Phillipe Bourgois In Search Of Respect

In the world of illegal drug markets, similar to the world of legitimized businesses, attaining credibility amongst competitors while also gaining profits through territorial and market expansion are the key strategies to a successful business. However, one of the striking differences between the legal and illegal markets seem to be the overwhelming correlation between drugs, crime and violence (Beckett, 2018). As explained in the third chapter of Phillipe Bourgois’ “In Search of Respect” through the ethnographic lens in inner city America, this complex relationship is explained mostly by the illegitimate nature of drug markets that seem to use violence as a necessity to advance businesses as well as to guard financial and personal security

Each population shares a set of unspoken rules and expectations that were put into place through a common understanding of history and way of life. For instance, the inner city residents share a common experience of being institutionally racialized in day-to-day employments which drives them further away from the mainstream economy and society (Bourgois, 1995). The Xalisco Boys who have mostly come from similar marginalization within their community of farmers for being poor, share a common culture of familial rivalries and also admiration to family members who come home from the U.S. as “a new Northener” (Quinones, 2005, p. 72) with an abundance of money to show off. These examples of what is expected within a community resemble inherent common knowledge and ideology which then translates to culture or way of life. This culture, then, without any written constitutions or rules control and maintain the society in which these populations

The use of violence also primarily serves as a means of self-protection since they are unable to rely on law enforcement (Bourgois, 1995). Bourgois himself and one of the crack dealers, Gato, were demeaned by the others in the social circle for not being able to retaliate against a conflict. Gato was asked by a cousin on where he was going to work after his reputation is tainted, implying that nobody in the business would hire a weak, non-violent man like him (Bourgois, 1995). This is one of the many instances which further strengthens Bourgois’ claim on the pervasiveness of the systemic use of violence in this market as it shows the powerful influence of the “culture of terror” in determining one’s status in the drug trade and in the community. The shared understanding of the importance of possessing the ability to inflict terror and violence on others shows just how much it is valued as a form of survival and is inherently the unspoken rule within this population. In the case of the Xalisco Boys, the informal social control is managed back at home in the small town of Xalisco, Nayarit, where hopeful families wait at home for allowances and gifts from their children working up north in the United States (Quinones, 2015). The