Selling crack el barrio book

The only legal jobs they can get are low paying jobs with little respect. This is the motivation that leads to illegal activities and illegal activities lead to violence and crime. The main focus of the book is the street culture of East Harlem and the people in that community.

We learn from lecture that global health is the health of populations in global context that transcends national boundaries. In the reading Scrimshaw culture behavior and health, it states that health and illness are defined, labeled, evaluated, and acted on the context of culture, and that people around the world have beliefs and behaviors related to health and illness that stem from cultural forces and individual experiences and perceptions.

We learn that cultures have a big impact on how we perceive things. People from different cultures perceive health and illness differently. Therefore, in order to improve the well being of a particular population, we need to know the context of their culture. And studying about health of populations is one of the main goals of global health.

Philippe discussed three major points in this book. The first point was that the underground drug dealing business was a result of people losing their legal jobs in East Harlem. Only those who were part of the drug business encountered violence. His third point was that legalizing drugs would lead to the reduction of crime rate and violence in the community.

Philippe argues that the high unemployment rate in East Harlem caused people to take part in producing and selling drug. The census data given in the book shows that more than half of East Harlem residents should not be able to meet their basic needs, and yet people are not starving. In order to meet their needs, these people have to resort in underground, untaxed jobs. Crack and cocaine selling provides the necessary income for them to survive.

However, it is surprising to find out that the high unemployment rate is not because people there are lazy and refuse to get jobs but because they are unable to find ones.

East Harlem residents lack the social skills and knowledge required for most jobs in the city. The only jobs they can compete for fail to provide them adequate incomes to meet their basic needs.

Drug selling provides them with income doubling or tripling the amount they got paid from legal jobs. It is a no brainer that most residents end up involving in the drug market. On average, it is almost equal to minimum wage income. His second point is that only the people who involved with drug selling encounter violence.

In fact, it is safe to walk around East Harlem during the day and even early in the evening. Philippe has only been robbed once during 3 years living in East Harlem, while his friends who live in safer neighborhood have been robbed multiple times.

We learn from the book that violence occur mostly in drug business is because drug dealers use it as a defense mechanisms. They act tough in public to gain respect from their peers. It not only helps them protecting themselves, but it also helps them run their business smoothly.

In the book, Ray abuses this tactic to run his crack house successfully for many years. The third point that the author tries to convey in his book is that decriminalizing drugs can reduce the crime rate and violence in this area. His second point shows us that violence mostly occur in the group of people involving in the drug market. If we decriminalize drugs, the drug dealers no longer have the monopoly over the drug supply.

It will inflict a big blow on drug dealers, and thus reduce their numbers. Violence and crime rate will also decrease as a result. Mar 31, Pete rated it it was ok Shelves: usa , non-fiction , I read a Roger Ebert film review once that noted how difficult it is to create a truly antiwar film, because war is so inherently dramatic that, without the actual danger, it inevitably appears adventurous. Likewise, it is extremely difficult for a writer to elicit sympathy for human cockroaches, because their existence is so inherently worthless.

These people contribute absolutely nothing of positive value to our world, while constantly detracting from its goodness and I hate them. View all 6 comments. Dec 15, Garxin rated it really liked it. In Search of Respect describes the social structure of the drug business.

Throughout the book, Phillip Bourgois interviews drug dealers in East Harlem. They mention the struggles they go to in order to survive. I learned that prejudice and racism played an important role in the characters' lives in that it was almost like a predetermining factor. Because the main characters, Caesar and Primo, were Spanish it was difficult for them to find jobs so they turned to the drug business. Bourgois mentio In Search of Respect describes the social structure of the drug business.

Bourgois mentions a great deal about social issues including poverty, drugs, sex and racism. Sep 23, Selma rated it it was amazing. This was a really good ethnography.

I adored it, it was not filled with an excessive amount of jargon, making it inaccessible for the average person. I also think that it was an extremely interesting topic, and I think that it was incredibly well done of Bourgois giving voice to people who had often not had one. This was done mostly through his application of postmodernism, supplying the reader with transcripts from the interview, allowing us to form our own opinions on the subject and not havin This was a really good ethnography.

This was done mostly through his application of postmodernism, supplying the reader with transcripts from the interview, allowing us to form our own opinions on the subject and not having our perception censored by Bourgois' personal viewpoint.

Furthermore, everything is revealed in these interviews, the good and the bad; thus, successfully humanising a group of people who had often experienced the exact opposite. Bourgois describes the harsh reality of the underground economy in New York El Barrio , telling about incidents of violence, threats, and even an episode of group rape as a form of initiation process.

Furthermore, Bourgois, also details the injustices his interlocutors have faced, not having the proper capital to enter the legal economy.

