BOOK: In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio Philippe Bourgois

In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio Philippe Bourgois

Introduction:

1. Explain the authors original conception for the book. How did he prepare to do ethnographic work in the field? Is this an appropriate method of data collection for his original research purposes? How else would you conduct such research to answer such questions 1-2

2. What is the underground economy? Give some examples. Why might some people engage in the underground economy? What functions does it serve for its various participants? Finally, how might this present a problem in the urban community?

3. How might substance abuse serve as mere symptom of large social ills such as the dynamics of social marginalization and alienation? 2

4. The people studies were not interested in discussing drugs but rather about their daily struggles for subsistence and dignity at the poverty line. Why is this significant? How might this pose a problem for a research interested in studying drugs? 2

5. According to official statistics, the people of Harlems barrios should be homeless and starving. Most, however, are not. Why? How is this important to our understanding of the informal economy? Explain.

6. Answer the authors question on page 4 asking why young people would take a long subway ride to work in a low-paying and often de-humanizing jobs rather than working in the informal economy in their neighborhood? In fact, instead of asking why so many people work in the informal economy, we should better inquire why so many conform to the formal economy. Go ahead; make a good sociological explanation one way or the other.

7. Whats the problem with relying on US census date on inner city neighborhoods? 4-6

8. What is the difficulty of estimation the size of the underground economy? 6

9. What is inner city street culture? 8 Explain

10. How might street culture serve as an alternative forum for personal dignity? 8

11. Can street culture be thought of as cultural creatively in defiance of racism and marginalization? Explain. 8

12. How is the street culture of resistance co-opted or recuperated into popular culture? To what aim? 8

13. Although street culture is, in many ways, a search to preserve individual respect in the face of marginalization and racism, it also has another affect on problems in urban community. Explain.

14. Why did the author choose addicts, thieves and dealers as his best friends for observation and study? Explain 11

15. Explain the concept of Puerto Ricos oppositional mentality created in the struggle experienced during long-term colonial domination. 11

16. Explain some of the problems and contradictions that often comes with ethnographic fieldworks, the politics or representation and negative stereotyping especially when it comes to research race and ethnicity in socially marginalized positions. 11 [Hint: see last line on page 11]

17. What does the author mean by looking at the interaction between structural oppression and individual actions? 12

18. What is the problem with traditional social science research techniques to study and understand the experiences of people who survive in the underground economy? 12

19. Discuss the authors research techniques and methodologies. 12-13 Explain. What do you think about this method of observation and data collection? Explain. When should this form of data collection be used? How does this violate the canons of positivist research?

20. What is the myth of ethnographic authority and hierarchical politics of representation? 13

21. What is self-conscious reflexivity? 13

22. Explain, in some detail, the profoundly elitist tendency of many post modern approaches that ethnographically study the other. Give some examples. 14

23. What are some of the methodological problems with participant observation techniques? Explain. 14 [Re-read pages 14-15, this are very important]

24. What is the culture of poverty thesis? 16 Explain. Why is this type of thinking so prevalent in popular culture? 16

25. Explain the debate between humans as active agents or passive victims. 17

26. What does the author mean by cultural production theory?

Chapter 1: Violating apartheid in the US

1. Explain the authors major mistake and lack of street smarts that almost lost him his main griot. 19-22

2. What function does rays ruthlessness and cruelty towards colleagues and customers in the underground economy play for the effective leadership? 24

3. what is cultural capital? How did Ray lack cultural capital in the dominant culture though he thrived as a businessman in the informal economy? 28 What are the consequences of lacking this ability to operate in the formal economy? 28-29

4. Explain some of Bourgoiss problems and conflicts when confronting situations dealing with race, class and the police. 29-32.

