FOREWORD: This was an essay I was assigned in my Sociology class in April 2013, after reading In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio, a short story written by Philippe Bourgois, concerning underprivileged men in East Harlem, New York City hardpressed to find any form of viable employment. We were told to write an essay answering, "why do these men sell crack rather than work in the legal economy?" Instantaneously, my juices were flowing and I sat for three nights penning an essay longer than I had planned. Since I've developed a newfound love for sociology, I thought I'd share it with my readers. This is one of the few times I've decided to share any sort of schoolwork with my readers (previous times have been when I released my Sports and Entertainment Marketing essay on director Steven Spielberg and my Holocaust-driven paper "Putting the Holocaust on Film").
In Philippe Bourgois' In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio, he paints a gloomy, almost hopeless image of life in East Harlem, New York City, where the illegal economy is a thriving place of solace for those who can not make ends meet and struggle to fit in "the normal world." He details the account of a man who is simply trying to make it through the day with money in his pocket and trying to live another as time goes on. As one can expect, the illegal economy has many norms that largely differ to its legal counterpart; obviously due to its lawless nature. One of those happens to be the drastically different age that which residents of East Harlem begin entering the workforce. The story's subject, named Primo, is Bourgois' first hand account at describing the often insufferable and intolerable working conditions they were forced to inhabit - most of which belonged to that of jobs that were entry-level positions and grossly undesirable. Bourgois' states, "most entered the legal labor market at exceptionally young ages. By the time they were twelve, they were bagging of delivering groceries at the supermarket for tips, stocking beer off the books in local bodegas, or running errands. Before reaching twenty-one, however, virtually none had fulfilled their early childhood dreams of finding stable, well-paid legal work" (Bourgois 257). When questioning why those of the East Harlem community would dare venture into the black-market, it is easy to site "temptation" - which definitely is a key factor - but the bigger, more prominent issue is of hopelessness. When a person is young and ambitious, yet continues to spiral down an endless blackhole of failure, their motivation plummets and they become greatly unsatisfied with their current position in life. Not to mention, when their current position in life is working at a loathsome job, making slave wages, and slogging through long, unrewarding shifts, it becomes pretty crystal why they seek out other options; only the options are illegal and extremely dangerous. Another example can be found when we see how poverty-stricken and decrepit the community is, with most of their reliance not solely on their current job, but on welfare and public assistance. Bourgois states, "through the 1980s and 1990s, slightly more than one in three families in El Barrio have receive public assistance. Female heads of these impoverished households have to supplement their meager checks in order to keep their children alive. Many are mothers who make extra money by babysitting their neighbors' children, or by housekeeping for a paying boarder" (Bourgois 254). This goes to show that the community, even if some people are not slogging away at an abysmal job, are getting their income off of welfare or public assistance, which still limits their options greatly. They can either sit idly by and watch their luxuries decimate, or they could seek out other means of employment, legal or illegal. One of the biggest reasons that residents of East Harlem look to the illegal economy as a means of employment is simply because the legal options they've been dealt with are insufficient and completely undesirable.
