SOS: ComAlt, Seminar Pre-Writing Week 5

9 May 2017

Word Count: 363

Passages:

“Taco Bell’s core consumer target group was eighteen- to twenty-four-year-olds, whom the company cynically called the “New Hedonism Generation.” But the coalition saw entirely different traits in young people. They believed that the college students had shown that they felt deeply about social justice and would take action to bring it about…” (Estabrook 2012: 112).

“The Rue de Seine was a everyday happening for me. Nobody had an icebox so you had to shop two times a day” (Smart-Grosvenor 1970: 59).

“Indeed, it was these agrarian roots that made Africans so valuable to the development of white supremacist capitalism in the Americas. Today, those same agrarian roots remain the essence of the survival for African land-based communities” (Bandele & Myers 2016: 3).

News Media Context:

The Next Generation: What Matters To Gen We

“Gen We is a generation just beginning to enter the workforce and the voting booth, and they are going to fact check the heck out of companies, as well as potential friends and business partners. For businesses to attract and retain these young workers you better be walking the talk of your Corporate Social Responsibility program.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marymeehan/2016/08/11/the-next-generation-what-matters-to-gen-we/#5ae6d2ef7350

Discussion:

I began this week’s readings with the particularly tough section of Tomatoland. While the accounts of blatant modern-day slavery have now conditioned me to feel physically sickened by only the sight of a round red tomato, there was a particular comment that triggered me. Even as my stomach churned, Taco Bell’s dismal and cynical description of my generation as hedonists sat like a rock in my gut as I read the other texts.

Based on my own experience and personal values, I would like to believe that the dichotomized identity of the post-millennial generation to which I belong leans more towards the the belief in social justice and equity that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers ascribed to us. Of course I feel driven by these pillars and universal moral standards. Even as I read Vibration Cooking, I was wistful for a culture very dissimilar to our own – one that encouraged frequent trips to the market and small specialty shops selling the freshest local products. However, within the current social climate, ideals are cheap.

In the age of politically charged Facebook statuses, and a revived feminist movement drowned out by the indignant voices of privileged white women, our generation teeters on the fine line between righteousness and self-indulgence. I worry that our values of liberation, equity and justice are not supported with action. While we are a generation of anti-racists and democratic socialists, we are also a generation that doesn’t even bother to show up to vote. We have the uncanny ability to feel like we’ve done enough retweeting an article shaming Donald Trump’s racism, all the while we tout organic and sustainable farming rhetoric as if it was own idea, and not stolen from the knowledge that African slaves imparted on our southern farms.

In this way we are hedonists. Not only do we continue to indulge in agricultural products brought to us by the hands of slaves, we also indulge in our ability to self-present as righteous and morally enlightened. Although I am hopeful that “Generation We” is equipped to correct our exploitative, global capitalism, I am also terrified that “We” aren’t fully aware of the work and sacrifice that will take.

Citations:

Bandele, Owusu & Myers, Gail. (2016). The Roots of Black Agrarianism. Retrieved from https://foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/DR4_final.pdf

Estabrook, Barry. (2012). Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Meehan, Mary. (2016, August 11). The Next Generation: What Matters to Gen We. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/marymeehan/2016/08/11/the-next-generation-what-matters-to-gen-we/#5ae6d2ef7350

Smart-Grosvenor, Vertamae. (1970). Vibration Cooking: Or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.