5. Explain the authors observations about racism and the culture of terror. 32 How do most people view all black neighborhoods like 1980s-1990s Harlem? Why did most people in the neighborhood leave Felipe alone? How did they view him? 33

6. Explain the concept of culture of terror. 34 How is it created and what are its consequences?

7. How does Caesar view cops as part of the problem in urban community? 36

8. What was the 1980s just say not to drugs hysteria? Explain how this is a classic example of a moral panic. 39

9. Explain the story of how Bourgois gained access into the game room crack house, achieving eventual entre into this social world. 39

10. Explain the contradictory code of the street ethics Bourgois discovered when first offered cocaine. 40-41

11. How id Benzie and Primo perceive Bourgois during his first two years of research/ 43-44

12. Discuss African American and Puerto Rican relations in Harlems street culture. 45-46

13. What did some of the main characters of the book, like Caesar, think of Bourgoiss idea in using these stories to give back to the community? What part did the characters, main and marginal, want to play in the book? 46-47

Chapter 2: A street history of El Barrio

1. Explain the significance of the term jibaros and why knowing this history helps to understand many Puerto Ricans in the US, especially NY, today? 50

2. Explain some of the macro structural dislocations Puerto Ricans experienced over the past two to three generations. Why is this significant background to understand the lives operating in the informal economy? 52

3. Who has benefited most from the US governments colonization of Puerto Rico? Explain 52

4. Explain the racist cultural assault may Puerto Ricans have endured moving from their rural based cultural worlds to urban inner cities like NY. 52-53

5. What is the problem with explaining street life in el barrio with arguments of structural victimization which serves as an historical apology explanation, 53-54

6. Explain the position many Puerto Ricans operating in the informal economy take on the whole structure versus agency debate. 54. Include in your discussion the jibero past, puritan Anglo beliefs, rugged individualism and a survival of fittest mentality. Is the victim blamed or does personal pathology account for this human suffering?

7. How did the alarmed politicians NYC view the influx of southern Italian immigrants to East Harlem? 58 How were these groups treated by the local institutions?

8. Comment on the quote on page 59 about the effects of prejudice on Italian-American adolescents.

9. How were Puerto Rican immigrant perceived when entering El Barrio East Harlem neighborhood in the 1930s and 1940s. Explain. 59

10. Explain how mainstream society held the most antipathy for Puerto Rican immigrants. 61 Include the health hysteria over Puerto Ricans

11. Explain some examples for the poverty and ecological disrepair of East Harlem that applies to the 1880s to the 1990s. 62-63

12. Explain Thrashers ideas on 1920s and 1930s Italian Harlem and interstitial areas and concentric circles. 63

13. What do you think of the whole so-called culture of poverty thesis first proposed by Oscar Lewis? 64

14. Explain the result of urban renewal in 1990s East Harlem. 65 what is anomic infrastructure?

15. Explain some of the effects of physically concentrated and ethnically segregated poverty for urban communities. 65

16. Compare the East Harlem street scene from an area dominated by speakeasies to crack houses. 66-67

17. What happened when Bourgois attempted to introduce his neighbor Angel to the public library? 68

18. Describe the presence of Heroin and cocaine in East Harlem. How did schoolteachers react to this? 68-69

19. How has the mafia legacy of operating in the underground economy still persist though with different actors in East Harlem. 69-71

20. Explain the demise of mafia hegemony along with the shift in the underground economy in the 1980s east Harlem 74-75

Chapter 3: Crack house management: addiction discipline, and dignity

1. How was the crack game room founded? 77

2. How and why did ownership change from Felix to Ray? 77-78 and 81

3. How did primo enjoy reminiscing about his days as a crack addict? 78-79

4. Explain how Ray managed to crack corporate operation in the game room. 81-82 How did this business operate like many other business establishments in the formal economy: 81-82

5. How did Ray manipulate kinship networks to ensure employee loyalty? 82

6. What kind of work benefits did higher-level employees, like Primo, receive? How is this similar to a regular job? Why would someone like Primo ever want, if he could get it, a regular job in the formal economy? 83

7. For people like Primo, what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in rays crack business? Can one argue that working in the underground economy offers more human dignity than many working class jobs? Explain. In fact, why would anyone prefer de-humanizing employment in the formal economy over the informal?

