Righteous Dopefiend by Philippe Bourgois and Jeffrey Schonberg - Essay Example

Review- Righteous Dopefiend Righteous Dopefiend is a book that highlights the life of homeless drug users in society such as the crack smokers. The book also highlights various heroin injectors in the streets of San Francisco in the United States of America. Overall, the book depicts the life of the poor and homeless in the society. The key theme in the book includes inequality and social advocacy in the society. The book targets to educate individuals about the experiences of individuals who are homeless and rely emotionally on drugs such as heroine. The book tries to demonstrate the moral responsibility and plight of the homeless addict (Bourgois & Schonberg 212). In addition to being homeless, the individuals have to face the structural forces that govern their miserable lives. The book tries to give profiles of various homeless people residing on the encampment. This is crucial in understanding the reasons that lead to homelessness. In addition, there is need to learn and appreciate the problems faced by these homeless individuals. This information is crucial in formulating strategies to reach out and help these people. The gruesome dependence on drugs is highlighted in the paper. The homeless addicts are dirty and some urinate on themselves. They steal, beg and engage in prostitution in exchange for drugs. The book concentrates on approximately 10 people in the Bernal heights a popular area in San Francisco (Elsa 178). It is evident that the majority of the writing assesses the method through which the dynamics of race, gender and class affect the lives of the homeless and drug addicts. The themes that stand out in this book include race, sexuality, suffering, trauma and inequality in the society. The authors writing style includes the use of flashback in the lives of the ten individuals depicted in the book to make the book more realistic. The author writes about the love stories, family trauma and embodied suffering in most situations to highlight the plight of these individuals. The use of pictures and flash back creates an actual scenario as described. This makes an individual to understand the inequality and the facts highlighted in the book effortlessly. This powerful book makes the reader to fully integrate into the world of drug addiction, extreme poverty and homelessness in the most developed country, the United States of America (Bourgois & Schonberg 214). Photographs in this book include the scars brought about by addiction, social closeness among romantic pairs and partners who are on the run because of drugs, and the homeless people covered in the book (Angela 200). They are pictures of homeless people who reside in shacks on the encampment. These shacks are off the street and they comfortably rest on their beddings, and take drugs. The most intriguing pictures are of Tina and Carter (a homeless couple that is deeply in love). One cannot help but admire this couple. They may be poor, but they are happy as they have each other. They are oblivious of their surroundings and happily hug and show affection to each other. Through the pictures, it is evident that most of the homeless people are drug addicts. It seems that the homeless people use the drugs to counteract feelings of desperation, anxiety and fear. The commonly abused drug is heroine and intoxication of the drug elicits feelings of euphoria. The homeless on the encampment derive great solace from drug abuse. This is a true picture also in the society, and individuals should avoid drugs such as heroin and crack. The pictures were ethical since a writer has authority to utilize any style of writing which includes pictures and other literature. A writer should be able to pass the information to the reader effortlessly. This style of including pictures is acceptable and ethical since it gives emphasis on the texts in the book. The pictures are not pornographic in nature neither do they discriminate both gender, and race they are appropriate and relevant to the book (Elsa 178). Substance abuse and homelessness is rife in the book. The authors explore the lives of homeless drug peddlers who reside on the Edgewater boulevard encampment of San Francisco. They show homelessness in a new light that contradict the common connotation of this degrading state. A homeless person is perceived as lacking any form of affiliation or belonging. Such an individual is a drifter with no sense of direction. However, the authors reveal a systematic organization of order amongst the homeless. These are mainly individuals who reside in shacks on the encampment as they lack homes and are afraid of residing in shelters. Felix, a Latino homeless man fondly describes his colleagues as the homeless men in his network. Relationships and alliances are formed and thrive on the boulevard encampment (Bourgois & Schonberg 31). The authors describe “Ethnic hierarchies in the street.” The homeless associate on the basis of ethnicity. There are boundaries for every ethnic group. The reader gets acquainted with an order of activity among the homeless. They are functional individuals with clear cut roles. Their lives cannot be ruled out as a meaningless existence. The homeless have occupations (majorly drug peddling) and their earnings assist in day to day sustenance. This contradicts the common belief that homeless people are entirely reliant on charity. At the end of the day, the homeless are content as they hang out at their favorite spot and take drugs. The White homeless ranked least in the social hierarchy and they did not interact with the homeless African Americans. However the White homeless associated with homeless Latinos (Bourgois & Schonberg 30). The authors also shed light on homeless couple. Tina and Carter happily reside together in a shack. They cook food donated by a Baptist church food pantry. They rely on light from the traffic headlights at night. Carter explains that he does not need to see the chicken as it cooks as he can hear when it is fully cooked (Bourgois & Schonberg 63). To the reader, it is satirical that the White homeless harbor notions of White supremacy. They are homeless yet they feel superior over people from other races. Clearly, people belonging to minority groups have homes, and a sizeable number has managed to rise to a decent social standing. Hank and Felix interact with White homeless men who feel that African Americans have risen out of poverty due to social welfare. They allege that African Americans do not work but are welfare beneficiaries because they have children and elderly parents. This observation is false as African Americans are also hardworking citizens who have succeeded in realizing the American dream. Ironically, the sole benefactor for these homeless Whites is an African American pastor who allows the men to sleep in his storage lot when it rains (Bourgois & Schonberg 31). The book gives a candid account of the daily struggles and circumstances that lead to homelessness. In the process, the reader gets to sympathize with the homeless as they suffer from deep rooted psychological problems. The homeless are not simply lazy people who cannot keep a job. Majority were brought up in dysfunctional homes by irresponsible parents/guardians who engaged in crime. Thus they were highly predisposed to crime and a life of drugs. The homeless can be viewed as victims of unfortunate circumstances such as rape and parental neglect. Due to lack of good parental care, they engaged in crime and associated with criminals at a tender age. Tina, a homeless African American grew up in poverty and abandonment believing that sex, income and affection were logically intertwined (Bourgois & Schonberg 53). No one instilled a sense of work ethics and she courted men in exchange for trinkets, clothes, money, drugs or food. Her upbringing is replicated in many homes people on the boulevard encampment. Most of the homeless people have relations who are criminals and ex-convicts. Moreover, they are constantly on the wrong side of the law due to drug and violence related crime. According to the authors, the homeless are constantly battling a myriad of problems. After reading this account, one is likely to empathize with the homeless as opposed to disregarding them as bothersome, lazy and dirty people. I understand that the streets have a mechanism of tying homeless people in bondage They appear helpless and are unable to overcome the following problems: “fleeing law enforcement, losing shelter and all their possessions, exchanging and demanding favors, scavenging from the garbage, encountering bonanzas of useful junk, negotiating hostile social service bureaucracies, dismissing public stigma, ignoring sexual and scatological displays, anticipating assaultive violence, seeking legal employment, and getting high repeatedly” (Bourgois & Schonberg 53). Work cited Bourgois, Philippe I., and Jeff Schonberg.Righteous dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Print. Davidson, Elsa. Righteous dopefiend and AIDS, sex, and culture: global politics and survival in Southern Africa.. Berkeley: university of California press, 2009. Print. Garcia, Angela. Reading Righteous dopefiend with my mother. Berkeley: university of California press,, 2010. Print. Read More