Social Justice event

Tiffany Scoco

Dr. Corinne McKamey FNED:346 19 September 2018

The Hand That Feeds

The event I attended was a movie called The Hand That Feeds. It began at 12:30 on Wednesday September 19th 2018 in Gaige Hall room 005 and ended at 2:00 pm. I showed up a little late because I was in the FSEHD meeting but I was able to watch a majority of the movie. While watching this movie, I learned that just because you have a job doesn’t mean that you have money. You can work your fingers to the bone your entire life and still have no money and nothing to show for it. I also learned that the best way to get anything accomplished is to work together as a team. Collectively we are strong, individually we are weak. What I found most inspiring was the commitment these workers had to keep their job that most Americans see as a disposable job.

The documentary was about a illegal immigrant sandwich maker who works at the deli named Mahoma López, a married father of two. While working at the deli López convinces a group of coworkers to join him and fight back against the daily oppression. López and coworkers face deportation and loss of livelihood by fighting back, but they know they deserve better. So, López and coworkers team up with a diverse crew of young organizers to help them create an independant union. López remains a confident leader helping his coworkers with negotiating their demands and he doesn’t give up when management closes the store and locks them out for nearly two months. López and coworkers want what they deserve, minimum wage as well as vacation time and sick days. They deal with a lot of problems while trying to reach this goal. López and coworkers aren’t teenagers or students trying to make extra cash, they are adult illegal immigrants who rely on their below minimum wage jobs to live and support their families. Which is why they are fighting so hard to earn minimum wage as well as vacation time and sick days. These men and women have responsibilities to their families as well as rent and other bills to pay, they don’t have the luxury to quit their horrible jobs and find better ones. These people live paycheck to paycheck and every penny counts. The battle to raise minimum wage has been in the United States for a long time. Politicians claim that leaving wages and work regulations to private industries would help increase profits and therefore increase employee wages. The truth to this is that private industries increase profits but employee wages do not increase. Margarito, a coworker of López, is a middle age man who came to the United States to earn enough money to send his daughter to college. These people are not biting the hand that feeds them, they are simply asking for some respect. Everyone deserves the opportunity to make a livable wage and have sick days as well as breaks when needed. López and his coworkers are successful at the end of the movie they recieve minimum wage as well as vacation time and sick days! They fought long and hard for what they rightfully deserve.

Connect to in class readings:

“Imagine that you're sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don't get any. So you say "I should get my fair share." And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, "everyone should get their fair share."

This is a quote from All Lives Matter article by Kevin Roose. This quote relates to this movies because it’s talking about getting your fair share. The illegal immigrants in this movie were not getting their fair share. They work really hard and receive below minimum wage as well as no vacation time and no sick days or they will be fired and they face deportation everyday.

“The chance of a person who was born to a family in the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution rising to the top 10 percent as an adult is about the same as the chance that a dad who is 5 feet 6 inches tall having a son who grows up to be over 6 feet 1 inch tall, It happens, but not often.” Alan Krueger.

This quote is from U.S.A Land of Limitations article By Nicholas Kristof. This quote relates to this movie because it’s talking about how hard it is to move up in society and illegal immigrants almost never move up in society. If you are born into a poor family it is almost impossible to move up in society, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to move up in society. Illegal immigrants come from very poor countries and they come to America hoping to make more money and better their lives as well as their families lives.

“Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.”

This quote is from The culture of power by Lisa Delpit. This quote relates to the movie because it’s talking about codes of power. As an illegal immigrant you have no power, just like in a classroom, a student has little to no power. The employer has power over the illegal immigrants because they have no choice but to work for a boss who under pays them and gives them no breaks as well as no sick days and no medical coverage. Being an illegal immigrant they have very few places they can be hired. So they are forced to take horrible jobs that treat them badly because if they don’t they can get fired or deported. The employer has complete power over the illegal immigrant just like teachers have complete power over students in their classrooms.

Links:

http://ric.edu/events/Pages/default.aspx This is a link to the Ric events page which tells you all upcoming events on campus.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+hand+that+feeds+movie+trailer&qpvt=the+hand+that+feeds+movie+trailer&view=detail&mid=F591937AAB8EF23709F1F591937AAB8EF23709F1&&FORM=VRDGAR This is a link to the trailer of the movie

https://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/a-new-face-of-the-new-labor-movement/ This is a link to a website with information about the main character of the documentary Mahoma López