Assignment task: Cocaine Trade
It is midnight Thursday in a dank, dark crack house in Washington Heights, New York. Julio and Skinner, two local dealers, sit at a corner table smoking a powerful blend of ganja and freebase, while discussing their drug dealing. Like thousands of other inner-city youths and many adults, the drug trade ensures life is livable, in spite of some of its devastating social costs. Drug dealing offers powerful economic incentives for minorities in the United States. For many it is a way up the ladder. Julio has invested his money in a local head (drug paraphernalia) shop, his eldest brother car dealership and his family disco bar in the Dominican Republic. Julio encourages Skinner to invest his money in legit businesses. Skinner has other ideas: He wants to invest in the gold chain he saw downtown and a new car.
"Cocaine is our product, selling it helps us to achieve the American Dream," Julio asserts. "Without cocaine, my family would starve. For us, trying to survive by the normal means is almost impossible." "We know the Colombians and the other Latino brothers are making money for their people" said Skinner. Indeed, tens of thousands of people unable to benefit from the trickle-down economics of the 1990s started to think that working hard and studying hard at school as futile. Where can a 20-year-old inner-city youngster find a job with an income of several hundred--perhaps a thousand--dollars a week? He cannot.
Would this be Conflict Theory or Labeling Theory?