The health and wellbeing of workers is said to be a top priority for many companies, but the reality is that many individuals suffer from symbolic violence; images and representations that naturalize or normalize violence().The need for better working conditions for these laborers has been brought to light by the documentary The Globalization Tapes, and the work of Seth M. Holmes, Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United State. Both The Globalization Tapes, which highlights the working conditions of the palm oil workers in Indonesia, and the Fresh Fruit, Broken; which explores the lives of migrant farmworkers in America, expose the harsh realities of the poisonous, both figurative and literal, working conditions of these …show more content…
workers and the little medical attention that these individuals receive. Large corporations are turning a blind eye to working conditions of their laborers. The Globalization Tapes portray this when the palm oil workers who sprayed pesticides made a commercial about their health and how both, the executives and the workers, know it is killing them(). According to the documentary, “Every year pesticides poison 3 to 4 million agricultural workers. 400,000 agricultural workers die from exposure annually” (). These workers are over looked and seen as disposable, because there is never a shortage of poor individuals who will endure these awful conditions for a paying job, even if that means permanently injuring their bodies. The workers in The Globalization Tapes make light of the situation by mocking their health in a commercial, stating that they “feel stronger, and healthier()” because of Gramoxone, the pesticide they used daily. In reality Gramoxone is extremely poisonous and causes rashes, nearsightedness, and even death. Laborers make jokes about their situations as a way to cope with the lack of medical treatment they receive. The documentary briefly explains this with a story of a woman who visits a doctor for her irritated eyes, who was then told she was fine and was refused eye drops. These examples show how corporations are disregarding the medical needs of their workers. Incompetent medical aid is also experienced by migrant farmworkers.
Symbolic violence both, creates and prolongs, the illnesses allocated to the workers. In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies (), farm executives and other farm managers, create the injuries of the farm laborers, by using the discourse that the laborers are in fact closer to the ground, which makes picking berries more natural for them. Many laborers also become sick through their living conditions, they lived in what was described as “… rusted tin-roofed tool sheds lined up within a few feet of each other or small chicken coops in long rows” (). These shacks were not insulated, they had pealing paint on the walls, leaky roofs, broken windows, and many other aspects that not only made it difficult to live in, but also made it difficult to stay healthy in. On the rare occasion that a laborer was to go to the doctor they were often met with preconceived stereotypes, which made diagnosing their illness extremely difficult. Some clinic employees often disregarded much of what the laborers had to say about their pain, letting their stereotypes take over and blind them from correctly diagnosing the laborers. In Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies (), this was seen with Crescencio’s debilitating headache, he would drink to get rid of the migraine and was afraid of hurting his family because of this, the doctor prescribed him therapy and wrote Crescencio as a no good, abusive, drunk, that needs therapy to fix his problems. The chance of laborers finding the time to go and spending the little money they do have on therapy is very low, and overall wouldn’t help in the long run because he needed migraine medicine not counseling, this in turn prolongs the illnesses that the laborers are facing. Although not all medical professionals are incompetent and many do care, there are a lot of factors that play into the farmworkers health being over
looked. As shown I both the Globalization Tapes and Fresh Fruit, Broke Bodies, companies fail to take adequate care of their workers, and when the laborers do go to get help they face being overlooked in the medical field for many reasons, one including symbolic violence. Laborers have to find ways to deal with their broken bodies and still continue to work in these harsh conditions. These two works help spread the word of laborers health conditions and state the harsh reality that is needed if any reform is to be done.