Another topic touched on in Bourgois' piece is the idea that ethnocentrism engulfs the East Harlem area, and leaves an indelible, often scarring mark on people of lower income districts, such as Primo. Ethnocentrism is judging or viewing another person's culture from your own personal standpoint, often making unfair judgments, simple-minded accusations, and viewing their motivations and characteristics in your eyes, not taking into regard their current state or their own personal judgments. It is one of the highest forms of ignorance, mainly because of the fact that you, yourself, are projecting what you believe is right and not seeing things from another point of view or attempting to understand another man's motivations or reasons. Bourgois attempts to get Primo to talk about his experience with working at a higher-level business job, to which he openly states, "I had a prejudiced boss.... When she was talking to people she would say, 'He's illiterate,' as if I was really that stupid that I couldn't understand what she was talking about" (Bourgois 259). Not only do smarmy, ignorant remarks shatter a truly ambitious person's confidence, but they further them into the mindset that they are born restricted failures so incompetent that they can not succeed no matter how hard they tried. Rather than get to know Primo or gently coach him along to become more “in-tuned” with the upper-class work world, his boss took the easy way out, ostracizing and blatantly judging him based on his societal limitations of being unable to understand some tasks without realizing why. Later, Bourgois continues to show Primo’s seeming “unwantedness” in the work world during his passage called “I Don’t Even Got a Dress Shirt.” Here, he illustrates Primo’s slog through a “motivational training” emploment program, a small program that gave opportunities to those unfairly coined “unemployable” to develop the necessary skills to exceed in the grueling business world. The program was even granted a multimillion dollar private sector grant due to their value and their apparent innovation. Bourgois states in the section, “Primo felt profoundly disrespected by the program, and he focused his discontent on the humiliation he faced because of his wardrobe. The fundamental philosophy of such motivational job training programs is that ‘these people have an attitude problem.’ They take a boot-camp approach to their unemployed clients, ripping their self-esteem apart during the first week in order to build them back up with an epiphanic realization that they want to find jobs as security guards, messengers, and data-input clerks in just-above-minimum-wage service-sector positions” (Bourgois 260). Right off the bat, this shows just how cold, unwelcoming, and almost dehumanizing the work world could feel on a soul who simply wants to better himself and his family. The thought of a program, geared to those who have a more difficult time entering the work world due to their socioeconomic limitations and underprivileged status, that’s first and foremost goal was to mutilate the remaining essence of a self-esteem these men had to get them employed in a mundane, tedious job gift-wrapped as a “better one” is digusting, inhumane, and deplorable on all accounts. Clearly, those running the program were either more well-to-do than those in the program or simply didn’t care about the feelings, hardships, and present tribulations of those in it. Had someone who took the steps to get employed and can relate to the members’ stories would’ve made a more positive and learning experience rather than a manipulating, crushing one. To tie this back to the original question, the sickening judgment and almost prevalent racism and ignorance definitely would prompt a person like Primo (or, even broader, a resident of the East Harlem area) to turn to a life of selling crack to make an honest living.
Finally, the final contributing reason to why an East Harlem resident would much rather take their chances at the illegal economy rather than try and survive and find their place in the legal one is something called the differential association theory (D.A.T.). D.A.T. is a term sociologists have equated to one of the many reasons of deviance, or going against societal norms, that is defined as learning values, attitudes, ideas, and other personality traits from criminal behavior. It’s the idea that hanging around an “in-crowd” that is predicated off of reckless behavior or blatant lawlessness will make you become a societal deviant yourself. This example is brought to our attention within the first paragraph of the reading - the first sentence even, stating, “I was forced into crack against my will” (Bourgois 253). As simple as it is, it’s a frightening statement about how driven and dictative the East Harlem area about crack and peer-pressure. The fact that someone can be forced into something lethal against their will is a deeply disturbing thought. It shows that just by inhabiting the same area as people that march to the beat of a different drum, so to speak, even disassociating yourself from them, will likely do no good. Bourgois later goes on to note that, “by the end of the year, however, most of my friends, neighbors, and acquaintances had been swept into the multibillion-dollar crack cyclone: selling it, smoking it, fretting over it” (Bourgois 254). This is a great commentary on how quickly a neighborhood can be swept up by something illegal and wrong. It also shows that the level of peer pressure is extremely significant in the areas of poverty, especially considering that by selling crack, you're liable to create an immense amount of money for yourself and not be taxed on it from the government. Finally, it can also be said that if perhaps someone who currently resides in an upper middle class white area, with trustworthy, dependable neighbors, they could be positively influenced to get a job at a local Fortune 500 company and make a clean, legal living. Instead, living in the area of East Harlem, seeing nothing but lost and detached souls, slogging away at a job that is dangerous but puts food on the table, leads one to take up a depressing life of crime by entering the illegal economy. In summation, the encompassing idea Bourgois conveys in In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, is that constructed norms in the area, blatant ethnocentrism, and the presence of the differential association theory are all factors as to why East Harlem residents take their chances with the illegal economy in order to make ends meet. For decades, the United States of America has preached the incorruptible ideas of life, liberty, equality, freedom, and acceptance, but when we put a city like East Harlem under the magnifying glass, we clearly have a long way to go before those terms are as incorruptible as we'd like to think.
