Virtually every aspect of contemporary street gang culture has something to do with establishing identity. And to a degree that the rest of society has yet to wake up and fully acknowledge, it succeeds.

To begin with, what is the graffiti that gangbangers emblazon over every available surface, other than advertising--perhaps the most fundamental way in which identity is established, in our media-drenched age?

How about gangbanger clothes?  Yes, the colors connote belonging, which is a form of identity.   But more than that, the bagginess is also a highly effective form of advertising--a shape and contour than can be recognized blocks away, even in silhouette, sending a clear and unmistakable message, "This is somebody not to be trifled with."

Not being trifled with is, in the end, the essence of gangbanging.  Above all else, a gangbanger is somebody who will not be "dissed."  Officially, the term is short for "disrespected."  But it could just as easily--and probably more accurately--be taken as an abbreviation of "dismissed" or "disregarded," as in tossed aside or treated as inconsequential.  For while the gangbanger craves respect, more often he settles for simple fear.  In the end, the one thing the gangbanger always ensures is probably the one thing that actually matters most to him:  that he will be noticed and taken seriously.

This he has achieved, and to a degree that actually warrants a kind of grudging admiration.  No matter where you go in the United States (and to a large extent, around the world), you'll be hard pressed to find somebody who doesn't know what Crips or Bloods are.  This is no small feat of identity establishment, for an otherwise inconsequential group of kids in an otherwise inconsequential place.