The styles, mannerisms, and poses of gangbanging could not have been adopted so enthusiastically by other segments of society if they did not speak powerfully to something within them. What could speak so powerfully, if it did not have at least as great an amount of emotional heft for its originators?

If the most powerful drive in gangbanging is to defy feelings of insignificance, would it not make sense to ascribe the same sorts of needs to those who so enthusiastically appropriate elements of gangbanger identity?