Between the World and Me

                In the beginning of Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates paints a picture of America that we gloss over in our history classes.  We have been taught to focus on the facts as they are presented to us.  Our country is presented as a great nation where its people are free, where opportunity is plentiful, and where all men are created equal.  The unbecoming issues that America has made are simply footnotes in history.  Internment camps during World War II, the TSA’s racial profiling, and the difference in incarceration time and punishment severity between black and white offenders are some examples throughout history.

                The conception of America (and many other countries) began with colonists imposing the “white man’s burden” on non-white inhabitants, such as the Native Americans and black slaves.  Colonists would impose their beliefs on people they believed to be less civilized than them, although they had their own culture that the colonists simply never attempted to learn.  Instead, they forced any group of people to conform to the religion, practices, etc. that they believed to be superior or “right”.  This was the start of a blind eye being turned to racism in our country, something that still happens today.

                Considering movements such as Black Lives Matter and the events leading up to this, it has become obvious how far we are from equality in our country.  It has been a painfully slow process since racism is not as outright as it once was.  This has caused much of the population to believe that because every American citizen has the right to vote or because there is no more segregation that we have become a country where we are all equal, but that is not the case.  Throughout this section, Coates addresses his young son and how the deaths of young, black men had affected them both especially as the killers walked free.  The death of an innocent person somehow justified in the eyes of the law.

                Throughout this section, Coates brings up his body constantly and how easily it could be taken from him.  He could easily be beaten or killed if he were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It was a fear instilled in him by his parents when he was growing up to keep him safe.  Coates then did the same to his son but in an alternative way.  It’s obvious from the passage that his upbringing was much different than his son’s.

                I found the section where Coates called his son the ring in the relationship between him and mother of his child deeply moving.  Many people get married after an unplanned pregnancy, but becoming bound legally means nothing in cementing a relationship.  They watched as their peers had children and married and the obligation of a being a spouse or a parent was not enough to make them stay.  In the case of Coates and his (now) wife, they stayed because of their love for their son, Samori, and each other, not because of a ring or anything else.  I thought that was beautiful.

                The book is written if he is speaking to Samori, which makes you feel as though you are intruding on a deeply personal conversation between father and son. Yet, what Coates was saying is something anyone should have to hear.  Regardless of race or upbringing, his story about his formative years shows an eye-opening experience most people have when they transition from high school to college.  He spoke of how he needed to master the streets to survive and that meant conforming to what his peers were doing.  Then, when he went to college he was presented with a diverse group of people who he had never thought of complexly before.  I think that is something that all of us go through as we enter a new phase of our life.  We naturally change who we are to adapt to this new environment.  In his situation, he had to learn to be tough to protect himself and the people he loved, but when he went to Howard he met the girl who showed him a new way to live and love.  Being there also made him question his upbringing.  From why his father was so quick to punish him physically to why there was so little representation of black people in media.  He questioned the world he lived in and wondered why it was not better.

                Honestly, reading this book made me feel disappointed in the world as it is now.  I am frustrated by the fact that so many people have fought and died to ensure that all people can enjoy the comforts of equality, yet we are still so far from obtaining that. 

The Chain: Part One

The Chain by Ted Genoways gives us insight into an aspect of production many of us take for granted.  In our country, cheap, easy to make food is readily available and we put very little thought into its existence prior to it being on a grocery store shelf.  Aside from the obvious lack of nutrition, it is so cheap because of the employees who risk injury every day to keep up with the speed of the conveyor belt.  They are overworked and underpaid all in an attempt to improve their life; a pursuit that becomes rather counterproductive when they risk their health in the process.

The book is prefaced with the story of Maria Lopez, a Hormel employee whose finger was severed while working.  While her blood covered the belt and Maria was rushed the hospital, they continued production.  She attempted to return to Hormel, but even after several surgeries, the injury made her slower and the speed of the conveyor belt only increased.  Whether it be from the injury or her rightful disgust with the company’s lack of empathy for its employees, she left her job.

However, Maria is not the only factory worker that paid the price of cheap meat.  Her husband lost the end of his pinky, his friend had several of his fingers cut off and others do not even face injuries caused directly by the machines.  A man referred to as Matthew Garcia worked on the production line, but never lost a limb.  He spent eight hours straight in a hot room and was covered in a layer of blood until he woke up one day unable to walk.  He was a young, healthy man and his legs seemed to be unexplainably paralyzed.  The cause of which ended up being a severe spinal cord inflammation.  One day he was working on the line with flu-like symptoms and the next he was hospitalized.  All while the belt kept running.

Matthew was not an isolated incident.  Richard Schindler received nearly a dozen patients who all suffered from the death of peripheral nerves.  They were all young and they all worked at Quality Pork Processors near or at the head table.  While doctors were able to find ways to aid the workers, the damage done to their psyche was still there.

Along with the effects of being bedridden for several weeks (as he was diagnosed with acute adjustment disorder), he endured tremendous panic when he returned to the head table.  He feared his condition worsening again when he was exposed to the same mist of blood that had caused him so much pain in the first place.   Although he was able to find another job, his condition was irreversible.

Hormel began as a company run by a man who made the best out of bad situations.  When the economy took a downturn, George Hormel increased his importing.  When his competitors flooded the market with fresh meat, he began selling smoked meat for less.  The company thrived when the rest of the company was in a depression and were willing to buy cheap food.  This food was cheaper in part because Jay Hormel (George's son) never raised his workers’ wages even though the company was seeing rising profits.  While labor laws and organizations such as the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration have definitely improved the conditions of factory workers over the years, their health is still put at risk for the sake of profit.

Many of these workers suffering has gone unnoticed because they are a part of a larger company that sees its employees as disposable.  If an employee is injured, they can easy be replaced.  They are mostly immigrants living under false names who are simply trying to improve their own life and take care of their families.  A noble goal that should not come at the cost of one’s health.

Introduction

My name is Tabby, I'm a senior in high school, and this blog is for an English class I'm in. Hopefully, I don't fail this semester.