"Self-destructive addiction is merely the medium for desperate people to internalize their frustration, resistance, and powerlessness. In other words, we can safely ignore the drug hysteria that periodically sweeps through the United States. Instead we should focus our ethical concerns and political energies on the contradictions posed by the persistence of inner-city poverty in the midst of extraordinary opulence."
Bourgois hones in on the real problem of poverty: its existence nearby wealth. Why are certain communities neglected when others so close-by prosper immensely? Bourgois' theory is that the drug addiction and violence in El Barrio are the direct result of a certain desperation which residents feel after realizing the government has no interest in empowering or protecting them.
"The enormous, uncensused, untaxed underground economy allows the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in neighborhoods like East Harlem to subsist with the minimal amenities that people in the United States consider to be basic necessities. I was determined to study these alternative income-generating strategies that were consuming so much of the time and energy of the young men and women sitting on the stoops and parked cars in front of my tenement."
Bourgois observes the dichotomy of how his neighbors pass time. They seem to have an abundance of free time and no occupation to speak of, yet they make enough money to maintain a basic lifestyle. He devotes the book to exploring how illegal business operates in these neighborhoods and why. By placing himself directly in the community, he demonstrates his willingness to meet people where they're at and to truly listen.
"I refuse to ignore or minimize the social misery I witnessed, because that would make me complicitous with oppression."
Bourgois sets a distance between himself and acceptable society. Living in El Barrio, he relinquishes whatever preconceptions he held about the "acceptable." He notes how the people around him are treated by society at large and deliberately refuses to do the same. He reserves judgement for the sake of his research, in order to most accurately assess the social and economic situation of the community.
"By definition, no Census Bureau data exists on the subject. . . one possible measure for the size of the underground economy is the figure for households that declare 'no wage or salary income.'"
Bourgois' research reveals one nuance of the community's isolation; they are invisible to the records. No one making money illegally shouts loudly to the government how much money they've earned. In order to understand the socioeconomic situation of El Barrio better, however, Bourgois proposes interpreting tax and census data to find holes where households declare no income.
