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In Search of Horatio Alger: Culture and Ideology in the Crack Economy

NCJ Number
124595
Journal
Contemporary Drug Problems Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1989), 619-649
Author(s)
P Bourgois
Date Published
1990
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This analysis of crack dealing in a largely Puerto Rican area of New York City concludes that the "crack economy" represents an effort to achieve financial success as an alternative to the demeaning, underpaid employment in the mainstream economy.
Abstract
Thus, drug dealing reflects acceptance rather than rejection of the American dream of attaining wealth. This underground economy is also characterized by violence, which is essential for maintaining credibility and for preventing cheating by colleagues, customers, and robbers. In fact, upward mobility in the underground economy requires the systematic and effective use of violence. Thus, behavior that appears to be irrationally violent and self-destructive to the outside observer can be reinterpreted as a careful use of public relations, rapport building, and investment in human capital. The increasing numbers of women among crack addicts in the inner city also show how the cultural dynamic of resistance to any kind of exploitation has produced both emancipation of women and their oppression and further exploitation. Case narratives based on the author's fieldwork, notes, appended table, and 64 references.

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