This is portrayed beautifully through his use of practice theory, outlining the way in which the government failed them from the time they were young and in school, and were not taught the proper ways to interact with beaurocratic forces and the legal economy, leaving them at a marked disadvantage. Often reading these accounts of things that the interlocutors had done, which differed so greatly from my own, and Bourgois' morals, it was hard to remain neutral and keep one's sympathy for the interlocutors.

However, what kept me going was Bourgois' honesty in addressing his own reaction to these things, and how that for him was hard to hear and put him in a morally ambiguous situation at times. Overall, this was a great ethnography, and kudos to Bourgois for immersing himself fully in this society despite the warnings he got not to. I think this book warrants 5 out of 5 stars. Aug 21, Hamad rated it really liked it. This book needs to be read in pieces, and then re-read at least twice more.

Bourgois' structural analysis of crack-dealers in Manhattan's East Harlem in the early 90s is detailed with an exuberant amount of sometimes gut-wrenching information and an equal amount of thoughtful interpretation. Bourgois' main point in this effort is to piece together a social-economic and political-histo This book needs to be read in pieces, and then re-read at least twice more. Bourgois' main point in this effort is to piece together a social-economic and political-historic framework in which his subjects operated, calling into focus the uncontrollable aspects of their lives to argue that such forces are primarily to account for their situation of violence, abuse, neglect and constant poverty.

This is of course, a very traditional progressive argument, but Bourgois does not fail to empower his subjects with their own sense of responsibility for the situation they are in. In fact, it may just be the failure to upkeep this responsibility which leads many of his subjects to frustration, abuse and violence. The problem is certainly made clear by Bourgois' impeccable analysis, but the solutions, summed up in his 'Conclusions' chapter are not as clear.

Dismantling the War on Drugs, provision of viable options for legal work and material wealth to youth and the obvious broad-ranging socialist programs universal health care, free day-care etc. However, lack of viable solutions notwithstanding, the fields of sociology and anthropology will be indebted to Bourgois in terms of both technique and content for years to come.

Dec 27, Rae rated it liked it. As a white, middle-class, college-educated man, Bourgois faces many obstacles to finding "the real story" to share with people who read such books.

While at times I had to put the book down because my stomach and my mind couldn't be complicit in this seeming misuse of privilege, who am I to determine if someone can or can not consent to such a detailed published account of their liv This book chronicles Bourgois' public infiltration of the crack dealer social scene in East Harlem, New York City.

While at times I had to put the book down because my stomach and my mind couldn't be complicit in this seeming misuse of privilege, who am I to determine if someone can or can not consent to such a detailed published account of their lives? Much of the book consists of conversations Bourgois recorded and then transcribed, so there IS actually a realness to it and Bourgois is aware of the unequal dynamic he is creating and touches on engagement with this problem in the book.

His analysis is often interesting and relevant to the clash of street culture with middle American society and details the catch many people in the underground economy deal with. He deals a great bit with violence, rape and gang rape in a detailed way that could be triggering and is definitely stomach wrenching.

May 10, William D. This book was a heart-wrenching, enlightening ethnographic account of the Bourgois' time in the East Harlem inner-city. With incredible attention to the myriad structural factors that shape the lives of East Harlem residents, Bourgois shows the devastating effects of poverty and disenfranchisement on the lives of men and their families.

Bourgois's perspective is always structural to the nth degree, and here he weaves together how Puerto Rican "culture" shapes the interactions of immigrants even This book was a heart-wrenching, enlightening ethnographic account of the Bourgois' time in the East Harlem inner-city. Bourgois's perspective is always structural to the nth degree, and here he weaves together how Puerto Rican "culture" shapes the interactions of immigrants even multiple generations down the line and how this in turn is affected by thhe changing US economic landscape and related disappearance of entry level jobs.

His discussion of gender and power in the chapter on gang rape is powerful, and does an incredible job of highlighting the number of interacting hierarchies of power that East Harlem residents have to navigate.

Fantastic book, model ethnographic work, and Id certainly recommend his newer one, Righteous Dopefiend. Apr 28, Luna Erica rated it it was amazing. Bourgois, however, did an excellent job at doing just that. Having gone into an area of the US many people might evade and having lived there with his partner and child, befriending those whom others might steer clear of and gaining their trust so much as to be allowed to record their most personal conversations — it cannot have been an easy task.

Bourgois did all that, got the information he wished to integrate into his book, and wrote an ethnography that is not only extremely informative, but also entertaining though at times in the most dire, shocking sense.

