Selling in the Barrio: The Culture of Poverty Essay

problem is not an issue that just affects the United States, but one that affects countries around the world. When researchers study gangs in the United States they must look at them in a global context. Especially, since these gangs have some of their cultures originating from outside the United States (Hagedorn, 2005: 153). It is possible that there is at least ten million gang members in the world today (Hagedorn, 2005: 156). When studying gangs researchers must look at how gangs interact with the state

America in his ethnography ‘In Search of Respect – Selling Crack in El Barrio’, won critical acclaim when first published in 1995. For the first time, an anthropologist had managed to gain the trust and long-term friendship of street-level drug dealers in one of the nation’s roughest ghetto neighbourhoods – East Harlem (Bourgois, 2003). He had originally come to study poverty and ethnic segregation, the political economy of inner-city street culture, ' but found himself mired in a world conditioned

Santana was born to a culture that has been historically abused for labor, marginalized (Kendall, 2007), and reputed as criminals. Santana’s opportunities in life were predetermined by forces in position of power long before his birth. Due to the circumstance of Santana’s conception

East Harlem, also known as El Barrio, where he immerses himself through ethnographic field work. Bourgois moved to the area in 1985 with his wife so he could better understand and explore ethnic segregation and poverty in a notoriously bad neighborhood in New York City. He experienced the crack epidemic sweep through the city and watched murder rates reach unexpected highs. From these experiences, Bourgois wrote the novel In Search Of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Although this book addresses

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio General and Introduction What is Bourgois ' main argument in this book? How does he go about making it, step by step? Is it convincing? Why?/Why not? What is "cultural capital?" How does this concept explain the experiences of people from El Barrio-in school? at work? in business? in the legal system? How do you think Bourgois ' ethnography balances "structure" and "agency?" What are the functions of "street culture?" How have other social scientists

In Search of Respect: Selling crack in El barrio, written by Philippe Bourgois, is a compelling ethnography about the lives and struggles of Puerto Rican immigrants living in East Harlem, New York. Bourgois moved his wife and infant child to live in amongst the streets of East Harlem, referred to also as Spanish Harlem or El barrio, to actively participate in the community to get a better understanding of the underground untaxed economy (p.1). Bourgois in the years he lived in East Harlem established

The buying and selling of these people shows the perception of Mexican-Americans as property that can be abused and manipulated. Ms. Jimenez is the "sell-out" or white-washed Mexican-American. This is displayed just as the play begins when she introduces herself

– Ceaser(Bourgois, 2003) In this particular essay I will be conveying my critical evaluation of Bourgois’s ethnographic representation of Ray. This is my examination of Bourgois’s ethnographic study of social marginalisation in one of the most poverty stricken areas in America. In search of respect wrote by the Philippe Bourgois a professor and a chair of the department of Anthropology, History and social medicine at the University of California, San Francisco takes us on his journey and his experiences

choosing their fates as an independent, self-governing individual but rather having their fate decided through various social, environmental, and biological factors. Through their attempts to escape their way out of this vicious cycle, people of El Barrio suffering from the hardships of social and economic marginalization and inequalities can actually “become the actual agents administering their own destruction and their community’s suffering through turning to dealing drugs and embracing violence”

in large groups of Chicanos being located in some of the poorest areas. Such areas became known as “barrios”, a Spanish term for neighborhood that became specifically in reference to the poor neighborhoods with a high Latino population. The people living in them were often working the lowest paid and hardest jobs needed by those of a higher class in society. It is commonly found that when poverty is heavy throughout a community, many youth will feel the need to act out in some way, and band together