Righteous Dopefiend

In a departure from the structure of previous chapters, which focus on various aspects of life in Edgewater while drawing information from multiple interlocutors, this chapter focuses solely on Tina and Carter’s daily life, incorporating previous themes into a cohesive series of vignettes. This approach serves to solidify what the reader has been learning about the Edgewater population and the ways Politically and Institutionally Structured Violence impacts their lives. Connecting to the theme of everyday and institutional violence, this chapter humanizes two of the central interlocutors who are at odds with many San Francisco policies on homelessness and with federal policies on social service funding.

Rather than expressing their own frustration, the authors provide the narrative space for readers to feel frustrated at inefficient institutions that don’t have empathy for the interlocutors that readers have come to know. For example, when asked where he’s going to sleep for the night, a man named Max ruefully answers, “I don’t know. I don't even have any clothes. They took everything. I had only one blue suitcase left and they took that. Now I don’t even have a clean t-shirt. I never used to look like this. I can’t stand people seeing me like this,” (283). Max’s concern with his appearance makes clear the personal toll of institutional violence. Like others in the community, he feels his poverty as an assault on his sense of identity and personal dignity. His new predicament draws an emotional connection to the reader.