Highbrow Magazine - working class https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/working-class en Donald Trump’s Populism Decoded https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7738-donald-trump-s-populism-decoded <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 07/16/2017 - 11:28</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/14trumphat.jpg?itok=gpRbZJHz"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/14trumphat.jpg?itok=gpRbZJHz" width="480" height="343" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>This post was first published on <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trumps-populism-decoded-billionaire-became-voice-little-people/">BillMoyers.com</a></strong>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Campaigning for a Republican congressional candidate in the hotly contested June 2017 special election outside of Atlanta, Agriculture Secretary and former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue tried to sum up the appeal of President Donald J. Trump: “The president is a true populist. He cares for the little people …”</p> <p> </p> <p>Take his words literally and at a surface level we have a compact and concise definition of American populism: caring for the little people, the people who work hard and believe they built America but feel they have no voice. “I am your voice,” a defiant Donald Trump assured his supporters in his 2016 convention speech, sealing his populist political persona.</p> <p> </p> <p>So is that what American populism is all about?</p> <p> </p> <p>Hark back to the original populists of the 1890s and they saw themselves exactly the same way, as champions of common Americans left behind by distant, powerful interests that were driving — and profiting from — economic dislocation and change.</p> <p> </p> <p>These populists channeled the fears and frustrations of Southern and Midwestern farmers who were straining to keep up in an increasingly industrialized and national economy — and growing more and more resentful toward an emerging modern culture that no longer venerated the yeomen and instead celebrated the captains of industry.</p> <p> </p> <p>So they advocated an expansion of government’s power to regulate capitalism and ease the debt burden of the little people, and they lashed out at banks, railroads, utilities and cities, seeing them all as corrupt influences that were undermining not only their livelihood but their way of life.</p> <p> </p> <p>But as much as populism was borne out of the economic and cultural dispossession of little people, rarely do we associate it with a particular subset of little people for whom populists seldom speak: ethnic minorities and African-Americans — who, arguably, are and have been the most economically and culturally dispossessed of all Americans, and who can certainly make an equal claim that they built this country and never got credit for it.</p> <p> </p> <p>In fact the original populists were largely inhospitable if not hostile to the millions of blacks and immigrants living in America at the time, reflecting the worldview of their Southern and Midwestern base and an abiding nativism that permeated much of the movement.</p> <p> </p> <p>So despite a political agenda aimed at comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, the original populism only flattered itself by claiming to be a movement for all the “little people.” It was chiefly a white man’s crusade built on real and imagined grievances and real and imagined enemies.</p> <p> </p> <p>The same can be said about today’s populism as channeled through Donald Trump and the fervent and near religious devotion of his supporters.</p> <p> </p> <p>The question is what more drives this populist impulse beyond an aggrieved cohort of self-proclaimed “little people” angry at the big, powerful and impersonal forces that to them are undermining their American Valhalla.</p> <p> </p> <p>A key factor in understanding American populists is their drive to regain a lost status they once held but no longer claim in our economy and culture.</p> <p> </p> <p>Behavioral economics teaches us that people are far more motivated to avoid a loss than acquire a gain — and invest far more emotion to prevent a loss than benefit from a gain — which suggests that politicians who promise to reaffirm the status of erstwhile dominant constituencies will gain far more enthusiastic support than those who simply promise new and bigger programs to help people pursue their American dream.</p> <p> </p> <p>And that was precisely the magic behind Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign: He promised his supporters that the only way to “make America great again” was by restoring their status as the ones who made America great in the first place — which is exactly how they see themselves.</p> <p> </p> <p>In particular, white working-class Americans — Donald Trump’s base — were a constituency ripe for this message. To them, they were the real heroes of post-World War II America, the ones who made our prosperity and pre-eminence possible. Theirs is a narrative of an American century built by smokestack industries and sturdy white men with a blue-collar, lunch-pail ethic that would come to define the middle class of the post-war years.</p> <p> </p> <p>White men especially saw their role as special. They were the breadwinners, the unrivaled heads of families, the ones America called upon to keep us prosperous and safe. Popular culture and politicians celebrated them as the good, virtuous, hard-working souls on whose broad shoulders America became great. That they may have benefited from the racial and gender discrimination of those years is immaterial to how they saw themselves. They played by the rules and they earned it.</p> <p> </p> <p>But then those seemingly bedrock blue-collar jobs began to disappear. What was once a dominant manufacturing sector that in the 1950s accounted for nearly a third of all employment has declined to fewer than 10 percent of all jobs today — and with it the decent middle-class livelihood that came from these jobs. As <em>The New York Times</em> observed in 2016, “Anyone younger than 35 has never lived in a world where more than 1 in 5 jobs were in factories.