Selling Crack In El Barrio Sociology Essay

Selling Crack In El Barrio Sociology Essay Society sets standards for us to strive toward, and offers a limited set of accepted means through which we can reach these standards. Unfortunately, the means accepted by society are not available to everyone. The lack of equal opportunity in our society compels certain groups to resort to deviant behavior in order to achieve their goals, or even just to survive. Deviance or deviant behavior is behavior that goes against accepted formal and informal social norms. Crime falls into the category of deviance that goes against formal social norms, or written laws and regulations. Groups that engage in deviant behavior are generally stigmatized by society, and in turn, are subject to marginalization. One such group is the immense subculture of drug dealers. A subculture is a group that has cultural values and behavioral patterns distinctive of a particular group in a society. In his account titled In Search of Respect, ethnographic researcher Philippe Bourgois goes into the depths of this subculture and examines why drug dealers live the way they do and how their occupation is a not just a personal choice, but a product of society. In addition to illustrating the social production of blocked opportunities for residents in Bourgoiss ground breaking book, he also provides an interesting new insight into the street culture found in New York City by examining the effects of illegal drugs on a minority group. Specifically, the book focuses on the experiences and lives of Puerto Rican crack cocaine dealers and users as well as their friends, families and girlfriends, each of whom Bourgois depicts as victims of circumstance. In doing so, the author vividly details and analyzes the effects of structural inequality and social marginalization in the United States. Bourgois, with his wife and child, moved into a tenement apartment in a small neighborhood in New York City named East Harlem in 1985. To residents, this neighborhood was simply known as El Barrio. To conduct his study, Bourgois and his family spent the next five years living among the harsh realities of the ghetto streets. The purpose of this was to infiltrate, assimilate, and participate in the daily workings of the community as much as possible to gain a better understanding of the circumstances these poor and suffering Puerto Rican residents faced. As such, the ultimate goal was to gain entrance to a network of Puerto Rican crack dealers as well as their network of relatives and acquaintances. During his five year stint in El Barrio, Bourgois engaged in intensive participant observation among the informants who allowed him to penetrate the secretive culture of the underground economy. He provides the reader with verbatim narratives taken from his conversations with drug dealers, police officers (who occasionally mistook him for a drug addict), and drug users Bourgois uses the account of his subject and friend named Primo to illustrate the circumstances of drug dealers and the reasons they resort to illegal jobs. The norms of drug dealers include street sales, drug houses, violent crime, and respect associated with the status of a drug dealer. Having the identity of a drug dealer attributes a sense of power and pride to a man, even if it is just in his neighborhood. It prevents him from having to bear the humiliation of being degraded or belittled by a superior while working at a legal job. Bourgois book focuses on a relatively unexamined section of the drug industry, the local dealers, some of whom are, or have been drug users. He notes that most of them started out in legitimate work, often prematurely by truanting from school, not a difficult thing to do in the inner city. However their entrepreneurial skills have not enabled them to escape from the most vulnerable wage sector. The poorest jobs fail to satisfy them while their backgrounds make it impossible for them to sustain contact with more promising possibilities. Still they are unwilling to lie down to the system. They have made the most of their limited opportunities by finding a niche in the illegal drug market. Although nobody is more aware than they are of the ultimate hopelessness of this, nevertheless in the meantime it gives them the buzz, the status and the income their yuppie contemporaries find a few blocks away in Wall St. very well-written, as the author uses a plain, easy-to-read and understand style. He is arguing that answers to societys most pressing issues are a lot more than mere blame-the-system or blame-the-victim approaches. It is far too common for liberals and conservatives, respectively, to blame society or to blame pathological, flawed individuals for social problems. As Bourgois shows in this book, the truth is often a combination of the two. Even his informants admit that they blame no one else but themselves for the situations they are in. The book starts off with Bourgoiss own experience of how there is an apartheid present in New York working against his subjects The amount of poverty in this portion of our country is much higher than that in most other areas. Bourgois argues that this neighborhood, which is well known for high rates of violence, does not have widespread violence occurring amongst all of its members. The higher crime rate, argues Bourgois, occurs for the most part within the factions of the underground economy. Some insight into this economy would explain the reasons for higher rates of violence. This book is a summary of the events that occurred during Bourgois stay in El Barrio. The original purpose of the book was to write a first-hand account of poverty and ethnic segregation in the heart of one of the worlds largest cities. Bourgois was swept into the area drug economy because of the abundance of information from the dealers and their families who all lived within the immediate area. The problem was so prevalent that the focus of th The amount of drug dealers or crack houses is an indirect result of the lost jobs in Harlem. Bourgois states that many of the unemployed in the inner-city are not successful in finding work because they lack the skills of working efficiently with