This reading is probably one of my favorites. Ehrenreich puts her life on the line by becoming a part of the working class to get the full experience. She describes many day to day situations of the dirtiest and worst parts of her job in order to explain the actual life of a low paid worker. Even though these situations are very common and happen everyday, they seem new to us in a sense that we have not all experienced the struggles and hardships of the working class. The middle and high class of society tend to not appreciate the sacrifice of the working people unless they themselves have started from that point and made it up to where they are today. The classes typically believe that it is the less unfortunate classes fault by not taking advantage of their opportunities and are being lazy. In reality, we are not all given the same opportunities or live a different life to where the education of higher living never came about or never seemed like an option. We are all born in different circumstances that for some, may not be as easy or as obvious to get out of. Also, if it weren't for the sacrifice for the working class, than the higher class could not live as luxuriously. Society tends to take for granted of the people who work for a living by labeling them as the "working poor", but to be honest they should be appraised for working so hard. The working class of society are hardworkers who appreciate "nickels and dimes"which should be a positive way of looking at life for society.
I believe that working for nickels and dimes is a way to appreciate your own hard work which most of the time leads a greater happiness. This greater happiness helps you notice the little things in life are the ones that count the most, so maybe we can all learn a thing or two from the "hardworkers" in society.
How can one show appreciation for these hardworkers?
C. Mueller
2 comments:
Brent Staples writes about what he went through and has noticed throughout his life. Ehrenreich puts herself into a situation of a working class woman to get some perspective on lower wage paid people. Both of these writers show us how they are treated differently when it comes to their circumstances. Staples being black and Ehrenreich posing as an under paid woman, both show us how it is to be subjected to things that people are subjected to every day.
It is important from their perspectives to look at the picture from another angle. Staples doesn't really answer the question that you pose, but the concept is still the same and if you apply it to this question then you are able to see that people are treated differently based upon their circumstances. This is how society works and change will take a long time to occur.
One way to show our appreciation of people that are working hard for minimal amounts of money is to actually recognize them. All too often, these working class people are misrepresented as people that are not willing to help themselves. This misrepresentation is what holds the working poor back the most. I feel that this was the same point that Brent Staples was making in “Black Men and Public Space.” Black men, no matter what their social class or education, are mistaken to be criminals all the time. These cases of mistaken identity cause a great deal of pain for everyone that is involved with them. In both cases it is very clear that one way we can make these people, or anyone for that matter, feel more appreciated is to recognize them as who they really are and not by some preconceived stereotype.
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