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Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences
In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio
Philippe Bourgois's ethnographic study of social marginalization in inner-city America, won critical acclaim when it was 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 roughest ghetto neighborhoods--East Harlem. This new edition adds a prologue describing the major dynamics that have altered life on the streets of East Harlem in the seven years since the first edition. In a new epilogue Bourgois brings up to date the stories of the people--Primo, Caesat, Luis, Tony, Candy--who readers come to know in this remarkable window onto the world of the inner city drug trade. Philippe Bourgois is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He has conducted fieldwork in Central America on ethnicity and social unrest and is the author of Ethnicity at Divided Labor on a Central American Banana Plantation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989). He is writing a book on homeless heroin addicts in San Francisco. 1/e hb ISBN (1996) 0-521-43518-8 1/e pb ISBN (1996) 0-521-57460-9
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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March 26, 2022
Este libro es una excelente etnografía acerca de la cultura callejera, la segregación y las desigualdades en el East Harlem, en Nueva York.
El antropólogo Philippe Bourgois se instala durante cuatro años con su familia en la "inner city" y allí comienza su relación con las y los migrantes portorriqueñas/os que viven de la venta de crack. A Bourgois no le interesa específicamente el problema de la comercialización de drogas, sino la búsqueda de las y los jóvenes de una oportunidad: la de cumplir el sueño americano, la de encontrar respetabilidad y dignidad a través de la economía ilegal.
En ese sentido es que el autor se detiene en las dimensiones que envuelven a la "cultura callejera", a la que ve como "(...) una red compleja y conflictiva de creencias, símbolos, formas de interacción, valores e ideologías que ha ido tomando forma como una respuesta a la exclusión de la sociedad convencional. La cultura de la calle erige un foro alternativo donde la dignidad personal puede manifestarse de manera autónoma" (Bourgois, 2010:38).
En este libro encontramos no sólo un análisis muy interesante de las formas en las que la pobreza estructural se manifiesta y de las resistencias que accionan quienes se encuentran atravesados/as por ella, sino también una muy buena reflexión ética del investigador. Bourgois es muy sincero en relación a las contradicciones que le generan algunos de los códigos y prácticas de estas culturas, la violencia que muchas/os jóvenes migrantes naturalizan y ejercen. Sin embargo, se permite pensarlas como vinculadas a un conjunto de elementos más estructurales, dentro de los cuales las políticas públicas, la segregación, el racismo y las desigualdades tienen un rol fundamental. Esta forma de abordaje también supone una crítica a aquellas posturas que asocian determinados fenómenos sólo a los comportamientos individuales o a la psiquis de las personas.
Pese a ser un libro académico, su lectura es amena y accesible y permite el acercamiento a una serie de problematizaciones acerca de la pobreza urbana, las migraciones, la cultura, la violencia y las resistencias que es extremadamente interesante.
¡Realmente recomendable!
Link a una breve entrevista: https://youtu.be/rlH481oh4cA
El antropólogo Philippe Bourgois se instala durante cuatro años con su familia en la "inner city" y allí comienza su relación con las y los migrantes portorriqueñas/os que viven de la venta de crack. A Bourgois no le interesa específicamente el problema de la comercialización de drogas, sino la búsqueda de las y los jóvenes de una oportunidad: la de cumplir el sueño americano, la de encontrar respetabilidad y dignidad a través de la economía ilegal.
En ese sentido es que el autor se detiene en las dimensiones que envuelven a la "cultura callejera", a la que ve como "(...) una red compleja y conflictiva de creencias, símbolos, formas de interacción, valores e ideologías que ha ido tomando forma como una respuesta a la exclusión de la sociedad convencional. La cultura de la calle erige un foro alternativo donde la dignidad personal puede manifestarse de manera autónoma" (Bourgois, 2010:38).
En este libro encontramos no sólo un análisis muy interesante de las formas en las que la pobreza estructural se manifiesta y de las resistencias que accionan quienes se encuentran atravesados/as por ella, sino también una muy buena reflexión ética del investigador. Bourgois es muy sincero en relación a las contradicciones que le generan algunos de los códigos y prácticas de estas culturas, la violencia que muchas/os jóvenes migrantes naturalizan y ejercen. Sin embargo, se permite pensarlas como vinculadas a un conjunto de elementos más estructurales, dentro de los cuales las políticas públicas, la segregación, el racismo y las desigualdades tienen un rol fundamental. Esta forma de abordaje también supone una crítica a aquellas posturas que asocian determinados fenómenos sólo a los comportamientos individuales o a la psiquis de las personas.
Pese a ser un libro académico, su lectura es amena y accesible y permite el acercamiento a una serie de problematizaciones acerca de la pobreza urbana, las migraciones, la cultura, la violencia y las resistencias que es extremadamente interesante.
¡Realmente recomendable!
Link a una breve entrevista: https://youtu.be/rlH481oh4cA
August 6, 2011
An incredible ethnography about life in the Puerto Rican slums in New York. Bourgois has done something very brave in observing and interviewing these people who struggle against prejudice, ignorance, inequality, crime and drug addictions over the period of 4 years, living amoungst them and learning more than perhapes any outsider had before.
Nothing has been held back, and we experience through these people how drugs have ruined lives and the harsh realities of the barrio, including rape and assult. Also revealed is how a drug user becomes stuck in their ways often due to prejudice against them, trapped and unable to better their situation without external help.
When reading this however, you absolutely must keep an open mind, as with all cultures different from our own, some things may seem normal to them but horrific to us. It is also best to reserve judgement until you have read the entire thing, as it is easy to cast off a drug user as a never-do-well, but this really becomes heart warming and gives you a new perspective for how hard these people have it. I could go on, but it is actually very hard for me to pin down this book in a review, but I certainly recommend this book to people who are interested in the truth.
This ethnography may be even more important now, as anthropologists are no longer allowed to work in such dangerous situations, making this a one of a kind work.
Nothing has been held back, and we experience through these people how drugs have ruined lives and the harsh realities of the barrio, including rape and assult. Also revealed is how a drug user becomes stuck in their ways often due to prejudice against them, trapped and unable to better their situation without external help.
When reading this however, you absolutely must keep an open mind, as with all cultures different from our own, some things may seem normal to them but horrific to us. It is also best to reserve judgement until you have read the entire thing, as it is easy to cast off a drug user as a never-do-well, but this really becomes heart warming and gives you a new perspective for how hard these people have it. I could go on, but it is actually very hard for me to pin down this book in a review, but I certainly recommend this book to people who are interested in the truth.