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4trump_1.jpg" style="height:408px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Nor was it merely the loss of jobs. It was also the loss of prestige that came with the membership in the working class. In our post-industrial knowledge economy today, we celebrate brains over brawn, the creative class over the working class, the bespectacled geek who constructs algorithms over the hard hat who constructs their high-tech campuses.</p> <p> </p> <p>Politicians may troll the white working class for votes, but except for an occasional art deco version of working-class heroes and their machines, our cultural arbiters have deemed them benighted and even bigoted throwbacks to a rusted-out, less enlightened era. Much as farmers of the earlier populist moment resented their own loss of status as our culture drifted away from the agrarian ideal, today’s white working-class men stew over their diminishing place in the contemporary American pantheon.</p> <p> </p> <p>But populism has always been about more than a loss of jobs, status and prestige. It’s also about who they blame for that loss. And typically they train their fire on those they view as elites.</p> <p> </p> <p>Notwithstanding the threads of nativism and xenophobia woven into the early populist rhetoric, their targets were clear: monopolies, banks, industrialists and those who controlled the levers of capital in America. To them, they traced their loss of livelihood and status directly to the economic barons who constituted the elites of their time.</p> <p> </p> <p>But today’s populists — with the notable exception of the Bernie Sanders wing — don’t rage against the capitalist elites and corporate boards and CEOs and financiers for outsourcing their jobs, closing their plants, squeezing their incomes and soaking up much of the nation’s wealth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Rather, they aim their anger at those who they believe have deprived them of their cultural capital. To them, it’s the liberal, intellectual and media elites that have redefined who and what America values. On the cultural pedestal is now a rainbow flag, not the American flag. The masculinity of old is now declassé. We elevate diversity and multiculturalism, not the hard hat, cop and white picket fence.</p> <p> </p> <p>In the white working-class worldview, these elites have hijacked what Sarah Palin once called the “real America” — through globalization that stole their jobs, dispensations and benefits for those that haven’t earned it, and a politically correct hierarchy that privileges gays, minorities, immigrants and now the transgendered, but not the white working class even though, to them, they’re the ones who built the country and deserve respect.</p> <p> </p> <p>From their perspective, all these elites seem to hand them is disdain and condescension. So they see themselves, in the words of President Trump, as the “forgotten Americans.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump understood all of that from the very beginning of his campaign. Sporting his trademark “Make America Great Again” red baseball cap signaling white working-class solidarity, he vowed to stomp on the elites that his supporters believed were putting them down.</p> <p> </p> <p>He may have promised them a return of their manufacturing jobs, but he did so with a wink and a nod as both he and they knew that these jobs weren’t really coming back. Instead, the real vindication he offered was a cultural revival and a supersized serving of respect — as well as the satisfaction of sticking it to their politically correct, patronizing foes.</p> <p> </p> <p>That a billionaire would assume the mantle of pitchfork populism may seem like a political and cultural oxymoron, but Trump is far more like his supporters than appearances suggest. Like them, the cultural arbiters and Manhattan elites never let him inside the club. They may have accepted his money, but they scorned him as garish and gaudy, undeserving of their attention. Now, like a true populist, he’s dishing it back.</p> <p> </p> <p>Such is the populist impulse that governs America today.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>This post was first published on <a href="http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trumps-populism-decoded-billionaire-became-voice-little-people/">BillMoyers.com</a>               </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio: </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Leonard Steinhorn is a professor of communication and affiliate professor of history at American University, a CBS News political analyst, author of The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy (2007) and co-author of By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race (2000).</em></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/populist" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">populist</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/populism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">populism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/working-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">working class</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-working-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white working class</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/upper-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">upper class</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/make-america-great-again" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">make america great again</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Leonard Steinhorn</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 16 Jul 2017 15:28:13 +0000 tara 7618 