immigrant minorities

Immigrant minorities have an extra hard time trying to succeed in this country. Those who come and do not speak much english have a really hard time trying to get work and will often take the positions that no one else wants while working for less than minimum wage many times. Immigrants are taken advantage of by the white capitalists in charge and have been for a very long time. The capitalists have a large pool of immigrant minority workers to choose from, so if any of the workers try to complain, they will simply be fired and another one will replace them very quickly, willing to work for the same meager wage that they did. This is the foundation of capitalism, to maximize profits through exploitation of those who do not have the power to fight back.

glass ceiling

Why have we continued to use this glass ceiling affect in order to deny equal opportunities for women and minorities. There is no reason that they cannot run businesses just as effectively as the white males who currently control that vast majority of businesses and political positions. The white males in charge are afraid that if any power or authority is given to women or minorities, that they will in turn lose their own power and authority. They are threatened by the change that will come and are attempting to hold out as long as possible as a last ditch effort to keep themselves in charge. Things are have changed for the better in the past few decades and will continue to do so, hopefully leading towards a new and equal world.

gay marriage

Just yesterday, gay marriage was legalized in the states of New Hampshire and Maine. As it is now, all of the New England states, with the exception of Rhode Island, have legalized gay marriage. This is a major step forward for equal rights for homosexual couples. However, there is only a few states now that have legalized this and they are only in one section of the country. There definitely needs to be more legalization of gay marriage in states that are not just New England states. There is no reason that gay couples should be denied marriage simply because conservatives think that marriage is only for heterosexual couples.

minimum wage

The government has made it so that minimum wage in this country is still not a livable wage. Many jobs try to pay minimum wage as a way of maximizing their profits, however in doing so they make it so many of their employees need to get more than one job in order to be able to survive on their meager earnings. It makes it so that many people do not enjoy life or what they do because they are constantly having to work and are always tired as a result. It is unfair for the capitalists in society to take advantage of the growing labor pools and treat their employees as replaceable things there to do the bidding of the company until they screw up, then they are fired and someone new is brought in to take the same position for the same money, or maybe even less.

job call backs

I find it amazing that the name of an individual can have such an affect on the call back percentages because of that person's race. African Americans have to give about 50% more resumes out just to get one call back. This seems ridiculous to me because if they have the same exact qualifications, there should be no reason for this type of disparity. I really believe our society needs to get over the race fears that we have and start treating everyone equally, especially when it is so evident that there is some sort of racial discrimination going on.

what can we do about poverty?

There are currently many people out there trying to solve the poverty problem that is hurting our country so much right now. There are so many people at, or below, the poverty line that the differences in living standards between those in middle class and those in the underclass is gaining more and more distance from each other. Our current economic system has it set up so that once someone becomes a part of the underclass, it is hard for them to rise in class unless they get lucky somehow or get help from those in the middle and upper classes. There must be some way we can change our system so that it is not so hard to get out once one has hit the bottom.

life in clarendon heights

I really think that MacLeod's book is a great account of how hard life can be for those people who live in inner city and work in low income jobs. Many of the types of hardships that the residents of clarendon heights suffered from can be seen in our own city. Most of the housing areas in the slu midtown area are populated mostly by underclass residents. What can we do to change this type of squaller that these residents are forced to live in?

It is incredibly hard with how our society is set up for those from the lower class or those around the poverty line to have the ability and motivation to work hard to reach a higher economic status. Not only is it hard for them to get there, but if they manage to reach a new class, it can be hard for them to adjust. Many things that are normal or obvious about social life for those in the middle class can be foreign or unknown to those from lower classes, so they may feel alienated when they encounter such situations, such as was the case with Della Mae Justice. All we can do is try to help those who have reached higher classes than they were born in or fell into and assist them in a new type of social world.

It seems that society will assume poor people all too often got to the point that they are at by their own means. Many people think that you are what you make of yourself and if someone is poor then it is because of their own accord. Whether they are lazy, not ambitious or smart enough, or just unlucky, it is assumed they have the power to turn things around. However, the structure of our society makes it so there will always be people on the bottom rungs of the economical ladder. If we could design it some other way where everyone would prosper, I am not sure that we would change our ways because we are so ingrained in our current methods that we would most likely highly resist any changes that are attempted.

Today's movie

It seems a bit ridiculous that there are those types of people in the world, who's chief goal is to become the king or queen of the mardi gras parade and ball. There are so many other things that they could do with their money or power, but they spend so much time and money planning this one party to show off for everyone else. And also, they say that their Krewes are just for their families and not racist, but they forget that they were founded in a time of racism which made it impossible to have anyone they didn't want in their Krewes for any reason, such as race. It is good that they "officially" opened up their Krewes to the public, but whether or not they invite in other races remains to be seen.

first blog

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