In Search Of

1. In Search Of By: Jaskaran, Zakariaand Sach Selling Crack in El Barrio

2. Chapter 5 • School Days: Learning to be a Better Criminal

3. 1st Theme: Individuals Groups and Society – Relationship Between Equality and Domination • Mother – Child • Because of the need for English literacy in the school system, children’s monolingual mothers, like Primo’s, changed from “the authority figure in their lives – into an intimidated object of ridicule” (175) by the teacher. • In an attempt to keep their children under control mothers increased their beatings, anger and distrust. • Teacher – Pupil • Teachers Hierarchize their students depending on their class, culture, ascent, clothing, eye contact, body language, play styles and attention spans. • As the students got older they became the dominant group in the relationship, beating them up frequently. - For example, Caesar hit his teacher with a chair, breaking his arm.

5. Student – Student • The disabled, gay and lesbian people were discriminated against and beat up by the older students. - For example, Lucas, the boy with cerebral pulsy, is beat up because “they didn’t like them” (188). - Puerto Rican’s and the other races were also in extremely violent relationships. • Women – Men • When boys are young, their mothers and grandmothers are authority figures. Yet when the boys get older, they dominate the girls, especially in the case of gang rape. Therefore, the respect for females from males decreases as the boys age.

6. 2nd Theme: Moral/Belief Systems and Practices – Relationship Between Physical Environment and Behaviour • Because of the racial “war” that existed during Primo and Caesar’s childhood, they would “cut school to go downtown and rob”(174) • When they were young they didn’t steal for drugs, they stole because their parents were unable to provide for them. • Primo and Caesar both stole and did drugs. This has to do with moral beliefs • They also thought that it was right because it became an everyday practice to them. It was accepted by the culture. • Primo’s future career in the underground economy was also established – or learnt at school”(191-2)

7. Kindergarten Delinquencies: Confronting Cultural Capital • Primo and Caesar’s first school memories are very negative. • “I hated school. I never did homework in my life. I used to fuck up all the time in school,” Primo said (175) • Primo’s monolingual Spanish immigrant mother experienced a culture shock when she moved to New York City with her toddlers. Her inability to communicate in English condemned Primo to appear slow-witted and uncooperative at school with his teachers. • Primo`s behaviour and demeanor in the classroom also gave reason for his peers and teachers to judge him. • “When the teacher used to dish me for talking a lot, or not paying attention, I’d probably curse the shit out of her,” Primo said (177) • Teachers hierarchize their students depending on their class, culture, ascent, clothing, eye contact, body language, play styles and attention spans.

8. When Primo achieved minimal literacy and a an understanding of grade school conventions, he was able to manipulate the system against his mother and betray her trust. • Primo’s elementary school resistance escalated into truancy, petty crime, and substance abuse as he reached pubescence. • Parents who felt they could not anything to help their kids find a place within society would send them back to their home country. This is shown when Primo’s mother sent him to Puerto Rico. However, this was even more ostracizing because they would be equally shunned from that society, thereby creating a sense of not belonging anywhere. • Frequent moves from the residence of one family member to another would further augment the alienation of the child because of the constant changing of schools and creating a sense of not belonging to a group. This could result in the child having a violent persona like Primo. • School taught them how to escape education and pursue other futures like drug dealing, and theft in the case of Primo and also teen pregnancy in the case of Jaycee in order to avoid school • Primo was ashamed of his ethnicity and up bringing in New York • Being Puerto Rican erected many barriers in New York. It deterred many employers to hire him, his teachers to believe that he is lazy and has a low level of intelligence . Also, his up bringing in New York prevented him from fitting into his own country`s community when he visited (they claimed that people from New York were snotty) • These factors contributed to his joining of the underground economy – a place where he has more respect from his peers.

9. Violence: Family and Institutional • Caesar’s school experiences were more profoundly violent and negative than Primo’s. • Caesar's mother was from an urban shanty town. She was also more literate and acculturated than Primo’s mother. • This translated into even more violent disruptions in her life: teenage pregnancies, heroin addiction, petty crime, and eventually murder and incarceration. This effected Caesar greatly. “I wasn’t that dumb in school. I was violent. The only reason I came out wild was because…I didn’t have any guidance.”Caesar said (179) • Caesar claims that he dropped out of school at a young age because he developed a violent persona after having to move from school to school as a youth. “You see, I remember whenever I came to a new school, the first days, all the older niggas would wanta like initiate you,” Caesar said (181). This meant that he had to fight for his survival. • This violence was focused on sexual conquest as a central parameter for schoolyard respect

10. Even though he was accustomed to street culture violence he wasn’t with institutional violence when he was sent to reform school. • He was a dominated victim in that time of his life and Bourgeois could see his vulnerability. • At first Caesar denied any vulnerability , but terrors and anxieties of his youth emerged between the lines of his reconstructed memories. He was scared of his mother because he saw his mother get into fights when he was younger. His grandmother basically brought him up but beat him sometimes. She once through a knife at him but that was because he “was being real bad,”(185) Given his family background, its not surprising that Caesar might have attempted to solve his school problems violently in his earliest youth.