In Philippe Bourgois' In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in the Barrio, he paints a gloomy, almost hopeless image of life in East Harlem, New York City, where the illegal economy is a thriving place of solace for those who can not make ends meet and struggle to fit in "the normal world." He details the account of a man who is simply trying to make it through the day with money in his pocket and trying to live another as time goes on. As one can expect, the illegal economy has many norms that largely differ to its legal counterpart; obviously due to its lawless nature. One of those happens to be the drastically different age that which residents of East Harlem begin entering the workforce. The story's subject, named Primo, is Bourgois' first hand account at describing the often insufferable and intolerable working conditions they were forced to inhabit - most of which belonged to that of jobs that were entry-level positions and grossly undesirable. Bourgois' states, "most entered the legal labor market at exceptionally young ages. By the time they were twelve, they were bagging of delivering groceries at the supermarket for tips, stocking beer off the books in local bodegas, or running errands. Before reaching twenty-one, however, virtually none had fulfilled their early childhood dreams of finding stable, well-paid legal work" (Bourgois 257). When questioning why those of the East Harlem community would dare venture into the black-market, it is easy to site "temptation" - which definitely is a key factor - but the bigger, more prominent issue is of hopelessness. When a person is young and ambitious, yet continues to spiral down an endless blackhole of failure, their motivation plummets and they become greatly unsatisfied with their current position in life. Not to mention, when their current position in life is working at a loathsome job, making slave wages, and slogging through long, unrewarding shifts, it becomes pretty crystal why they seek out other options; only the options are illegal and extremely dangerous. Another example can be found when we see how poverty-stricken and decrepit the community is, with most of their reliance not solely on their current job, but on welfare and public assistance. Bourgois states, "through the 1980s and 1990s, slightly more than one in three families in El Barrio have receive public assistance. Female heads of these impoverished households have to supplement their meager checks in order to keep their children alive. Many are mothers who make extra money by babysitting their neighbors' children, or by housekeeping for a paying boarder" (Bourgois 254). This goes to show that the community, even if some people are not slogging away at an abysmal job, are getting their income off of welfare or public assistance, which still limits their options greatly. They can either sit idly by and watch their luxuries decimate, or they could seek out other means of employment, legal or illegal. One of the biggest reasons that residents of East Harlem look to the illegal economy as a means of employment is simply because the legal options they've been dealt with are insufficient and completely undesirable.
Another topic touched on in Bourgois' piece is the idea that ethnocentrism engulfs the East Harlem area, and leaves an indelible, often scarring mark on people of lower income districts, such as Primo. Ethnocentrism is judging or viewing another person's culture from your own personal standpoint, often making unfair judgments, simple-minded accusations, and viewing their motivations and characteristics in your eyes, not taking into regard their current state or their own personal judgments. It is one of the highest forms of ignorance, mainly because of the fact that you, yourself, are projecting what you believe is right and not seeing things from another point of view or attempting to understand another man's motivations or reasons. Bourgois attempts to get Primo to talk about his experience with working at a higher-level business job, to which he openly states, "I had a prejudiced boss.... When she was talking to people she would say, 'He's illiterate,' as if I was really that stupid that I couldn't understand what she was talking about" (Bourgois 259). Not only do smarmy, ignorant remarks shatter a truly ambitious person's confidence, but they further them into the mindset that they are born restricted failures so incompetent that they can not succeed no matter how hard they tried. Rather than get to know Primo or gently coach him along to become more “in-tuned” with the upper-class work world, his boss took the easy way out, ostracizing and blatantly judging him based on his societal limitations of being unable to understand some tasks without realizing why. Later, Bourgois continues to show Primo’s seeming “unwantedness” in the work world during his passage called “I Don’t Even Got a Dress Shirt.” Here, he illustrates Primo’s slog through a “motivational training” emploment program, a small program that gave opportunities to those unfairly coined “unemployable” to develop the necessary skills to exceed in the grueling business world. The program was even granted a multimillion dollar private sector grant due to their value and their apparent innovation. Bourgois states in the section, “Primo felt profoundly disrespected by the program, and he focused his discontent on the humiliation he faced because of his wardrobe. The fundamental philosophy of such motivational job training programs is that ‘these people have an attitude problem.’ They take a boot-camp approach to their unemployed clients, ripping their self-esteem apart during the first week in order to build them back up with an epiphanic realization that they want to find jobs as security guards, messengers, and data-input clerks in just-above-minimum-wage service-sector positions” (Bourgois 260). Right off the bat, this shows just how cold, unwelcoming, and almost dehumanizing the work world could feel on a soul who simply wants to better himself and his family. The thought of a program, geared to those who have a more difficult time entering the work world due to their socioeconomic limitations and underprivileged status, that’s first and foremost goal was to mutilate the remaining essence of a self-esteem these men had to get them employed in a mundane, tedious job gift-wrapped as a “better one” is digusting, inhumane, and deplorable on all accounts. Clearly, those running the program were either more well-to-do than those in the program or simply didn’t care about the feelings, hardships, and present tribulations of those in it. Had someone who took the steps to get employed and can relate to the members’ stories would’ve made a more positive and learning experience rather than a manipulating, crushing one. To tie this back to the original question, the sickening judgment and almost prevalent racism and ignorance definitely would prompt a person like Primo (or, even broader, a resident of the East Harlem area) to turn to a life of selling crack to make an honest living.
Finally, the final contributing reason to why an East Harlem resident would much rather take their chances at the illegal economy rather than try and survive and find their place in the legal one is something called the differential association theory (D.A.T.). D.A.T. is a term sociologists have equated to one of the many reasons of deviance, or going against societal norms, that is defined as learning values, attitudes, ideas, and other personality traits from criminal behavior. It’s the idea that hanging around an “in-crowd” that is predicated off of reckless behavior or blatant lawlessness will make you become a societal deviant yourself. This example is brought to our attention within the first paragraph of the reading - the first sentence even, stating, “I was forced into crack against my will” (Bourgois 253). As simple as it is, it’s a frightening statement about how driven and dictative the East Harlem area about crack and peer-pressure. The fact that someone can be forced into something lethal against their will is a deeply disturbing thought. It shows that just by inhabiting the same area as people that march to the beat of a different drum, so to speak, even disassociating yourself from them, will likely do no good. Bourgois later goes on to note that, “by the end of the year, however, most of my friends, neighbors, and acquaintances had been swept into the multibillion-dollar crack cyclone: selling it, smoking it, fretting over it” (Bourgois 254). This is a great commentary on how quickly a neighborhood can be swept up by something illegal and wrong. It also shows that the level of peer pressure is extremely significant in the areas of poverty, especially considering that by selling crack, you're liable to create an immense amount of money for yourself and not be taxed on it from the government. Finally, it can also be said that if perhaps someone who currently resides in an upper middle class white area, with trustworthy, dependable neighbors, they could be positively influenced to get a job at a local Fortune 500 company and make a clean, legal living. Instead, living in the area of East Harlem, seeing nothing but lost and detached souls, slogging away at a job that is dangerous but puts food on the table, leads one to take up a depressing life of crime by entering the illegal economy. In summation, the encompassing idea Bourgois conveys in In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, is that constructed norms in the area, blatant ethnocentrism, and the presence of the differential association theory are all factors as to why East Harlem residents take their chances with the illegal economy in order to make ends meet. For decades, the United States of America has preached the incorruptible ideas of life, liberty, equality, freedom, and acceptance, but when we put a city like East Harlem under the magnifying glass, we clearly have a long way to go before those terms are as incorruptible as we'd like to think.
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