This ethnography may be even more important now, as anthropologists are no longer allowed to work in such dangerous situations, making this a one of a kind work.
October 21, 2014
The problem with this kind of book, which at once seeks to portray the lives of totally irresponsible and bizarrely childlike predators and elicit sympathy for said rapist/ child abuser/ immoral jerk-offs, is that these people do not deserve sympathy. 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.
February 8, 2016
A very important book because it successfully demonstrates how the crack-cocaine-heroine epidemic of the late 80's/early 90's was brought on in part by the collapse of the urban job market. In other words, the factory jobs that Puerto Rican immigrants relied on for maintaining traditional family structures and reinforcing patriarchal cultural norms were shipped overseas, thus catalyzing the rise of an underground street economy that not only paid its workers better than entry level minimum wage jobs but also validated new generations of Puerto Rican men by allowing them to develop an alternative mode for fulfilling their culture's masculine gender roles. The men profiled in this ethnography are unlikable anti-heroes (cocaine sniffing, gang-raping deadbeats, for the most part), but many of their flaws seem to be the product of their social conditioning, the result of larger structural violence that only allows its victims to perform gender and cultural roles in the most superficial and self-destructive ways.
December 12, 2016
Bourgois writes a powerful ethnography about people entwined with substance abuse in East Harlem. He writes an empathetic, at the same time critical, view of self-destructiveness and violence normalised in the daily lives of Puerto Ricans in New York. It provides a detailed account of the different forces enmeshed with and directed real lives of real people - giving a human face behind those considered a pathological, exoticised 'statistic'. Apart from having a highly nuanced theorising, this is perhaps one of the books that elicited so much emotions in me - a testament to the good writing that Bourgois had rendered his ethnography. I really have nothing to fault it with.
February 13, 2009
This work is an impressive ethnographic account of the East Harlem community in the 80s. Bourgois embeds himself (he brings his wife and kid with him to live in the middle of El Barrio for 3+ years) into the crack selling culture in El Barrio.
Bourgois's central argument is that cycles of poverty in the United States exist and persist because of huge structural inequities. He very clearly portrays real life examples of how incentives for criminal activities and disincentives to join the legal economy reinforce these cycles of poverty, destruction, and despair. As these inequities persist, future generations that grow up in this environment of limited opportunities propogate this trap.
The title is very informative. To Bourgois, everyone seeks respect. And when presented with the choice of having money to feed the family and pay the rent through illicit sources versus working a dead-end job that garners no respect or prospects of upward mobility, the choice to make is very clear.
Bourgois rails against solutions that superficially takes on the problems in El Barrio. For example, he is critical on the War on drugs argues that the drug epidemic is not THE problem itself, but instead a symptom of the deeper problem. Bourgois likewise argues that the call for more paternal responsibility (interestingly, as Obama and Bill Cosby have done)is shortsighted, because in fact many families are better off without the abusive, drug-dealing father around.
As a believer that on the whole, people don't fail, societies around them fail, Bourgois just reinforces my beliefs, but I wonder if this book is a Rorscharch Test of sorts. I wonder if conservatives read this book, they will focus on the individual failures and lack of personal responsibility.
All in all, it's a solid book that won't provide too many new ideas to those with liberal views, but would be a nice fresh perspective to those with more conservative stances.
Bourgois's central argument is that cycles of poverty in the United States exist and persist because of huge structural inequities. He very clearly portrays real life examples of how incentives for criminal activities and disincentives to join the legal economy reinforce these cycles of poverty, destruction, and despair. As these inequities persist, future generations that grow up in this environment of limited opportunities propogate this trap.
The title is very informative. To Bourgois, everyone seeks respect. And when presented with the choice of having money to feed the family and pay the rent through illicit sources versus working a dead-end job that garners no respect or prospects of upward mobility, the choice to make is very clear.
Bourgois rails against solutions that superficially takes on the problems in El Barrio. For example, he is critical on the War on drugs argues that the drug epidemic is not THE problem itself, but instead a symptom of the deeper problem. Bourgois likewise argues that the call for more paternal responsibility (interestingly, as Obama and Bill Cosby have done)is shortsighted, because in fact many families are better off without the abusive, drug-dealing father around.
As a believer that on the whole, people don't fail, societies around them fail, Bourgois just reinforces my beliefs, but I wonder if this book is a Rorscharch Test of sorts. I wonder if conservatives read this book, they will focus on the individual failures and lack of personal responsibility.
All in all, it's a solid book that won't provide too many new ideas to those with liberal views, but would be a nice fresh perspective to those with more conservative stances.
June 29, 2026
Philippe Bourgois' ethnography in the heart of El Barrio (East Harlem) brings some of the most shocking and revealing facts about culture shock. Befriending crack and heroin using Puerto Ricans that roam the streets and live by the underground economy that pulses in El Barrio, Philippe Bourgois shows that there's so much more than what the eye can see. By deciding to bring his wife and kid to live in a sector where you cannot take a step forward without cracking vials that once carried a substance by which many couldn't live a day without, he was able to learn that policies shouldn't only be focused on the individual and their problems. He shows that the problem is a lot more grand and that everything is the result of a more societal issue that spans over countless years.
Shown through the rooted racism and the dramatic change in economy, Philippe Bourgois manages to bring to light the difficulty to put together street culture with the traditional working-class culture. While the author spends countless hours in trying to understand the lives of a couple of Puerto Ricans who are well embedded in the drug market, he also manages to make us empathize with these individuals even when we find out about all the horrible things that they end up doing (ranging from brutalizing their wives to gang-rapping teenagers). This very book is far from being just an ethnography. It is an account of two different realities that brings individuals to a normalized self-destruction. While the ethnography isn't meant to set in stone a macrolevel analysis, it however manages to make us question some the most fundamental values of society.
Struggling to fit in and live an economically stable life, Puerto Ricans are brought to hunt for something much bigger than just money. They are looking for something to justify their very lifestyles.
They are in search of respect.
Shown through the rooted racism and the dramatic change in economy, Philippe Bourgois manages to bring to light the difficulty to put together street culture with the traditional working-class culture. While the author spends countless hours in trying to understand the lives of a couple of Puerto Ricans who are well embedded in the drug market, he also manages to make us empathize with these individuals even when we find out about all the horrible things that they end up doing (ranging from brutalizing their wives to gang-rapping teenagers). This very book is far from being just an ethnography. It is an account of two different realities that brings individuals to a normalized self-destruction. While the ethnography isn't meant to set in stone a macrolevel analysis, it however manages to make us question some the most fundamental values of society.
