Zoot Suit Riots (Blog #3)

The zoot suit riots are a well known event, but not a lot of people actually know what they were about. They just know the phrase Zoot Suit riot. For many people, they know the song Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin Daddies and think they understand the event. The song is a reaction to the event, but it doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. The zoot suit riots was a discrepancy between white American sailors and marines and the Latino population in Southern California. The Latino youth of Southern California had taken a liking to the the flashy suits, similar to those of the Harlem populations.
These suits were made illegal because it was a time of war and there was a shortage of fabrics, and these suits took a lot of fabric to make, deeming them a waste of resources. The Latinos still wore them as a sign of rebellion, thinking it unfair to demand such a law. In response to that, the sailors and Marines took it upon themselves to go and beat up the Latinos deciding to wear them. Over the following days after the first attack, thousands of servicemen got involved. After the smoke had cleared, the government decreed that the acts were a response to racism and decided to investigate the beatings thoroughly.
The Latino used these events to their advantage by defending themselves from the attacks, rather than starting them. This made them the victim and resulted in the attacks be hate crimes. The Latinos got arrested when defending themselves, and the sailors did not. The newspapers reported that the Latinos were at fault and the truth didn't get out until much, much later. Media exposure became a large component to making the problem visible. A play called Zoot Suit was written which then inspired a movie by the same name. The play The Black Dhalia had  main character that was a policeman involved in the riots as well. These methods were used to get the real story out there about what happened.

These riots were an act of racism against the Latinos. In 1943, there was still a large digression between whites and minorities. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted as saying

"The question goes deeper than just suits. It is a racial protest. I have been worried for a long time about the Mexican racial situation. It is a problem with roots going a long way back, and we do not always face these problems as we should."

An event like this reaching the President and his family meant that the issue had become a real problem. The attacks were an attack on Mexican people, not the zoot suits.

Katrina's Jails (Blog #10)

In the aftermath of Katrina, New Orleans was still torn apart, even 3 months later. While locals came back to salvage what they could from the disaster and try to start up living there again, there has been hesitance to rebuild the city. Some people question if New Orleans is worth saving and because of that they didn't start rebuilding it to it's former glory very hastily. It took over a year for the city to start promoting tourism and events in it. It's port was resurrected shortly after the storm, having been the US's largest port and most of the damage being water and flood damage, the port was easy to fix.

After locals started coming back and living in New Orleans, the jail system started to become a bit of a joke. Arresting and arraignment rates went through the roof and the local jail became the one of the largest jails in the country in terms of inmates passing through it to court dates or other prisons. It has been called the jail capital of the country. Over 60,000 people pass through these jails a year with an average stay of 20days. Many of these people were thrown into jail because of small charges, traffic violations and municipal crimes, or awaiting trial.

The injustice of this is apparent I believe. To get arrested for a parking ticket seems ridiculous. Jailers get paid by the prisoner and as such, they set out to bring as many people through the jail as possible. Due to the state the New Orleans was left in, locals do not have the resources to fight such a corrupt way of sentencing. The police take advantage of this and jail all those that they can.

This thought process really marginalizes the people it is affecting. People are treated like items and money rather than the humans that they are. They surrender to the idea that they are worthless and start an endless cycle of jail or arrests, but that's an entirely different blog topic. With the destruction that Katrina caused the jails, they have become incredibly inhospitable and dehumanize the prisoners being housed in them. Conditions like this turn law abiding citizens into criminals by convincing them they are an incapable of change.

The struggle for justice from this situation is hard fought. the guards that treat these prisoners this way are invisible because no one really can identify them as more than "A guard." Guards get away with these acts because there is no accountability for their actions. Through miscommunication the guards aren't "responsible" and not bothered by some protocols. With the history of how the prisoners were treated in New Orleans and how the government and police force treated people during the "evacuation" it's not surprising that these guards don't see repercussions.

Woodstock (Blog #4)

When most people hear Woodstock, they think of three things, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Many people claim that the festival, deemed one of the greatest music festivals in the world, was simply that, just a music festival. However, there are many who argue that it was a stand for the counterculture of the late 60's that claimed they weren't just a bunch of "hippies" but rather a group that voiced the virtues of peace and love in our society. I classify this as a social movement, because the "hippies" were finally trying to express their morals and values to a society that was telling them to "cut your hair and get a real job."

