The Hard Knock Life

After reading the stories of Olga and Polo, and “Home is Where the Work is,” I came to the realization how personal accounts not only raises awareness around social issues, but it helps give the cause a deeper meaning.  It’s one thing for me to hear facts and numbers, but when I start hearing or reading about the reasoning for fighting for a cause, it makes me want to take time out of my day to really learn how I can help.  We live in a very selfish society – majority of the people are only looking out for themselves, leaving them unaware of what is happening to other people.

DataCenter created a strong argument in order to support policy changes in favor of domestic workers by compiling a lengthy report.  This document consists of personal accounts, facts/statistics, and other relevant information.  Some of the things I found interesting are as follows: A Day in the Life of “Carla”, which consists of the nanny’s specific schedule on a typical working day; Laws such as OSHA, NLRA, and Civil Rights Laws that specifically don’t include domestic workers; various tables consisting of percentages displaying pertinent thing such as the Top Fields of Work for Employers in New York, Amount of Overtime Hours Worked, Lack of Notice Given to Childcare Workers for Overtime, and Top Five Occupations of Workers in their Country of Origin; and lastly, Domestic Workers United holding a convention to discuss the future of the domestic work industry, which lead to the proposal of the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights.  I think this plethora of data supports policy changes because every single detail only benefits the cause more.  The combination of personal stories and actual/factual data makes the cause more plausible as well. 

In Olga’s story in Underground America, she discusses her transgender child who endured inequality while being detained.  Her child, Victor/Vica, was discriminated against because she was a transgender woman with HIV/AIDS.  Because of this, she didn’t receive the proper medical treatment to keep her alive.  By the time she was sent to the hospital, it was too late to reverse the damage.  Olga’s story reminds me how DataCenter lists “Carla’s” schedule.  Olga was not able to visit her child because of the long hours she worked.  She had to make enough money to support her family still and that cost her the ability to visit her child on a more regular basis.  Polo’s story also reminds me of the things discussed in DataCenter’s article.  Polo’s story revolves around how they were purposely not compensated with money for the amount of grueling work he had to do.  Along with his co-workers, they had to clean up the mess that Hurricane Katrina left.  Their working and dormitory conditions were poor.  In fact, their boss disappeared with their checks, and the military came in and as Polo puts it, “cleaned up the base” and made them sleep under tarps instead of their already raggedy cots.  This story relates to the DataCenter evidence of how live-in domestic workers have their room and board deducted from their already low wage pay. 

Other evidence that might be researched and compiled to create awareness about this issue to speak to a larger audience could include creating a Youtube viral campaign, a Facebook account where people all over the world can send in their own personal stories, etc. In fact, any use of social media would be a great source of gathering evidence for the cause.