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When reading this article, I found it extremely significant that the author mentioned the significance that race and gender play in interrelation with one another, especially in relation to the discussion of Asian-Americans. Asian discrimination is oftentimes overlooked, however the topic of intersectional racism can be heavily analyzed through the discussion of Asian-American discrimination specifically. Additionally, the mention that the perpetuation and perception of Asian-Americans stems from a lack of understanding of the roots of Asian-American culture is extremely accurate in my experience.

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Everyday Sociology Blog: Asian American Hate: Exploring the Intersection of Race and Gender

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By Myron Strong More than a year ago in my post, "Fear, Race, and the Yellow Peril," I explored many of the historical aspects of anti-Asian hate. Racialization of COVID-19 served as a catalyst for the increase of violence that...

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https://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2021/04/consumption-covid-and-economic-inequality.html

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By Karen Sternheimer

For some people, the COVID pandemic has had a silver lining: more savings. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, American savings rates reached a 60-year high of 33.7 percent in April 2020 up from 12.9 percent in March 2020. (We have data on savings rates going back to 1960.)

This means that month Americans saved an about a third of their income, on average. This percentage has remained high, at 20.5% in January 2021, the most recent data available at the time of this writing. For context, the previous high was 17.3 percent in May 1975. The National Bureau of Economics Research reported that 27 percent of stimulus payment from the CARES act was saved as well.

Saving money is good, right? While it might be good for individuals, it isn't so good for the economy, especially when people stop spending money at local businesses, which in turn may lay off employees or shut down entirely. In April 2020, the unemployment rate skyrocketed from 4.4 percent to 14.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Let's think about all of the things people likely spent less on when the economy shut down (feel free to add to this list in the comments):

Meals at restaurants

Tickets to concerts, movies, and other gatherings

Clothing

Gasoline

Haircuts and other personal beauty services

Spontaneous purchases in brick-and-mortar stores

Airfare

Lodging and other travel expenses (like rental car costs, tours, and entrance fees)

At my university, we normally have to pay to park on campus (yes-even faculty pay-with the exception of Nobel laureates, who get free parking for life). When the stay-at-home order started, we were required to work from home, so the university stopped taking the parking fee from our paychecks. The city also taxes local parking, so the city lost quite a bit of revenue. While not everyone drives to work, the university employs over 28,000 people, so that's a lot of parking money and taxes lost.

I have saved hundreds of dollars just from not commuting to campus on parking and gas, and have gotten several rebate checks from my auto insurance provider for driving so little. All of my travel plans were canceled, saving me thousands of dollars (but of course causing some disappointment).

Not everyone spent less money during the pandemic; it was the highest-earning households that reduced their spending the most. As Harvard Business School-based Opportunity Insights reported, the top 25 percent of earners' credit card spending declined by two-thirds, while the bottom 25 percent of earners spent about the same amount as pre-pandemic. This is likely because higher earners' spending is likely more discretionary (dining out, and other things that are not necessary for survival), while lower earners likely spend the majority of their income on basic necessities like rent and food.

While some people benefited by spending less money, many people suffered because so many others spent less. In my stay-at-home situation, campus restaurants lost business when students were sent home and employees largely remained off campus. Meetings that were catered went on Zoom, so local restaurants and all of the people in food service jobs lost business. Ironically, those working in service-sector jobs in higher-income areas lost the most work, according to Opportunity Insights:

As businesses lost revenue, they laid off their employees. In the highest-rent ZIP codes, more than 50% of low-wage workers at small businesses were laid off within two weeks after the COVID-19 crisis began; by contrast, in the lowest-rent ZIP codes, fewer than 30% lost their jobs.

People with jobs in leisure and hospitality (hotel workers, food service workers) were the most likely to lose their jobs or experience a reduction in income from the pandemic-related shutdowns. When the conference I was scheduled to attend was canceled, thousands of hotel rooms went vacant and even more thousands of meals at restaurants near the conference were never purchased. A net saving for some means job loss for others. When my flight for a European vacation was canceled, after a few phone calls I got my money back, but the airline lost thousands of dollars in revenue, as did the places where we had reservations to stay.

Inequality.org details how the pandemic exacerbated income inequality:

Of the more than 600 U.S. billionaires, the richest five (Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, and Elon Musk) saw an 85 percent increase in their combined wealth during this period [March 18, 2020-January 18, 2021], from $358 billion to $661 billion....

