Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Inquiry 4
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed confronts some of the norms we have about work and social status. Too often, we think of the poor and homeless as lazy, but many times much of the working poor is write along side them, making next to nothing doing fairly tedious work. This piece sets off to challenge some of our norms by showing a woman who begins a period where she enters the world of the working poor on her own accord. The piece asks the audience to challenge some of these long held views. I really liked the author's honesty and frankness in the piece, and it was a highly unique piece to read.
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Brent Staples also talked about norms in his text, how based on his appearance he is mistaken for a criminal. Ehrenreich and Staples seem to say the same broad topic: people judge too quickly. We think "the homeless [are] lazy" or that young black man is "a mugger, a rapist, or worse." I think both pieces challenge us to rethink our immediate judgment of a person or situation. It's all sad but true that lower class people don't get the same opportunities as middle/upper class, and fear has caused us to see strangers as immediately dangerous. I think it is important, as Stephen and Ehrenreich said, to challenge ourselves and our "long held views".
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