In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy (From Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, P 57-76, 1997, Craig Reinarman and Harry G Levine, eds. - See NCJ-170648)

• NCJ Number: 170651
• Author(s): P Bourgois
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: University of California Press
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC. Revised version of article originally published in Contemporary Drug Problems, V 16 (1989)

Annotation

Fieldwork is reported that provides a personalized look at the daily struggles of Puerto Rican residents of New York City's Spanish Harlem with crack and crime and illustrates the culture of poverty concept.

Abstract

Media sources often refer to inner-city residents as the underclass, the hard-core unemployed, and the unemployables and as individuals who rely on the street culture for their existence. Several education theorists have studied processes by which the culture and structure of privilege and power affect society. Cultural reproduction theory has great potential in shedding light on how structurally-induced cultural resistance and self-reinforced marginalization interact at the street level in inner cities. Further, the culture of resistance and the underground economy that have emerged in opposition to demeaning, underpaid employment in the mainstream economy often engender violence. Regular displays of violence are necessary for success in the underground economy, and especially for success in the street world of crack. Employers or new entrepreneurs in the underground economy look for individuals who demonstrate their capacity for effective violence and terror. Significantly, the pervasiveness of the inner-city culture of violence does not apply only to crack sellers and street criminals; to a certain extent, all inner-city residents who want to maintain a sense of autonomy find it useful to participate to some extent in violence. The author points out, however, that the underground economy and associated violence are not propelled by an irrational cultural logic distinct from that of mainstream society. Many crack street dealers are strictly utilitarian in their involvement with crack and are simply attempting to maintain their autonomy and dignity. The concept of conjugated oppression, an ideological dynamic of ethnic discrimination that interacts explosively with an economic dynamic of class exploitation, is discussed. 33 references and 6 notes