MANSFIELD: Whole Lotta Hatin’ Going On

Janitor

Over 6 years ago my good friend Donnie Christian and I went down to the Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center on the campus of The Ohio State University for the initial launching and book signing of Michelle Alexander’s ground-breaking book The New Jim Crow. It still remains the most important work of nonfiction of this century when judged by impact on society.

On the way into the room where the event was to take place, Donnie stopped to talk to a black man who was sweeping the floor. When he rejoined me I asked him how he knew the gentleman, and Donnie replied, “I don’t, but I always stop and speak to the people that make it possible for us to hold events like this.”

I never forgot his words, because from that day forward I put them into action. I always go out of my way to speak to the janitors, custodians, kitchen help and others who do the grunt work and whose efforts make us feel like we’re somebody because we can walk into spotless, gleaming buildings and facilities, dine on food that’s the envy of much of the rest of the world, and take it all for granted as if it’s our birthright.

But it really isn’t. Someone (or a bunch of someones) took care of a lot of details both large and small just so we could feel as if we’re entitled, as if we’re privileged, as if we’re somehow better than those who do what is often described as “menial work.”

These are the folks that are now fighting for a decent wage. As the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) states, the $15-an-hour debate is not really about the majority of their members; because of the union they belong to they make that much and more. This is about lifting everyone up. After all, who wants to take a whiz or dump in a dirty toilet? But just as importantly, who wants to keep it clean?

Certainly not you.

But as a society we always want to pay those who care for our most valuable and vulnerable citizens the lowest wages possible. Childcare workers and those who tend our elderly are most often woefully underpaid — and we think nothing of it.

But initiate a conversation about raising the minimum wage and all hell breaks loose. The mistruths come fast as furious: The price of Big Macs will rise to $12; businesses will be forced to close; and inflation will shoot through the roof.

While some of the arguments have a modicum of truth to them (conflated with outright lies told by the “Chicken Littles” of the world who assure us the sky will surely fall, in spite of the fact it hasn’t done so in other cities), a reasoned — if not entirely dispassionate — analysis is in order.

First, it must be understood that the plutocrats (that one percent who own most of the wealth in America) are going to try to turn marginally poor people against actual poor people. They always attempt to use “divide and concur” techniques and arguments.

These robbers will attempt to convince people who have to sweat to get to the point where they make $16 or $17 an hour that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour somehow takes something from them, instead of serving to eventually get them to the $20 an hour they deserve.

But the haters will moan, “Why should THOSE people make that much, when I had to bust my ass to get to where I am in life?” And that argument will resonate simply because, well, haters hate. They want to have someone to look down on, someone a couple of rungs below them on the economic ladder. The truly rich want to keep the attention (and hatred) focused on those at the bottom so no one pays attention to the fact they are oftentimes making $15 every second (that’s $900 an hour for those of you who are slow on math) and many of them are making a lot more than that.

Then I hear the argument that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour will cause prices to go up, which, if they did, would cause inflation. Somewhat true, but vastly overblown.

But my question to all of those folks who are so concerned about inflation is this: If lower wages will keep inflation down, and you’re so concerned about it, why don’t you take a pay cut to $14 an hour just to prove what a good American citizen you are? Why fight inflation only on the backs of the poor?

But we already know what the answer to that one is, now don’t we?

HELL NO!

mansfieldcity

From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.

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3 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Whole Lotta Hatin’ Going On”

  1. Cicero

    Let’s turn it around. If raising the minimum wage actually helps anybody, why not rain it to $100 instead of merely $15?

  2. Bill Wiltrack

    Cutting. Cold. True.

    Well written article. Uncomfortable to read.

  3. Steven Izen

    Mansfield,

    I don’t disagree with the substance of your article. However, your arithmetic is off. $900/hour is $15/minute, not $15/second. If it were truly $15/sec, that would be $54,000/hour. Assuming a 40 hour week, that’s $2,160,000/week, which (assuming a 50 week work year) is $108,000,000/year.

    Interestingly enough $900/hour translates to a mere $1,800,000/year, which I would guess is well into the range of the one-percenters.

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