Philippe Bourgois’ In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio shows the author’s living experience in East Harlem with the purpose of studying the impacts of economic marginalization and racial segregation on the Puerto Rican community in an inner city. Bourgois highlights the socioeconomic and cultural gap between the inner city and the mainstream class in the upper East side Manhattan. During his time living in an Puerto Rican community, he was assumed by most Puerto Ricans to either be an undercover cop or a crack addict because of his race. Later, he was able to gain access to the lives of Puerto Rican crack dealers by getting into a place called the Game Room where provided a cover for drug sales. It was Primo, the manager of this place who became Bourgois’ friend and an informant about their lives in East Harlem. As Bourgois was trying to understand how segregation and racial oppression fuels poverty and underground economy, he found out that the ethnic and racial prejudice of people led the Puerto Ricans to isolate themselves from the society. This aversion and isolation by the rest of the society influence the living conditions of El Barrio inhabitants. As a result, in order to find a decent living in the society, they chose to sell crack to at least survive. For the purpose of getting a more humanistic and holistic view of this community, through participant observation, Bourgois put himself in direct contact with drug dealers. He found out that the social perception of Puerto Ricans inhibits them from success and makes them to street in order to make a living by illegal activities. Apart from that, as mentioned in the book that Puerto Rico is a country financially liable to the United Sates, and it has not ever bee... ... middle of paper ... ...e dictated through a multifactoral combination of biological, environmental and social aspects. In order to get out of this cycle, they become actual agents to choose their own ways in dealing with their sufferings from social marginalization through drug dealing. Agency is a concept which applies to individuals who act independently and make their own free choices. Primo and Caesar in book ultimately choose to deal drugs because they are frustrated with their social status. This book explains the frustration and dilemmas felt by the drug dealers as they need to choose between having legitimate low paying jobs but a lack of respect from the dominant upper class or illegal fast money activities with respect gained in the community. In reality, most of them choose the later one but end up with a farther distance with mainstream society with problems remain unsolved.
While they probably tried to follow conventional methods, at some point their opportunities were blocked which left them with a feelings of injustice which then turned them onto their illegal pursuits. For example, in high school Pablo showed great athletic ability in football. He was given a partial scholarship to play in college. However, he had grown up in the New York public schools system which didn’t have the resources that suburban schools did because they rely on money from property taxes. Because of this, Pablo was not able to keep up with his school work in college. His legal opportunity to make a living was blocked. This, plus the economic strain he felt showcase his overall strain and sense of injustice which led him to start selling drugs. He knew he needed money, and he saw how profitable it was for his friends. However, he was soon arrested which lost him his scholarships and ability to make a career out of
Victor Rios is a previous gang member, whom “was given the opportunity” to get out of the youth control complex. In his book “Punished”, he analyzes the experiences of young black and Latino boys in Oakland, California. Rios gives us an intimate description of some of the everyday forms of “hyper discrimination” these minority boys experience. This book review will focus on the main concepts explained in chapters one through three from the book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys.
The book "Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys" is written by Victor M. Rios, who was a former gang member in his hometown and later turned his life around. He went to Berkeley and earned a doctorate in sociology. This book explores how youth of color are punished and criminalized by authorities even under the situation where there is no crimes committed and how it can cause a harmful consequence for the young man and their community in Oakland, California. The goal is to show the consequences of social control on the lives of young people of color and try to remind the authorities. This is important Since society plays a crucial part in shaping the lives of people. And the authorities have biases towards them and mistreat
In order to understand the current situation of Puerto Ricans one must look at their history and retrace the sequence of events that led to the current formation of the Puerto Rican people. An important component of this history is the time Puerto Rico spent under Spanish rule. Studying this portion of Puerto Rican history forces us to acknowledge the contribution the Spaniards, European immigrants, and African slaves had on Puerto Rican identity as we consider it today. This also addresses contemporary debates on Puerto Rican identity. An example of this is evident in an essay written by Jose Luis Gonzales entitled "Puerto Rico : Th Four Storied Country". In the article Gonzales points out what he feels is a disregard toward the African contribution to the Puerto Rican identity. He argues that the first Puerto Ricans were black , based on his interpretation that Africans were the first group to come to Puerto Rico and reproduce who did not have ties to a "motherland" because they were slaves. This is unlike the Spaniard elites and Criolles that demonstrated their commitment and loyalty to Spain. Since they had no other place to go, Puerto Rico was their motherland. Gonzalez also points out that the culture of a region is always the culture of the elite, not the popular culture.
He described the theory as having the capability of exposing the links between drug abuse, crime and violence, referred to as cultural resistance, and ‘white’ people’s refusal to accept entry-level jobs with minimum wage in the inner city, thus leaving it to the Puerto Rican residents (seen as the inferior race in this article) to occupy these job vacancies (an example of self-reinforced marginalization). As a result, this is reflected into high crime and drug addiction rates, and intra-community violence (Bourgois,
The Cocaine Kids focuses on the lives of eight Latino and black young cocaine dealers in New York City from 1982 to 1986. This...
