Megan Macoubray
Ethnography Review
Nov. 14 2012
Sex,
violence, and drugs
Would
you enjoy a life full of sex, violence, and drugs? The ethnography, In Search
of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio shows the struggles of Puerto Rican
immigrants and the succeeding Puerto Rican Americans who continually fail the
upward mobility in terms of the ‘American Dream’ due to the ethical racism and
American institutions that do minimal in helping the people living underneath
the poverty line. My essay will show this in terms of ethnic racism, inability
to succeed in the legal work force, and the self esteem issues that leads to
drug abuse and the selling of illicit drugs in order to be self supportive.
As
discussed in the ethnographic novel, the Puerto Ricans and the Puerto Rican
Americans are ‘the new kids on the block’. They have moved to East Harlem in
search of a better life for themselves and their families who are exposed to
automatic dislike and racism by the residents in the city. This type of racism
is seen continually throughout history as new immigrants come to America,
“competition for jobs and housing expressed itself in extreme ethnic segregation.
Ethnic hostility penetrated even the most personal and spiritual dimensions of
daily life”(57). The lack of assimilation between the ethnic groups led to more
racism, as the different cultures were unwilling to accept the ideologies of
the newer residents. From the first Dutch settlers to the Italians who came next,
“this ideological assault on the sense of cultural identity and individual
self-worth of the Italian immigrants was the practices and attitudes of those
representatives from mainstream society who were supposed to be assimilating
the immigrant children in Anglo-American culture”(58). The racism that came
from the teachers, reporters and peers disallowed the immigrants to assimilate and
this same racism was then put on to the African Americans generations later and
to the Puerto Ricans next and then onto the Mexicans more currently. The
inability to assimilate different cultures and work or live peacefully with the
unknown creates a West Side Story situation of hate towards another
group of people. The inability to show acceptance to new people is an ideology
that Americans have continually suffered with. The hate towards the unknown and
the territorial-ness in terms of neighborhood and occupation leads to a
distrust and only sense of community from ‘your own type’ of people. Instead of
the compassion that is shown to one’s family and friends, the different
ethnicities continue their racism towards each other, which leads to negative
energy, and hatred and the inability to further innovate in terms of community.
The first way to end street violence is to end the racism between the people. As
we learned in class, you must know ones’ culture before you can help the people
of that culture.
Not
only is racism present in American ideology in terms of community but also
racism in the labor force is a big deterrence for these Puerto Ricans to find
jobs in the legal force as well as keeping these legal jobs. The main
characters in this ethnography had a hard time when entering the legal work
force, “when the attempt to improvise or show initiative, they fail miserably
and instead appear inefficient—or even hostile—for failing to follow ‘clearly
specified’ instructions”(142). The
best way to impress a superior is by showing initiative and an understanding of
the many tasks which was difficult or nearly impossible for the non-Native
Americans with their lack of professional capabilities. Due to the life on the
street and the insecurity and humiliation attached to incorrectly completing
certain tasks disallowed many of the current crack dealers from being upwardly
mobile in a legal and professional setting. Primo, a main character in the book
and a drug dealer at The Game Room, found it humiliating when his boss would
not allow him to answer the phone, even when no other worker was able to,
because of his accent. Due to an immutable way of speaking, Primo was unable to
hide his street identity and imitate his more-professional peers. This shows the, “institutionalized
racism at work in how the professional service sector unconsciously imposes the
requisites of Anglo, middle-class cultural capital”(145). While this type of
racism is not necessarily purposeful, it is still apparent and can be
detrimental to a person’s self-esteem as well as their motivation to continue
in an unpleasant work setting.
Continually
on the idea of racism in the work force, the different cultures and perceptions
of certain situations can lead to misunderstandings that can be taken the wrong
way. Primo had not yet finished high school when he entered the legal work
force and underwent the institutionalized racism in terms of how he processed
certain conversations with his boss. He states angrily, “if you’re young,
you’re a fucking idiot if you’re working. My boss, she wanted me to go back to
school too. Well fuck her, man! I’m here and I’m working. I want money”(151).
His interpretation of his boss telling him to go back to school was
misunderstood by his well-meaning boss who, “cared about the future of the
bright, energetic, high school dropout working for her”(151). Coming from two
different cultures, there was no sense of trust between the two people. This
stems back to the constant racism from the unknown and lack of assimilation
from previous generations of immigrants.