Struggling to fit in and live an economically stable life, Puerto Ricans are brought to hunt for something much bigger than just money. They are looking for something to justify their very lifestyles.
They are in search of respect.
June 15, 2019
"This book's argument is that people like Primo and Caesar have not passively accepted their structural victimhood. On the contrary, by embroiling themselves in the underground economy and proudly embracing street culture, they are seeking an alternative to their social marginalization. In the process, on a daily level, they become the actual agents administering their own destruction and they community's suffering."
This was a courageous and thoughtful attempt to gain insight into the question of structure versus agency in causing inner-city blight. The author moved to Spanish Harlem in the mid-90s and befriended a gang of crack dealers. The book is worth finding for chapter 4 alone, on the dealers' rancorous attempts to hold onto legal office work. Chapter 5 on their failed schooling and, shockingly, on the prevalence of gang-rape is also pretty essential, appalling reading.
The author shows how migration of large numbers of poor Puerto Ricans to New York City during a period of deindustrialization, combined with the rise of crack cocaine and the persistence of racial and cultural barriers, produced a generation of people shut out of dependable avenues for supporting themselves legally. In place of employment and self-respect, came dealing, aggression, poverty, sexual violence and a desperate yearning of the young men to make it big somehow.
The figures in the book could not overcome the structure they were born into, but we get little sense of how typical they were of the community as a whole. It would have been good to have heard from some people who did make it out: how did they overcome the barriers?
This was a courageous and thoughtful attempt to gain insight into the question of structure versus agency in causing inner-city blight. The author moved to Spanish Harlem in the mid-90s and befriended a gang of crack dealers. The book is worth finding for chapter 4 alone, on the dealers' rancorous attempts to hold onto legal office work. Chapter 5 on their failed schooling and, shockingly, on the prevalence of gang-rape is also pretty essential, appalling reading.
The author shows how migration of large numbers of poor Puerto Ricans to New York City during a period of deindustrialization, combined with the rise of crack cocaine and the persistence of racial and cultural barriers, produced a generation of people shut out of dependable avenues for supporting themselves legally. In place of employment and self-respect, came dealing, aggression, poverty, sexual violence and a desperate yearning of the young men to make it big somehow.
The figures in the book could not overcome the structure they were born into, but we get little sense of how typical they were of the community as a whole. It would have been good to have heard from some people who did make it out: how did they overcome the barriers?
December 15, 2007
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 mentions a great deal about social issues including poverty, drugs, sex and racism.
March 30, 2022
4.5/5
This book was hard to read at times, but I'm glad that Bourgois didn't sanitize the experiences or dialogue of the people in the book. It's interesting to think about the line between blaming the individual versus blaming their environment, and I like how Bourgois talked about his own qualms upon hearing all the disturbing things that his 'friends' had done. It's sad that this book was written in 1995, yet many of the public policy recommendations he gave (i.e. universal healthcare and decriminalizing drugs) have still not been implemented nationwide.
This book was hard to read at times, but I'm glad that Bourgois didn't sanitize the experiences or dialogue of the people in the book. It's interesting to think about the line between blaming the individual versus blaming their environment, and I like how Bourgois talked about his own qualms upon hearing all the disturbing things that his 'friends' had done. It's sad that this book was written in 1995, yet many of the public policy recommendations he gave (i.e. universal healthcare and decriminalizing drugs) have still not been implemented nationwide.
September 19, 2024
I read some segments of this for my IB Anthropology course, but read it for the first time cover to cover now in my uni course.
First of all, I think I was a bit hard on Bourgois in high school - I still think he can occasionally project his middle-class Western views and not truly relate to the drug dealer's exposure to racist humiliation in the legal economy, but that is ultimately impossible for him due to his background. I think chapter 4 was the only one where I had an issue with how Bourgois' handled his argument. However, his political economist understanding of the issue in relation to the historical context of colonisation/militarisation of Puerto Rico, mass immigration and a changing economy in a post-industrial New York is fundamental to grasp the situation his subjects are in. When he combines this with a feminist lens and Bourdieu's theory of capital, I feel like he does get a holistic representation of this structurally marginalised group. I cannot even imagine how much work and thought and pain he has put into this. I would also support his unfiltered depiction of violence because this is their reality. If white people cannot handle the fact that violence, abuse and rape happens outside of their own bubble, it demonstrates that they still believe ignorance is bliss and would rather turn a blind eye to inequalities, no matter how they are perpetuated in society. Because it is ultimately the power discrepancies between the hegemonic Anglo-American middle/upper class and the structurally marginalised groups in society that are the fundamental reasons for drug abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse to occur within marginalised groups. We need to know what happens to know why it happens - and vice versa.
The ongoing violence between Puerto Ricans, as well as between Black Americans, Italian immigrants and Mexican immigrants was also quite illustrative for one of Fanon's points in "The Wretched of the Earth", regarding how colonially exploited groups of people have internalised the anger and violence that white people has projected towards them, both individually and systematically, which in turn is physically manifested against other marginalised groups. The "untouched" white man was again demonstrated by how Bourgois was barely ever targeted in El Barrio compared to others around him, as well as how Primo liked to be around him because people would consider Bourgois to be an undercover cop or just really brave for hanging out in El Barrio.
Lastly, I found the conclusion quite brilliant as it gave very clear directions to how we can change this extremely deep rooted issue of structural marginalisation and violence. It has been 30 years now and I do not believe any of his suggestions have been implemented in society. The mere fact that the War on Drugs is still happening demonstrates the completely ineffective angle of attacking drug abuse and consequent violence and self-destruction within marginalised groups. Just like 2pac says, "Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me". The police still manifest this ideology, despite drugs being a consequence of poverty, NOT the other way around. It is not, however, a big surprise that white read history the wrong way, and I do not think it is coincidental that they enforce and maintain a "blame the victim" mentality when this ultimately maintains the hidden apartheid, thus secures their power, both nationally and globally,
First of all, I think I was a bit hard on Bourgois in high school - I still think he can occasionally project his middle-class Western views and not truly relate to the drug dealer's exposure to racist humiliation in the legal economy, but that is ultimately impossible for him due to his background. I think chapter 4 was the only one where I had an issue with how Bourgois' handled his argument. However, his political economist understanding of the issue in relation to the historical context of colonisation/militarisation of Puerto Rico, mass immigration and a changing economy in a post-industrial New York is fundamental to grasp the situation his subjects are in. When he combines this with a feminist lens and Bourdieu's theory of capital, I feel like he does get a holistic representation of this structurally marginalised group. I cannot even imagine how much work and thought and pain he has put into this. I would also support his unfiltered depiction of violence because this is their reality. If white people cannot handle the fact that violence, abuse and rape happens outside of their own bubble, it demonstrates that they still believe ignorance is bliss and would rather turn a blind eye to inequalities, no matter how they are perpetuated in society. Because it is ultimately the power discrepancies between the hegemonic Anglo-American middle/upper class and the structurally marginalised groups in society that are the fundamental reasons for drug abuse, domestic violence and sexual abuse to occur within marginalised groups. We need to know what happens to know why it happens - and vice versa.
