ipl-logo

Harvest Of Dignity Documentary Summary

1239 Words5 Pages

The Harvest of Dignity documentary, aired in 2012 by UNC-TV highlights a film previously released by Edward R. Murrow in 1960, titled Harvest of Shame. Sadly, little has changed concerning the working and living conditions of farm workers in the United States between the 1960’s and today. Employment and housing conditions are deplorable, and what is tolerated in the agricultural sector would not be acceptable in other areas (Campbell). Agriculture provides 22% of North Carolina’s state income. Ninety-five to ninety-eight percent of workers in this industry are Latino (Campbell). Many workers travel to NC under the conditions of a temporary work visa, but some do not have that luxury. Employers of these individuals take advantage of the legislation in their area- or lack thereof. They allow limited access to restroom facilities and water for their employees while they are working (Campbell). This neglect results in injury and sometimes death of the workers in the fields. The lack …show more content…

The concept of minimum wage seems non-existent, as workers are forced to pick nearly two tons of sweet potatoes to earn $50 (Campbell). Workers are in the fields from 6am to 7 or 8pm, and overtime entitlement does not apply. In North Carolina, workers earn 35% less than the national average earned by a farm worker. What’s likely most shocking to viewers today is that child labor laws to not necessarily apply to work in the agricultural sector. Children are able to work beginning at 10 years old for up to 30 hours a week (Campbell). Their manual labor is no doubt more difficult than many part-time jobs taken by teenagers in American society. It is also inevitable that this labor will negatively impact their performance in school, essentially eliminating their opportunity for social mobility. Despite this sacrifice, they are often required to work in order to help their family survive

Show More
Related
1784 Words | 8 Pages

Dr. Seth Holmes, who is an Assistant Professor of Public Health and Medical Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, was witness to the lives of a group of indigenous migrant farmworkers from the Triqui village of San Miguel in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. Through participant observation as well as interviews with clinic staff, public health officials, farm employees, U.S. border agents, and residents of the farming areas, he paints a detailed picture of the true cost of fresh fruits and vegetables in this country. In Holmes’ account, by using the stories of real people, we learn that Triqui farmworkers deal with backbreaking work, racism, language barriers (most Triqui farmworkers understand little English or Spanish), and

Read More
1091 Words | 5 Pages

Critical Race Lens on “McFarland USA” The critical race theory examines how racism affects the society, law, social structure and economy of a state. It is based on five basic tenets: everyday racism, interest convergence, social construction of race, differential racialization, intersectionality, and voice of color. The movie “McFarland USA”, directed by Niki Caro, is a true-story that is primarily based on a poor Mexican community in California where Coach White, a white American coach, develops a cross-country team.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

Teenagers love money. However, the problem with earning money is that kids are too busy to get a job. Or a job is not enough money for their needs, especially in this changing economy. Jeffrey Selingo, in his piece “Why More Teenagers and College Students Need to Work While in School,” argues that more kids should work while pursuing their education. He expresses the importance of finding time for a job, and that making money is not the only thing teenagers gain from a job.

Read More
334 Words | 2 Pages

Kelley explains, “We have...two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread”. By her use of statistics, she has grabbed the audience’s attention. With large numbers like two million, one already begins to question child labor. Kelley then goes on to

Read More
1276 Words | 6 Pages

What was the most eye opening about this was she didn’t consider what she did as a child as child labor because throughout her family and the town she lived in children working was seen as a norm. If anything she said this was something that benefited her. She was able to learn skills and basic household duties that put her ahead of everyone else. She thought this make her more responsible and disciplined. The most important factor was when finding a job as she got older it was easier to find one and the work wasn’t as difficult as what she experienced as a child.

Read More
369 Words | 2 Pages

In the article titled, “Teenagers’ Work Can Have Downsides”, Jerald G. Bachman explains how he believes that teenagers that work more than 15 hours a week during high school have poor academic performance. He backed up his opinion by providing statistics stating that people who work for less than 15 or even 10 hours a week have a better academic performance. I believe that students should be able to work as long as they want. They alone know the consequences if they do not study or complete their homework assignments. If students work for more than 15 hours a week during high school, they are experiencing how being an adult is, as well as having a career.

