Magdalena Theodore

August 12,
2010
In Search of Respect II
Professor Zdan

Interacting with the legal labor market the people in El Barrio find themselves not being

able to stay employed legally with chances of mobility. They are frustrated at not being to find

work without slaving themselves for minimum wage positions that barely assists them. So they

turn to selling of drugs and eventually peddling their product as a means of escape from the daily

struggle. “Obedience to norms of high-rise, office corridor culture is in direct contradiction to the

street culture’s definition of personal dignity- especially for males who are socialized not to

accept public subordination” (114). Violence and sexist misogynistic attitudes are norms that

street culture adopts. What norms and cultural ideas of respect and self-presentation as defined in

street credibility does not work for them in society.

The jobs at the bottom sector of the economy are menial labor jobs to which many of

whom new immigrants are willing to work for at decreased wages which in turns reduce better

jobs and wages the people in El Barrio are willing to work for. When they are unable to afford

the appropriate work attire, transit fare, and misunderstand the social cues in service type

positions, they become even more discouraged. The lack of social capital and social common

sense of paperwork, decorum, mannerism comes from the lack of knowledge outside the streets

and lack of education. When Primo attempted to be an entrepreneur it did not pan out; “his

inability to run a profitable enterprise was caused by his own jibaro definitions of proper

decorum and reciprocal obligation to friends and relatives” (136). His social capital did not help

to make the business go anywhere. Along with institutionalized racism, for example when

Primo’s boss forbade him to answer the telephone because his accent would discourage
prospective clients. Sensing the disrespect in the workforce turns about into the vetting of

frustration on the females in their lives and what they have control and power over.

Women are objectified in El Barrio, serves as male conquests as a way of showing how much of

a man you are. When women try to be more independent and demand their rights, they’re seen as

trying to act like man or outdoing them. The level of abuse to control the female increases and

respect is given to the man for showing who’s boss. “The gender disses respond to economic

inequality and power hierarchies. The crack dealers’ experience of powerlessness is usually

expressed in a racist and sexist idiom” (147). When Candy sold for Ray and become more

involved in the game, the men dissed her parenting skills and claimed she wasn’t doing her job

as she had no husband by her side.

The inability to make in the legitimate society has to do with their paradigm of street

culture. They are unable to switch codes between the streets and the labor market, and when

needing to do so to get them out of El Barrio. The underground serves them with the game of

hustling as a skill, women, and money. Until they can no longer “take refuge in the underground

economy and celebrate street culture” their circumstances will more than like remain the same

and perpetuate itself (173). Putting themselves in the shoes of the middleclass person or those

they’re trying to interact with will enable to understand the system more and be able to increase

their social capital.