Who Is Next?

 The two oral histories I read were the story of Polo and the story of Saleem. From reading this and DataCenter's report, I believe addressing the social issues in this world would be seen more easily if written in story format. They remain hidden to our society because it is not what we want to hear. No person likes to hear about hardship or struggle. It is easier to address these issues after reading both formats of the report and the stories.DataCenter provided a strong argument by including quantitative data. By conducting surveys and obtaining interviews DataCenter strengthened their argument. On page 2 of the report (page 5 of the PDF) there is a sidebar on the left that lists statistical information regarding wage, treatment, and benefits (or lack there of). For example one of the categories on this sidebar considers the percentage of domestic workers who receive health care and health benefits. The results were shocking. 90% of employers provide their domestic workers with health care and 33% of domestic workers could not afford health care when they needed it (New York Immigrant Rights Clinic). These numbers are ridiculous, and if they were for another group of individuals that were not considered minorities this would be a huge issue. Having things like this in plain sight is what will provide a change in supporting the rights of Domestic Workers.
In relation to this issue, the story of Polo was similar to that of the statistics shown in DataCenter's report. Polo was a Mexican immigrant working at the site of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. His job was to clean up whatever he could. After several weeks of mistreatment and not being paid, Polo's boss disappeared. Soon after, U.S. forces came to remove the workers from the base they were living at. The story concludes with Polo's confusion as to what he will do to provide for his family now since he just wasted almost a month by providing free labor.  In the end the workers were compensated for later on in their lives, but the experience is still unacceptable. As stated before, if this were to have happened to non-minorities there would have been bigger backlash.
In the story of Saleem, Saleem was detained in a maximum security facility because he was Muslim and could possibly be connected with the 9/11/2011 attacks. This is a social issue of racial profiling. This topic has occurred after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Twin Towers, and now it is occurring in illegal immigration in nearby border states. If a person wanted to research this further, they could look into the events that have cause racial profiling in the United States and the effect it has had on those who have been profiled.


Michelle Bella