Chapter four talked a lot about The Tanaka brothers Farm and how the workers had picked berries once a week or twice a week and experienced several forms of pain days afterward. Workers often felt sick the night before picking due to stress about picking the minimum weight. This chapter also focuses ethnographic attention on how the poor suffer. The poorest of the poor on the farm were the Triqui Strawberry pickers. The Triqui migrant laborers can be understood as an embodiment of violence continuum. Triqui people experienced notable health problems affecting their ability to function in their work or their families. This chapter also talked about how crossing the border from Mexico to the United States involves incredible financial, physical, and emotional suffering for Triqui
I worked their for summer and was not that bad and farmworkers fooling themselves and deciding to use it as a justification even when they realize that it is not same thing for a white teenager working on the field as part time and them (migrant labor). “Denaturalization” can be defined as the way of by going against of social inequalities and uncovering linkage between symbolic violence and
For instance, in the text, it states “Let us praise the souls of Asian children whom manufacture toys and tech until gravity sharpens their bodies enough to cut through suicide nets.” In other words, Perez is saying that the working conditions are so severe that the employees,including adults and children, try to commit suicide to escape their miserable lives. The purpose of the nets is to prevent death, which can be totally avoided just by changing the type of working environment these people work in. The endless greed of humans yearning for new, improving technology is represented through the torture that these civilians face, mentally and physically, every single day of their miserable lives. We go on with our lives with reckless and negligent behavior without a thought of how our actions are and will affects those all around the world. Another example is “Let us praise El Nino, his growing pains, praise his mother, Ocean, who is dying in a warming bath among dead fish and refugee children. El Nino, a weather phenomenon is getting larger and more concerning while global warming is causing organisms to die due to the temperature changes. As the water level rises, islands are becoming flooded leaving refugees stranded in the ocean. All of these disastrous changes are due to the demand of advancement in civilization which includes the releasing of chemicals in the air
The author puts into light some of the daily horrors of these people. Some of these passages are horrific. The work conditions were anything but clean and safe. The poem touches on how the people were around chemicals, inhaling poison. He goes on about the dangers of going to the canning factories with no safety or labor restrictions. Even though work conditions were
Edwidge Danticat's novel, The Farming of Bones is an epic portrayal of the relationship between Haitians and Dominicans under the rule of Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo leading up to the Slaughter of 1937. The novel revolves around a few main concepts, these being birth, death, identity, and place and displacement. Each of the aspects is represented by an inanimate object. Water, dreams, twins, and masks make up these representations. Symbolism is consistent throughout the novel and gives the clearly stated and unsophisticated language a deeper more complex meaning. While on the surface the novel is an easy read, the symbolism which is prominent throughout the novel complicates the audience's interpretation. The reader is left to look beyond the language and uncover the underlying themes of the novel. Through symbolism Danticat is able to use inanimate objects to represent each of her character's more deeply rooted problems. In order to prove this theory true, I will thoroughly examine the aforementioned symbolic devices and provide a clear interpretation of their significance in the novel.
The migrant worker community in states like Florida, Texas, and California is often an ‘obscure population’ of the state. They live in isolated communities and have very little stability or permanence. According to the Florida Department of Health, 150,000 to 200,000 migrant workers work in the State of Fl...
There is much to commend about the inclusion of United Farm Workers (UFW) co-founder and Filipino Larry Itliong in the Hollywood biopic “Cesar Chavez” directed by Diego Luna. However sadly, his depiction is problematic. The film fails to present an accurate history of this historically important farm workers’ movement. “Cesar Chavez” does not stress the historic multi-ethnic partnership between Mexicans and Filipinos in the UFW and the effort that was born as a product the Filipinos’ 1965 Grape Strike. Rather, the film is told from a predominantly Chicano/a perspective that only lightly accents the contribution of Filipino-American farm workers.
The film Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera uses the discrimination against migrant workers to both critique and warn his audience of the effect of current day politics. Well written science fiction often juxtaposes the politics of the present with futuristic societies and technologies, to further engage the audience and add significance to their work. In Sleep Dealer, migrant workers no longer can cross the border due to the construction of an enormous wall, yet still work across the border by the use of advanced virtual reality technology. Working in these “sleep dealers” isn’t much a choice for the poverty laden workers in Mexico, similar to how the current illegal immigration situation exists. By creating a fictional world with discrimination that so accurately embodies current politics, Alex Rivera engages his audience to realize the social and ethical consequences of our practices, and makes you think whether such a society can exist one day in the future.
