El Barrio Reading Response 9/21

In Search Of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio Phillipe Bourgois, gives us the reader a look into the life in East Harlem during the 1990s. He introduces us to the drug dealers, drug addicts, and the harsh environment Puerto Ricans and African Americans had to endure during this time period. "Structural violence is violence committed not by a single person but rather by a larger governmental structure. The violent act committed in this case is no always something outright like a gunshot or a blow to the head, but it can be something more subtle, like depriving people of income, food, or shelter." Structural violence has been around for decades and we have seen it sometimes at its worse. Some factors that are the reason for structural violence is race, income, and social status. For example Hitler in Germany wanted to annihilate an entire race just because he personally felt like they were inferior to him. Jewish people were tortured, deprived of human rights, and murdered for being born just the way that they are. We can also take a look into slavery, how African Americans because of their race we're forced to become slaves to Caucasian men and women just because of the color of their skin. History has a broad spectrum of structural violence. In the story, Bourgois explains how while living in East Harlem as a Caucasian man, he was often mistaken for a undercover federal agent or people would look at him shockingly, wondering why a man like himself because of the color of his skin would be living in an area such as that. Police officers would think he was a drug addict and get upset when he spoke politely toward them because they wouldn't believe a man like him would willing live in that area and because of that he got stopped and harassed by police often. During this time in El Barrio their were approximately 110,599 people consisting of 51% Latino/Puerto Rican, 39% African American, and 10% other. According to the 1990 census people we're not mugged with any regularity. Bourgois stated that all the years he spent living there he was only mugged once.  stated that " violence cannot be reduced  to its statistical expression." he then goes on and says that "most murders and beatings in a neighborhood is confined to a small sub group or people involved with substance abuse and the underground economy." Crime in my own neighborhood Is high and a lot of times people will reduce the shock of the situation by changing daily routine just how Bourgois states. My own neighborhood is predominantly African American and Latino, there have been Caucasian men and women moving in. Most say its because they intend on turning my area into condos one day, others say its because Manhattan is getting too expensive and the income here is very low. When I have friends visit me and they see someone Caucasian they often say the same thing " they don't belong here, I'm scared for them." they automatically assume because of their skin color and because their aren't a part of the minorities that they will be a target. Structural violence has been around for decades and is continued to be seen now with the high rate of police brutality surfacing due to the media. It affects us all in some way and it doesn't seem to be getting any better as the generations continue forward.