Oxfam reports that from March 18 to the end of 2020, global billionaire wealth increased by $3.9 trillion. By contrast, global workers' combined earnings fell by $3.7 trillion, according to the International Labour Organization, as millions lost their jobs around the world.

While I doubt that most people who were able to save money from the pandemic-related shutdown are happy that it happened, it is another tangible reminder of the impact of income inequality. Considering those considered essential workers risk greater exposure to the virus, the costs are more than financial.

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Everyday Sociology Blog: Consumption, COVID, and Economic Inequality

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By Karen Sternheimer For some people, the COVID pandemic has had a silver lining: more savings. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, American savings rates reached a 60-year high of 33.7 percent in April 2020 up from...

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One interesting piece from this article was the idea of Christian nationalism, which is "a set of beliefs based in the 'Old Testament' that emphasize the apocalypse and the need to maintain cultural and racial/ethnic purity through war." The article then goes on to say that "Christian nationalism has been linked to racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, anti-Muslim sentiment, and attitudes opposing gender equality, gay rights, and welfare spending; all issues that the Trump campaign leaned into." I chose this article because I find religion to be an interesting social-psych topic and it is also politically, which I enjoy.

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Everyday Sociology Blog: The Power of Religion: Christian Nationalism and Trump Support

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By Jenny Enos, Sociology Doctoral Student, Rutgers University Religion has always captivated sociologists. Émile Durkheim, who is often credited with being one of the “founders” of sociology, wrote extensively about religion in his 1912 book Elementary Forms of Religious Life...

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I chose this article because I found it interesting the way that he talked about social norms. It's funny how we sometimes don't even notice when we participate in social norms. The most interesting part of the article is when he mentioned sociologist Laurie Scheuble is quoted as saying the pressure exerted on women to change their maiden name “is the strongest gendered social norm that we enforce and expect.” I didn't know it was that much of a big deal for women.

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By Todd Schoepflin

Each time I mow my lawn, I think about norms. It sounds silly, but the phrase "conventional mowing hours" comes to mind when I'm deciding what time to cut the grass. I've lived in my current neighborhood for ten years. I've rarely seen anyone mow before 9:00 a.m. I'd be going out of my way to irritate my neighbors if I mowed at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning. We learn through observation and social interaction what's considered to be socially acceptable behavior. A lot of norms operate as unwritten rules about what we should and shouldn't do in everyday life.

When you intentionally break social norms, you might generate interesting reactions. Breaching experiments demonstrate the power of social norms, as explained in this post by Bradley Wright. It would be a breaching experiment to cut my lawn using scissors, or to fire up the lawnmower at midnight. If you've ever watched Impractical Jokers, you understand what breaching experiments look like.

A key point about norms is that they guide our behavior. I can't recall seeing a student walking barefoot across the campus where I work. There's no university policy against being barefoot, but the norm of wearing shoes structures our behavior even though no formal rule prohibits walking without shoes. A breaching experiment would be to walk across campus barefoot in snow during winter. I'd caution against it though. Whatever insights we might gain wouldn't be worth the possibility of frostbite.

And now, my questions.

1. Do you think there is a norm of availability? In other words, are you expected to immediately respond to text messages? For example, do you get mad when you don't get a reply to a text within an hour? I'm curious if people feel pressure to respond as soon as possible to text messages. Think of it this way: if a friend sends you a message, how soon are you supposed to respond? What do different situations tell us about expectations about being available and responsive? A related norm is the expectation to give more than a one- or two- word response. I recently learned the term "dry texting" from a student. If I understand this norm correctly, it's considered rude to reply to a text with only a few words or to be boring in the way you text. Want to know if you're a dry texter? There's a quiz for that, of course!

2. If you plan to get married, do you think you'll keep your last name? In an article on this subject, sociologist Laurie Scheuble is quoted as saying the pressure exerted on women to change their maiden name "is the strongest gendered social norm that we enforce and expect." What are reasons you'd prefer to keep your last name if and when you get married? If you've already been married, what factored into your decision to keep or change your name? I like to ask my students if they'd consider using a hyphenated name and what they think the hyphen symbolizes. A common answer is the hyphen is a symbol of equality. A student in my Introduction to Sociology class this semester said the hyphen is like a combination of two people. Thinking of it that way, two people could use a plus sign between their names instead of a hyphen!

3. Folks, have you been shaking hands during the pandemic? For a little while I thought the elbow bump or fist bump might serve as a suitable replacement. But shaking hands to greet someone is a durable norm. When I run into coworkers on campus I haven't seen in a while due to the pandemic, many are quick to extend their hands (in most cases, men). I recently went to a wake and easily shook a dozen hands (all of them men). Despite all of the reorienting of behavior the pandemic has caused, handshakes are still a major way people seek to establish connection. Audrey Nelson suggests the handshake can be understood as a nonverbal cue of inequality, considering that women are often excluded from handshakes. At an early age, boys are taught to give firm handshakes. She writes: "A homophobic meaning may underlie this training: If you have a wimpy handshake it means you're a wimpy guy." What do your observations and experiences tell you about gendered meanings of handshakes?

1. What norms govern the exchange of sympathy? That's a question from one of my favorite all-time journal articles, "Sympathy Biography and Sympathy Margin" by Candace Clark. As Clark recognized, norms influence how we give and receive sympathy. She identified sympathy etiquette in her research that's been socially constructed. For example, you're not supposed to make false claims to get sympathy. This means you shouldn't cry wolf or manipulate people in your social world. Nor should we claim sympathy "too often" or "too much." Like Clark says, we aren't allotted unlimited sympathy. The article is from 1987. When I teach the article, I like to ask students what are the ways we give sympathy in our digital era? We can still send sympathy cards in the mail, but we have lots of ways to exchange sympathy using technology. What examples come to mind?

2. Tattoos are a good subject area to explore what's considered the norm and what might be construed as deviant. Think of people who are heavily tattooed. What kinds of reactions do they get in public, and how do their family members respond? Do heavily tattooed women receive more negative reactions than heavily tattooed men? With each passing year, it seems like workplaces are more accepting of workers having tattoos. In the places you've worked, how have your co-workers and bosses responded to your tattoos? If you're interested in the sociology of tattoos, check out sociologist Beverly Yuen Thompson's film and her book Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women and the Politics of the Body.

3. My last question is brief: what's a norm you wish would change? Why?

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Everyday Sociology Blog: I Have Questions about Norms!

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By Todd Schoepflin Each time I mow my lawn, I think about norms. It sounds silly, but the phrase "conventional mowing hours" comes to mind when I'm deciding what time to cut the grass. I've lived in my current neighborhood...

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I think this is a great topic, I have a friend who is on strike now.

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By Colby King

Over the past several weeks, we have seen a number of labor actions across the country, including strikes and walk-offs. Some observers have referred to this past month as " Striketober," with the #striketober hashtag being popularized on social media, including Twitter.

As Catherine Thorbecke of ABC News reported:

A confluence of unique labor market conditions -- including record-high levels of people quitting their jobs and an apparent shortage of workers accepting low-wage jobs -- has contributed to the recent rash of work stoppages, experts say, but they also come after decades of stagnating wages and soaring income inequality in the U.S.

In my Sociology of Work and Organizations courses, we draw on Arne Kalleberg's work to examine the differences between good and bad jobs. The labor actions workers have taken in Striketober are all about improving the quality of their jobs.

One of the dimensions of the differences between the two types of jobs is risk. Who takes on which workplace risks: the employer or the employee? We saw some evidence at the outset of the pandemic that employers were willing to take on risks, especially for workers deemed "essential." Employers moved some work remote, implemented mask mandates, and installed plexiglass barriers and improved air circulation.

Unfortunately, many of those improvements to workplace safety have proven to be insufficient or temporary. On Strikewave's website you can find an interactive map showing the location and other information about complaints made to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) specifically about COVID-19 safety.

The labor shortage, such as it is, may be driven by potential workers' reasonable fears of unsafe working conditions. Even as vaccination rates increase, many workers may be concerned about bringing COVID-19 or other illnesses home to their children, who may be too young for the vaccine, or to other immunocompromised members of the household. The scarcity and high cost of childcare itself is also contributing to the labor shortage, according to Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester. Affordable childcare is a particularly acute problem for the working class.

Liz Shuler, the President of the AFL-CIO, argued that this ongoing wave of labor actions is healthy for the country, explaining:

Strikes are leading indicators that our country is heading in the right direction ... They are profoundly democratic and participatory processes in which workers of different backgrounds and political beliefs unite to take a collective risk in pursuit of a better future: voting to organize, to strike, and to accept or reject contracts.

The largest ongoing strike involves about 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) at John Deere. In that union's vote to strike, 90% of membership voted, and 90% of voting members voted to reject the contract offer and to go on strike to pursue a better contract.

While there have been several strikes, the total number of workers involved in strikes this past month has in fact been relatively low. This past month saw about 15,000 workers on strike, about one fifth of the number that were on strike in October of 2019, with most of this October's strikers involved with the John Deere strike.

Still, total strike numbers are not the only indications of labor activity or worker power. For example, a half dozen crew members walked off the of the set of "Rust," expressing concern about working conditions, including safety on the set, just hours before cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot. Also in October, members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) authorized a strike that would have involved 60,000 workers, but a tentative agreement was reached between IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, avoiding the strike. The deal now goes to members for a vote.

Workplace safety is an important and complex issue. While it has been a driving concern in many of these labor actions, observers have also been following how work is going in places where employers have brought on temporary workers. At John Deere, the company is hiring non-union salaried workers to take on some of the work typically done by the union members. At one plant one the first day of this arrangement, a non-union salaried employee crashed a tractor into a utility post on the shop floor. At the John Deere plant in Coffeyville, Kansas, Jonah Furman reported on a rumor that a salaried worker was struggling to operate the plant's furnaces.

This story resonated with me in particular, because of my dad's work. I've written here before about how he worked at Armco (now AK-Steel Butler Works) in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Butler Armco Independent Union, which is now UAW Local 3303. My dad spent most of his career at the mill maintaining the controllers for the mill's furnaces.

I called my dad to talk about this rumor from the John Deere plant and it motivated him to detail the furnaces he was responsible for. In his work, he maintained the controls on 40 different ovens and furnaces across the mill. He explained that there were four big slab furnaces in the Hot Mill, eighteen bakers, six of which were called super bakers, which heat up the metal slabs before they are sent to the grinders. In the Forge Shop he counted sixteen different ovens, each of which were unique. In the Electric Repair shop there was a baker and a "burn off" oven, which was used to burn enamel off of wires. In Central Maintenance, they also had what they referred to as the "Steam Genny," which was actually a furnace. In his job, he maintained the controls on all of these furnaces simultaneously.

Of course, the furnaces in a John Deere plant are likely quite different from those in a steel mill, but all furnaces are tricky (and dangerous) to maintain. My dad was not surprised to hear that a salaried worker, asked to leave their desk to maintain a furnace, would struggle with the new responsibility!

While strikes express worker power and can lead to better contracts, strikes are also risky, and they impose real burdens and uncertainties on workers who are already in difficult positions. Strikes involve real sacrifices for workers, but also offer the opportunity to substantially improve their circumstances. Beyond the financial risks involved in a strike, picket lines have a long history as locations of violence. Infamous incidents include the Homestead Strike of 1892 involving Carnegie Steel Corporation workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania.

Sadly, the picket line remains a dangerous place. Richard Rich, a UAW member who had worked for John Deere for 15 years, was hit by a vehicle and killed as he reported to the picket line on Wednesday, October 27.

Workers are reconsidering their priorities, and many are looking for work in new fields. These labor activities, and the concerns about a labor shortage, also highlight how workers, for the first time in quite a while, have leverage as they bargain with employers for better pay and working conditions. We may see real and lasting improvements in pay and working conditions for workers across the US as a result of these activities. Hourly wages have increased six months in a row. So, there are some indications that pay and working conditions are trending in a positive direction for workers, in part because they are raising their voices.

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By Colby King Over the past several weeks, we have seen a number of labor actions across the country, including strikes and walk-offs. Some observers have referred to this past month as "Striketober," with the #striketober hashtag being popularized on...

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Commodities, Neoliberalism and the Economy of Imprisonment

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Commodities, Neoliberalism and the Economy of Imprisonment

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I chose this article because it touches on a lot of the topics we have covered in this class and other sociology courses I have taken. This article talks about how consumerism runs every aspect of our lives and the holidays especially and then switches to discussing how the prison system has also become a capitalist venture with private prisons and charging inmates for services.

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Everyday Sociology Blog: Commodities, Neoliberalism, and the Economy of Imprisonment

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By Jenny Enos Under capitalism, we are surrounded by products that promise to improve or fulfill our lives in some way. Whether it’s beauty products, nutritional supplements, clothing, or even technology, the advertisements we are exposed to tell us that...