8. What role dos violence and outburst of rage play in performing various jobs, like lookout, in the informal crack economy? 88

9. What happened when a jealous young man high on angel dust disrespected the employees at the game room? Why was their action deemed necessary? 88

10. How did Primo and Benzie establish a trust in their business relationships while working for Ray? 89

11. Why do most street-level crack dealers remain without money during their careers? Why is this not surprising given the conspicuous consumption mentality that dominates mainstream society? In this regard, are crack dealers and their consumption habits different from most working class workers? Explain either way. 91 [Remind me to talk about waiters and bartenders in NOLA and NY]

12. Discuss how most crack dealers are paid. Why do so many brag to outsiders and themselves about their incomes? 91 How much do most actually get paid on regular nights of work?

13. What kinds of jobs did Benzie work at just above minimum wage in the formal economy? Who was he subservient to in these jobs? 95

14. Explain how Benzie explained the difficulty in maintaining respect in the entry level legal economy. 96 Explain some of your experiences of this same challenge, indeed, most of us have experienced this

15. Explain the relationship between ones being denied access of the legitimate means of achieving established cultural goals, drug addiction, dependency on the crack economy, economic survival and maintaining personal dignity. 98

16. Discuss willies struggles while working in the brutal and poor paying conditions of the legal labor market. 98 What problems does this realty of working in the legal labor market create for urban communities?

17. Discuss the management-labor conflict at Rays game room. 99 How did Primos importance in Rays network erode? 99-100. In your discussion, included the example of management-labor conflict exemplified with Caesar and Primos conversation on page 102. Also, include the internalization of labor-management antagonism between Primo and Caesar and Tony that escalated when three bundles of crack disappeared. 103-104

18. How did Primo deal with security issues in the Game Room? 105-106, 108 What role did the author unknowingly contribute to the security of the game room? 108

19. How does the author explain the invulnerability of Rays crack house to police control. Explain 109

20. Explain some of the precautions Ray and his workers took to minimize the risk of arrest. 109-110 How did Primo avoid four years of incarceration on his last arrest? 110

21. What are some of the problems with the New York State penal system and drug arrests? 112 How did this effect Primo? 112-113

Chapter 4: Goin legit: disrespect and resistance at work

1. Explain some of the consequences of restructuring of the US economy from factory to service jobs for many working class people, especially Puerto Ricans. 114

2. Discuss the contradictions of obedience to high scale office culture and street cultures definition of personal dignity. 115

3. What kinds of legal employment have many game room regulars held in their lives? What does this tell you about many of their decisions to enter the informal crack economy? 115

4. Is the straightforward refusal to be exploited in the legal labor market an act of heroism? Is the legal labor market exploitative? Explain. What is exploitation? Is this resistance to the legal labor market a triumph of free will and resistance to dominations? 115 Lets discuss this important point.

5. Is working at Burger King, McDonalds and other similar establishments as Caesar so puts it, slavery-ing? Explain. Is he, as he self-describes, lazy for not taking such employment? 117

6. Explain some of the consequences to the perception of self when struggling to find employment. Primo serves as a fine example. 119-123

7. What does the author mean by internalizing unemployment? 123

8. Re-read Primo and Willies conversation while on heroin, crack and rum. What insights into the world of drug users does this discussion provide you? explain. 125-128

9. Explain the problems (individual and structural) Primo had with finding any kind of bullshit job. 120

10. How is crack dealing and unemployment culturally redefined as a badge of pride for some young men on the streets? Explain. 130

11. Comment on Caesars conversation with the more economically successful Mexican immigrant. 130-131

12. Explain the conflicts Primo, Caesar and even Ray have over celebrating rebellion and wanting to go legit. What factor does cultural capital and exclusion play in this discussion? 132-133

13. Explain the different types of cultural capital needed to work in the formal/legal and informal/illegal economy. Why did Ray operate better in the latter? 135

14. Do you agree with the authors assessment that mainstream society evokes racial stereotypes to dismiss people like Primo, Caesar and Ray as loser, pathological, lazy and self-destructive? 137

15. Explain the cultural production theory argument that places immigrant and 2nd and 3rd generation Puerto Rican immigrants in their economic and political structural location. 137 Is this structural political-economic understanding best to understand the life-worlds of these men? What rare the benefits and problems with such an approach?

16. What is the immigrant working class dream? [Remind me to discuss their concept with my experiences growing up in an immigrant family.]