The ongoing violence between Puerto Ricans, as well as between Black Americans, Italian immigrants and Mexican immigrants was also quite illustrative for one of Fanon's points in "The Wretched of the Earth", regarding how colonially exploited groups of people have internalised the anger and violence that white people has projected towards them, both individually and systematically, which in turn is physically manifested against other marginalised groups. The "untouched" white man was again demonstrated by how Bourgois was barely ever targeted in El Barrio compared to others around him, as well as how Primo liked to be around him because people would consider Bourgois to be an undercover cop or just really brave for hanging out in El Barrio.
Lastly, I found the conclusion quite brilliant as it gave very clear directions to how we can change this extremely deep rooted issue of structural marginalisation and violence. It has been 30 years now and I do not believe any of his suggestions have been implemented in society. The mere fact that the War on Drugs is still happening demonstrates the completely ineffective angle of attacking drug abuse and consequent violence and self-destruction within marginalised groups. Just like 2pac says, "Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me". The police still manifest this ideology, despite drugs being a consequence of poverty, NOT the other way around. It is not, however, a big surprise that white read history the wrong way, and I do not think it is coincidental that they enforce and maintain a "blame the victim" mentality when this ultimately maintains the hidden apartheid, thus secures their power, both nationally and globally,
September 24, 2018
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 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.
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.
November 28, 2009
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. This is a priceless source for anyone working with marginalized communities and/or graduate sociology students.
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.) are proposed; but working toward these solutions is not accessible to those who are not in positions of power, and so are less viable in the short term. 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.
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.) are proposed; but working toward these solutions is not accessible to those who are not in positions of power, and so are less viable in the short term. 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.
August 1, 2013
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 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.
April 28, 2019
It is the ethnography’s goal of conveying the information about a certain culture that can make it a very difficult task for its writer to bring across the data collected in an interesting fashion. 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.
June 12, 2009
My favorite passage: "The vigor of the crack-cocaine economy during the late 1980s and early 1990s was largely the result of an aggressive federal drug policy prioritizing the criminal repression of smuggling. Sometime in the early to mid-1980s, marijuana importers working the Latin American supply routes adapted to the escalating levels of search-and-seizure they were facing at U.S. borders by switching from transporting marijuana to trafficking in cocaine. 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. U.S. inner cities consequently were flooded with high-purity cocaine at bargain prices shortly after the federal government increased drug interdiction efforts." (pp74-75)
Good job, Nancy Reagan!
Good job, Nancy Reagan!
July 19, 2018
Este es, sin duda, el mejor trabajo etnográfico que he leído hasta el momento. Un abordaje complejo, comprensivo y riguroso. No aborda solamente el tema del micro tráfico de la droga en la "inner city" estadounidense, sino también el entramado de causas y consecuencias: la migración (particularmente la puertoriqueña), la debilidad de los lazos familiares, la cultura de la violencia, las construcción de masculinidades, las trayectorias criminales, los espacios sociales y la reproducción social (con una centralidad muy importante, por ejemplo, en la escuela); y las múltiples formas de desigualdad y exclusión social.
Recomendación ineludible para cualquier persona interesada en las ciencias sociales o en quienes quisieran ir más allá de los tópicos y lugares comunes sobre la migración, las drogas y la violencia.
Recomendación ineludible para cualquier persona interesada en las ciencias sociales o en quienes quisieran ir más allá de los tópicos y lugares comunes sobre la migración, las drogas y la violencia.
December 10, 2013
A very personal look at the intimate lives of crack dealers in Harlem. The authors manner of representation doesn't come off as preachy of any perspective and just presents the information as is for the reader to absorb. The most interesting illumination is how a crack dealer's occupation isn't much more rewarding than minimum wage, though one thing it offers is sure employment. It's a sad socioeconomic cycle in which no one is completely victim nor criminal, an environment where one can't help but get their hands dirty in order to survive. Just for the sake of mentioning though, the part where Burgois talks about closing his eyes and thinking about a "jibarro time warp" was just odd to me.
July 3, 2023
«The inner city represents the United States' greatest domestic failing, hanging like a Damocles sword over the larger society. Ironically, the only force preventing this suspended sword from falling is that drug dealers, addicts, and street criminals internalize their rage and desperation. They direct their brutality against themselves and their immediate community rather than against their structural oppressors.»
May 7, 2026
Very interesting! But it made me hate men even more...
July 5, 2026
“Unconscious self-censorship shapes the research settings and subjects researchers choose to study.”
“I remember with relief when he began greeting me, once again, with his usual question, "How's that book comin' Felipe? Finished yet?" thereby communicating to everyone within earshot that I had his formal permission to be prying into his personal business.”
“Hey, white boy! Come ovah’ hea’h.” For the next fifteen minutes I found myself shouted at, cursed, and generally humiliated in front of a growing crowd of crack dealer/addict spectators. My mistake was trying to tell the police officers the truth when they asked me, “What the hell you doin’ hea’h?” When they heard me explain I was an anthropologist studying poverty and marginalization, one of them exploded:
“What kind of a fuckin' moron do you think I am. You think I don't know what you're doin'? You think I'm stupid? You're bab-bling, you fuckin' drug addict. You're dirty white scum! Go buy your drugs in a white neighborhood! If you don't get the hell out of here right now, motherfucka, you're gonna hafta repeat your story in the precinct. You want me to take you in? Hunh? . . .
Hunh? Answer me motherfucka'!”
“Over the past two or three generations their parents and grandparents went: (1) from semisubsistence peasants on private hillside plots or local haciendas; (2) to agricultural laborers on foreign-owned, capital-intensive agro-export plantations; (3) to factory workers in export-platform shantytowns; (4) to sweatshop workers in ghetto tenements; (5) to service sector employees in high-rise inner-city housing projects; (6) to underground economy entrepreneurs on the street.”
