11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

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sophie lai
Member
文章: 3
註冊時間: 週四 1月 21, 2016 8:56 pm

11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

文章 sophie lai »

Session I
Dear yoyos, I’m honored to host the meeting. According to CNN’s exit polls, one important reason that Trump won the election is that “Non-college-educated whites, in particular, love Trump”. It aroused my curiosity about the current situation of American white working class.

 TED Talk: America’s forgotten working class https://www.ted.com/talks/j_d_vance_ame ... uage=zh-tw)
 Interview: The Dangerous, Volatile Game' Trump Plays With The White Working Class http://www.npr.org/2016/11/03/500457909 ... king-class )

The article below is part of the above interview transcript in NPR News. They are talking about a true story of an American white working class person.

PACKER: There's a man named Danny Hartzell, who I met down in Tampa, which is one of the main locations of the book. He's a husband, father of two kids, didn't get past high school. In fact, I think he dropped out around ninth grade. But he had skills as a welder and for a while was gainfully employed as a welder and, you know, had the satisfaction of making things and working with his hands, of doing a job well.

Then those welding shops began to close down. He ended up in a packing plant, you know, packing, like, I think, potato chips or some snacks, packaging them, which is, you know, not necessarily a job that a man like that sees as being worthy of his skills and dignified. And then that went away with the Great Recession. And he was left to shuffle between Target and Wal-Mart, part-time jobs, never sure what his hours were going to be, completely up in the air with no say over his hours and in some ways desperate for hours because at times he was working, like, 10 or 12 hours a week. It all depended on what the store needed. And he was, you know, being - you know, I think he was operating a forklift or moving, carrying boxes and talking to customers, which was not his favorite thing to do because it didn't - he said to me once I'm not a hello, how are you, what's your dress size? - kind of guy. So all of this - and the family fell on very hard times as his wage dropped and his hours dropped, and they became homeless for long periods of time. And this was the heartbreaking case of a man who in some ways was doing everything right. I mean, he you, know - he blamed himself for quitting school, but he'd assumed that there would be, you know, employment for him and a living to support a family. The family stayed together. They were not doing drugs. They were not drinking. They were not committing crimes. They were in some ways doing exactly what politicians ask of them, and they were still desperate. I mean, they were barely surviving.

And what I felt most of all was their aloneness. There was no one, nothing to support them. There was no - they weren't in a church. There was no local civic group that had kind of adopted the kids and the family in a way. There was, you know - the corporation was this utterly indifferent heartless animal that used him and then threw him aside as it needed to. They didn't have a neighborhood watch, you know - they weren't part of anything larger than themselves. And this really struck me as being a way more and more Americans live in a way that has undermined our confidence in ourselves and our democracy. So that was the Hartzell family in Tampa.

GROSS: Can you compare what you think Hillary Clinton says she has to offer and what Donald Trump says he has to offer to a couple like the couple you just described?

PACKER: Trump tells them I'm going to get you your way of life back. You will be at the center of our country again. You'll be the backbone of America. You'll have a good job. You'll have a good income. You won't feel like these alien people are coming in and taking your job. And, you know, it's all both in some ways attractive and in some ways, it's quite a fraud. But he's appealing to their resentment and to their sense of having been just unfairly reduced in status by a whole lot of different forces.

Hillary Clinton would say I'm going to fund a program that will find the local, you know, industrial or manufacturing jobs that are available and train you to do that job. And then you're going to get that job. And it's a much more of a nuts and bolts sort of policy vision. And whether either of those two really has the answer for this family, I'm actually a little skeptical. I don't think simply job training is enough because I think there's a whole realm of what's called social capital. And really just morale and support that they don't have and that they need. But Trump is even less real because playing to resentment and using a lot of, you know, grand abstract phrases like make America great again is - it just doesn't have the answer. It's simply a way to whip up emotion and then leave people more bitter than you found them.

Question
1. In the above article or the video clip, what has impressed you most?
2. Do you think the racial or income inequality or educational issue is a serious problem for the United States? Why or why not?
3. What causes the difficult situation for American working class? Education, globalization, immigration or something else?
4. If you were the president of the U.S., what would you do? As Clinton proposed, providing job training to help people get good jobs with good wages? Or as Trump pledged, raising a 45% tariff on China to help bring jobs back to America? Or something else?
5. Do you think that the working-class Taiwanese face the similar situation?


Session II
Let’s turn to Black Americans. Please watch the following two Ted talks. The first Ted Talk is about an interesting experience of a black American in white communities. The second Ted Talk is about the life experience for some black American kids.
Ted talk 1: My road trip through the whitest towns in America https://www.ted.com/talks/rich_benjamin ... w#t-590906
Ted talk 2: How to raise a black son in America https://www.ted.com/talks/clint_smith_h ... a#t-298730

Question:
1. In these two video clips, what impressed you most?
2. Which one is better? A one race (homogeneous) country or a multiracial/multi-ethnic country?
3. Should Taiwan accept more immigrants?
4. The speaker of the second Ted talk said, “I want to live in a world where my son will not be presumed guilty the moment he is born, where a toy in his hand isn't mistaken for anything other than a toy.” In your observation, is there any kind of people in Taiwan having similar feeling as the speaker said?

*************************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
6:45 ~ 7:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
7:00 ~ 7:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
7:10 ~ 7:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
7:50 ~ 8:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
8:10 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 9:05pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
9:05 ~ 9:25pm Summarization (20 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements
**************************************************************************************************************************************************
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Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

文章 Kooper »

Here are another great topic to discuss, thanks to Sophie! :ssmile:

What stroke me most is the TED talk. The speaker threw at me story after story how the lack of upward mobility in America has hurt the white working class communities in Rust Bell. These are people who have suffered the most from globalization but sadly have got the least care and attention by the government. Now I sort of understand why Trump gets votes from the white blue collars. To them, no other candidates give them hope. Voting Trump is like a gambling, but at least they see a crumb of hope.
sophie lai
Member
文章: 3
註冊時間: 週四 1月 21, 2016 8:56 pm

Re: 11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

文章 sophie lai »

Thank you, Kooper!!
You really got my point!

Sophie
Luis Ko
YOYO member
文章: 970
註冊時間: 週三 6月 06, 2007 10:18 pm

Re: 11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

文章 Luis Ko »

first of all, i don't think affirmative action is a good policy.

what impressed me the most on this ted talk "America’s forgotten working class" is, I don't have all the answers, but I know that unless our society starts asking better questions about why I was so lucky and about how to get that luck to more of our communities and our country's children, we're going to continue to have a very significant problem.

i don't have the answer either but, guess that's what really matters too.

by the way, i need more time to digest this ted talk "My road trip through the whitest towns in America", so as to think deeply lo~



:drink:
i might be a cynic and, a sceptic as well but, i'm definitely not a bad person!!
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 11/22 (Tue.) Black and White Americans (Host: Sophie)

文章 Kooper »

Hi Luis, Don't miss the two talks in the 2nd session. They are as good, if not better, as the one in the first session. :sun:
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