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7738-donald-trump-s-populism-decoded#comments Attention Trump: Meet the Real Forgotten Americans https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7298-attention-trump-meet-real-forgotten-americans <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 14:56</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1blackdelta.jpg?itok=I4R_hC51"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1blackdelta.jpg?itok=I4R_hC51" width="480" height="369" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2017/01/20/the-real-forgotten-americans/">PunditWire.com</a> </strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This post was first published on BillMoyers.com</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p>When Donald J. Trump assumes the presidency and lays out his agenda for our country, he will likely proclaim himself, as he did in the campaign, the voice of “the forgotten Americans.”</p> <p> </p> <p>To Trump, these “forgotten Americans” are the white working-class Rust Belt voters who catapulted him to the presidency, people who see themselves as an aggrieved silent majority whose diminished social and economic status never gains the attention of a coastal elite preoccupied with political correctness and minority rights.</p> <p> </p> <p>But the truth is this: These white working-class voters have never been forgotten, while those who truly are forgotten still don’t have a voice.</p> <p> </p> <p>If Trump really wants to speak for forgotten Americans, he would travel to the Mississippi Delta and the rural Black Belt of the American South, where conditions are so wretched and dire that even a struggling Rust Belt factory town might seem like a bountiful paradise of opportunity and wealth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Campaign events tell the real story of who’s forgotten and who isn’t, and the verdict is clear: White working-class voters in the Rust Belt are far from forgotten, but impoverished areas that have no Electoral College value are completely ignored.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to data compiled by the organizations FairVote and National Popular Vote!, in the four presidential elections since 2004, candidates held 46 percent of their general-election visits in just five Rust Belt states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa — whereas they held none in Alabama and a grand total of one in Mississippi, and that was a predominantly white rally Donald Trump held in Jackson, miles away from the largely black Delta.</p> <p> </p> <p>Think of the quintessential white working-class community of Brown County, Wisconsin, home to Green Bay, which may not be thriving but where the poverty rate is 11.1 percent and the median household income is $53,527, just about the national median of $53,889.</p> <p> </p> <p>Now consider Holmes County, Mississippi, where 43.3 percent of residents live in poverty, median household income is a mere $20,732 — and households in one of its nearly all black towns, Tchula, make an unconscionable $13,273 per year.</p> <p> </p> <p>Or think of Greenwood, Mississippi, where half of all blacks live below the poverty line; or Wilcox County, Alabama, where 50.2 percent of blacks live in poverty compared to 8.8 percent of whites. These numbers are not uncommon throughout the rural South.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Walk through Clarksdale, Mississippi — the epicenter of Delta blues music and home to the legendary juke joint, Red’s Lounge — and most stores are shuttered. One brave restaurant that tried to bring contemporary cuisine there could afford to open its doors only Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and then closed down.</p> <p> </p> <p>Many Delta and Black Belt residents live in dilapidated shacks with no proper sanitation, where sewage drains right into the ground and contaminates both the soil and water. The Greenville, Mississippi, infrastructure was in such disrepair that for years the town spilled raw sewage into creeks, rivers and bayous, according to a 2016 lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The Economist reports that life expectancy in parts of the Delta is lower than it is in Tanzania.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nor is education a way out for many Black Belt and Delta residents. In Sumter County, Alabama, 38.5 percent of adults with either some college or a two-year degree are living in poverty, meaning that those who try to pull themselves up still can’t catch a break.</p> <p> </p> <p>And the educational system itself barely deserves the name “educational system.”</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/12trump.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A former student who spent two years teaching high school in the Delta wrote to me about one teacher who built a wooden barricade covered in barbed wire around her desk, another who fell asleep in class, another who had students hand-copy chapters of the history book onto their own paper and then tested them on it. The Spanish teacher knew no Spanish, so the class spent its days making Mexican arts and crafts. The copy machine hadn’t worked for weeks, and in the stifling Delta heat the air conditioning system barely functioned.</p> <p> </p> <p>According to <em>The Washington Post</em>, of the 40 Mississippi school districts to receive a D or F from the state, 24 of them have student bodies that are more than 95 percent African-American.</p> <p> </p> <p>For many young black men, schools are a path less to opportunity than to incarceration. In 2012 the Department of Justice sued Meridian, Mississippi, for creating, in effect, a school-to-prison pipeline in which Meridian authorities routinely handcuffed, arrested and jailed students without probable cause for what would typically be considered school disciplinary issues, such as refusal to follow the directions of a teacher or simply disrespect. Students on juvenile probation because of these arrests were regularly imprisoned for dress code violations, flatulence in class or using the bathroom without permission. These punishments “shock the conscience,” the lawsuit stated.