“The intimate details of the lives of the crack dealers and their families cannot be understood in a historical vacuum. Puerto Rican immigrants in New York City need to be placed in the context of their grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ oppressive colonial history. Primo may not be aware they had probably been small farmers who were forced to become seasonal sugar cane laborers when U.S. multinational companies took over Puerto Rico’s rural economy. He is aware, however, of the mass emigration that followed, like Primo’s mother who, at the age of seventeen, had to abandon her plantation shack in the cane fields to rent an apartment in East Harlem and find work in the inner-city sweatshops. Since 1952 the Island is subject to U.S. rule, but its residents are not allowed to vote in presidential elections and have no representatives in the U.S. Congress.”
“When confronted with a pregnant friend frantically smoking crack - and possibly condemning her future baby to a life of shattered emotions and dulled brain cells - it did no good for me to remember the history of her people's colonial oppression and humiliation, or to contextualize her position in New York's changing economy. Living in the inferno of what the United States calls its "underclass," I, like my neighbors around me and like the pregnant crack addicts themselves, often blamed the victim.”
“I do not know if it is possible for me to present the story of my three and a half years of residence in El Barrio without falling prey to a pornography of violence, or a racist voyeurism - ultimately the problem and the responsibility is also in the eyes of the beholder.”
“Ray at that very moment was debating whether or not to have Luis - his fellow rapist, childhood friend, and employee - killed rather than having to spend money on legal fees following Luis's recent arrest while delivering a bundle of crack to the Game Room crackhouse. Coincidentally, the cost of a murder contract was the same as the fee demanded by Luis's X lawyer: $3,000.”
“Selling high-volume, inexpensive products is an inherently boring undertaking that requires honest, disciplined workers in order to be successful. It is only the omnipresent danger, the high profit margin, and the desperate tone of addiction that prevent crack dealing from becoming overwhelmingly routine, and tedious.”
“20 percent more people lived on their premises than were officially reported in the official rolls. In El Barrio as a whole 36 percent of all men were “missed.””
“It is a racist “common sense” that persuades whites, and middle-class outsiders of all colors, that it is too dangerous for them to venture into poor African-American or Latino neighborhoods. For instance, when I moved to East Harlem, virtually all of my friends, whether white, black or Latino, berated me for being crazy and irresponsible. Indeed, most people still consider me crazy and irresponsible for having “forced” my wife and infant son to live for three and a half years in an East Harlem tenement.”
“Felipe, people think you’re a fed if anything. But that’s good; it makes them stay away from you. But then again, some people also think, “he’s white and he’s in the neighborhood, so he must be crazy.” If they didn’t, they’d just come up to you and crack you in the face and take your wallet. You’re lucky. Look at me, I’m Puerto Rican. If I was to walk in, they would figure, “we could beat the shit out of this dude.” They might think I got to be crazy or something but they will test me or kick my ass.”
“The contemporary street sensitivity to being dissed immediately emerges in memories of office humiliation. The machismo of street culture exacerbates the sense of insult experienced by men because the majority of office supervisors at the entry level are women. Hence the constant references to bosses and supervisors being “bitches” or “ho’s” and the frequent judgmental descriptions of their bodies.”
“Institutional racism at work in how the professional service sector unconsciously imposes the requisites of Anglo, middle-class cultural capital.”
“Primo’s boss forbade him to answer the telephone, because objectively a Puerto Rican street accent will discourage prospective clients.”
“Caesar was hurt when his supervisor accused him of “looking like a hoodlum” on the days when he thought he was actually dressing well. Losing this particular struggle over cultural capital has to be profoundly disorienting to the kind of person whose fly clothes on the street have always made him “king of the crew.”
“The entire foundation of street culture and the unwillingness of people like Primo and Caesar to compromise their street identity is a refusal to accept marginalization in the mainstream professional world.” Yes, this!!!
“Benzie: When I first met you, Felipe, I was wondering what the hell, but, of course, I received you good because you sounded interesting. Te recibi como amigo, con respeto.
But I thought maybe… you know… How you call it? That some people are bisexual. Even though you had a wife, I thought you was like… dirty. It was really ‘cause of the way you talk and ‘cause of the way you act. Always asking a lot of questions, and a lot of gay people be like that - you know, trying to find out the way you are.
Primo: (cutting Benzie short) Damn, shut up man! You’re going to give Felipe a complejo. (putting his arm over my shoulder) It was just ‘cause you was white. He was thinking, “Quién es éste blanquito!”
Philippe: So was it my accent? My voice? The way I move my body?
Benzie: Yeah, like your accent…
Primo: I told him you were an anfropologist, and the way you speak is just like intelligent talk. But man, when you talk Spanish, then you really be sounding different. You know, when you talk Spanish, you sound like an Español.”
Amazing, really!
“I remember with relief when he began greeting me, once again, with his usual question, "How's that book comin' Felipe? Finished yet?" thereby communicating to everyone within earshot that I had his formal permission to be prying into his personal business.”
“Hey, white boy! Come ovah’ hea’h.” For the next fifteen minutes I found myself shouted at, cursed, and generally humiliated in front of a growing crowd of crack dealer/addict spectators. My mistake was trying to tell the police officers the truth when they asked me, “What the hell you doin’ hea’h?” When they heard me explain I was an anthropologist studying poverty and marginalization, one of them exploded:
“What kind of a fuckin' moron do you think I am. You think I don't know what you're doin'? You think I'm stupid? You're bab-bling, you fuckin' drug addict. You're dirty white scum! Go buy your drugs in a white neighborhood! If you don't get the hell out of here right now, motherfucka, you're gonna hafta repeat your story in the precinct. You want me to take you in? Hunh? . . .
Hunh? Answer me motherfucka'!”
“Over the past two or three generations their parents and grandparents went: (1) from semisubsistence peasants on private hillside plots or local haciendas; (2) to agricultural laborers on foreign-owned, capital-intensive agro-export plantations; (3) to factory workers in export-platform shantytowns; (4) to sweatshop workers in ghetto tenements; (5) to service sector employees in high-rise inner-city housing projects; (6) to underground economy entrepreneurs on the street.”
“The intimate details of the lives of the crack dealers and their families cannot be understood in a historical vacuum. Puerto Rican immigrants in New York City need to be placed in the context of their grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ oppressive colonial history. Primo may not be aware they had probably been small farmers who were forced to become seasonal sugar cane laborers when U.S. multinational companies took over Puerto Rico’s rural economy. He is aware, however, of the mass emigration that followed, like Primo’s mother who, at the age of seventeen, had to abandon her plantation shack in the cane fields to rent an apartment in East Harlem and find work in the inner-city sweatshops. Since 1952 the Island is subject to U.S. rule, but its residents are not allowed to vote in presidential elections and have no representatives in the U.S. Congress.”
