Daou Traore

In Search of Respect written by Philippe Bourgois deals with poverty during the 1990's in East Harlem 110th Street. The book deals with dilemmas that these Puerto Ricans crack dealers face as they choose to have low income jobs and lack of respect from upperclassmen or they choose to sell illegal drugs and have respect within the community. A character in the book who i believe is suffering from structural violence is Ray. Ray is a guy well known in the community whom everyone respects. He is the owner of the crack dealing business taken place on 110th and Lexington. On page 28 it states "Ray lacked the " cultural capital" necessary to succeed in the middle class- or even the working class- world." the only money Ray really made was through selling crack, and this is something he wanted to change about his life. Political laws also prevented him from being successful because he could not have any from of identification in order to keep a legal business. after staying away from crack dealing, he opened up a social club where people could go party or hang around. Unfortunately, in 1992 it was also shut down because it was not wheelchair accessible.
in my opinion, crime and violence will continue if political and social laws prevents people from attaining their full potential freedom. Since he did not have the cultural capital and also illiterate , it lead him to start an illegal business as a mean to support himself. as an individual, Ray is really confident about himself and also uses violence and terror in order to receive respect from his fellow neighbors. The really hard for those who are poor. As Primo" we're poor, thats true, but we're supposed to struggle and make something of ourselves.its just a harder struggle because we are poor." ..." you have to do good for yourself in order to achieve, and you have to achieve in life in order to get somewhere.. the struggle is harder for the poor but not impossible just harder. This is one of my favorite quotes because it leaves us a message to never give up nor lose hope no matter what.