17. Explain this idea of working class ideologies and the values associated with them. 139 What does this have to do with dropping out of school?

18. How doe these working class ideologies, and values, associated with them, conflict with the changing economy of often highly feminized office support service work? 141 Discuss.

19. How do the old factory jobs conflict less with working class, or even oppositional street culture values/ explain. 141-142

20. Thinking about the last two important questions, summarize how oppositional street and working class culture values work effectively in the factory but remain totally dysfunctional, in most mainstream jobs, and moreover, mainstream society in general [Remind me to discuss the Mexican pulqueria, the Brooklyn coffee shop, the NOLA bar, the London punk pub and my friends behavior in a Peruvian pub.]

21. How is cultural autonomy and class solidarity lost working in entry-level office jobs like in a mailroom or behind a photocopy machine? 142

22. How do workers like Caesar and Primo appear to office staff and supervisors? How do you explain this? Are these men really articulate? How does this reveal the different types of cultural capital valued and used in working and middle class cultures? 142

23. What types of clashes occur when street culture meets office services worker culture? 142-143 What is the clash between yuppie power and the oppositional street culture power? 143

24. Have Primo and Caesar accepted their structural victimization OR resisted in innovative ways? Explain 143

25. Using some concrete examples, explain how many of these working class Puerto Rican men get dissed in the office. How can we explain these behaviors sociologically? 143-144 Include in your discussion cultural or symbolic capital.

26. How do the following institutions impose Angle middle class cultural capitol in the following:a. Educationb. Professional Service Sectorc. Mainstream religiond. Councilor Services

27. Explain the gender diss. 146 How can we understand this sociologically?

28. How do extreme work inequalities result in misogynistic and sexist reverences on the part of the lowly worker? Explain 148-149

29. How did Primo and Gloria perceive one another? 153 How can we explain this? Could Gloria have been a well-intentioned liberal? What does all this have to do with maintaining dignity? 154

30. Explain some of the weapons of resistance used by so many marginal workers, in any economy. 155 What are your experiences and strategies? [Remind me to discuss the OK strategy] Why does this work less well in the office?

31. What is alienated working class culture in the office space? 155

32. Discuss the importance of subcultural style and symbolic power among members of the working and upper classes. 158 Explain this with our sociological hats on. 159

33. How do clothes and style become real obstacles in successful employment in the mainstream economy? See Bourgoiss conversation with Primo. 161

34. Discuss the contradictions between working class ghetto residents gaining legal employment in demolition and gentrification (bleachification0 projects. 164 Why do El Barrio young men experience this as positive?

35. Why did Caesar have problems gaining full entry in NYCs construction industry? Discuss NYs construction union. 162-164

36. What type of scapegoat argument did Caesar and Primo use to compensate for the structural vulnerability with labor-management confrontations? 166

37. Explain the replay of historical forces between the earlier Italian Americans and Puerto Ricans and the current Puerto Ricans and newly arriving Mexicans to NYC. 167-168

38. Discuss (169) the experiences of new Mexican immigrants, their participation in the new service economy, and, at least temporarily, lack of concern for the slight to self that influences other New York born ethnic groups.

39. Explain what becoming a bicultural inner-city office work implies. 170 What are the implications of this?

40. What does the author mean by the legitimacy of apartheid in the US? Use some of your own examples. 173

Chapter 5: School days: learning be a better criminal

1. Explain the idea of immigrant children and their parents confronting cultural capital in their initial contact with the public school system. Explain some of the traumatic situations that often occur. 175-176

2. Do you agree with cultural production theorys assertion that teachers unconsciously process subliminal class and cultural message to hierarchize their students? Give some concrete examples from the literature and your own life experiences. 176

3. Explain some of the tangible markers teachers consciously or unconsciously use to hierarchize students. 176 What other markers might exist?

4. Looking at your response to the last two questions, how might this maintain class and economic inequalities in the US. Explain

5. How does middle class white dominate society impose its will, its values and cultural capital on other racial/ethnic and class groups through the use of symbolic violence? 177

6. Under the guise of liberal value neutrality and objectivity do public schools remain racist institutions that force mainstream bourgeois Eurocentric values on other more marginalized groups? Explain.

