In Search of Respect At Work: Disrespect and Resistance

1. In Search of Respect At Work: Disrespect and Resistance

2. Summaries

3. Getting “Dissed” in the Office Primo and Caesar experienced deep humiliation & insecurity in attempts to penetrate foreign, hostile world of high-rise office corridors Primo was a mail room clerk and errand boy for a professional trade magazine Racially charged cultural miscommunication at work site Boss was prejudiced and would refer to Primo as “illiterate” Primo genuinely attempted to show initiative at Gloria Kirschman’s magazine-publishing company, but the harder he tried, the stupider he felt when he inevitably failed Primo unwilling and unable to compromise street identity and imitate professional modes of interaction Boss forbade him to answer phone because a Puerto Rican street accent

4. The Gender Diss -The machismo (masculine pride) of street culture exacerbates the sense of insult experienced by men because the majority of office supervisors at the entry level are women -In a legal labor market they were forced to break the street taboo against public male subordination to a woman -The gender disses respond to economic inequality and power hierarchies -Thousands of messengers, photocopy machine operators and security guards serving the Fortune 500 companies are ordered by young white executives often females

5. Work Site Wars Remarkable profitability of New York’s financial service companies allows management to pay arbitrary bonuses to even most lowly employees Low-wage workers in jealous scramble for tips and extra perksEx: Caesar’s supervisor In FIRE service sector industries the infighting among entry-level workers and immediate supervisors results in job loss, as was the case for Primo Primo lacked cultural capital to compete effectively according to professional workplace rules Was first to be fired when a fluctuation in demand for annual reports or for merger and acquisition agreement occurred Primo described himself to be working diligently, but he had the habit of falling asleep Supervisor of night shift would write letters about him in the terminal His boss, Gloria Kirschman advised Primo to “go back to school,” which he took great offense in She appeared overbearingly oppressive and insulting to him

6. Weapons of the Weak • Primo hated the flexibility of the mailing campaigns • Gloria gave him very specific tasks (rush jobs) • => Found it offensive and sexually inappropriate • - Primo thought Gloria was cheap • => Tried to "pay him with food" (pizza, tea, cookies) • => Thought he was illiterate and stupid • By showing eager flexibility, Primo earned a promotion (job stability) at Gloria's magazine • Primo's definition of worker rights were still different • => No promotion if one requests over-time • Vocabulary in work evaluations has no counterpart in street culture • Primo left his job (hours were cut) • => Had a son, wife was making minimum wage, expenses • Primo and Caeser were not completely powerless • Oppositionally defined cultural identities unacceptable in the FIRE sector • - Contrary to the factory worker: • => Result: Alienated working class culture isolated within the limited confines • - Primo and caeser's revenge • => Stole $80 from a cash box • => Wrote a cheque for $80 and kept the cash

7. “Fly Clothes” and Symbolic Power • Clothing • Symbolic or cultural conflict • Many of the drug dealers turn down legal employment because of the dress code • Symbolic expression of identity related to the power relations in the labor market • “Racism and the other subtle badges of symbolic power are expressed through wardrobes and body language” (161)

8. -Isolating oneself in inner-city street culture removes discrimination and humiliation -Some crack dealers believe that a unionized job is a positive alternative to the drug economy => True for construction work (most accessible and entry- level job in NYC) => Construction considered to be more masculine than factory work - 1970s: Inner-city-based affirmative action organizations attempted to force local construction sites to hire laborers from their communities -Caeserearned a union job after public display of violence ("Harlem Fight-Back") => Never got paid because he was the only Puerto Rican => Kept getting jerked around to different job sites => Gentrification: El-Barrio high-school dropouts clear away abandoned tenements to make room for new structures => Competition over affordable housing in Manhattan => Fringe areas between very wealthy and very poor neighbourhoods are most vulnerable to these gentrification schemes -The renovations of Housing Authority project building: another source of window-replacement jobs =>Little Pete participated in these Mafia-controlled window scams => Illegally hired Unionized travesties: Racism and Racketeering

9. -Despite negative experiences, union employment was the ideal • Primo wanted a union job (he had a unionized position with a night time janitorial services company) • After his second cheque he noticed that several nights' worth of work was missing and that none of the native-born Americans were lasting through the two month probation • Eventually Primo was laid off • -Primo and Caeser succumbed to racist logic • Blamed immigrants entering NYC's low wage labour market • -Primo, Caeser, and everyone in the Game Room hated new immigrants moving into their neighbourhood • - 3-4 decades earlier: Italian-Americans lashing out at Puerto Ricans for "stealing" factory jobs and invading their neighbourhood • - Downside to the restructuring of New York's economy • Violence and racist tensions between young, unemployed New York born Puerto Ricans and the new Immigrants invading their neighbourhoods and labour markets • - 1980s: Minimum wage declined by one-third, and the federal government decreased more than 50% of its contribution to NYC's budget • Good thing that new immigrants were tolerant of exploitative labour conditions and provided with low wages • In East Harlem, majority of immigrants are Mexicans • - Apart from accepting harder working conditions, new immigrant Mexicans experience racism differently than Puerto Ricans and African-Americans • They have a sense of self-respect The New Immigrant Alternative

10. The Bicultural Alternative: Upward Mobility or Betrayal Primary hope for upward mobility among New York-born Puerto Ricans lies in the expanding FIRE sector’s need for office support workers Success in FIRE service sector requires an inner-city office worker to be bicultural Often when they are successful, neighbours and childhood friends accuse them of ethnic betrayal and internalized racismWhen Puerto Ricans go downtown and get a good job, they alter their speech, name, and appearance to fit in Bicultural alternative not an option for Leroy  black skin and tough street demeanour disqualify him from credibility in high-rise-office corridor  Leroy had a “nickel-and-dime” messenger job downtown but quit when he intimidated a white woman, causing her to flee shrieking down a hallway of a high-rise office building As a crack dealer Leroy no longer has to confront this kind of confusing class and racial humiliation Another cousin of Caesar’s actually “made it” in the legal economy but maintained acquaintances with some of his old street friends Saw escape from street culture as part of a religious conversion, not ethnic compromise Hid extent of economic success when returning to friends and family in El Barrio, but his friends don’t see him as looking down on them Caesar’s cousin balanced tightrope of class and ethnicity by internalizing the legitimacy of apartheid in the U.S. He is capable of such sympathy and understanding, unlike Caesar and Primo

11. Anthropological themes

12. Includes: Status and Role, Gender and sexuality, Social and Group Identity (ex: ethnicity and race, nationality, and class) Individuals, groups and society Theme:

13. Includes: Power, Authority and Leadership, Informal and Formal Political System (ex: rank and stratified) Inequality (ex: gender, class, ethnicity), Theme: Political organization

14. QUIZ TIME

15. Answer: 5 Thousand Dollars How much money did ingahoffman receive each week?

16. Answer: Dress Code Why do so many inner-city men refuse to work in legal employment?

17. Answer: Construction What was the most accessible and unionized entry-level job in n.y.c?

18. Why were Mexicans more preferable in being hired instead of Puerto Rican ?

19. if you were a crack dealer would you work in the legal working economy or the underground economy ?