people that they dont already have an every day relationship with, something that factory jobs provided. Factory jobs that moved out of the inner-cities left the large minority groups without a collective workplace where everybody knew their task and how to complete it. The current availability of jobs within the inner-city is mostly within the service sector. These jobs are individualized jobs where independence is required rather than a group effort. The jobs pay little and arent generally respected. This tends to lead many people within this community to become involved in the drug economy. Bourgois argues that, to reduce the violence within the drug community, we should consider the decriminalization of drugs. This would force small time dealers out of business, eliminating the need for them to commit violence amongst themselves, while making the s Bourgois states that there is a strong feeling of community among the people living in El Barrio. Those people not involved in the drug market rarely encounter violence themselves because the dealers have nothing to fear from them. Bourgois states that, during the day, children are safely left to play in the streets unattended by their parents. At night, when the legitimate working force of the community is eating dinner or asleep, is when the brunt of violence takes place Bourgois portrayal of the dealers and their families makes it difficult for the reader not to feel sympathy and compassion towards them. His argument is well defined and persuasive due to the fact that he moved his family to the area in which he was studying and had the courage to get in and really interact with the people of this community. The way in which he writes also compliments his argument by drawing the reader in and making him feel like he himself were there. Many may not agree with the solution that Bourgois suggests, but everyone who reads the book will re-think their own views before discussing t This is an incredibly well written ethnography, its very accessible and could be read by anyone. Really illustrates the problems of people in ghettoised areas, with restricted access to the job market and a stigma attached to them. Stigma is a mark of infamy or reproach. Drug dealing is stigmatized because norms of drug dealing completely clash with the norms of society, most obviously by going against written laws. Consuming or possessing illegal drugs is a crime, but the The only jobs that provided enough money for the Harlemites to survive on, with out having to engage in some other illegal activity, are high risk construction jobs, which were ran by racist mafia backed unions (ch. 4 pg. 162), or entry level jobs in the F.I.R.E. (finance, insurance, or real estate) sector (ch. 4 pg.142), where the impoverished Puerto Ricans did not have enough cultural capital or the proper ethnic background to survive in the positions being offered. Although the world of the underground economy is very chaotic, it all seems to revolve around one thing, crack. Everyones daily life, that is anyone who is not a member of the poor legal working class, is organized around crack, whether one is fighting rival crews for a spot to sell, or just hanging out at the local crackhouse waiting for a handout. It is prevalent on both the violent and non-violent spectrums of the culture. Obviously, the dealers had the most respect of everyone, and were looked up at by youngsters. To survive financially outside of mainstream society, one must manipulate all of ones available resources to make a livable income. So, in the underground economy this can mean any thing, from taking advantage of the welfare office, to selling drugs, or robbing people, all of which were employed by most of the subjects in this book. The only act that stood out to me, as being a ritual was the act of getting high. While getting high served two fold, it served as a method to deal with the reality of not being able to be in control of any part of ones life, and it severed as a way of opening up the lines for communication, as most of all the testimonials occurred over liquor and some sort of drug. What caught the eye of the youngsters were their nice shoes and the respect everyone had for the dealer. So at the earliest time possible, the young kids would try and emulate what they have seen as an acceptable, and viable way to get money and respect. Selling drugs, being violent, and robbing people, all were skills that they learned at school (ch.4pg.194). Bourgois eventually found his way to a storefront called the Game Room where video games provided a cover for the sale of crack cocaine. It was the manager of this establishment, Primo, who became Bourgoiss friend and primary informant about life in El Barrio. Through this intimacy, Bourgois seeks to tell us some things about the symbols and symptoms of urban ghetto life, the Achilles heel of the richest industrialized nation in the world by documenting how it imposes racial segregation and economic marginalization on so many of its Latino/a and African-American citizens. (Bourgois: 1995a; 14) Bourgois painstakingly records and analyzes the exploits of these elements of Puerto Rican diaspora. The culmination of such fieldwork is collected in ethnography about the urban underground economy and social marginalization Speaking fluently the minority language, he lived for five years in El Barrio and also travelled to Puerto Rico to trace the connections between there and Amerikay. His analysis starts in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island at the end of the Cuban ±Dominican chain and therefore of strategic importance to the United States. Colonization by the US has The concentration of Puerto Rican immigrants in East Harlem has access mainly to the poorest service jobs in New York City. East Harlem is a classic ghetto which no self respecting New Yorker would think of even driving through. Yet, as Bourgois notes, the majority of East Harlem inhabitants have nothing to do with crime, far less drugs. It is the removal of all local industry, e.g. garment making, which has exposed a social infrastructure that is too weak to support the present massive levels of unemployment and casual labor.

