One aspect I noticed right away was that Thomas highlights the powerful nature of ethnography in her storytelling at the beginning of the chapter. As she recounts two of many incidents involving gun violence and civilians, Thomas is able to vividly capture the narratives which helps to highlight the importance of her work. This reminded me of why ethnography is important because of the way it captures the rawness of individual stories in accuracy and realism.
I also think the way Thomas stems the “culture of violence” that characterizes Jamaican society from the “culture of poverty.” In this perspective, she is able to contextualize violence historically and socially, assuming a lens of decisions but also lack of individual choice. Thomas considers the idea of culturalism when approaching inequality as she examines this “culture of poverty.” This is interesting because it helps to pan her research across a variety of groups which I believe is how she is able to draw into African American populations. The result is a transnational project that is able to connect and observe a multitude of relations and diasporic populations and communities. It is fascinating how Thomas spans her scope from a seemingly small and specific population to an idea that impacts “a worldwide black community.”