Tomatoes III

[aggienaut]

   I've actually been too busy to write livejournal entries for several days ::gasp:: so now I have at least three I want to write.

   First order of business, according to her letter to the editor today, one Lily Johnson thinks I have no right to discuss matters related to tomato harvesting because I am "a priviledged white male who probably has never worked a day of hard labour in his life."
   Before we go any further let me say that first and foremost, I see the use of my ethnicity as an insult against me in this context as nothing short of racism. If I started a letter to the editor with "so and so can't know what they are talking about because they are a [insert nonwhite ethnicity here]..." I'd have torch bearing mobs outside my apartment in no time. In this context my ethnicity is not relevant except for the implication that because of it I am fundamentally incapable of understanding certain issues.
   Furthermore, I am on full financial aid. By definition therefore, I am not "priviledged" (unless being poor is a priviledge?).

   As to the rest of what Johnson has to say, I am in agreement with. Except where she calls me intellectually bankrupt. I'd venture that I probably know more about the case in discussion than she does. The boycott of Taco Bell was called for by the workers of Immokalee Florida in response to the excessive exploitation they are faced with there (the Immokalee farms are one of several sources Taco Bell receives tomatoes from). Even if one believes the boycott to be ill-suited towards their goals, I don't think anyone could blame them for trying everything they can. The real problem here, as I see it, more than the specific plight of the Immokalee farmworkers, is the fact that the National Labour Relations Act (NLRA) specifically doesn't apply to agricultural labourers. Ag workers therefore have few institutional guarantees to decent conditions.
   As to boycotting Taco Bell, I'm not saying one shouldn't do that if they understand the issue. I still firmly believe that the flyer campaign urged people to do so for a completely erronious reason --that farmworkers are breaking their backs under bicentinarian bells-- and if one is going to make a statement on a social interest they ought to do it for the correct reasons.

   But all this is really overshadowed in considering Johnson's letter by the fact that she exhibited a reprehensible case of racism.


   I do not plan on writing another letter to the editor at this point, but if someone else wants to point out the abominable racism exhibited here in their own letter I would certainly be pleased.


PS: I sincerely doubt Miss "Lily" Johnson, if that IS her real name (and its not) has spent a day at manuel labour either so I don't see how she has an angle on me with that. Being a Native American Studies major does not give one a blank check to claim to understand oppressive conditions of all types.