Author: Michael Swaggerty

The Many Injustices of ‘The Deuce’

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Upon completion of the series I felt that I gained a greater insight into the struggles of working women of any kind as well as a greater understanding of the struggles of minority and oppressed groups at the time also. The working woman throughout the series was most-strongly embodied by Gyllenhaal in her performance as Candy. The show at first appears to portray how Candy revolutionized the industry of pornography by performing, directing and producing films with her previous experience as a sex-worker in New York City. However, through all of this her attempts to be taken as a series director and producer by investors and other producers of her company would instantly be overlooked or shunned by those men almost every time. By the end of the series you will see Candy put in so much effort and back-stepping to get the funding together for her first non-adult, “real” film to have it reach virtually no audience. It was not until after her death that this film was recognized for the testament to the experiences of the working woman in The United States at the time that it was.

Candy’s story was not the most impactful of the series in my opinion though. Few series’ come together full circle and give the audience such an understanding of messages like this as the story of Lori (portrayed by Emily Meade) does in this show. You will see Lori begin in a similar situation as Candy, both being sex workers on the streets of NYC, yet these characters could not be more opposite through their similarities than they are. You will see these characters grow vastly different on their individual journeys throughout the overall story, yet regardless of how different they became (I won’t spoil Lori’s ending and it’s meaning for you but the wait is worth it to fully understand it, I promise) their endings were still very similar in many ways as well. It is then you will begin to fully understand the message that regardless of anything and everything they do, the only thing the rest of the world saw of them was that they were women. 

While this series is full of reflections upon the working woman’s experience, you will also see what it meant to be impoverished, a person of color in various facets of life, as well as to be queer, and the ‘underground’ scene that had to take place all leading up to the HIV pandemic of the 80s, at the time. Nearly all of the  characters in this series are considered impoverished, or at least immersed in impoverished community and the community they have built truly feels communal in a way only the series ‘Shameless’ has also given an audience. Despite every story told and its importance in the overall telling of the series, they all find their abrupt end when the city decides to gentrify the area which all of these events took place. This wasn’t just any “neighborhood development” program, however, this was the gentrification of all gentrifications. This was the building of Times Square.

The Child Care System in the United States: A Reinforcing Agent of Systematic Racism

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Earlier in the semester, the second systematic injustice that I chose to write about was the childcare system that currently exists in the United States and how the system in itself may actually be, like many things in government have been prior, an agent of reinforcement for systematic racism. According to the Center for American Progress the average cost for infant childcare in the United States ranges from around $800/month to almost $1200/month. This number may be perceived very differently by many individuals as many people come from a different socio-economic background — so to put this number in perspective – this is about 18% of the average family income in the United States. To also give greater perspective, the federal government even defines “affordable” childcare as costing no more than 7% of a family’s income, an average which cannot be found in any state.

With this increased perspective, it is now important to look at the current system of childcare in the United States in relation to other systems and ways of life that take place  every day. The first subject that may come to mind is the struggle that is faced by low-income families in affording this childcare. Note how I have underlined the word “family” when discussing family income, this is because family income is often averaged as the combined income of two working adults. While this should not be the case for many reasons, notably single-parent households, this also shows how difficult it can be for families who do have two working parents and yet are still considered low-income. Thus, for low-income families, this often means that one parent will have to stay home to care for the child while the other parent continues to work, which then has an impact of lowering the overall family income and further effecting the lifestyle and resources of those individuals and the child they are now caring for. Many statistics, such as an analysis of the National Survey of Children’s Health, show that children from impoverished families, such as the ones detailed here who can only have one working adult while the other cares for the child, are more than FOUR TIMES as likely to face “residential instability” (Theodos et. al) than children who were not considered low-income. This residential instability can be seen in moving from various apartment buildings, having to sell a house, children having to live with a relative for a while, and even in children being placed into foster care because of their parents financial inability to provide what is considered the “minimum” environmental standards for their child.

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2018/11/15/460970/understanding-true-cost-child-care-infants-toddlers/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all of these factors at play, it causes a great amount of strain and stress on the child in their potential for success as they become an adult. Such as some children having to drop out of school to work as teenagers, not receiving a quality public education and thus much less likely to get into a good college and even if so, they may likely need a scholarship to be able to afford it and this entire cycle is set to repeat itself throughout the generations such as when this child becomes an adult and has their own child, they may likely still be stuck in the system of poverty in which they were raised in. It is also important to note the increased struggle for families when the parents are both immigrants, as it becomes much less likely that any action they take could lead them out of this system of poverty they live in.

Study on Family Residential Instability and it’s Impact on Youth

While many other countries recognize the importance of access to childcare for all families, the approach taken in the United States could arguably be a moderate way of systematically controlling the rate of population growth in poor, often marginalized groups of people. With the understanding that low-income families have far less access to childcare than their economically stable or wealthy counterparts, we must now look at who we often see composing this impoverished class. One does not have to look hard to see that it is often racial minorities who are born into and systematically withheld into poverty through the means detailed above of lack of access to higher education, less public-school funding, along with many other social and economic aspects of society that often go overlooked when doing such studies as well. I mentioned earlier in this reflection the struggle that immigrant families have, and it is worth noting the image that may often come to mind when we hear the word “immigrant.” Society, especially in recent years, has conditioned us to associate the word “immigrant” with brown skin or Hispanic origin. Immigrants who are of white or European decent do not face these economic struggles as often. We must also think about the various people of color who have lived in our society for generations and find themselves so deeply connected to an impoverished lifestyle through these generations that may grow up as children being told and/or believing that they could never hope to be any more successful than that.

Thus in conclusion, through all of these facets of life that have been described throughout this reflection, I believe there is more than enough support to show that the childcare system in the United States, in its design and functioning, an agent of systematic racism and oppression in our society today, reflecting the increased struggles of those in society before us. By decreasing access to quality childcare, and childcare in general, for low-income families, without providing alternative options such as laws or programs designed to relieve families of much of this financial burden, the system that governs our nation’s ways shows how it is rooted many racist ideals that have existed for hundreds of years. While the childcare system, through its interactions with other systems taking place in our daily lives, seeks to control the populations of minority groups through social and economic means as well as ensure these populations are born-into and remain consistently in an impoverished, “working-class” livelihood; and because of this, the childcare system in the United States, in itself, acts as an agent of systematic racism.