A Case Study of Google Recruiting

A Case Study of Google Recruiting Google’s recruitment process is famously difficult, with candidates having to face multiple interviews (we've heard stories of ‘double figures') while those with sound work experience have been turned down due to having less than perfect college grades. As the company continues its rapid expansion, it has been forced to streamline this process, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledging last year that the company's high bar for hiring was holding back its expansion. Google has increased its workforce by an average of 16 people daily, from 1,628 at the end of 2003 to 3,021 in 2004 and 5,680 at the end of last year. Candidates have had to endure interviews with various different Google staff, as well as facing aptitude tests like this one. The average number of interviews for those offered a job at Google dropped from 6. 2 at the beginning of the year to 5. 1 in June. The company is said to be considering speeding up the process to prevent candidates accepting other jobs while waiting for a reply from Google. Candidates shouldn’t expect an easy ride though. According to the  Wall Street Journal, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in July that the company was â€Å"able to now in fact increase the standards by which we select and hire new people†. Google is said to place high importance on college grades, which can be frustrating for older candidates with a wealth of work experience

Bulling and Cyberbulling

Bulling and cyber bulling is a huge issue in our society and the problem is increasing. According to the American Justice Department this month 1out of four children will be abused by another youth. And since the introduction of technology such as texting, emails and social media sites it has become allot easier for bullies to both bully and bully secretly and almost constantly. This essay will address the issue of both bullying, harassment and in particular cyber bullies.It will also suggest ways to cope with bulling According to schools. nsw. edu. au bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Building Respectful and Safe Schools (2010) identifies four types of bullying.These are: * Physical bullying -Physical bullying is bullying physically including hitting, kicking, tripping, pinc hing and pushing or damaging property. * Verbal bullying- Verbal bullying is bullying someone using words. For example-name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist remarks, or verbal abuse. * Covert bullying- Covert bullying is often harder to recognise and can be carried out behind the bullied person's back. It is designed to harm someone's social reputation and/or cause humiliation.Covert bullying includes: lying and spreading rumours, negative facial or physical gestures, menacing or contemptuous looks, playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate, mimicking unkindly, encouraging others to socially exclude someone and damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance * Cyber bullying- Cyber bullying is overt or covert bullying behaviours using digital technologies. Examples include harassment via a mobile phone, setting up a defamatory personal website or deliberately excluding someone from social networking spaces. Cyber bullying can happen at any time.It can be in public or in private and sometimes only known to the target and the person bullying. Bulling is not mutual arguments and disagreements, single episodes of social rejection or dislike, single episode acts of nastiness or spite, random acts of aggression or intimidation. The standard definition for harassment is unwanted conduct on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc. which has the purpose or effect of either violating the claimant's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.All bulling is harassment but not all harassment is bulling. Bulling has both short term and long term effects for the victims. Although severe long term effects can be avoided by stopping bulling as early as possible. The short term effects can include issues at school (i. e. lower academic achievement), depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and los s of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.In extreme cases bullied children may also have suicidal tendencies. Long term effects can include: a greater risk of depression and lower self-esteem later in later life, more likely to have problems with alcohol and drug use and it is more likely they will have suicidal thoughts Demonstrating assertive behaviour when bullied or harassed can often help reduce bulling. Assertive behaviour is not aggressive. It’s saying things in a direct and honest way. Saying things such as stop it, I don’t like it and what you’re saying isn’t very nice please stop.If you are being bullied or harassed the most important thing to do is tell someone. People like a trusted adult such as a teacher, councillor or parent are all good to tell. If all else fails call a kids or bulling helpline such the kids helpline on 1800 55 1800. Cyber bullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented , threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyber stalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyber stalking is NEVER called cyber bullying. The actions of a cyber-bully are biasedly verbal bulling over technology. This is includes messaging on a social site, email and texting. There is no way to completely avoid cyber bullies