The
inefficient American institutions’ including the welfare system is another push
for the immigrants into the drug scene. Primo does not see life possible on welfare;
“welfare would put me into something. I would have to go to school, or take
some kind of training in order to keep getting the check. So how would I be
able to live by myself, support myself, and go to school, with the little bit
of money I’m gonna get from welfare? I would have to do something to get the
extra money to be able to live”(126). The people living in poverty are unable
and/or unaware on how to partake in upward mobility because of the constant
racism and lack of help from the government and/or community. Philipe writes,
“concrete, material alternatives have to be available to motivate youths who
live in poverty if anything is to change”(322). The polarization of the middle
class society from the working poor and unemployed continues to grow more
spatially. While services improve in Anglo-dominated communities, the
impoverished neighborhoods see continual budget cuts and fiscal austerity. This
makes it even harder for the poor to escape from poverty. With the lack of
governmental aid, the residents in East Harlem try to make enough money through
the illegal drug trafficking scene, yet either way the cannot seem to be
successful with the upward mobility.
It
is not solely the racism and lack of governmental aid that can keep these non
native Americans from upward mobility, but also their family situations can be
very detrimental to their self esteem as they continually fail to strive in the
legal market and constantly endure the pressures of supporting ones family when
they can barely support themselves. They hide from their lack of self-esteem
through sexual experiences with women, “Maybe it’s thyroids, or an ego thing
partially or to prove to friends how many girls I could get; but for me, it’s
an escape from reality… I mean we don’t have no money so we make up for it with
women”(291). These men mixed up in
the drug scene have nothing to show for themselves besides than with the amount
of women they can sleep with. The only thing they can brag about from their
lives in America is how high they got today or how many women they have been
sleeping with. This escape as Eddie said in the above quote is an escape from
their poor life of sex, poverty, and drugs. The other way in which these men
displayed their lack of self-esteem is through the violence upon their
families, “many were consistently violent against their loved ones, as if
lashing out against the families they were unable to support. Street culture
and the underground economy provided them with an alternative forum for
redefining their sense of masculine dignity around promiscuity, conspicuous
violence and ecstatic substance abuse”(288). This shows how their unhappiness in their life leads them to
drugs, sex, and violence while they are unable to make a steady living with
their illegal jobs and lack of financial support. Living in constant poverty,
enduring different types of racism, and the inability to succeed with upward
mobility can be damaging for the self-esteem and self-confidence.
The
main point the author is trying to make in this ethnography is how the people
living in poverty cannot seem to escape this type of living. With illicit drug
trafficking making as much money as it does, there will always be profit for
the drug dealers. With the lack of support from the government, the people in
poverty cannot make enough money in the legal labor force without working every
hour of their life away. The author wants to bring awareness to these types of
situations in an attempt to change the system over the years to better
accommodate the impoverished. While this may not be a global issue, it is an
issue that greatly affects America and the American people that our government is
supposed to support and protect. The author does an amazing job of telling this
story through the very intimate and real stories and connections that he has
during his time living in East Harlem while writing this novel. Without his
ability to befriend the drug dealers and residents of the neighborhood mixed
into the illicit drug trafficking scene, we would not be able to understand the
reasons why these people can not make a steady living or support themselves and
their families.
Through
the racism, lack of governmental support, and depleting self-esteem of the drug
dealers we see how difficult it can be to start from nothing and come up with
something in the midst of completely different cultures and ideologies. The
lack of understanding of the American business culture can make it difficult
for Puerto Ricans or other differing ethnic groups to succeed in the American
work force. While sometimes the racism is a misunderstanding, it can still be a
blow to someone’s self-confidence. While, “decriminalization of drugs in a
vacuum would not significantly reduce violence and self-destruction in the inner
city so long as it remains so difficult in the United States for high school
and college dropouts to earn a dignified subsistence income by legal means”,
the decriminalization of drugs would still be beneficial in destroying the
profitability of narcotic trafficking. There is not just one solution to ending
the poverty in East Harlem. The government needs to help it’s people with a
better welfare system, greater support and the decriminalization of drugs while
also being aware of the racism in the work force. The need for assimilation between the different cultures would also help end the racism. In the end, there is not just one thing that needs to be done in order to help people escape poverty. This ethnography and continual review of the ethnography is here to bring awareness towards the lives of people living underneath the poverty line to show their inability to succeed in the uward mobility of life.
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