Driving to work this morning, tuned into a Spanglish latino hip hop station. They were talking about DWL. Day Without Latinos, set for May 1. The professor from UC Riverside who was speaking was pretty powerful in encouraging people to go by making refences to making history, flexing power as a united group, etc.
Got me wondering. What about companies, like where I work, where the Latinos are scattered throughout the various departments? Since I work at a software company, and we're pretty much all well-educated and professional, if they didn't show up, it probably would just send a message of annoyance, rather than "oh no, our office is paralyzed." Nobody else would really suffer, but those who participated would have one fewer vacation days set aside for real vacations. Which, in a way, has a financial cost.
Hmph. Except we'd be affected at night, via our janitors. They're also Latino. I don't know how they're hired, but I suspect they're "independent contractors" and if a person doesn't show up, they don't get paid by whoever runs their business.
Does it really accomplish anything if our trashcans don't get emptied or the floors vacuumed for a day? Hmph. Once again, on a local level, I think it's just annoyance.
Perhaps on a big scale, it shows that if a group is willing to set aside all their personal discomfort to to unite and work for a common cause, it provides a certain amount of power.
Bottom line, those who participate feel the pain individually more than the rest of the society will feel the pain. But they also can benefit from flexing their collective power.
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