In Search of Respect

Philippe Bourgois

an anthropologist who worked among crack dealers in Spanish Harlem between 1985-1990. In "Selling Crack in Spanish Harlem," he described a "culture of resistance" to mainstream society that had developed in the neighborhood

Cocaine & crack use

Cocaine and crack, in particular during the mid-1980s and through the early 1990s, followed by heroin in the mid-1990s, have been the fastest growing—if not the only—equal opportunity employers of men in Harlem.

what do you think that Philippe Bourgois is attempting to accomplish with In Search of Respect, his ethnography of crack dealers in East Harlem?

explores the extent of the crack trade and the underground economy In East Harlem

Describe two ways in which the puerto ricans appear to operate according to a market logic

crack trade is fundamentally like any other business, "overwhelmingly routine and tedious' except for the constant danger surrounding it.

The people of El Barrio seem to be quite business savvy; Ray is considered a "brilliant labour relations manager" and controls his displays of affection, use of violence and family relations in order to create personalized transaction

how does the market economy diverge from this economic form?

sign of its residents' economic isolation and cultural rejection. This underground business is purely informally run; there is no involvement from other institutions, which unlike several legal businesses have.

barriers that Philippe Bourgois encountered in attempting to conduct ethnographic research into the crack scene in 'El Barrio'?

suspicious nature of Phillipe and his legitimacy and loyalty towards the puerto ricans. This example demonstrated the racial divide between the U.S. and how threatening it is when someone like bourgeois challenges the structure.

How did Bourgois overcome some of these barriers?

bourgeois shows a picture of himself in the newspaper to prove his "credibility" as a "real professor

What does Bourgois barriers say about ethnography?

ethnography is always a two-way encounter between the researcher and the subject. Each side is encountering a new culture and making sense of it on their own cultural terms before beginning to learn the language of the other culture.

According to Bourgois, why do the crack dealers in El Barrio fail to make it in the 'legit' economy?

'cultural dislocation' in the El Barrio community. Decline of New York's manufacturing industry. If working class youth residents in El Barrio wanted to move upward, they often had to start as entry-level workers. El Barrio residents were only eligible for the worst jobs and often had trouble maintain them. For El Barrio residents, again, the deficit in their abilities and the rift between mainstream and underground economies intervenes to block their success. Racism and a lack of cultural capital most definitely gets in the way, preventing El Barrio residents from getting the start they desperately need.

what ways have the crack dealers of El Barrio been socialised into violence and criminality? (Primo example)

adolescents in the El Barrio they are given a license by their parents, schools, and communities to go through a rebellious phase. For Primo, school and his family were entirely separated. He felt torn between his mother and school-system - who both did not understand one another, and both assumed their authority were absolute - it makes sense that primo rejects both and acts out.

How was caeser socialised into violence?

He grew up with his grandmother, and so frequently moved school, where he got into bad fights. Caesar's grandmother was abusive, publicly beating both caeser and Eddie. Both caeser and Eddie learnt from their families to address problems through violence. Rather than pay attention to their situations or attempt to teach them otherwise, the school system increasingly treated them as lost causes and menaces to society.

what ways is patriarchy 'in crisis' in El Barrio?

- women are actually slowly gaining rights and power in El Barrio, despite the horrific violence they continue to face.

- economy transition from manufacturing to the service industry, meaning that the women can now be just as successful as the men at the lower levels of the corporate hierarchy.

- · ..."macho-proletarian dream of working an eight-hour shift plus overtime throughout their adult... been replaced by the nightmare of poorly paid, highly feminized, office-support service work."

How does the case study of Candy exemplify this patriarchy 'In crisis'?

- after facing several years constantly living in fear of her husband, who would beat and mistreat her, she finally gets fed up with Felix's abuse and shoots him, undergoing a complete transformation, inverting the gender roles that had always confined her, performing masculinity 'better' than her husband ever could. - · "little that is triumphantly matriarchal or matrifocal about this arrangement."

How do Puerto Ricans and other Latinos/Latinas fit into the American 'racial order'?

It's also apparent to see racial identification/categories amongst the Latino community, by which predictions about one's 'race' is split into three categories: white, non-white, and refused to answer.

- 'In search of respect' for example Primo argues that "The depth and overwhelming pain and terror of the experience of poverty and racism in the United States needs to be talked about openly and confronted squarely, even if that makes us uncomfortable".

How have the life experiences of Puerto Ricans in 'El Barrio' have been shaped by the colonial relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States?

- poverty in El Barrio was the product of a number of emerging historical elements.

- El barrio families had been conquered and displaced for generations.

- enslaved by the Spanish, and then forced to work on rural plantations that were taken over by the United States.

- American politics were also a leading contributor towards the historical relationship between Puerto rico and the U.S.A—treating poverty as an individual element rather than a systematic problem.

- e.g. "New York-born Puerto Ricans are the descendants of an uprooted people in the midst of a marathon sprint through economic history."

structural violence

slow, continual, diffused, invisible until you see the effects (poverty, racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, colonialism)

culture of poverty

elites looked at poor people and said it was due to their choices

culture of terror

Mainstream US culture has left many immigrant groups and people of color on the outside and without opportunities.

It is not the result of their own faulty culture that poor people are poor. It is the result of a mainstream cultural and economic system that actively excludes them.

One reason Ray is successful kingpin in the drug business is he:

skillfully manipulates kinship networks to ensure loyalty of his workers

Kinship Organizations

men are the believed heads of the household due to PR cultureWomen are slowly changing the culture in the next generations: women their leave their abusive husbandsSome women are even becoming the full breadwinners of the houseMen/women participate in the drug dealing together as a family

Define "agency"

the capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices.

Define "structure"

the recurrent pattern of arrangements which limit or influence the choices or opportunities available.

How do you think Bourgois' ethnography balances "structure" and "agency"

He wants to show that the people in El barrio have limited structural opportunities from bad school district to low income jobs that limit the choices available to them.

What are functions of street

How come Ray was unable to be an entrepreneur successful in legal work?

Not only did he lack the cultural capital, his street skills made him appear to be incompetent.

issues brought by Bourgois' ethnography

- "righteous fear that hostile readers will misconstrue my ethnography as "giving the poor a bad name.''

- distinguishing the "worthy" from the "unworthy" poor, and of blaming individuals for their failings.

- · "Don't study the poor and powerless because everything you say about them will be used against them.

Primo's position (&example)

- · "confrontation between their sense of cultural dignity versus the humiliating interpersonal subordination of service work."

- · "They hear my voice, and they stop...There's a silence on the other end of the line."

Bourgois' quote on cultural capital

"different "cultural capitals" needed to operate as a private entrepreneur in the legal economy versus the underground economy."

Bourgois' street culture quote

"street culture emerges out of a personal search for dignity and a rejection of racism and subjugation, it becomes an active agent in personal degradation and community ruin".

Racialisation quote

"whites residing in the neighbourhood are probably safer than their African-American and Puerto Rican neighbours"... "assume whites are either police officers or drug addicts—or both—and hesitate before assaulting them."

Influence of drugs quote

"Everybody is doing it. It is almost impossible to make friends who are not addicts"