Blog 7-READ ME

Ok, I'm making up for any posts I'm missing by making one more post this week. So if you all didn't notice, we touched on a subject in class this week from the movie Real Women Have Curves that really stirred me up. This topic is sweatshops. I think ever since my younger sister did a research project on sweatshops, I've become interested in this social injustice and have looked more into it. And the deeper I dig, the more surprised and disgusted I become by the information I find. Now, I am actively involved in a USC group called SCALE (Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation), am conducting a case study on sweatshop labor for my COMM 303 class, and just started and internship with Garment Workers Center, an organization that works like a union to help educate and alleviate those who work in sweatshops in LA. That's right, LA. Many people fail to realize that the US has TONS of sweatshops, and the most are housed right here in the "City of Dreams". These immigrants are underpaid, overworked, lied to and denied their rights. So why doesn't the government do something? The problem is, garment industries have lots of levels of managment, which makes it extremely difficult to figure out which companies are using sweatshop labor. Did you know our very own USC apparel used sweatshop labor?? AND for hardly any effort or extra money, we could easily join an organization that helps protect these workers' rights? Also, as we saw in the movie, these sweatshops consist of 20-40 people max, and they are usually located in abandoned office buildings or banks. Next time you drive downtown, take a close look at the buildings; I bet you'll pass by at least five.
If you're interested in hearing more, come swing by SGM 124 this coming Tuesday at 2pm. Ex-sweatshop workers from the Dominican Republic are coming in to talk about their personal experiences with working in a sweatshop that was the first ever to unionize and gain rights, then having all of their customers (including Nike) pull out their orders and forcing the factory to close down. If you want to learn more about this issue and how bad it really is, come check it out!

Post 6

So I'm not quite sure how we're supposed to have 7+ blog posts right now, because I think I've pretty much posted everytime we've been assigned to do so... Well, I guess I'll post twice this week to make up for it. I'd just like to say that I realize that I really enjoy learning and talking about ethnicity. Out of any subject I could choose to write about, I think this is one of the best. And I really like our ethnicity through film lecture class; that class has helped me view ethnicity and race in a whole new light. For example, I used to always check Asian-American when it came to identifying my ethnic background on a survey or test. But now I realize that I'm not fully Asian and I'm not fully white, but I've been symbolically identifying myself with the Asian community. So these days, I check other when I'm forced to pick one category to describe my ethnicity. In this way, I'm chosing my own identity and not throwing myself into this enormously large and oversimplified category. Yay for Hapas! (Half-Asians)