</p> <p> </p> <p>Nor are criminal justice abuses confined to schools. In the Delta, because there is only a patchwork public transportation system supplemented by a makeshift arrangement of buses and vans provided by a network of nonprofits, cars are a lifeline for most people trying to work or buy groceries. But driving itself can be a ticket to prison. Travel around the Delta and you’ll hear story after story about black drivers, especially men, who get pulled over and fined for a broken taillight — and then, with no money to fix the car or pay the fine, they get pulled over again and their punishment this time is incarceration.</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s hard to see hope where there are few jobs, failing schools, ramshackle homes, contaminated communities and a path in life that consigns many to prison rather than prosperity. Unlike their Rust Belt brethren, they never had even a fighting chance at the American Dream.</p> <p> </p> <p>Yet with no political power or say, few national leaders, politicians or intellectuals advocate for them or take on their cause. In 1967 Robert Kennedy visited the Delta, and upon seeing the grueling poverty and hunger, asked plaintively, “How can a country like this allow it?” In 1999 Bill Clinton came to Clarksdale and convened a roundtable of local and national business leaders, pushing for more investment in the region. But that’s about it. These truly are the forgotten Americans.</p> <p> </p> <p>All of this isn’t to say that the white working class doesn’t have its challenges. Rusted plants, boarded-up stores, hollowed-out downtowns, painkiller addictions — people who felt entitled to an American Dream but now see it slipping away ought to speak up and challenge a status quo that isn’t working for them.</p> <p> </p> <p>But unlike residents of the Black Belt and the Mississippi Delta, who never seem to matter when elections come around, these white working-class voters have had their say. Candidate after candidate visits them, panders to them and appeals for their votes — feeding them patriotism, promising law and order and flattering them that they are indeed the true hard-working and “real Americans.”</p> <p> </p> <p>And increasingly, from the Nixon Silent Majority years onward, they have made their voice clear, voting for politicians statewide and nationwide who favor gun rights, oppose unions, fight universal healthcare, claim tax cuts will create jobs and resist affirmative action, public infrastructure investments and government programs designed to help people get a leg up on life. These white working-class voters have staked out their priorities and exercised their voice — and contrary to the “forgotten American” trope applied to them, they have determined state and national elections.</p> <p> </p> <p>Perhaps the political lesson is this: When the forgotten Americans are working class, white and from battleground states, they get labeled “forgotten” and everyone pays attention to them. But when the forgotten Americans are poor and black with no electoral clout, they are, simply, forgotten.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>A former speechwriter and strategist for causes, candidates, and members of Congress, Leonard Steinhorn has written two books on American politics and culture and frequently writes for major print and online publications. He is currently a professor of communication at American University and a CBS News political analyst.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>This post was first published on BillMoyers.com</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://punditwire.com/2017/01/20/the-real-forgotten-americans/">PunditWire.com</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-delta" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black delta</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/south" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the South</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poverty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">poverty</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rust-belt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rust belt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/working-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">working class</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Leonard Steinhorn</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">punditwire.com; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 21 Jan 2017 19:56:59 +0000 tara 7343 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/7298-attention-trump-meet-real-forgotten-americans#comments Bringing Broadband to Detroit https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3383-bringing-broadband-detroit <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 12/23/2013 - 09:33</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1broadband.jpg?itok=DRKNf1rt"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1broadband.jpg?itok=DRKNf1rt" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From <a href="http://michigancitizen.com/">Michigan Citizen</a> and our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/12/bringing-broadband-to-detroit.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>In Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he told the world “100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” It has been more than five decades since that dramatic speech and we still see evidence that for many minorities, there is an island of poverty among an ocean of prosperity and wealth.</p> <p> </p> <p>Detroit is a city that is very familiar with poverty, especially in its low-income and minority communities. Among other financial ills, the city is suffering from a rapidly shrinking tax base as people flee the city to go to other cities where more job opportunities are present. But Detroit has an opportunity to turn its situation around by embracing technology and reinventing itself as the “Technology Hub of the Midwest.”