In the mid 1960's, the hippie movement had really taken hold. This was a time coming out of the straight laced, American dream era where nuclear families, families that center around the mother and father of the family and any number of children, were encouraged and thought be the norm in society. Hippies were seen as a threat to this way of life, and prejudiced against. Their view that life is about peace and love was often chalked up to their recreational drug use, and belittled or ignored. The hippies were a group of people and a way of life, not just a habit.

Tired of being looked down on and treated poorly, they decided to take a stand. They decided to create an event that symbolized their beliefs, including: universal human rights, ethical business practices, free expression, and a loving care for the planet. They decided to make a music festival in the town of Bethel, New York. In order to ensure the success of this gathering, they gathered some of the biggest stars at the time including Jimi Hendrix, the Who, and Bob Dylan. They used this event as a tactic to serve as a rallying cry for hippies everywhere. Joni Mitchell, a woman that worked with various musical groups including, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, and Neil Young was quoted as saying 

"Woodstock was a spark of beauty" where half-a-million kids "saw that they were part of a greater organism."

This mentality united the hippies around the country and gave them a way to promote their way of life and express themselves freely in a world that was rapidly becoming more and more censored. They were challenging authority by embracing their values and living the way they felt they were meant to. For four days, they exuded the idea of free love and expression by doing what they felt with whoever they chose. This generally was not allowed in normal society and would end up getting them punished. In regards to racism, there really wasn't any at Woodstock. The morals that founded the hippie movement advocated equality for all, including race and sexual preference. This challenged the idea that society had set by saying that being homosexual or bisexual was taboo, and shunning those that were. Regardless of their association with drug use, the hippies were accepting of all types of people and thought that we are all in this together, so we might as well get along.

I knew about this movement because, since it's beginning in 1969, it has been an annul event. I was however unaware of it's origins and how it came to be. I didn't know that it was a reaction to society and their way of expressing themselves for at least a few days a year.
This movement was significant because it made being a hippie not as frowned upon. In addition, it gave the hippies a chance to get together and express their life views with others like them. It's legacy lives on in the annual festivals and still stands for the universal human rights, ethical business practices, and free expression it once started as. Now to end this blog like the first Woodstock ended, with Jimi playing the National Anthem.

CIW and via compesina (Blog #8)

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a group striving to create equality for workers in the production and processing of foods. They work closely with anti-slavery and poor working conditions. Most notably, they have recently negotiated deals with major corporations like Taco Bell and McDonalds to improve working conditions and wages for the farmers and pickers involved in the tomato chains in Florida. In addition, the CIW have been involved in uncovering slavery rings in Florida.



La Via Campesina, loosely translated to The Peasant Route, is a group of small farm producers banded together that advocates the right to "food sovereignty". Food sovereignty is the ability and right to grow food for yourself on your own land without letting the marketplace interfere with it.

Both groups are working for equality of farmers and the workers of them. They both disrupt the normal chain of command, but in their own separate ways. 


The CIW wants to increase wages on the tomato farms in Florida by as little as 1 cent more a lb of tomatoes picked. They have gone about this by putting strains on the major fast food chains, claiming that because of their bulk buying power, they can control what prices the tomatoes are sold at. By pressuring these companies to pay just a little bit more, they are increasing the workers' work conditions on the farms and their wages. The wage increase of 1 cent being ask was for of a symbolic request. A penny doesn't seem like much, but to the workers, a 1cent per pound increase could almost double the worker's wages for a day. This increase in wage doubled as a way to appeal to the public. The public sees one penny as insignificant and questions why companies would not agree to such a small request. This puts the public on farmer's side and helped their boycott even more. They have done so by boycotting these fast food chains. In doing so, they have not only made the problem more visible to the country, but have also put the companies in a choke hold. This bad publicity resulted in poor business for the chains. They recently decided to work with the CIW and increase wages for the farm workers in Florida. 
Consumers helped this cause because by deciding to boycott with the CIW they created a large divide in the business the companies were receiving before, and therefore more incentive to work with the CIW rather than against them.


Via Campesina goes about their disruptions a bit differently. They have created strikes to get their points across to society. The most recent was about a week ago in Cancun. Farmers and protesters alike gathered to strike the debates going around about climate change and how to resolve it. This sounds like a good thing, but the resolve is to help the big companies sustain, thus edging out the smaller, home farms. The protests are non violent, and definitely disrupt the dealings happening. Consumers play a part in the industrialized farming that has occurred and pushed local farms aside, because by buying the large scale farms food for a slightly cheaper price they are damning the small farms that sell locally. This eventually leads to shutting down that farm, and causing the farmer to find new jobs, thus creating more competition for non-


farming jobs, creating a lot of jobless individuals. Consumers can help curb this by buying locally and continuing to support local farms.

