Summary Of Worker Constraints By Evelyn Nakano Glennn

Evelyn Nakano Glenn has stated throughout her book that there are “systems of control” that have acted as “a central feature of the U.S economy” (5). Glenn believes that the U.S economy has been able to implement a system of control, in the Labor of people, by racialization and gendered coercion in a manner whereby employers can assert higher authority and worker constraints. The notion “higher authority” correlates to a term she mentions called Citizenship, whereby “worker constraints” touches on the term Contracts. By appealing these two terms Glenn takes the stand in her book that this is the basis of how labor exploitation arises via racialized and gendered coercion. The Citizenship aspect of her reasoning incorporates who, we, as a community

These were important in shaping the early structure of United States government. The coined term “free white persons” when used in reference to Citizenship rights, was a significant milestone which Glenn touched on in the book. She mentioned that this shift to include “free white persons” to replace the preexisting “free property owners” as the basis of US Citizenship, which began in the 18th century and extended into the early 19th century, stated that it’s not just going to be property owners who have the right to vote in the United States, it’s going to be all free white men. Freedom itself but also the economic system, was being redefined around race and gender which she called the “free labor ideology”. This raised the issue being that, if property ownership is not the basis for Citizenship, then what is? To this point it was ascriptive identities, but what do race and gender mean in that context? The point Glenn appeals to answer is the ability of one to “sell their Labor”, defining what the basis of Citizenship should be. The main idea being that, if you can enter these “Contracts”, whereby you can sell your Labor, it by definition provides a basis of independence and autonomy, yielding Citizenship. Contracts began in

Therefore if you take it and don’t like it, it is your choice. Regional conception of some people not deserving Citizenship rights, also further helped form a definition of Citizenship that is very limited to its true definition. Only through looking at regional case studies, such as I have described in the South, you can presume that the law of the land was not necessarily fully enforced. The notion of reconstruction played a big part, in regional adaptation. It must be understood that according to Glenn, white landowners got rich because of their land and so you must redefine the law to ensure you keep this advantage, which in turn means that you must exclude some from Citizenship for political and economic gain. Therefore reconstruction efforts became so much harder due to the wealth resided with these