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
...haviors he so wishes to comprehend are those whom he labels as The Cocaine Kids. Now that examples of these drug sellers’ behaviors have been provided, the criminological theories that can explain such behaviors have been made visible to the unseen eye. Criminological theories including the theory of Differential Association, the Subculture of Violence Theory, and the Social Learning Theory can be viewed as methods for developing a knowledgeable understanding of how and why such behaviors introduced individuals to the drug-selling world, kept them submerge deep within it, and allowed for them to leave it.
The book asks two questions; first, why the changes that have taken place on the sidewalk over the past 40 years have occurred? Focusing on the concentration of poverty in some areas, people movement from one place to the other and how the people working/or living on Sixth Avenue come from such neighborhoods. Second, How the sidewalk life works today? By looking at the mainly poor black men, who work as book and magazine vendors, and/or live on the sidewalk of an upper-middle-class neighborhood. The book follows the lives of several men who work as book and magazine vendors in Greenwich Village during the 1990s, where mos...
Surprisingly, little has been written about the historical significance of black gangs in Los Angeles (LA). Literature and firsthand interviews with Los Angeles residents seem to point to three significant periods relevant to the development of the contemporary black gangs. The first period, which followed WWII and significant black migrations from the South, is when the first major black clubs formed. After the Watts rebellion of 1965, the second period gave way to the civil rights period of Los Angeles where blacks, including those who where former club members who became politically active for the remainder of the 1960s. By the early 1970s black street gangs began to reemerge. By 1972, the Crips were firmly established and the Bloods were beginning to organize. This period saw the rise of LA’s newest gangs, which continued to grow during the 1970s, and later formed in several other cities throughout the United States by the 1990s. While black gangs do not make up the largest or most active gang population in Los Angeles today, their influence on street gang culture nationally has been profound.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
The reason with the old ways do not work, Alexander say, is because “self-destructive drug users are responding in a tragic, but understandable way” (226). It is not their drug- problem that caused the dislocation, but the dislocation that cause the drug problem. He uses the term dislocation to describe the lack of integration with “family, community, society and spiritual values” (226). Alexander goes on to explain that history proves that inability to achieve health opportunities can take on the form of violence, and damaging drug use. Therefore, the “drug problem” (226) is not the problem. The problem is more the “pattern of response to prolong dislocation” (226). Alexander supports this by explaining the reason for the dislocation as being globalized by a society that is market driven which can only be established by the displacement of tradition, economy, and relationships. This has been seen in history before in England during the 19TH century, when “a brutal, export-oriented manufacturing system” was accompanied by work...
Currently there are about 600,000 people who live in the South Bronx and about 434,000 who live in Washington Heights and Harlem. This area makes up one of the most racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on racially segregated areas of poor people in the United States. In this book we focus on Mott Haven, a place where 48,0000 of the poorest people in the South Bronx live. Two thirds of the people are Hispanic, one-third is black and thirty-five percent are children. There are nearly four thousand heroin users, and one-fourth of the women who are tested are positive for HIV. All of this, and much more in one little area of the South Bronx. In the middle of all this chaos and confusion are children. Children who have daily drills on what to do if gunshots are heard, children who know someone who has died of AIDS, children who have seen someone been shot right in front of their face wondering if its their father, children who long to be sanitation workers, and children who die everyday. The lives of these children almost seem lost with depression, drugs, and death all around them.
It is not their drug- problem that causes the dislocation, but the dislocation that causes the drug problem. He uses the term dislocation to describe the lack of integration with “family, community, society and spiritual values” (226). Alexander goes on to explain that history proves that inability to achieve healthy opportunities can take on the form of violence and damaging drug use. The problem is more the “pattern of response to prolonged dislocation” (226). Therefore, the “drug problem” (226) is not the problem. Alexander supports this by explaining that the reason for the dislocation is driven by globalize society, which can only be established by the displacement of tradition, economy, and relationships. This has been seen in historically in England during the 19TH century, when “a brutal, export-oriented manufacturing system” was accompanied by workhouses and shanty
Drugs cause an overall disturbance in a subjects’ physiological, psychological and emotional health. “At the individual level, drug abuse creates health hazards for the user, affecting the educational and general development of youths in particular” (“Fresh Challenge”). In youth specifically, drug abuse can be triggered by factors such as: a parent’s abusive behavior, poor social skills, family history of alcoholism or substance abuse, the divorce of parents or guardians, poverty, the death of a loved one, or even because they are being bullied at school (“Drugs, brains, and behavior”) .