7. Explain Primos problem as a Nuyorican sent back to Puerto Rico to live with his grandparents. 178-179

8. Why is it necessary for youths to cultivate violent personas in school, especially when frequently changing schools. 181-182

9. How does Ceasars conversation with Bourgois reflect battered-child rationalizations and denials of early childhood abuse? 184-185

10. Make some comments on Caesars school experiences using his conversation with Bourgois on pages 187-189. In your discussion, include Caesars experiences with this teachers, girls, and special education students.

11. How did the above conversation force the author to confront anthropologys methodological caveat of suspending moral judgment? 189

12. How and why do many minority children get labels in the the public school as emotionally disturbed, learning disabled (low IQ) and placed into an undesirable class? Lets discuss this.

13. How was Primos future career in the underground economy learned at school? 191

14. How does the author view graffiti sprayed on the schoolyard walls? 193 Do you agree?

15. Look at the changing demographics of Manhattans Upper East Side and Harlem using social explorer. Record your observations. Explain.

16. How did people like Primo become incorporated into street crime through socialization in the peer group? 194-195

17. As a researcher, how did the author deal with the stories of adolescent gang rape? What issues was he confronted with? How did he deal with them? How would you deal with such issues? 205

18. Discuss the authors comments after Primos rape story on pg 297 and the challenges he faced with psychopaths that had become his friends.

19. Explain the authors reservations about reporting his findings on rape in the Puerto Rican street culture of NY. 207-209 Include in your discussion his reservations from a political perspective (207) and colluding with the sexist status quo.

20. What does the author mean by the racialized common sense of society? 208

21. Sociologically explain how someone like Primo learns to become a rapist. (208-209)

22. What kind of logic did the rapist develop for their actions? 209

23. As a researcher, how would you handle the challenging and painful issues the researcher confronted on gendered violence and terror?

Chapter 6: Redrawing the Gender Line on the Street

1. How is the patriarch on the street in crisis? Explain some of the consequences of this. 213 and 215 Is there an assault of masculine dignity?

2. How have the relatively recent struggles and achievements of women been framed in terms of individual rights that ultimately mirror patriarchal models of empowerment? Explain. How else might they be framed? From whose perspective? 214

3. Why have many working class men, especially first and second generation New York Puerto Ricans, lost their authoritarian power in the household? Explain some of the consequences to this. 214

4. How is the macro-structural transformations in gender relations measured in liberal, middle-class and Anglo-oriented terms? What is this concept of hegemony? (214-215)

5. Talk about the author's first perceptions of Candy.

6. How do many working class young Puerto Rican women use romantic elopement to express individual rights? What is the contradiction to this? Explain. 218-219 How does this become a legitimate cultural institution? What does this legitimacy depend on?

7. How does Candy's psychoanalytic understanding of herself as a battered women reflect ideas that originate from folk catholicism and New York's therapeutic jargon? Explain. 220-221

8. How does this understanding of herself miss the structural aspects of her situation? 221

9. Discuss the gendered interpretation of the gun shot that juxtaposes female liberation and traditional sexual jealousy. 222 and 226

10. How does a sociologist, like Bourgois, understand the Puerto Rican psychiatric concept of ataques to explain how women respond to male abuse in the family? How does this serve to reaffirm patriarchal etiquette? 226

11. How does Candy use traditional female strategy for making assertive life-cycle change? 226

12. How did Candy's metamorphosis flip gender roles and invert notions of patriarchy? 231 and 232

13. Explain how Candy's struggle for autonomy and rights, though limited to El Barrio's street world, have been defined by patriarchal parameters. How does this complicate feminist debates over the meaning of women's rights? Explain. How do you define women's rights? What, if any, are the problems with your understanding of women's rights? From where did you get this understanding? Explain. 241

14. Using the story of Primo's mother, explain the alternative view of women's liberation separate from the middle class white dominant perspective. 241-242

According to the author, how have US government agencies viewed the poor? 242-243 In your discussion, talk in particular about the problems the welfare department creates for its clients. Use specific examples from the literature and what you may know outside of book knowledge.