11. Learning Street Skills in Middle School • Primo’s resistance to school tracked him into the “low-IQ” undesirable classes; Caesar’s rage, on the other hand, interned him in an experimental Special Ed facility at a hospital for the criminally insane. • “they called me “’emotionally disturbed’” because my violence was a little wild,” Caesar states (190). He also pretended to hear voices, which lead teachers to send him to SE. • They had him on Wards Island for Special Education. “This is where they kept all the lunatics,”(190). • They often experimented with drugs on the patients like Thorazine. • Caesar’s future career as a mentally and emotionally disabled SSI recipient was forged and legitimized in his earliest school years. He felt that he wasn’t socially isolated by his disability but it gave him honorary middle-class status. • Primo’s future career in the underground economy was also established or learned at school. He spent most of his time in the hallways and trying his best to avoid classrooms because that was where the teachers had control over him. • Primo learned the necessary skills for drug dealing when he stole the keys that controlled the school’s electrical system and set up shop throwing joints. • His most important lesson involved around selling and using drugs. • “We had fun in the hallways. One day, we was smoking pot.”(192)

12. The Peer Group • School is obviously a powerful socializing force, but its by no means the only institution pushing marginal children into the untaxed economy. • When asked how they ended up on the streets, most dealers blamed the peer group. • Many children including Primo and Caesar spent their time cultivating street identities both inside and outside the classroom, rather than improving their academics. • “We used to cut school and go downtown to rob. Everyone was wild … I wanted to be like the crowd,” Caesar said(194). • When they were young they didn’t steal for drugs, they stole because their parents were unable to provide for them. • As they got older they stole because of the joy and excitement it brought them. It was a part of the culture. • For example, car thieving was a rite of passage into teenage hood for an enterprising youngster.

13. Adolescent Mischief and Inner-City Rage • To Primo the line between playing and stealing is blurry • It was the same for Primos mother during her adolescence in Puerto Rico. Who often stole from nearby farms in small groups. • Childhood mischief was different in a subsistence oriented society like in Puerto Rico compared to Inner city industrial society.

14. Adolescent Mischief and Inner-City Rage – Cont. • Primo soon graduated from petty crimes to burglaries. • After injuring his tendons during a burglary he vows to stop robbing • Primo and Cesar have greatly conflicting opinions on crime • Caesar is far more violent and harbours racist sentiments.

15. Adolescent Gang Rape • After bourgeois second year he learned of the gang rapes Ray used to organize • Primo never had intercourse with the girls, in stark contrast Ceasar had no qualms over the matter. • Due to his young age Primo wasn’t particularly interested in the rapes. He later grew to enjoy the voyeuristic aspect of the rapes.

16. Adolescent Gang Rape Cont. • During the conversations it was evident Ceasar experienced no remorse. Whilst together, the two tried to convince Philippe the girls were willing partaking. • However during one on one interviews Primo voiced his remorse and explained how he used to act as the rape victims “psychiatrist”

17. Socialization, Enculturation and Education • Parents who felt they could not do anything to help their kids find a place within society would send them back to their home country. However, this was even more ostracizing because they would be equally shunned from that society, thereby creating a sense of not belonging anywhere. • Frequent moves from the residence of one family member to another would further augment the alienation of the child because of the constant changing of schools and creating a sense of not belonging to a group. Could result in the child having a violent persona. • School taught them how to escape education and pursue other futures like drug dealing in the case of Primo and also teen pregnancy in the case of Jaycee in order to avoid school.

18. Honor and Shame • Primo was ashamed of his ethnicity and up bringing in New York. These factors contributed to his joining of the underground economy – a place where he has more respect from his peers. • Being Puerto Rican erected many barriers in New York. It deterred many employers to hire him, his teachers to believe that he is lazy and has a low level of intelligence . Also, his up bringing in New York prevented him from fitting into his own country`s community when he visited (they claimed that people from New York were snotty)

19. Rites of Passage • Older students from a school would “initiate” younger ones by picking on them. • There is a “normalcy of rape in street culture and adolescent socialization”(207), it is a rite of passage into becoming a man • “Car thieving was a memorable rite of passage into teenage hood for an enterprising youngster”(195) • Also a way of getting revenge against rich white folk at the southern border on East Street.

20. Tiempopara un concurso!(Quiz Time! ) Who organized the gang Rapes? • Buela • Primo • Ray • Phillipe Answer: C)

21. Which Drug was used on the kids on Wards Island ? • Advil • Sosa • Thorazine • Zylotol Answer: C)

22. Primos Mother was/had • A) Monolingual • B) Monolarengousis • C) An immagrant • D) All of the above • E) A and C • Answer: E)