Reading Response: In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

  

                                                                     

      

   

             According to Philippe Bourgois, the author of In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, East Harlem is impacted by structural violence. There are many forces that can lead to this structural violence in the community. These factors include economic and social forces. The majority population in East Harlem consists mainly of low-income Puerto Ricans and African Americans. These people are viewed as the outcast of society due to their race, income and ways of living. East Harlem is engulfed with theft, murder, drugs and violence. The author states: “Mainstream society unconsciously uses the images of culture violence of terror to dehumanize… and to justify its unwillingness to confront segregation, economic marginalization and public sector breakdown” (34). The segregation of this society from the upper-class has effects on the many low–income neighborhoods gaining access to basic rights. These impacts have caused many low income residents deciding to participate in illegal activities as their way of life.

            The struggles from structural violence, causes great hardship and suffering for many people in El Barrio, especially poor minority races neighborhood despite who is rich or poor. The text states: “Primo: [interrupting] Felipe it’s not only the white man…that makes it harder for us. We’re poor… It’s just harder struggle’ cause we’re poor…This country’s based on making money” (54-55). This statement seems to be accurate to the points of view of the society. Many people believe that poor people will suffer the most due to their low social economic status as we judged people by their status in the society. However, this seems to be a different case from Ray’s life. In the book, Ray is illustrated as the most powerful person in the East Harlem community. He is considered a rich person because he makes a lot of money and owns luxury cars. However, he suffers from the structural violence as he cannot read or write and also lacks “cultural capital” knowledge, which is a sense that one needs in the working class world. This is unfortunate because Ray has to live with no driver’s license or any form of legal identification that is necessary for working and operating any legal businesses.

            There are many examples that illustrate how this neighborhood suffers from the structural violence. Residents in East Harlem are living with the pressure from racist discrimination. Many people, especially the whites and middle class, feel that poor Latino and African-American neighborhoods are dangerous for them and should not be interfere with. This can be illustrated through the examples of how outsiders or even police officers believes that the author, who is white, is crazy for living in East Harlem neighborhood. Another example is how people in the community are living in the environmental crime. In the ‘Racism and the culture of terror’ section, the author illustrates through examples from his life experience that he get mugged once or how his Filipino landlord was mugged in the hallway of his apartment building. He also mentions how the toughest of the drug dealers in Ray’s network would be accompanied for protection during the night time. These people are living in life cycle of crimes, insecure and unpredictable place as they don’t know how or when they will get robbed or randomly searched by police on a daily basis.