15. Do you believe that the welfare department dehumanizes their clients? Explain

16. Discuss the effects of jail and the welfare bureaucracy on single women like Candy. 247-252

17. Discuss candy's experiences as a single mother in jail. 253

18. Explain the problems with the different cultural interpretations of clothing and fashion that occurred between Candy and the judge. 256-257 How did candy respond to the judge?

Chapter 7: Families and Children in Pain

1. How do most developmental psychologists and psychiatrists called experts view childhood socialization and family violence? What are (the many) limitations of these so called theories? Explain. 259-260

2. What does the author mean by psychological-deterministic approaches to understand child socialization in violent families? 259.

3. Politicians, the press and general public talk about the crisis in family values. How is this a poor and intellectually weak understanding of the problem? What does these pop cultural ideas miss? 260

4. Discuss some of the past explanations that account for the problems of past generations of youths in East Harlem. 260-261

5. Explain the differences between how the author's new son is treated in downtown Anglo-dominated parties and the folks in El Barrio. 262

6. Explain some of the issues the author faced as a parent while living in El Barrio. 263

7. What happened when the author crossed the apartheid lines of Manhattan with some of the children of El Barrio. 263-264

8. Explain what the author means when he says that victims in el Barrio internalize the social structures that dominate them. Give some examples from your experiences. 264-265

9. Discuss the author's experiences with the youth growing up in El Barrio and his observations on their biography watching then become socialized into street culture. 263-267

10. Explain the gendered interpretations of Jackie's rape. 267-270

11. What are some of the reasons the author provides explaining why mothers continue to bear so many babies into the suffering streets of El Barrio. What do you think of such explanations? Explain.

12. Why should the women of El Barrios embrace of motherhood not simply be explained away with fleeting romantic whims? Explain. 275

13. What was the distinctive feature of the crack epidemic of the 1980's and 1990's distinct from other moral panics about drugs in prior times? 278 What is a moral panic and how are they often used by media outlets and other members of social control?

14. Discuss the explanations that the press, academics, mainstream America, and inner-city residents provide to understand the so called mystery behind the feminization of crack use. Why are these poor understandings of the problem? 280-281

15. According to the author, how can pregnant crack addicts be de-essentialized from monstrous images of cruel, unfeeling mothers and reconstructed into self-destructive rebels? Explain. What analogy does the author use. 285

Chapter 8: Vulnerable Fathers

1. What is the material bases for the failure of fathers to support their progeny into stable, loving families in El Barrio? 287

2. How do the men in El Barrio, especially the men of Ray's network, celebrate paternal powerlessness? Explain. How does this compare to other men you have may have met in your life? Explain. 288-291

3. What insight does Eddie provide regarding male sexual relationships with women in El Barrio? 291

4. According to the author, how is male masculinity in historical crisis? Explain. 292.

5. Explain the author's insights on the material basis for the polarization of intimate violence on pages 301- 303. Why should such explanations not be reduced to individualistic psychological and reductionistic understandings of pathology and failure.

6. Discuss the contradictions of the men yearning for fatherhood and their actual relationships with their children. In your discussion, review the detailed interview excerpts the author provides. 308-314

7. How do some women, like candy, serve to accommodate male patriarchy and family irresponsibility? Explain. 314-315

Chapter 9: Conclusion

1. Do you agree with the author that the US lacks the political will to address poverty? Explain. 318

2. How does one work to help eliminate poverty in the US. What are some structural solutions to poverty, inequality, and marginalization? Are these solutions possible? The answer to this question lies at the heart of one of the most important discussions in dealing with problems of urban community.

3. Address some of the short term policy debates on poverty, racism, marginalization, inequality and American apartheid. Do you believe, as the author does, that these policy debates are nothing but sideshows for confronting long-term structural problems?

4. Comment: drugs are not the root of the problem, they are the expression of deeper, structural dilemmas. 319

5. Can we safely ignore the drug hysterias and moral panics that the control society and their mouth-piece, the media, flood into the American mainstream? Explain.

6. Explain the author's solutions in public policy debates on poverty and the so called drug problem. Provide your comments to these solutions. 320-321

How are job training programs and seminars (among many other institutions I can think of off hand) examples of institutionalized examples of racism? 323