My experience at the Wage Claim Clinic has been very helpful
to my inner thoughts. Every day there opens a new set of ideas and
possibilities for me. With every client I learn something about myself and
about the world around me. Though I knew about the injustice in the workplace
and how tough some of the workers have in for them, I had no idea it was that
bad. Every day we hear pretty much about the same case, the worker did not
speak English, had little to no interaction with the employer, was left working
a lot of hours, and as a result gets tricked and is treated unjustly one way or
another. With each case it sinks into my head how prominent this issue is. People
are being robbed out of their pay because they cannot speak up for themselves. That
is exactly what is being done in the wage claim clinic. The workers there (
many of whom are volunteers) really make it their business to help the client,
and are extremely dedicated to the cause. Their passion for justice and helping
others is really what drives the clinic forward.
Something that has surprised me about it is
how often it happens in New Orleans. If I remember correctly, one gentleman commented
that this issue is worryingly big in New Orleans in comparison to other places.
As a New Orleans native, I know about it’s beauty and flaws, but there are
things that I just do not understand. What about the city makes people think they
can do what they want without having consequences? What about it tells people they can cheat and
deceive? These are very broad and abstract questions but I think the answer
goes a lot deeper than the surface. I have not had any disappointments so far,
unless you call losing hope in the entire human race disappointment. I have however, encountered some difficulties
with language. 99% of our clients are Spanish
speakers and often times speak too fast for my intermediate comprehension. Still,
my time spent there has been of the most eye opening and profound experiences
in my life.
In relations to Shakespeare I see
it much like in Taming of the Shrew where drunken Sly is tricked into thinking that
he is king by the king himself. That
sort of deception for power that is done from those who are already powerful against
those who are not disgusts me. It ties into the idea of greed, of always having
the constant desire for more.
It sounds like you are having a very positive (lost faith in humanity notwithstanding) experience at the WCC. The different layers of experience you describe--language, social awareness, the nature of labor, and accountability--certainly offer a lot to talk about. In another post, it might be interesting to home in on a single issue like that. Take labor, for instance. Here you describe the labor that's being stollen from the claimants as well as the (largely volunteer) labor of those advocating for them. In what ways does work define people as subjects? Is there any irony in the fact that both the claimants and the volunteers are working "for free"? I think you're absolutely right to see a Sly-like deception at work here, but the Lord's "practicing" on Sly doesn't come close to the kind of violation of social obligations that you are seeing day to day. Unlike in one of Shax's plays, there's no structural way of exacting accountability here. Is there still room for hope?
ReplyDelete