</p> <p> </p> <p>From biotech to energy to auto manufacturing, the future of our country will depend on broadband, and Detroit needs to position itself as the place where technology meets the future economy. Like the railroads of the past did for building wealth in cities across the country, robust broadband infrastructure can be that platform to help cities emerge as the champions of commerce and industry.</p> <p> </p> <p>The fact is, broadband is the game changer that can not only build new industries, but can create solutions for many problems that our communities face. Access to broadband can be a lifeline for millions trying to scrape their way out of poverty. As day-to-day activities transition more and more toward functioning on broadband networks, it is critical this infrastructure investment in broadband technologies is continuously updated — particularly in low-income and minority communities. If investment ceases or even slows down, Detroit and its people will be left behind.</p> <p> </p> <p>Unfortunately, current outdated laws in Michigan and across the country require telecommunications companies to divert investment dollars away from state-of-the-art broadband investment and instead put those dollars toward archaic analog landline technologies that the public is migrating away from. As a result of these rules, our nation has seen at least $81 billion of investment wasted by investment being put in technology that rapidly ends up as useless, stranded investment almost as soon as it is put in the ground. This simply makes no sense — especially when these wasted dollars could be used to bring hi-tech broadband investment to Detroit communities and close the digital chasm that plagues the poor.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4detroit%20%28All%20things%20Michigan%20Flickr%29_0.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" /></p> <p>Broadband technology brings unlimited potential to people living in Detroit. Not only can it be a renaissance for commerce and the key to turning this city around, it can also provide tremendous benefits to regular citizens throughout the city. Broadband can allow a single mother to get an education online after she puts her children to bed. It can provide healthcare to a diabetic shut-in by giving him the ability to download his blood sugar, send the data to his physician and make necessary adjustments to his dosage. It can be a lifeline to an unemployed man or woman who now has the opportunity to create his or her own gainful employment by starting a business online — and hiring others in the community as that company grows. These are only a few areas where broadband can change the dynamics in Detroit communities to provide opportunity for anyone who wants to seize it. If we can just get the state of the art network investment out there, we as a community can do the rest.</p> <p> </p> <p>Minister’s Against the Digital Divide’s mission is to see the digital divide become a relic of the past. But more importantly, we need to embrace broadband technology as the great equalizer for our generation and generations to come. We can’t construct state-of-the-art broadband networks on our own, but we can provide incentives for private industry to make the investments in digital networks that will allow us to develop programs that promote agendas like digital literacy, STEM education and broadband adoption. In order to do this, our nation has to transition from the copper “Ma Bell” network of the past to a national digital network of the future.</p> <p> </p> <p>The state of Michigan has the opportunity now to start us down this path with Senate Bill 636, a bill that would remove current restrictions that require telecommunications providers to invest in 100-year-old technology instead of the latest state-of-the-art broadband technology that consumers so desperately want and need.</p> <p> </p> <p>For our communities, this investment, coupled with education, are the two key elements that will build the bridge that will take people off of that island of poverty and give them the tools to be able to swim in the ocean of prosperity. But the time is now for Michigan policymakers to act. Senate Bill 636 will allow us to transform Detroit, and our nation, into an all-digital world before our opportunities to close this chasm are lost.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>David</em> <em>Alexander Bullock is president of MAAAD Michigan Chapter.</em></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/detroit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">detroit</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michigan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michigan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/broadband" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">broadband</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/internet" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">internet</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poor-communities" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">poor communities</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/joblessness" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">joblessness</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/unemployment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">unemployment</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-american-neighborhoods" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">african american neighborhoods</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poor-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the poor</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/working-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">working class</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">David