people on the refrigerator from your childhood. Why do you think you were the one that has really succeeded?
A
Sometimes I'd like to think that I'm unique, and that
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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. I encountered a teacher (Ms. Russ) who stepped into my life. And then she provided me with resources. She got me a job as a mechanic at the local German Auto dismantling place. She talked to other teachers, to talk them into giving me extra credit and trusting me. She connected me with a mentor who was a banker. And then she connected me with UC Berkeley students. And so my friends didn't get that — they just kept getting sent back to juvie and kept getting
Q
A
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sort of denied job opportunities … Now I study this stuff, I write books about kids who get in trouble. I help school districts find programs that would help the kids in their communities who are not doing well, to transform their lives around.
Could you walk through the evolution of your most recent book, “Street Life, Poverty, and a Ph.D.”?
So I wrote my academic book with New York University Press, “Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys,” and that book became a classic in sociology … and then I took that book back to the hood, to Oakland, and I gave it to kids, and they didn't like it, because it was too jargony and too academic. Then I came home and I was all stressed about it. Man, I wrote a book for kids in the hood and about kids there, and they don't even understand it … And I was really pissed off at myself.
And then I couldn't sleep at night. So my wife was like, “Hey, you know, you got to write another book for them.” And I was like, Oh, that's a great idea. So whenever I couldn't sleep at night at three in the morning, I just go write these little mini stories, and that became “Street Life” … I took that book (“Street Life”) back … and before you know it … it's sold 100,000 copies.
But then I was in Santa
Clara actually, at a breakfast, fundraiser for the YMCA out there. And a street outreach worker from San Jose came up to me and said “Hey, Dr. Rios, this book saved my life.” I'm like, what? And he was like … yeah, my brother was murdered. I came back, and told my teacher. And the teacher said, read this book. And then the guy grabs the book, reads it and it changed his trajectory … He got his degree, ended up being a street outreach worker for the city of San Jose now … And I tell you that moment with him, made me want, to instead of put the book out of print, enhance the book. And so that day, I started to edit the book, and updated and so this is that new rendition of the book.
I'm just, you know, very honored and proud to be, this far into the journey of supporting communities. I didn't think I was gonna make it to my 18th birthday here and, you know, at midlife. So I always tell people, I'm not in midlife, I'm in double life, because I've had two lifetimes to live. And every day, I'm thankful I get to do this work.