“When confronted with a pregnant friend frantically smoking crack - and possibly condemning her future baby to a life of shattered emotions and dulled brain cells - it did no good for me to remember the history of her people's colonial oppression and humiliation, or to contextualize her position in New York's changing economy. Living in the inferno of what the United States calls its "underclass," I, like my neighbors around me and like the pregnant crack addicts themselves, often blamed the victim.”
“I do not know if it is possible for me to present the story of my three and a half years of residence in El Barrio without falling prey to a pornography of violence, or a racist voyeurism - ultimately the problem and the responsibility is also in the eyes of the beholder.”
“Ray at that very moment was debating whether or not to have Luis - his fellow rapist, childhood friend, and employee - killed rather than having to spend money on legal fees following Luis's recent arrest while delivering a bundle of crack to the Game Room crackhouse. Coincidentally, the cost of a murder contract was the same as the fee demanded by Luis's X lawyer: $3,000.”
“Selling high-volume, inexpensive products is an inherently boring undertaking that requires honest, disciplined workers in order to be successful. It is only the omnipresent danger, the high profit margin, and the desperate tone of addiction that prevent crack dealing from becoming overwhelmingly routine, and tedious.”
“20 percent more people lived on their premises than were officially reported in the official rolls. In El Barrio as a whole 36 percent of all men were “missed.””
“It is a racist “common sense” that persuades whites, and middle-class outsiders of all colors, that it is too dangerous for them to venture into poor African-American or Latino neighborhoods. For instance, when I moved to East Harlem, virtually all of my friends, whether white, black or Latino, berated me for being crazy and irresponsible. Indeed, most people still consider me crazy and irresponsible for having “forced” my wife and infant son to live for three and a half years in an East Harlem tenement.”
“Felipe, people think you’re a fed if anything. But that’s good; it makes them stay away from you. But then again, some people also think, “he’s white and he’s in the neighborhood, so he must be crazy.” If they didn’t, they’d just come up to you and crack you in the face and take your wallet. You’re lucky. Look at me, I’m Puerto Rican. If I was to walk in, they would figure, “we could beat the shit out of this dude.” They might think I got to be crazy or something but they will test me or kick my ass.”
“The contemporary street sensitivity to being dissed immediately emerges in memories of office humiliation. The machismo of street culture exacerbates the sense of insult experienced by men because the majority of office supervisors at the entry level are women. Hence the constant references to bosses and supervisors being “bitches” or “ho’s” and the frequent judgmental descriptions of their bodies.”
“Institutional racism at work in how the professional service sector unconsciously imposes the requisites of Anglo, middle-class cultural capital.”
“Primo’s boss forbade him to answer the telephone, because objectively a Puerto Rican street accent will discourage prospective clients.”
“Caesar was hurt when his supervisor accused him of “looking like a hoodlum” on the days when he thought he was actually dressing well. Losing this particular struggle over cultural capital has to be profoundly disorienting to the kind of person whose fly clothes on the street have always made him “king of the crew.”
“The entire foundation of street culture and the unwillingness of people like Primo and Caesar to compromise their street identity is a refusal to accept marginalization in the mainstream professional world.” Yes, this!!!
“Benzie: When I first met you, Felipe, I was wondering what the hell, but, of course, I received you good because you sounded interesting. Te recibi como amigo, con respeto.
But I thought maybe… you know… How you call it? That some people are bisexual. Even though you had a wife, I thought you was like… dirty. It was really ‘cause of the way you talk and ‘cause of the way you act. Always asking a lot of questions, and a lot of gay people be like that - you know, trying to find out the way you are.
Primo: (cutting Benzie short) Damn, shut up man! You’re going to give Felipe a complejo. (putting his arm over my shoulder) It was just ‘cause you was white. He was thinking, “Quién es éste blanquito!”
Philippe: So was it my accent? My voice? The way I move my body?
Benzie: Yeah, like your accent…
Primo: I told him you were an anfropologist, and the way you speak is just like intelligent talk. But man, when you talk Spanish, then you really be sounding different. You know, when you talk Spanish, you sound like an Español.”
Amazing, really!
May 13, 2021
Este texto presenta el trabajo de campo del autor en la comunidad puertorriqueña del barrio de East Harlem de Nueva York durante la década de 1980. El trabajo muestra los horrores a los que se ven sometidos las clases más pobres en las grandes ciudades de los Estados Unidos, concretamente en este barrio de la ciudad neoyorquina. El autor describe estas situaciones inhumanas también a través de varias conversaciones entre los miembros de la comunidad bajo estudio.
Los puertorriqueños con los que se relaciona el autor tratan de salir adelante en sus vidas, como hacemos todos. Sin embargo, hay muchos condicionantes que les ponen las cosas bien difíciles. Esta comunidad corresponde a las 2ª y 3ª generaciones de puertorriqueños emigrantes en Nueva York. Sus padres y abuelos tuvieron que afrontar la también difícil situación de abandonar sus orígenes rurales en la isla de Puerto Rico para emprender una nueva vida en la ciudad neoyorquina. Mientras sus antecesores tuvieron acceso a un entorno laboral industrial también no sin dificultades, nos encontramos que en esta época de la década de 1980 en Nueva York este tejido industrial prácticamente ha desaparecido, y los protagonistas del texto encuentran aún mayores dificultades para adaptarse al entorno laboral del sector servicios, terminando en muchos casos por abandonar toda pretensión de acceder a un empleo legal.
El texto comenta también las dificultades en las relaciones y las rivalidades existentes entre las distintas clases sociales que conforman la población de Nueva York. En muchos casos, las personas de una clase baja desprecian a los miembros de clases medias-altas, y esto dificulta aún más que los miembros de estas clases bajas puedan prosperar. El trabajo también refleja que, en muchos casos, los miembros de las clases medias-altas carecen de las habilidades necesarias para conseguir que las personas de clases más bajas dejen de verlos como una amenaza, aunque dada la aversión que los miembros de las clases bajas sienten hacia ellos esto se convierte en una tarea casi imposible.
El estudio aborda también temas como las dificultades que afrontan las unidades familiares. Así, el rol masculino está tan deteriorado que en muchos casos los varones no tienen la capacidad de mantener una relación estable, también al no conseguir estabilizarse en sus empleos. En estos casos, la función de la mujer se ve por tanto también afectada. Muchas de estas mujeres tienen que sacar a los hijos adelante por su cuenta, y también se encuentran en una búsqueda permanente de una figura masculina que les dé la estabilidad necesaria, casi siempre sin llegar a conseguirlo.