Alexander Bullock</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All Things Michigan (Flickr); New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 23 Dec 2013 14:33:56 +0000 tara 4007 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3383-bringing-broadband-detroit#comments The American Dream, Not Just for Americans: The Life of Day Laborers https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2243-american-dream-not-just-americans-life-day-laborers <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 04/15/2013 - 09:33</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1laborers%20%28USDADOTGOV%29.jpg?itok=7Z2_7uCT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1laborers%20%28USDADOTGOV%29.jpg?itok=7Z2_7uCT" width="354" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p>  “I have been here five years. I don’t like it here. I can’t wait to go back. I have my family in Hidalgo (Mexico), two kids and a wife,” said a <em>jornalero</em> anonymously while standing on a sidewalk in Queens, New York.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “This is environmental contamination,” he adds sticking his hands out of his coat pockets to point to the hundreds of indelible stains from bird droppings that have fused with chewing gum and other bits of litter.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Back home the<em> barrenderos </em>sweep the streets and keep them clean. Not like this,” he scoffed before concluding that “this is a side of New York tourists don’t see.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This jornalero’s openness was most likely a side effect of having had his first warm meal of the day at 10:00 at night, at least that’s how Jorge Muñoz explains it. He advised me to let him serve his first round of meals, before approaching any of his regulars.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/jorgemunoz.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 423px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> So like a tourist on a safari expedition, I heeded the advice of the guide in keeping my distance for fear of disturbing them, and possibly having them run off.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Jorge Muñoz, who runs the foundation An Angel in Queens, has dedicated the last 10 years to serving hundreds of day laborers seven days a week from the back of his white pickup truck, and says he will continue to do so despite having lost his job as a school bus driver a year ago. He was honored in 2010 by Barack Obama with the Presidential Citizen’s Medal for his outstanding dedication.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Rice, pasta and chicken,” he responded when asked what was on the menu for tonight. He stabbed the top of a foam food container with a disposable fork before handing it to the next person on line, who then moved to the tail of the pickup truck where hot chocolate was being served.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2laborers.JPG" style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> “We feed approximately 150 people daily,” said Alvaro, a volunteer and representative of MiraUSA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to social works project in 13 different states.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Indirectly, Muñoz has saved this Queens jornalero some pocket cash to scrimp and save up for the pricey bedroom he rents nearby; allowing him to save for more urging matters.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “My daughter just received her bachelor’s degree in travel and tourism,” he adds proudly, “and I plan to go back home this year.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Other undocumented workers are not as fortunate.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>The Cold Facts</strong></p> <p> There are 633,782 people experiencing homelessness every day in the United States, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH). Many of the people Muñoz feeds claim a number within that homeless group since they are jornaleros by day and homeless by night. So why risk homelessness in this country rather than back home?</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3laborers%20%28YoungThousands%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 450px;" /></p> <p> “Your life depends on a random stranger who could kill you, will probably disrespect you, and will most likely pay you much less than you deserve. But even those prospects are better than the ones you used to have,” writes Gustavo Arellano, author of <em>Ask a Mexican. </em></p> <p>  </p> <p> Put differently, the insecurity back home brings many illegal immigrants from Latin American countries here. Now, as Americans become conscious of the correlation between unemployment and homelessness, or what lauded economist Amartya Sen, calls “lack of opportunity” and poverty, we grow fearful. The problem is not only inadequate income, but the loss of security, as well.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The inability to put our money to work leads to the issues that families are facing now, such as failed mortgage payments, cost of college education, retirement, and the list goes on.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Naturally, the uncomfortable question arises of whether the $12 an hour that the Queens Jornalero received during one week for cleaning debris in the areas of New York devastated by hurricane Sandy could not have better benefited an unemployed New Yorker.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The same uncomfortable question could be asked of the approximately 1 million jobs in construction, sanitation, or cleaning taken by undocumented immigrants between 2008 and 2010 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data 2011), which could have benefited citizens in other parts of the country.