Term Paper on "America John Debrizzi's Book, America, Tells"

Term Paper 6 pages (1822 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

America

John Debrizzi's book, America, tells the story of America Huerta, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and her influence upon Moses Shabalala, the first African-American President of the United States. In America, color and class is examined and the reader is left thinking about how the color of a person's skin and their work is almost always related. The issue of immigration today is inextricably woven into the picture Debrizzi creates in his novel.

Whiteness is something that gives those of that skin color a sort of advantage in society when it comes to their work. It is, in a sense, a cultural currency. We are left thinking about the fact that workers serve as part of a capitalist labor system because they provide labor for services and thus earn money. But, on the flipside, workers tend to fill a more cultural role through the work that they do -- with advantages and disadvantages. Through Debrizzi's telling of America, we can see that work offers people much more than just monetary wages, there is also a psychological wage that goes along with what a person does for work. This also relates to immigrants and the psychological wage that they earn because of the roles that they are put in. Immigration in America has made this country; we are a nation made up of immigrants. However, immigration is also something that divides people. It divides people into classes -- the privileged and the under-privileged and this happens because of the jobs that people do. The job we have in society defines who we are. As more and more immigrants come to America, it will have to force us to transgress certain ideas that we have about skin color and culture, however. Debrizzi's novel is successful in bringing many of these issues to the forefront of the readers' minds.

In Debrizzi's novel, we are able to see that the color of someone's skin is much more than just the appearance; it is a system of either privileges or non-privileges that go along with that skin color. Debrizzi does bring this distinction to the forefront of our minds as he has made Shabalala the first African-American President. Today, with our first African-American President, the definition of privilege when it comes to race seems to be changing -- at least somewhat. There are some who have not accepted Barack Obama as just purely African-American -- after all, he has a white mother. This changes certain attitudes because he has the privilege that we often associate with whiteness as we have always had white men as our presidents before this time. Likewise, America is a young, but very important leader and Shabalala recognizes this and her importance in the world.

Today the topic of race and immigration is just as vital as it was one hundred years ago. For many who are white and have never had to deal with any kind of racism (except to be excluded from the topic altogether), it is something that is difficult to understand. To be white is to be normal, in a sense. To be white is to be absent in a way as well because it doesn't usually become part of the race and immigration discussion. The only time it is part of the racial discussion is to compare another race to it. If someone is white, they are simply left out of the topic because it is, arguably, what other races in America feel they need to become (not literally in skin color, but in the sense that they want to achieve the same amount of privilege).

Even though our country is made up of immigrants of every race, culture and creed, Debrizzi's novel shows us the difference between privilege that comes along with skin color and status and not having that status. However, problems do arise when the topic of whiteness and its privileges are discussed -- especially when whites try to become a part of the topic. There tends to be a certain amount of guilt for those who are part of the "privileged" class; there is also the sense of being left out of the discussion altogether as mentioned.

We can only understand what race means to us when we look at what is different than us. What other races exist? How do we differ from them in terms of cultural status? What jobs do we hold that are different? We can often see differences in the races just by looking at different roles workers take in society. It seems that Debrizzi is trying to tell us through America that a person's social formation happens without one's knowledge that it is even occurring. It happens through the everydayness of being and working in society. It happens to immigrants without even realizing it because they are simply pushed in a certain direction when it comes to work -- mainly because their situation is so different from the privileged (i.e., being that it is based on survival and need more than anything else.

The character of America is especially interesting as she reminds us of movements such as the feminist movement when gender roles were changing. We are also reminded of the Civil Rights movement when racial lines were also starting to blur. All of these movements had their own specific effect on the American workplace and individuals' role in society as moneymakers. During all of these important movements -- the feminist and the Civil Rights movements especially -- work is always at the center of the issue, no matter what. Race, class or gender issues peaked on the job. With movements like the Civil Rights movement, the way blacks and whites saw each other changed significantly because blacks and whites were put together in working situations together. When races are forced to work with each other, they start to see how they are the same, as well as how they are different.

How does having a black man as leader of the country today and in the novel America affect people? For one thing, it makes any idea of white privilege less safe, which is a good thing in this country after our horrible history of the slavery of black people. If someone has the idea that whiteness is defined by privilege and these privileges are defined by the jobs that people have, then when a person has a job that does not correlate with his or her skin color, the definition of skin color becomes wobbly. Again, this is a good thing for us to question the privilege of some and not others that comes down to a race issue.

Another idea that comes up in Debrizzi's novel, America, is the idea that one's place in the working world is as important as a person's place in the community. Debrizzi is a labor theorist and has other works that discuss ideology and labor theories in America. Debrizzi has theorized that people are not in control of their own destinies and that people are defined more and more by their work rather than by their class; this made the distinction of race and work even more important on a daily basis for people. If we are defined by what we do rather who we are really as people (culturally speaking), then this means that there is definitely a disadvantage immediately for the immigrants who come to this country. Jobs have become the new sort of race in that sense.

The idea of 'survival of the fittest' when it comes to immigration in the 20th century is an interesting one as it depicts work in this country as a form of survival rather than a cultural act, which we oftentimes believe it to be. However, maybe the idea that work is a cultural act is more of a 'white' way of thinking. There is perhaps more of a monetary significance when it comes to immigrants and work, in general. Many go to other countries -- like America -- for a better life, and for many of them a better life can be achieved even with a low-wage earning job. Work is about survival for many -- plain and simple, and for immigrants who have come to this country, work is usually something that is designated by race. We can consider that one's work serves as their identity in our culture. There are some who are able to transgress their race with their jobs, but for the most part, the immigrants of the 20th century -- especially immigrants of Hispanic origin, were not able to do this. In our country, work is about power and it is about status -- culturally speaking. Some may argue that the idea of work in this country is all about finding some kind of 'whiteness.' Finding 'whiteness' isn't about becoming white literally (obviously), but it is about securing a job that affords a person a certain place in society, one where they are put on the same level as the… READ MORE

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