El_Barrio

El Barrio Socioeconomic Inequalities in El Barrio In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio was written by Philippe Bourgois in order to explain why a substantial amount of the residents of El Barrio stray from legal job markets and into lifestyles of crime and poverty. Many people attempt to blame the socioeconomic gap between “mainstream” and “ghetto” societies on laziness and poor morals. However, Bourgois argues that because of societal oppressions, these residents are forced to chase the “American Dream” of respect and success in extremely different approaches than those of mainstream America. Philippe Bourgois moved to an apartment in an area in East Harlem known as El Barrio in 1985 to research the cultural apartheid that is present in the United States. He eventually gained the trust of El Barrio residents and through thousands of taped conversations and one-on-one experiences he tries to explain the struggles of street life from a first hand point of view. The biggest struggles represented in the book are due to racism, poverty, and crime. The majority of the people living in El Barrio are Puerto Rican; therefore we witness many instances of discrimination throughout In Search of Respect. In the “Goin’ Legit” el, barrio, respect, mainstream, through, people, bourgois, because, underclass, ghetto, america, residents, order, legit, criminal, activities, able, work, underprivileged, trade, struggles, socioeconomic, societies, same, puerto, poverty, opportunities, education, due, drug, different, crime, book, within, victim