Read More
947 Words | 4 Pages

After the farmworkers movement in the 1960’s that ended with the growers finally sign the union contracts, which granted the workers better pay, life benefits, and protection. However, this is not what really happened the farmworkers were still treated badly, had unfair wages, bad living and working conditions, and did not even had their basic human rights. Farmworkers were treated like slaves, “The compound was fenced with barbed wire and patrolled by bosses on all-terrain vehicles. If the couple got beyond the gates, local police could arrest them and bring them back”( Marosi). The farmworkers issues weren’t only unfair wages or immigration problem, it was more than that it was a human rights issue.

Read More
481 Words | 2 Pages

The film “Harvest of Shame” illustrates the conditions of life for American migrant workers. The journalist Edward Murrow captures the conceptions that migrant workers have in relation to their working lifestyles. Indeed, these workers are subjected to long hours of work while receiving a contingent amount of money that isn’t sufficient to feed their families. That is, migrant workers obtain wages between a few cents to 5 dollars. This amount of money changes everyday, which makes life hard for these migrant families because they can never rest assured that their fathers will accumulate enough money to buy food, let alone a sustainable house to live in.

Read More
1510 Words | 7 Pages

Ben Sasse’s Op-Ed (EPL) Today, youth unemployment during the summer is an issue that is very common in the United States. Teens no longer have to face drastic amounts of hard, exhausting manual labor. Common factors that interfere with a child’s work and limit their experiences consist of parenting time, innovations in technology/machinery, and the media.

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

The film constantly explained that the grocery stores, like many other business is a supply chain, with the majority of power at the top (in this case the large grocery store chains). Many Americans don’t realize that they we are all connected in this problem and that when we buy fruits and vegetables from grocery chains, we are unknowingly forcing farmers to continue to endure mistreatment, abuse, and almost slavery conditions in terms of pay. The film explained how farm labor has a deep past rooted in exploitation, but the cycle needs to stop. I fully support the actions of the workers, and through their hunger strike and other means of putting pressure on the grocery chains to pay them

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

There are a lot of unclear things about this article which makes it almost look like something people would not read because they already feel like they know these things. He is very unclear about a lot of things which have been mentioned in this article like in developing countries half of the teenagers work but do not necessarily work so they learn a skill they can master any time they want. His article includes a lot exaggeration and contradiction. There is no clear vision of how the writer wants teenagers to act their age instead of just pushing it too hard for them to see how working as a teenager is a horrible thing to do and how it can affect teenagers and give bad results. Teenage employment has become one of the biggest reasons to why teenagers drop out of high schools and develop a different kind of habits.

Read More
1754 Words | 8 Pages

They plant seedlings, weed tobacco fields and work among tall tobacco plants” (Becker 2). This sounds exactly like the conditions in cotton plantations that African American slaves had to endure earlier in history. It is perfectly legal to work those strenuous hours if there is a parent’s consent. Why would anyone want that for their child? Parents should be wanting their children to enjoy their youth while it lasts, as well as ensure that they obtain a proper education.

Read More
795 Words | 4 Pages

He was a grape farmer working from 6 am to 7 pm almost more than 13-hours a day his salary was $2.56 an hour from that salary he had to support his family that was still living in Yemen. Many migrant farm workers who pick these fruits travel across the country and cross borders to fill the agriculture jobs in the U.S that U.S citizens are not willing to take. (McKenzie, 2015). Agriculture jobs is not an easy job, but these migrant farmworkers are willing to fill these physical exhausting jobs because of the economic hardship, and the lack of jobs in the there country, therefore, courtiers that have these immigrant farmworkers should recognize immigrants for their hard work.

Read More
740 Words | 3 Pages

Child Labor Laws “Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” This quote by Grace Abbott explains why we need to stand up against child labor. Although many people think that children these days need to work more and have life handed to them, this was not always the case. Children during the industrial revolution were being forced to work long hours in terrible conditions with little to no pay.

Read More
2393 Words | 10 Pages

But not all work done by children should be accepted as child labor. In other words, if a work doesn’t harm child’s health or personal development (educational issues), it is generally accepted as something positive and useful. Such activities develop children’s skills, provide experience and formulate them to be part of society. The term “Child Labor” is when children do work that damages their health or hamper mental or physical

Read More

More about Harvest Of Dignity Documentary Summary

Related Topics

Open Document