The story revolves around Phillippe's experience of poverty and ethnic segregation in New York, one of the most expensive cities of the world. Phillippe is a college professor who moves to the El Barrio neighborhood of East Harlem to research and write a book about his experiences with poverty and racial segregation, hence the birth of the book titled “In search of respect”. Its objective is to make mainstream society understand the problems of city centers. The book primarily revolves around the daily activities of crack dealers in the El Barrio neighborhood. Phillippe clarifies that the book is not about crack or drugs, but rather asserts that drugs in inner cities are a “symptom” of social marginalization and alienation. The social and economic challenges that El Barrio residents face are not only the product of their actions, but also of a larger set of events and the structural framework of which they are a part. In fact, Phillippe claims that the sale of drugs and the involvement of residents in underground economic activities have allowed them to access essential products that the poor would not have access to without these crimes. Upon arriving in El Barrio in 1985, Phillippe notes that there was no crack cocaine in the area, but over time the method of preparing the drug was adopted by locals. In the book, Phillippe mainly focuses on the underground economy, which is the most popular technique used by locals to earn a living. From conversations with drug traffickers, it is clear that most of these individuals resorted to selling and abusing drugs after becoming frustrated in achieving their dreams through legal means. Resorting to drug trafficking and use may be due to lack of education or the legal papers one needs to run a legal business. Immigrants began working in factories at the age of twelve. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayFrom the 1950s until the 1980s, Puerto Ricans were trapped in the most vulnerable niche of the industrial economy that was quickly replaced by service industries. This led to fewer jobs in the factories and the people who worked there had to find a way to survive. The story is fascinating as we travel into the minds of drug dealers, explore the dynamics of street culture, gain first-hand insight into racism, violence, economic marginalization, police brutality, lack of cultural capital and stereotypes that revolve around life in ghettos. like El Barrio. These themes help us become familiar with life in El Barrio and understand the struggles residents face on a daily basis, thus explaining urban poverty. Themes Violence is strongly observed from scene to scene in this text. According to Primo (manager of the Game Room crack house) and Caesar (Primo's lookout), it is important to be naughty or commit acts that could be considered self-destructive in order to prevent the locals from "testing" you . Respect and loyalty are reinforced by fear to the extent that once the community fears you, one is more likely to encounter fewer problems while carrying out one's daily activities. Ray, owner of a crack house ring, uses violence to prevent his employees or business partners from ripping him off. In the words of Phillippe, “upward mobility requires systematic recourseand effective at violence against just about anyone, including oneself.” For example, Ray publicly threatens the professor for revealing his weakness of being illiterate during one of their first interactions. The professor didn't know that Ray couldn't read and he didn't intend to embarrass him in front of his employees. The consequence of this action was that he was banned from being seen in the crack houses for several months. The term "juice" is used to refer to street respect and Ray had plenty of it to carry out his operations. According to Primo, Ray and Luis allegedly beat an old man and raped him. From one point of view, one might think the act reflects Ray's homosexuality, but from another perspective, rape is about empowerment, and in this case it might signify Ray's overall masculinity in another incident. in the text we observe that Ray was considering hiring killers for Luis instead of paying his lawyer, despite the fact that it would cost him the same amount of money as the lawyer requested $3,000; is also not immune when it comes to dealing with the residents of El Barrio The author describes some of his interactions with the police. In some cases he tried to be honest. and polite when speaking to the police, but this resulted in public humiliation, verbal abuse and threats. He quickly learned to carry his ID and include “mister officer.” in his short responses in order to manage situations smoothly. During his stay in El Barrio, the author witnessed several acts of violence, including shootings, firebombing, fights, assaults, and police brutality. Phillippe realized that people in the neighborhood interacted primarily based on racial profiling and stereotypes. So he had to play with people's assumptions because it was difficult to convince them of the truth. Most of the characters in the book seem racist, which is evident because at first, Phillippe had difficulty connecting with drug dealers. Because he was white, most people thought he was an undercover cop and police assumed he was addicted to crack cocaine due to his emaciated body. From the text, we understand that interactions between African Americans and Puerto Ricans were often hostile because both racial groups hated each other. Caesar makes extremely racist remarks when he talks about black people because a black man murdered his sister. Caesar admits that at one point in his life he wanted to be black mainly because they were cool, and that most of the underground economy is influenced by black culture, but he later came to despised them and claimed he would kill them. He also told Phillippe that he also hated white people and would kill them too. The only reason he didn't kill the perpetrator was because he was cool and interacted well with the drug dealers. Phillippe reports that people who saw him in the neighborhood thought he was lost and some advised him to move to areas like Queens, which were better suited to people of his race. Phillippe's friends advised him to leave El Barrio, with some even accusing him of dragging his family into the neighborhood. The author reports that he lost some friends in mainstream society after moving to the Puerto Rican neighborhood because they thought he was reckless. Another theme of the book is the lack of cultural capital. Cultural capital refers to the social assets that an individual possesses. Assets include intellect, education, and style of dress and speech that collectively contribute to an individual's upward mobility.