Bananas (Blog #7)

When you're walking down the grocery store, you don't generally think of the journey that the product right in front of you has taken to get there. Consumers tend to think that the store generates the items that it sells. Take bananas for example, they aren't grown in the US much, only in Hawaii and in very small amounts. For the majority, bananas are grown in humid, tropic areas, mainly in South and Southeast Asia on plantations. Some plantations pick, package, and ship the bananas to markets firsthand, but for the majority the bananas are bought from third parties extremely cheap and distributed to other companies and markets for a huge profit. About half of the countries in the world even have the capability of growing bananas, while very few can grow them in large quantities, due to the necessary growing conditions. This forces globalization between Southern Asia and the countries that want bananas on the menu. Countries like Nicaragua and Ecuador rely on their banana exports to feed their economy. They need countries like North America and Canada to import bananas from them to turn profits. Bananas are a specialization crop, and can produce a large profit. So companies buy them from the countries that grow them at cheap prices, then sell them back to markets at an inflated price.
This is explained in Patel's hourglass model. It is explained that the smallest amount of people (the big companies) control the majority of the prices and fate of products. They go through a series of separate buyers, each turning a small profit until the large company that has the brand name, sells the banana for the largest profit.

http://youtu.be/piC8qTSNtSs

Conditions in the banana plantations are very labor intensive with workers usually working around 10-12 hours a day in grueling heat for less than 1% of the final selling price of bananas for a days work. Adding to the list of poor work conditions, workers have no job security, often being hired on a 3-6 month only basis. In markets right now bananas cost on average 99 cents a pound. That doesn't seem a lot does it? Let's put it into perspective for you. Workers each get paid 75 cordoba (Nicaragua) in Nicaragua, which equates to to $3.27. That's for one day of work. The average wages for a worker are $5.50 a day, but only for 3-6 months of the year. Many companies don't own the plantations directly, but still run them. They do this so they aren't held accountable for the treatment of their workers and therefore can feign ignorance when questioned about it.

Understanding the origins of the banana is important when considering food justice. The majority of a country decided that a particular fruit is so important, that they would subject their fellow human beings to such haggard conditions to produce it for them. That really says a lot about people I think. Sure it's easy to say "Don't eat bananas, buy fair trade". But I'm not giving a blanket statement quite like that. Knowing of the conditions is important because as a consumer you are at least aware of the problems associated with it, that you can become a part of something to change the conditions.
 Food security plays into this situation as well. Banana exporting countries rely on the security of being able to sell their bananas to keep their economy floating. Without the security of these exports, their economy would be in trouble and have a hard time keeping it together.

Marketing (Blog post #6)

Marketing ploys have always seemed pretty transparent to me. When growing up, I would see a commercial for a product that portrayed it to be extremely fun and make everybody happy, when in reality, I knew it was still just another soda product. However, I was totally wrong. Supermarkets market towards very specific, very different consumer groups on an everyday occurrence. The sheer layout of the store is one big subliminal message that says "Buy me!"
As I walked into my local grocery store Dissmores the first thing I noticed was a display of snack type foods (easy to eat whenever you feel like it). I never stopped to think about that. The first thing I will see when walking into my college town store is a display of chips and dip. I believe this is a tactic used because stores know students are usually in a hurry and don't want to take the time to actually cook food, or that an easy snack like chips is great to munch on while they do their homework or play video games or just watch tv. However, this type of product location is just the start of my supermarket trip. As I continue on my trip, my girlfriend notices something. "Have you ever noticed that all of our aisles and display casings are decked out in Coug stuff?" she asks. Thinking about it, she was right, regular products were dressed up in a cougar display. Then I notice that I usually bought those kinds of products thinking I had some sense of comradery with my fellow Cougs. Literally, buying that product did not display my school spirit in any way. However, the crafty marketers even went as far as to make tortilla chips in the colors of crimson and grey. Continuing on, I see the energy drink display, promising hours of alertness for all nighters and whatnot. Sorry Monster, you're not selling me on that one this time. Finally, the granddaddy of them all. the beer section. Easily one of the largest sections of the store, even more than cereal and bread combined. So many different brands to choose from, all enticing by their "cheap" college prices. As I walk through this section, I find an assortment of ping pong balls and dixie cups. You all know what that means...

