Ideas and Action
· A question about each piece (with a quote from each)
o Cynthia Kaufman’s Ideas and Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change Chapter 1
§ Quote: “Similarly, racism has been used to mobilize resentments against undocumented immigrants in ways that hurt the working class. Arguing that US citizen workers have a “right to jobs” and undocumented people don’t, the government uses these distinctions to crack down on undocumented people when they attempt to unionize and count on racist resentments to prevent white worker from coming to the aid of immigrants. Yet the presence of large numbers of nonunionized workers in any given industry drives down wages, hurting people in those sectors, no matter what their race or nationality.” (71)
§ Question: Who gets to decide that US citizen workers have a “right to jobs” and undocumented people don’t? How did that become a popular idea (to most non-people of color) in the American society? What is it about undocumented people that makes people believe they shouldn’t be allowed to have something as fundamental to life as a job?
o Cornell West’s The Moral Obligations of Living in a Democratic Society
§ Quote: “Democracy always raises the fundamental question: What is the role of the most disadvantaged in relation to the public interest? It is similar in some ways to the biblical question: What are you to do with the least of these? If we do not want to live in a democracy, we are not obliged to raise that question. In fact, the aristocracy does not address that question at all. Chekhov wrote in a play. “The Czar’s police, they don’t give a damn about raising that question. That’s not the kind of society they are.” But within a democratic society that question must be continually raised and pushed.” (212)
§ Question: What actually is the role of the most disadvantaged in relation to the public interest? Within a democratic society, because it is a democratic society, the role of the disadvantaged is put into question into whether or not the public is interested or cares.
o Ivan Illich’s To Hell With Good Intentions
§ Quote: “You, like the values you carry, are the products of an American society of achievers and consumers, with its two-party system, its universal schooling, and its family-car affluence. You are ultimately-consciously or unconsciously — ‘salesmen’ for a delusive ballet in the ideas of democracy, equal opportunity and free enterprise among people who haven’t the possibility of profiting from these.” (2)
§ Question: How does the American society as a whole come together to produce people who can unconsciously sell these ideas of democracy, equal opportunity, and free enterprise when not everyone is able to achieve that?
· A connection you made between ideas/points in these 3 pieces.
o All three pieces speak of the democracy in the United States and how it affects everyone — from the less fortunate to the most fortunate. They all speak on the difference democracy makes for the people in these different classes, or if it makes a difference at all as some people don’t get to experience the benefits of democracy.
· A connection you made between one of these texts and your community partner.
o The connection I made between one of these texts and my community partner, Canal Alliance, was with the first reading by Cynthia Kaufman “Ideas and Action: Relevant Theory for Radical Change.” The quote I chose above connects to Canal Alliance because a lot of these kids are undocumented or come from families of undocumented immigrants and they and their families often struggle to because so much of America believes they don’t have the “right” to a job or other fundamental parts of life.
