East Harlem: El Barrio

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, Philippe Bourgois, narrates about structural violence in East Harlem around the 1980s.  The lack of money and resources led people to use drugs and violence as a easy way out of these problems. “East Harlem is a nursery of all kinds of law-breakers; there are nests of narcotics, thieving stealing, cheating and every conceivable kind of law-breaking. The country is flooded with criminals from here. A taxi driver would not dare go through 113th Street east of Second Avenue after dark: an armored car would be the only thing safe.” This quote well describes the fear people feel when they think of East Harlem; they feel it’s not safe. People got themselves dealing with drugs and violence because they thought it was the only way out of this poverty. Their lack of education made them feel as if this was the only way to get easy money.

            Money was an important factor in structural violence but it was not the only reason why people entered this face. Bourgois says, “Ray’s followers did not remain loyal to him solely out of fear and violence. Some of the older members of his network genuinely liked him. He was capable of reciprocating friendship" (pg27). Bourgois remarks how having a relationship with Ray made him feel privileged and good and secure. He mentions feeling accepted by the people in the neighborhood because of being involved in the drug business. He was a victim of racism and police brutality when he first moved in to Harlem, and this made him feel as if he didn’t belong. He was skinny and white and people saw him as an undercover cop or a white drug addict. Being part of this illegal drug selling and the usage of violence gave them a sense of togetherness with one another.

            East Harlem is a very diverse neighborhood. Immigrants from all over live here and discriminate each other. They feel as if the only easy paying job is drugs. Bourgois explains that El Barrio did not only entail criminals but racism and the lack of money and resources, forced people to repeat this circle of drugs and violence.