No COLORS: 100 Ways To Stop Gangs From Taking Away Our Communities
"No community wants to admit it has a gang problem. Yet that denial and the unwillingness to address youth violence as a community problem will have tragic consequences."
"Nearly Every Community in America has Issues Related to Violence.
We have solutions."
No Colors Book Review
What we learn in this life of sending and receiving messages is that some of them appeal primarily to the intellect while others go straight to the heart. The best manage to span the distance between.
No COLORS is one of those bridges that connect our minds and emotions, yet it also strikes something else that lies deep within all of us. It touches our notion of community and our primal sense of home, because at its core, No COLORS is about the places we live, collectively and individually.
More specifically, it’s about the devastating changes that can and have occurred in those places as the result of gang-related youth violence.
The intense and unwavering light that Bud Ramey and Bobby Kipper shine on this subject illuminates a world that many of us thought existed only in the news and other media. In reading through the pages of No COLORS, we are reminded again and again that this world now surrounds us whether we live in the densest urban setting, the most orderly suburb or even a bucolic rural haven. And when I say “reminded” I am speaking with a gentleness unrelated to the issue at hand because No COLORS grabs us by the collar, turns our head around and holds our face to a passing scene that ranges from inconvenient and troublesome to dangerous and even lethal. But the hope, and equally important, the practical tools that the book provides, let us know that the view need not be permanent.
Part of defining where No COLORS fits into the growing canon of gang and youth violence literature can be best accomplished by describing what it isn’t. And what it isn’t includes an academic tome, a list of government statistics and an ex-gang member’s memoir. It isn’t the latest news on behavioral development, law enforcement or public health, nor is it the final word on the subject from the perspectives of education or criminal justice.
What No COLORS is falls more closely into the area of a direction finder and a guide. It gives community and business leaders, elected and appointed officials, educators, clergy, opinion leaders and everyone else who has a stake in the future, clear instructions for constructing a Strategic Plan. Just as essential, it provides the building materials needed, in the form of tactics, best practices and specific interventions, to help municipalities across America stand against gang-generated crime.
Ultimately, this book, and the significant research and effort on which it is based, represents the many voices and experiences, including their own, that Ramey and Kipper have brought together to share with you. I hope you will read it carefully. At the very least it will inform you. At best it will enlighten you. And if you are open to its compelling message, my hope for you and for your community is that it will move you to action.
~ Tom Emswiller San Jose, California
