Selling Crack By Philippe Bourgois - 1866 Words

In Search of Respect: Selling crack in El barrio, written by Philippe Bourgois, is a compelling ethnography about the lives and struggles of Puerto Rican immigrants living in East Harlem, New York. Bourgois moved his wife and infant child to live in amongst the streets of East Harlem, referred to also as Spanish Harlem or El barrio, to actively participate in the community to get a better understanding of the underground untaxed economy (p.1). Bourgois in the years he lived in East Harlem established relationships with a group of around 24 drug dealers and their families (p.2) and obtained information through means such as â€Å"taped conversations, hundreds of nights in crack houses, †¦ went to parties and intimate reunions† (p.13). This total†¦show more content†¦This shows the profitability of the drug trade and the absolute dependence on the underground economy for those under the poverty line in El Barrio to survive. Bourgois’ conversations also revea led that many were trapped in the drug trade and strongly desired to earn money legally but due to a lack of education were unable to get a legal job that is regular and sufficient (p.114). Bourgois uncovered that many struggled in the legal job market due to institutionalised racism and the culture shock between life in El Barrio and the outside working world (p.145, pp.158-161). Bourgois was also able to gain important information about the dealer’s school experiences which essentially ruined their chances of making a legal life for themselves as many experienced violence and ridicule at the hands of the public schooling system and dropped out early (pp.174-178). Showing the value and strength of the participant observation fieldwork. Bourgois’ everyday interactions with his neighbour who were also his study subjects meant that over the five years his field work began to show how the Puerto Rican traditional culture and street culture of New York heavily influenced those who lived in El Barrio. The long term fieldwork Bourgois conducted revealed the complexities of this culture which can be exemplified in the relationship the Puerto Rican drug dealers have with legal employment. Primo, one of the dealers BourgoisShow MoreRelatedThe Use Of Drugs And Its Effects On Social Status1115 Words   |  5 Pagesdisadvantages in society. In Philippe Bourgois’s book, In Search of Respect, a Puerto Rican immigrant named Primo lived in New York City’s East Harlem. Because of his lack of education and cultural capital, he wasn’t able to find a legal paying job. Also having the burden of having to support for his family, he became a victim into the world crack. Drug dealing led Primo to drug addiction , which led him to throw away his income on more drugs (Bourgois,2013). Bourgois was trying to show the intensityRead MoreSelling in the Barrio: The Culture of Poverty Essay1165 Words   |  5 Pagesgroups and ethnicities are negatively affected by poverty. Those in the lowest social class, while a mix of ethnicities, are predominantly minorities and affected the most. What stood out about Philippe Bourgeois’ is that he not only studies the people and their culture but he lived it with them. Mr. Bourgois spent two years with his wife and child living with the Puerto Rican’s in East Harlem, NY. He lived with them and became a friend to many of them with the hopes of providing an accurate analysisRead MoreIn Search Of Respect Selling Crack In El Barrio Summary1248 Words   |  5 PagesPhillipe Bourgois’s study of social marginalisation in inner city America in his ethnography ‘In Search of Respect – Selling Crack in El Barrio’, won critical a cclaim when first published in 1995. For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the nation’s roughest ghetto neighbourhoods – East Harlem (Bourgois, 2003). He had originally come to study poverty and ethnic segregation, the political economy of inner-city streetRead MoreHegemonic Hypocrisy: A Victim of Social Scriptorium1168 Words   |  5 Pagesamidst a war involving all three cultural topographies. Albeit she speaks from a subjective standpoint, she does not mention the issue of racial hygiene, class, geographic divisions, and gender. Passages from Guenter Lewy, Melissa Wright, and Philippe Bourgois will be used to discuss the way in which different positionalities might affect the analysis of â€Å"Dislocated Identities.† In â€Å"Dislocated Identities,† Dr. Shohat tells of the reification of identity categories. Identity categories are hypotheticalRead MoreFeminicide, Gender Violence Against Women5270 Words   |  22 Pagesreplaced by service industries† (Bourgois 2004: 114). This conversion completely changed the dynamics of the workplace for the women working in the maquiladoras and most importantly the men, in the city of Jà ¹arez and the areas near the border. According to economists and sociologists alike, the repercussions from this shift in economic dynamics have led to, â€Å"unemployment, income reduction, weaker unions, and dramatic erosions in worker’s beneï ¬ ts at the entry level† (Bourgois 2004: 114). These outcomes