As well as having these drinking game supplies by the beer, the snacks are also right across the aisle, making for a one stop shopping experience to throw a party. At this point, college students are so easy to market to. One of the last things I notice through my trip to the store was the Red Bull display cases and magazines at each checkout. Spontaneous buys right as you're almost out of the store! Marketers are good at what they do.

That was just the marketing to college students too. Marketing to children is a little different. The first aisle in the store is candy and toys. A child's dreamland. Display cases are used for children too, the oreo cookies were displayed in a cardboard train, enticing the kids into wanting those particular cookies. Soda is at eye level, where kids are bound to see it and ask their parents to buy it for them. In the bread aisle is also a toy section. This is clever because everyone needs to buy bread, and there is a decent chance they bring their children along to shop with them, meaning those kids see the toys in the bread aisle, and hassle their parents for it. Across the aisle from the bread/toys is the cereal section. The colorful, fun cereals are found on the bottom, like Crunch Berries, Trix, and Cookie Crisp. The bland cereals like Kix, Cheerios, and Total are found at the top of the shelf because those don't appeal to children as much.

As I've said in previous blogs, choice is an illusion. We are given the products that the companies want us to buy as we walk in the door. These products are usually the first thing we see when choosing a brand to buy (That's a completely different story, see my Branding post if you want more on that). It plays into this supply and demand myth about consumers, because they only supply a certain percentage of the products out there, so our demand doesn't affect them when that is the only thing to buy around. When only a couple products are offered, we choose the best from those and go along our merry way.
This relationship between consumer and food chains gives all the power to the food chains. They regulate and control the price and variety of every food group we have in our society. They can raise prices as they see fit, and people will continue buying whatever they see because food is a necessity and we need it to survive. This means that a small portion of people (Those that own food products and sell them to supermarkets) control how we really eat, and can change those habits at any time they feel like it.

The Illusion of Choice (Blog prompt #5)

This video discusses the organization The Center for Consumer Freedom. It talks about how choice in food is becoming a luxury rather than the privilege it should be. Companies are starting to exercise their power in the placement of their product and who it would appeal to. After watching this video, I noticed that it corresponds with what we have talked about in class, how choice is decided by the bottleneck companies in Patel's hourglass model. These companies, who control the price by using their name brand as leverage, are able to buy cheap and sell it to consumers for a large profit. Due to this, they try to place their products in the supermarket in a way that appeals to targeted audience. Candy, cookies and sugary cereals are placed low on the shelves so that children shopping with their parents see them at eye level. Milk is placed at the back of the store so consumers must walk through the aisles to get to it, where they might find something to buy that wasn't on their shopping list.
Consumers don't really have a choice in what they buy anymore. It is an illusion that many don't see through until they are shown something like Patel's hourglass model. I, myself, wouldn't have believed such a concept without seeing what researchers on the subject had to say. For example, we talked about apples in class. There are many types of apples in the world, right? How many of those types do you ever see at the supermarket? Maybe 4 or 5. This is because the companies that buy and sell apples are only going to sell the apples that look enticing to the consumer. Apples that are shiny, well shaped, and big. As such, you are getting the choice between the apples that the company is allowing you to choose from. To reiterate, the company picks the small sample of apples they think will sell well, and then places them in the market under the illusion that you get to pick what apple you still eat, which in turn is really what the company decided you could eat.
Consumer freedom neglects internationalism because it is cheaper for a consumer to buy from a supermarket than to buy locally from a farmer's market. This affects the "choice" that consumers can make, because when they buy from a supermarket, they eliminate the variety they can get from a farmer's market and begin only picking from what the supermarket lets them. What consumers don't realize, is that by eliminating said choices, they are actually making it harder on themselves in the long run. Buying cheaper from corporations and not locally results in those local farmers losing their jobs and competing with others for the same amount of jobs offered in the city or town they live in. In doing so, they also make it so that there is no where else to turn when the corporate prices go up.
The issue of race, class and location play into this subject at the same time I think. In places that are deemed "food deserts" there are no supermarkets around, just fast food restaurants. These areas are generally found in lower income, urban, and dominantly African American communities. Because of this, the choice of food simply doesn't exist in these areas. Residents of a food desert are subject to poor eating habits and over chemically ridden food, because they aren't given any other option.