This is a brilliant example of a work written by someone with the data-gathering skills of a true anthropologist and the writing skills of a very proficient author. My favorite passage: "The vigor of the crack-cocaine economy during the late s and early s was largely the result of an aggressive federal drug policy prioritizing the criminal repression of smuggling.

Sometime in the early to mids, marijuana importers working the Latin American supply routes adapted to the escalating levels of search-and-seizure they were facing at U.

Cocaine is much easier to transport c My favorite passage: "The vigor of the crack-cocaine economy during the late s and early s was largely the result of an aggressive federal drug policy prioritizing the criminal repression of smuggling.

Cocaine is much easier to transport clandestinely because it takes up only a fraction of the physical space occupied by the equivalent dollar value of marijuana.

Sep 09, rhea rated it liked it Shelves: uno. I'd say this was almost a 4, it was very interesting. It dragged a little in some parts, but I find with my anthropology reads that happens. All in all though the books for this class seem to be more interesting than in other levels.

Aug 16, Ocrema rated it it was amazing. This book is actually great. Nov 02, Meegan rated it liked it. This was a required read for my Cultural Anthropology class.

The author was very raw in expressing his findings and provides his audience with a new understanding of social inequality in the U. There was a TON of language and some rough parts about real events taking place in the slums. Overall, I admired the writer and his themes, however, due to the language and content, I will not be re-reading this. Nov 14, Kristin rated it liked it. A modern-day Oscar Lewis, Philippe aims to enlarge the discussion around the interactions of agency and structure through an analysis of a culture of opposition embedded within a web of social, historical, and economic forces.

In the introduction, Bourgois reveals his personal struggle with the complexities of representing the people and community of El Barrio, concluding with conviction that a brutally honest account of the inner-city poor is imperative. Thus, I felt compelled, as a reader, to enter the quagmire of the politics of representation alongside Bourgois.

I question its purpose. Now that he has invasively probed the personal lives of these people and this community, what do you do with that information? Was Bourgois taking advantage of the trust that he had gained? Was the inform and consent process a sufficiently transparent one? Was Bourgois adequately critical of the power dynamics operating among their daily interactions? Was this work potentially exploitative? In the end, I feel like I came away with an uncertain viscerality that I'm not sure was as imperative as Bourgois believed to be.

However, it was a compelling read, and I appreciated the research he purveyed in his historical analysis of the community and its inhabitants. Worth your reading time and your questions. Jan 31, Martha rated it it was ok. I found this to be a frustrating read. I felt like I got to know the people he interviewed, and even if some of the things they did seemed purely evil, I had sympathy for them because I had the opportunity to hear their stories, and understand what brought them to the decisions they made.

However, Bourgois's analysis of their experience and his excuse-making for their misdeeds ruined this book for me. Basically, nothing they did could be seen as immoral because it was seen as necessitated by the I found this to be a frustrating read. Basically, nothing they did could be seen as immoral because it was seen as necessitated by their culture, yet American institutions and non-Puerto Rican Americans were analyzed in very moralistic, judgmental ways.

For instance, one man who had already been established as a criminal figure, and who admitted to looking disheveled in a particular situation and acting in a suspicious manner was treated in a "racist" way by a woman who ran away from him in fear.

So, we are meant to judge this woman as racist a very morally-charged term because she perceived danger and reacted in fear. Furthermore, Bourgois seemed to internalize much of the sexist worldview of his subjects. He consciously tried to reject it when dealing with Puerto Rican-American women, but when it came to the white women discussed, he parroted the views of his subjects, calling them racist for reacting in self-protective ways when left alone with someone who has already been shown to be a criminal, and treating his discussion of successful business women with the same disdain as his subjects do.

Finally, I would add that in his excuse-making for actions that even his subjects viewed as immoral through the idea of "culture," Bourgois reduces them below the level of individual people, capable of free will. Certainly, everyone is affected by their environment and culture, but I am certain Bourgois would see himself as capable of making independent decisions, and at times defying his culture if he recognized that the culture demanded him to violate other humans.

By making it appear that these people are incapable of doing the same, he reduces them to below the level of the more affluent majority. Aug 03, Matthew rated it really liked it. This toxic cycle ensures that women in El Barrio learn never to trust or rely upon men. State policies also make the problem an economic one, since people incur higher taxes and reduced eligibility for government assistance when they enter the legal workforce.

Bourgois argues that drug decriminalization, improved working conditions, and livable wages would give inner-city residents the incentive to transition out of the underground economy. Many of them remain involved with drugs and some end up in jail; others manage to transition into sobriety and conventional work, with a select few even moving out of East Harlem. Most notably, by , Primo gets sober and transitions into the legal market, but still has to deal with unfair treatment at work and struggles in his personal life.

In Search of Respect. Plot Summary. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents!