JohnnySwims

     A theme brought up in “The F Word”, a piece dissecting the intersection of foreign names and society in America, was the discrimination against Dumas during her job seeking process. Looking beyond the supposed moral obligation of society to prevent this kind of discrimination from occurring, it wouldn’t be a blog of mine without discussing the economic lense of discrimination. A study done in 2004 found that white-sounding names received almost 50% more callbacks, despite equivalent resumes. A theme brought up in “The F Word”, a piece dissecting the intersection of foreign names and society in America, was the discrimination against Dumas during her job seeking process. Looking beyond the supposed moral obligation of society to prevent this kind of discrimination from occurring, it wouldn’t be a blog of mine without discussing the economic lense of discrimination. Surprisingly, economists largely disagree with discrimination, whether that be against women, peopl...

       The Onion article “ American Express Launches Small Sweatshop Saturday ”, creates a parody of a news promo of a “charity campaign” that American Express is running. It focuses on a supposed interview with American Express CEO Stephen Squeri, he talks about how sweatshops are the “key to boosting economic growth” and how he “feels great” supporting  “a local employer”. This brings a tone of irony to the piece, with the reader hearing an argument remise of the rhetoric that corporations use to prove their supposed charitable nature. Linking sweatshops to economic growth shows the sacrifice that much of the privilege we enjoy in Western societies from our highly evolved market economies is built on the exploitation of others. Similarly, there’s a theme of situational irony in this quote, where he feels better about himself for supporting an exploitative cycle of labor, focused on overworking people as if they’re expendable.  Later in the article when ...