unless you pretty much stop using the computer.But there are things you can do to lessen the chance of being cyber bullied. Firstly if you think you might be being cyber bullied then talk to a trusted adult. Secondly if the bulling is happening over social networking sites then most sites give you the option to block people. If it’s over the phone then tal k to your parents about getting a new number. Bibliography http://ncab. org. au/fourkindsofbullying/ 24/8/12 http://www. stopbullying. gov/at-risk/effects/index. html#suicide 24/8/12 http://library. hinkquest. org/07aug/00117/bullyingconsequences. html 24/8/12 http://www. cyberbullying. info/ http://au. reachout. com/Factsheets/C/Cyberbullying http://www. cybersmart. gov. au/Kids/Tips%20to%20stay%20safe%20and%20cybersmart/Cyberbullying. aspx http://www. bullyingnoway. gov. au/ http://www. bullying. com. au/ http://www. youthbeyondblue. com/factsheets-and-info/fact-sheet-20-bullying/ http://www. stopbullying. gov/at-risk/effects/index. htmlhttp://www. racgp. org. au/afp/201103/201103carrgregg. pdf Bulling and Cyberbulling Bulling and cyber bulling is a huge issue in our society and the problem is increasing. According to the American Justice Department this month 1out of four children will be abused by another youth. And since the introduction of technology such as texting, emails and social media sites it has become allot easier for bullies to both bully and bully secretly and almost constantly. This essay will address the issue of both bullying, harassment and in particular cyber bullies.It will also suggest ways to cope with bulling According to schools. nsw. edu. au bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s Building Respectful and Safe Schools (2010) identifies four types of bullying.These are: * Physical bullying -Physical bullying is bullying physically including hitting, kicking, tripping, pinc hing and pushing or damaging property. * Verbal bullying- Verbal bullying is bullying someone using words. For example-name calling, insults, teasing, intimidation, homophobic or racist remarks, or verbal abuse. * Covert bullying- Covert bullying is often harder to recognise and can be carried out behind the bullied person's back. It is designed to harm someone's social reputation and/or cause humiliation.Covert bullying includes: lying and spreading rumours, negative facial or physical gestures, menacing or contemptuous looks, playing nasty jokes to embarrass and humiliate, mimicking unkindly, encouraging others to socially exclude someone and damaging someone's social reputation or social acceptance * Cyber bullying- Cyber bullying is overt or covert bullying behaviours using digital technologies. Examples include harassment via a mobile phone, setting up a defamatory personal website or deliberately excluding someone from social networking spaces. Cyber bullying can happen at any time.It can be in public or in private and sometimes only known to the target and the person bullying. Bulling is not mutual arguments and disagreements, single episodes of social rejection or dislike, single episode acts of nastiness or spite, random acts of aggression or intimidation. The standard definition for harassment is unwanted conduct on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc. which has the purpose or effect of either violating the claimant's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.All bulling is harassment but not all harassment is bulling. Bulling has both short term and long term effects for the victims. Although severe long term effects can be avoided by stopping bulling as early as possible. The short term effects can include issues at school (i. e. lower academic achievement), depression and anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, changes in sleep and eating patterns, and los s of interest in activities they used to enjoy. These issues may persist into adulthood.In extreme cases bullied children may also have suicidal tendencies. Long term effects can include: a greater risk of depression and lower self-esteem later in later life, more likely to have problems with alcohol and drug use and it is more likely they will have suicidal thoughts Demonstrating assertive behaviour when bullied or harassed can often help reduce bulling. Assertive behaviour is not aggressive. It’s saying things in a direct and honest way. Saying things such as stop it, I don’t like it and what you’re saying isn’t very nice please stop.If you are being bullied or harassed the most important thing to do is tell someone. People like a trusted adult such as a teacher, councillor or parent are all good to tell. If all else fails call a kids or bulling helpline such the kids helpline on 1800 55 1800. Cyber bullying is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented , threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyber stalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyber stalking is NEVER called cyber bullying. The actions of a cyber-bully are biasedly verbal bulling over technology. This is includes messaging on a social site, email and texting. There is no way to completely avoid cyber bullies unless you pretty much stop using the computer.But there are things you can do to lessen the chance of being cyber bullied. Firstly if you think you might be being cyber bullied then talk to a trusted adult. Secondly if the bulling is happening over social networking sites then most sites give you the option to block people. If it’s over the phone then tal k to your parents about getting a new number. Bibliography http://ncab. org. au/fourkindsofbullying/ 24/8/12 http://www. stopbullying. gov/at-risk/effects/index. html#suicide 24/8/12 http://library. hinkquest. org/07aug/00117/bullyingconsequences. html 24/8/12 http://www. cyberbullying. info/ http://au. reachout. com/Factsheets/C/Cyberbullying http://www. cybersmart. gov. au/Kids/Tips%20to%20stay%20safe%20and%20cybersmart/Cyberbullying. aspx http://www. bullyingnoway. gov. au/ http://www. bullying. com. au/ http://www. youthbeyondblue. com/factsheets-and-info/fact-sheet-20-bullying/ http://www. stopbullying. gov/at-risk/effects/index. htmlhttp://www. racgp. org. au/afp/201103/201103carrgregg. pdf