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4laborers%20%28Bradley%20Gordon%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 401px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong> A Day Without…</strong></p> <p> They’re in every town and city. You probably don’t pay much attention to them, but they’re involved in your life or community in one way or another. They have probably helped prepare your meal at a restaurant, washed your car, wrapped your bouquet at the local flower shop, or gutted the salmon you’re about to serve at dinner. But one morning a mysterious fog engulfs the nation and the Queens Jornalero along with the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. vanish, leaving a million jobs open for U.S. citizens to take back!</p> <p>  </p> <p> Such an occurrence would make the film <em>A Day Without a Mexican </em>prophetic, especially considering that the outcome would most certainly embody the moral message of the film: immigrants—documented or not—contribute to our society. </p> <p>  </p> <p> We don’t need to get as creative as filmmaker Sergio Arau, however, to process how impressionable such an event would be.  Flashback:  Jan Brewer— Arizona— SB 1070.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Although most of the key points of this anti-immigration law were struck down by the Supreme Court, the most important one (checking the legal status of individuals by racial profiling) was maintained. It influenced Alabama, Utah, Indiana, Georgia, and South Carolina to do the same; a mass exodus of illegal immigrants ensued.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In theory, this scenario would have provided the perfect opportunity for local citizens to regain employment, proving that illegal immigration was indeed hurting the economy; but in practice many business owners would argue that it’s counterfactual.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> “I have 158 jobs and I need to give them to somebody,” said Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select processing plant in Union Town, Alabama, to Bloomberg <em>Businessweek</em> in 2011. He argued that he turned to foreign labor only because Americans weren’t taking the jobs of skinning, gutting, and cutting up catfish.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Furthermore, the United Farm Workers Union launched a campaign in 2010 called “Take Our Jobs” inviting American citizens to apply for labor-intensive and low-wage farm jobs. According to the organization, only 4,000 applied and less than half considered the jobs. There were close to half a million openings, but few wanted a job paying less then minimum wage and no benefits or worker’s compensation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Undocumented immigrant workers fill in the gaps left behind in the job market by native-born workers and legal immigrants who are not willing to subject themselves to subpar working conditions often found in informal jobs.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is argued by economists that workers like the Queens jornaleros actually provide a boost to the economy. In one case, Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda , a UCLA professor and author of the analysis <strong>“The Economic Benefits of Comprehensive Immigration Reform,”</strong> argues that making undocumented immigrants citizens (and having them pay back taxes and other fees) would add $1.5 trillion dollars to our GDP, while mass deportation would produce a $2.6 trillion in lost GDP.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Considering the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 provided amnesty to millions of undocumented workers who entered the U.S. before 1982, and set up a temporary agricultural workers program, one could infer that Ronald Reagan saw the benefits an immigrant workforce had on the U.S. economy back then—and perhaps Obama sees the necessity for one now. </p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Yolian Ceruera is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: USDA.gov, Yolian Cerquera, Whitehouse.gov, YoungThousands, Bradley Gordon (Flickr, Creative Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jorge-munoz" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jorge munoz</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/angel-queens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">an angel in queens</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/day-laborers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">day laborers</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jornaleros" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jornaleros</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/immigrants" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">immigrants</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/undocumented-immigrants" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">undocumented immigrants</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/illegal-immigratns" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">illegal immigratns</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-workforce" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american workforce</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jobs-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jobs in america</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/unemployment" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">unemployment</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/working-class" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">working class</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/minimum-wage" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">minimum wage</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yolian Cerquera </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">USDA.gov</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:33:13 +0000 tara 2680 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2243-american-dream-not-just-americans-life-day-laborers#comments