Essay Questions

Why do you think that drug addiction is less harmful than inequality in El Barrio?

When Bourgois lives in El Barrio, he gets a deeper understanding of the challenges that the community is going through. He discovers that the community is racially discriminated and it lags in many aspects ranging from education, healthcare, and infrastructure among others. Among the challenges the community is undergoing include drug abuse. However, inequality has done more harm to the community than drug abuse. Lack of proper education, for instance, has forced the youth to engage in drug abuse because they cannot access better economic activity to keep them occupied. Inequality in opportunities has denied the community healthcare and adequate infrastructure. Therefore, this community lags behind development-wise and this is more destructive than drug abuse.

Does the institutionalization of racism emerge as the primary course of poverty among the people of East Harlem?

According to Philippe Bourgois’ research, the root cause for the systematic poverty in East Harlem is racism from the neighboring communities. The government has not put mechanisms in place to ensure that the people of East Harlem are given equal opportunities. Instead, the government has discriminated against these people painting them as drug traffickers and hoodlums who are a threat to the security and stability of the nation. Therefore, the people of East Harlem are excluded from vital government benefits. As a result, the neighboring communities treat the people of East Harlem with contempt and suspicion. As a result, the people of East Harlem have decided to live on their own and indulge in crime and drug abuse because they feel that the government and other communities do not care about them.

What makes the people of El Barrio institutionalize a strict code of protection and respect?

The people living in El Barrio already knows that they are discriminated against by the whites. Because of racism, the people of El Barrio live in a certain region which is neglected by the government and the surrounding communities. Therefore, they have come up with a strict code of protection and respect to ensure that outsiders do not come to interrupt the operations of the community. For instance, when Philippe Bourgois visits El Barrio this community, he finds it difficult to fit in because he is treated as an outsider without good interests for the community. Additionally, he is a white man who belongs to the communities that discriminate against the El Barrio people. Philippe Bourgois finds it mandatory to learn the culture of the people and the way they do things for him to fit in.