The Mexican Migrant Farm Workers’ community formed in Southern California in the 20th century because of two factors that came together: farming emphasized by migrations like the Okie farmers from the East and Mexicans “imported” to the U.S. because of the need for cheap labor as a replacement of Americans during World War II. The migrant labor group formed after an already similar group in the U.S had been established in California, the American farm workers from the East, known as the Okies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s caused the movement of the Okies to the West and was followed by the transition from American dominant farm labor to Mexican migrant labor. The Okies reinforced farming in California through the skills they took with them, significant to the time period that Mexicans arrived to California in greater numbers. However, the community was heightened by World War II from 1939 to 1945, which brought in immigrants to replace Americans that left to fight in the battlefields. Robin A. Fanslow, archivist at the Library of Congress, argues that because of World War II, “those who were left behind took advantage of the job opportunities that had become available in [the] West Coast” (Fanslow). Although some Mexican migrants already lived in the U.S prior to this event, a vast majority arrived at the fields of California specifically to work as farmers through the Bracero Program, created because of the Second World War. Why the Second World War and not the First World War? WWII urgently demanded labor and Mexico was the United States’ closest resource. Although WWI also caused the U.S. to have a shortage of labor; at the time, other minorities dominated, like the Chinese and Japanese.
The individuals in Omelas attempt to forget who they oppress in order to maintain their perfect environment. The child of Omelas is stripped of its rights as a human and forced to live in gruesome conditions. “The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is. The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room” (LeGuin 4) This child is pushed away from society. The people of Omelas understand that this goes on, but intend to do nothing about it. This concept is involuntary followed by not only the people of Omelas but people in the real world. Just like the residence of Omelas, we oppress factory/garment workers who are forced to live in harsh conditions and fight to keep our needs happy. In his short article, “California’s Garment Workers Reveal…” Davis goes out into the field to explore the conditions and neglect that garment workers face. Davis then interviews a woman who is the head of a labor advocacy group. “ imagine what that heat might feel like with no ventilation,’… Rough conditions—working 10 or more hours a day…baking-hot room…part of the job ” (Davis, Chris. "California 's Garment Workers Reveal: Sweatshops Aren 't Just a Problem Overseas." TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web.) These garment workers work endlessly to meet the needs that the big businesses set. Just like the outside entity that controls the rules set for the
“Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies” was published in 2013, by Steph Holmes, in response to how migrate workers are treated. Holmes main issue is we should be able to have fresh fruits, and less broken bodies. Holmes is trying to education people on whats actually going on around them. Holmes With less job opportunities, farm work in America is not volunteer work for these people, it is more of a forced thing to support their families. Holmes was able to conduct interviews and his real life experience with these people, to conduct a bigger audience. His main audience were only to policy makers, health care workers, and any one who could help these people during their time of need. One of his main idea is that why would you treat these immigrants in
“There are at least 12.3 million persons in forced labour today” (www.ilo.org). A great number of the victims are poverty-stricken people in Asia, “whose vulnerability is exploited by others for a profit” (www.ilo.org).
For example, if a flashlight was sold at Radio Shack for only $3, the real cost of making this flashlight was not captured within the price. Furthermore, the metal was prepared in South Africa, the petroleum was produced in Iraq, the plastics were produced in China, and the overall flashlight was assembled in Mexico. Hence, only because the overall product is on the shelves at a market, this means extensive labour was a significant factor in producing such a cheap product. A significant portion of women are oppressed throughout the film, this is due to the fact that these factories only cater to the female gender; as opposed to males. Also the women working in these factories are exposed to carcinogens, and this is why the leading number one toxic contaminated nutrient is breastmilk. In sum, this documentary gave me a better understanding of the lecture in class and helped me realize that sweatshops is a feminist issue. Women throughout the film are not given an equal window of opportunity compared to men. Factories have physiologically imbedded, an idea of income to women workers, thus resulting in an overall investment in time for the work
This is further supported as it is clear that “the old man's terror must have been extreme” as the heart beat “grew louder…louder every moment”. However, the beating could also be expressed in a metaphorical sense; a sign of the protagonist’s guilt or, in contrast, his desire to kill, the heartbeat representing his mind encouraging him. The narrator not only lures the old man into psychological torture, but also physical during and after the inhumane murder. The way in which he “dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him” and afterwards “dismembered the corpse” and “cut off the head and the arms and the legs” conveys the idea that torture is a vital component of gothic texts in order to create a sense of terror, despair and disbelief for the reader. This also reinforces the idea of the body being an integral topic of focus within
" In these lines, you can imagine all of them men with blood all over their hands, thorns sticking through them. This indicates that these men are working hard, and that this is a passion of theirs, something they value.. WE see this again