El consumo de sustancias tóxicas por parte de los protagonistas está presente en todo el escrito, y creo que es evidente que afecta a todas las decisiones que toman. Hay pasajes del libro que son tan crudos que me producían náuseas, como el pasaje en el que el autor describe la práctica común de las violaciones en grupo que algunos de los pandilleros puertorriqueños llevan a cabo. En cualquier caso, el texto es riguroso y realista con todos los temas que trata, sin entrar en detalles que no son relevantes para la investigación.
Uno de los principales debates que aborda el autor es el de que muy pocos estamentos en los Estados Unidos parecen ocuparse realmente de la grave situación de estas comunidades urbanas pobres. Mientras un sector trata de resolver esta circunstancia terrible mediante la inversión económica en terapeutas, psicólogos y trabajadores sociales, y otro sector trata de resolverlo aumentando el presupuesto en cárceles y seguridad, el problema lejos de suavizarse sigue empeorando.
Trabajos de este tipo sirven además como denuncia social, y para hacernos ver que muchas veces nuestros métodos más habituales para aproximarnos a estas problemáticas no son los más adecuados. Creo que para que las personas puedan confiarnos los misterios de su existencia es necesario que nos situemos a su mismo nivel, no tratándoles desde el punto de vista propio de un nivel superior.
Los puertorriqueños con los que se relaciona el autor tratan de salir adelante en sus vidas, como hacemos todos. Sin embargo, hay muchos condicionantes que les ponen las cosas bien difíciles. Esta comunidad corresponde a las 2ª y 3ª generaciones de puertorriqueños emigrantes en Nueva York. Sus padres y abuelos tuvieron que afrontar la también difícil situación de abandonar sus orígenes rurales en la isla de Puerto Rico para emprender una nueva vida en la ciudad neoyorquina. Mientras sus antecesores tuvieron acceso a un entorno laboral industrial también no sin dificultades, nos encontramos que en esta época de la década de 1980 en Nueva York este tejido industrial prácticamente ha desaparecido, y los protagonistas del texto encuentran aún mayores dificultades para adaptarse al entorno laboral del sector servicios, terminando en muchos casos por abandonar toda pretensión de acceder a un empleo legal.
El texto comenta también las dificultades en las relaciones y las rivalidades existentes entre las distintas clases sociales que conforman la población de Nueva York. En muchos casos, las personas de una clase baja desprecian a los miembros de clases medias-altas, y esto dificulta aún más que los miembros de estas clases bajas puedan prosperar. El trabajo también refleja que, en muchos casos, los miembros de las clases medias-altas carecen de las habilidades necesarias para conseguir que las personas de clases más bajas dejen de verlos como una amenaza, aunque dada la aversión que los miembros de las clases bajas sienten hacia ellos esto se convierte en una tarea casi imposible.
El estudio aborda también temas como las dificultades que afrontan las unidades familiares. Así, el rol masculino está tan deteriorado que en muchos casos los varones no tienen la capacidad de mantener una relación estable, también al no conseguir estabilizarse en sus empleos. En estos casos, la función de la mujer se ve por tanto también afectada. Muchas de estas mujeres tienen que sacar a los hijos adelante por su cuenta, y también se encuentran en una búsqueda permanente de una figura masculina que les dé la estabilidad necesaria, casi siempre sin llegar a conseguirlo.
El consumo de sustancias tóxicas por parte de los protagonistas está presente en todo el escrito, y creo que es evidente que afecta a todas las decisiones que toman. Hay pasajes del libro que son tan crudos que me producían náuseas, como el pasaje en el que el autor describe la práctica común de las violaciones en grupo que algunos de los pandilleros puertorriqueños llevan a cabo. En cualquier caso, el texto es riguroso y realista con todos los temas que trata, sin entrar en detalles que no son relevantes para la investigación.
Uno de los principales debates que aborda el autor es el de que muy pocos estamentos en los Estados Unidos parecen ocuparse realmente de la grave situación de estas comunidades urbanas pobres. Mientras un sector trata de resolver esta circunstancia terrible mediante la inversión económica en terapeutas, psicólogos y trabajadores sociales, y otro sector trata de resolverlo aumentando el presupuesto en cárceles y seguridad, el problema lejos de suavizarse sigue empeorando.
Trabajos de este tipo sirven además como denuncia social, y para hacernos ver que muchas veces nuestros métodos más habituales para aproximarnos a estas problemáticas no son los más adecuados. Creo que para que las personas puedan confiarnos los misterios de su existencia es necesario que nos situemos a su mismo nivel, no tratándoles desde el punto de vista propio de un nivel superior.
February 1, 2013
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 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.
August 4, 2011
Bourgois presents his readers with a mind-numbing ethnography on the disenfranchised Puerto Rican crack dealers of NYC's poorest areas. He collected some compelling stories and presented their words with care and class, but there was something left to be desired from my reading of In Search of Respect.
I appreciated his look at the overall societal problems that encompass the individuals in these situations, but there were times when I felt like he backed too far off of his subjects in order to try and fit situations within his thesis. I don't think that the individual is wholly to blame (or even mostly, for that matter...), but there were oftentimes lines within Bourgois' argument where it was clear that the individual fucked up ... but he still tried to pin it on social shortcomings.
Another problem that I had with this ethnography was that a lot of Bourgois' actual words were easily forgettable, especially when following the first-hand accounts of the actual people (most notably Primo, Caesar, and Candy). I ended up re-reading many of Bourgois' claims before I understood what he said, because I was rushing to get to the next extended quotation.
However, the lives of the crack dealers and users of 80s-90s El Barrio were veryy interesting, and this provides a great companion piece to other novels on the subject (I highly recommend Down to This by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall).
Overall, don't pick this one up for light reading, but if you are genuinely interested in the plight of the poor, or looking for some high-quality research for a thesis project ... I would recommend Philippe Bourgois.
I appreciated his look at the overall societal problems that encompass the individuals in these situations, but there were times when I felt like he backed too far off of his subjects in order to try and fit situations within his thesis. I don't think that the individual is wholly to blame (or even mostly, for that matter...), but there were oftentimes lines within Bourgois' argument where it was clear that the individual fucked up ... but he still tried to pin it on social shortcomings.
Another problem that I had with this ethnography was that a lot of Bourgois' actual words were easily forgettable, especially when following the first-hand accounts of the actual people (most notably Primo, Caesar, and Candy). I ended up re-reading many of Bourgois' claims before I understood what he said, because I was rushing to get to the next extended quotation.