Should College Athletes Be Paid - 754 Words

Over the past few years there has been a huge controversy to take place in the college sports world. Should athletes get paid to play in college? Is the benefit of a free education enough for college athletes? Many experts have argued both sides, in which both are valid but neither one has come up with a deciding factor on why or why not a college athlete should get paid. There is a huge amount of positive and negative outcomes that can be pulled from the situation. College Athletes should not be paid to play because it’s completely unfair to other athletic programs, it would take away the passion and intensity of the sport, and they receive enough compensation as it is. Whether you choose to play football, basketball, baseball or any other sport at a college, is there anyway to pay all these athletes and satisfy each party? There’s not one sports program in the United States that has equal players in every sport. Therefore every athlete can’t be paid the same am ount. It’s unfair to athletes and would just bring more problems to school athletics. At most colleges the football and basketball programs bring in the majority revenue. Any money made from these two programs help with the funding of the other sports. More importantly, colleges have other expenses that must be handled first before signing off a check to their athletes. Paying athletes would take money away that could be used to hire more faculty members, supplying students with the newest or more efficientShow MoreRelatedShould College Athletes Be Paid?1578 Words   |  7 PagesAshay Mehta Nou Per 8 Should College Athletes Be Paid? One of the hottest debates in the sports industry is if college athletes should be paid. If you want to pay these athletes, how would the college determine the dollar amount that should be paid? Should the basketball team make more than the football team? Should the the soccer team be paid as well? Cheerleading? Chess team? Should everyone on the team get a salary? 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While most players who play in college sports are under a scholarship, that pays for the college tuition, books, and housingRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1364 Words   |  6 PagesHave you paid attention to all of the news that has been surfacing about collegiate sports lately? It is a big topic now days in the world of sports on weather college athletes should be getting paid to play sports. College athletics have gained great popularity of the past few decades, and have brought schools lots of revenue. A lot of college athletes think they should be getting paid for their services they do for their school. College sports like basketball and football generate over six billionRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1130 Words   |  5 PagesWhat college athlete would not want to be paid to play the sport that he or she loves? The real question is, though, should college athletes be paid fo r their roles in a college’s athletics? 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College athletesRead MoreShould College Athletes Be Paid?1239 Words   |  5 PagesLindsey Simmerman Speech 102 T/Th 1:00-2:15 October 25, 2016 Should college athletes be paid to play? Specific Purpose: To persuade the class to agree with my stance on paying college athletes to play sports Thesis: College football is the hours players spend practicing and performing, the number of injuries the players face, and the persona these athletes must portray every day all the while watching their schools, coaches, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) get all the compensationRead MoreCollege Athletes Should Be Paid1254 Words   |  6 PagesSome college athletic departments are as wealthy as professional sports teams. The NCAA has an average annual revenue of $10.6 billion dollars. College athletes should be paid because of the amount of revenue that they bring to their college. Each individual college should pay its athletes based on how much revenue they bring to the college in which they attend. The colleges that win their Division title, their Conference title, or the National championship, give bonuses to the Head coach of thatRead MoreCollege Athletes Should Not Be Paid1558 Words   |  7 Pagesstudent-athletes participate in a variety of different s ports, and currently they do not receive paychecks for their performances. College athletics have attained an extensive popularity increase among Americans over the past few decades. This has resulted into increased revenues for the National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] and the participating colleges, which has fuelled the debate of whether or not college athletes should collect an income. College athletes should not be paid to play