However, the lives of the crack dealers and users of 80s-90s El Barrio were veryy interesting, and this provides a great companion piece to other novels on the subject (I highly recommend Down to This by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall).
Overall, don't pick this one up for light reading, but if you are genuinely interested in the plight of the poor, or looking for some high-quality research for a thesis project ... I would recommend Philippe Bourgois.
October 30, 2012
I have so many complicated feelings about this book that are rooted in the complicated feelings I have about the subject matter, moreso than the way Bourgois presents it. When does personal responsibility end and structural responsibility begin? Or, conversely, when do structural explanations end and personal accountability need to be invoked? Does assuming one necessarily mean that the other cannot be taken into account? Is talking about structural reasons for people's behaviors even useful when we're talking about interpersonal interactions? E.g. when a crack dealer is beating his girlfriend and gang raping teenage girls, is it even useful to analyze the historical and social context in which it's occurring, or is he simply a shitbag and nothing more/less?
Other than that, I have some critiques of the book specifically: Bourgois never really fleshes out his In Search of Respect idea. He does talk about respect a bit here and there but I don't really feel like he fleshed out his thesis well enough for me to be satisfied with it. Furthermore, in his conclusion, he discusses the ways in which we can alleviate some of the suffering in poor neighborhoods but what he doesn't really get at, probably because it's much more insidious and difficult to overcome, is that first of all people need to be convinced that these plans are even useful. A person who sees poverty as a personal failure will never support measures to alleviate that poverty because they don't think the person "deserves" it!
I have more ideas and I'll edit this review the more I digest what I read and think about it.
Other than that, I have some critiques of the book specifically: Bourgois never really fleshes out his In Search of Respect idea. He does talk about respect a bit here and there but I don't really feel like he fleshed out his thesis well enough for me to be satisfied with it. Furthermore, in his conclusion, he discusses the ways in which we can alleviate some of the suffering in poor neighborhoods but what he doesn't really get at, probably because it's much more insidious and difficult to overcome, is that first of all people need to be convinced that these plans are even useful. A person who sees poverty as a personal failure will never support measures to alleviate that poverty because they don't think the person "deserves" it!
I have more ideas and I'll edit this review the more I digest what I read and think about it.
May 22, 2018
In Search of Respect is a really great etnography on Puerto Rican drug dealers in East Harlem during the 1990s. Bourgois claims that the self-destructive behavour the residents of East Harlem exhibits like drug use, crime, and physical abuse cannot be reduced to individualistic or cultural explanations. Instead, one has to take the history of Puerto Rican immigrants and the broader structural features of US society into account. Bourgois aims to humanise the residents and drug dealers, not wanting to sanitise or condemn their actions, but instead show that they are Americans wanting to fulfil the American Dream just as much as they are Puerto Ricans wanting to be respected by the people around them and society. I definetely believe he achieves this. I got really invested in the lives of these drug dealers, even when Bourgois described the dealers' history of and opinions on violence, rape, and other unpleasant topics. At time, I even forgot that the dealers were real persons and not just characters in a novel. However, the book is suprisingly tough to get through at times due to how much Bourgois goes into details with his descriptions. However, if you want to read an interesting book on poverty in the US or if you're looking for an example on how structural features, historical developments, and cultural ideas can intersect and lead to social marginalisation, this is the book for you.
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May 30, 2010READ IT. This is the gold standard, the study by which all other works on poverty must be compared. Bourgois spends five years living among El Barrio's Puerto Rican crack dealers and, importantly, becomes their friend: gaining an insight to their lives that no social worker will ever have. The behavior of the poor (drug use, violence, rape, misogyny) is the result of structural weaknesses and flaws created by America's class- and ethnic-apartheid. Yes, the gang rape is appalling. Imagine how Bourgois feels to discover his friends are gang rapists after knowing them three years. It's as much a shock to us, two hundred pages in, as it is when he first hears it. But rape - and the gender ideology that shape its existence and justification within the context of poverty - cannot be ignored.
Really debunks the stereotype of poor/minorities as 'lazy'. Bourgois rightly champions them as symbols of the American Dream, the idealization of hard work as a road to a better life - it's how they view their drug deals, given that finding work in the 'legal work force' is nearly impossible due to substandard practices at the entry level.
Really debunks the stereotype of poor/minorities as 'lazy'. Bourgois rightly champions them as symbols of the American Dream, the idealization of hard work as a road to a better life - it's how they view their drug deals, given that finding work in the 'legal work force' is nearly impossible due to substandard practices at the entry level.
August 18, 2010
Really interesting account from the author's five years of imbeding himself in the street culture El Barrio a.k.a East Harlem which is mostly all Nuyorican. This is mostly transcribed taperecorded sessions of a few crack dealers life experiences and how they explain where they are. These were mostly very entertaining as they captured a performance feel from the spoken language. Sometimes they dragged on a little (probably because they were so entertaining and didn't have more new to say - this is the only reason I give this 4 out out of 5 stars). The author's interspersed research and academic-toned explanations for the symptoms of deeper societal problem - i.e. poverty and culture clash between poor and rich, new immigrant and old immigrant, etc - kept it interesting as well. I recommend this book for anyone interested in drug culture/ and causes of violence/ with a taste for adventure. One of the author's oft-used phrases in the book is "an example of public sector breakdown." He offers thoughtful solutions at the end but has by then made clear that the possible answers (of course) are complex.
September 24, 2008
Bourgois moved to a poor, primarily Puerto Rican part of New York in order to write a book about poverty. What he encountered was a drug culture that permeated every part of "street life" and, accordingly, this altered the focus of his book. In fact, probably the best thing about Bourgois as an author is that when his research brings him to a new topic (whether it's the crack industry or the normalized nature of gang rape among Puerto Rican males), he doesn't shy away from properly analyzing the subject. The result is that his conclusions on the complexities of poverty in the inner-city feel more authentic.
In comparison to other sociology-anthropology text, which are often dense and dry, this book is very readable. My only criticism would be that there are perhaps an excess of quoted passages of Bourgois' interviewees expounding at length about a particular subject. However, the amount of quoted material does mean that the reader becomes quite invested in the fates of the book's "cast of characters".
In comparison to other sociology-anthropology text, which are often dense and dry, this book is very readable. My only criticism would be that there are perhaps an excess of quoted passages of Bourgois' interviewees expounding at length about a particular subject. However, the amount of quoted material does mean that the reader becomes quite invested in the fates of the book's "cast of characters".
December 27, 2008
This book chronicles Bourgois' public infiltration of the crack dealer social scene in East Harlem, New York City. 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 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-22 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.
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