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Generally, migrant laborers are brought to the United States by employers who employ their services for a short time or for a specific job and then send them home until they are needed again. Often cyclical in nature, therefore, such migration creates a pool of cheap labor whose workers receive no benefits or protection offered to American citizens. The cost of reproducing the labor force is also borne by the laborers themselves whose families reside, like reserves of labor in virtual bantustans, in another country In many respects, migrant labor developed as a means to get around the problems associated with the emancipation of slaves. Southern planters’ attempts to hire Chinese Americans and South Asian laborers during Reconstruction, for example, were thwarted by northern Republicans who, for a brief period at least, wanted to protect the freed people of the South. Required to employ African American laborers, Southerners instead used violence, prison labor, debt peonage and segregation to re-establish their cheap labor system. Elsewhere in the country there were fewer restraints placed on the use of migrant laborers. Chinese, Japanese, Mexican Americans and Caribbean citizens were all used. In the northeast, Italian immigration began as a cyclical, migrant labor system, with large numbers of Italians working in construction trades (often going to Argentina when production slackened in the winter) and sending money home to their families. While others have changed their status, laborers from Central America and the Caribbean are now a major part of this large pool of migrant labor in the United States.
Not surprisingly migrant labor is often associated with agriculture. On farms the intensity of the productive system varies during the year, with planting and harvesting seasons demanding the most labor. Many farmers supply cheap housing (often merely dormitories) for workers. During intensive periods, farmers will supplement their migrant labor force with a “day-haul operation,” choosing among laborers assembled at designated pick-up points. While almost all farms rely on some migrant labor, Texas has the largest population of migrant workers, mainly employed in the growing and picking of vegetables and citrus fruits. Others pick winter fruits in Florida. Many of these same farmers will move north to the Great Lakes region, Pennsylvania and Connecticut during the summer.
The nature of the labor (and conditions of migration) are such that it is difficult for migrant laborers to organize for higher pay and better working and living conditions.
Consequently most earn incomes well below the official poverty level. Early attempts by Cesar Chavez to organize California farm workers in the 1960s and 1970s, like union attempts to organize a strike among mushroom pickers in Eastern Pennsylvania during the early 1990s, met with limited success. Yet most migrant laborers remain vulnerable in the face of opposition and hostility from many in American society.
Over the past century, opposition to migrant labor has represented a strange mixture of humanitarian concern for the laborers combined with nativism (the desire to protect native-born laborers from competition with cheaper labor) and outright racism. A recent manifestation of hostility to such migrants can be found in California’s Proposition 187, which attempted to deny illegal immigrants and their families school, healthcare and other welfare. Such opposition, however, has been constrained by the farming bloc which persuades Congress to safeguard the system, and by the desire of American consumers for the cheap commodities that such labor brings.
Predicting the future for migrant labor is difficult. Farming constituencies are declining in power nationally but retain their strength at the state level. As such, particular states become more embattled in the face of a federal government that is committed to establishing trade agreements, like NAFTA, with countries in the Western hemisphere, which ultimately should reduce the discrepancy between the price of labor in the United States and elsewhere and diminish the attractiveness of such transient labor.
Industry:Culture
Generations of cutting-edge special effects have met scene-chewing acting (heroic sacrifice, cowardice, bonding) in blockbuster films about humans and catastrophes. The 1950s saw nuclear nightmares (monstrous animals and the scientists who loved them) like Them (1954). A 1970s renaissance included Earthquake (1974), Meteor (1979) and Irwin Allen shipwrecks and skyscraper fires (Towering Inferno, 1974). Both “nature” and human greed figure as causes. The genre also shares features with science fiction.
Ensemble casts mingle current idols, caricaturish villains and glamorous couples, often with children at risk; New York City, NY, Los Angeles, CA and Washington, DC are frequent targets, reaffirming American images of superiority even in interplanetary crises.
A vigorous 1990s cycle includes Jurassic Park (1993), Twister (1996) (tornadoes), Volcano (1997), Godzilla (1998) (transmuting Japanese nuclear nightmares), Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (1998) (meteors); Titanic (1997) shares features of the genre. This florescence reflected fears of the millennium, but it also pushed the frontiers of computer-generated effects and global box-office profits.
Industry:Culture
Genetics has played an important role in the development of civilizations through artificial selection of plant and animal features. This type of genetic manipulation is called classical in reference to observations made by Gregor Mendel. Genetic engineering, often discussed in the context of molecular genetics, is a science involving the manipulation of genes either within the original organism (host) or between organisms (transgenic). Both branches of genetic study are based on an understanding that the genetic code for cells is contained in DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and that this material is the blueprint for all proteins made by cells. The code is generally universal, nearly identical in all living cells, allowing transfer of material between organisms.
Hybrid plants and animals created from both classical and molecular means form the base of much of the world’s foods today and genetic resources have become important commodities in world markets. Though concerns have been raised about the efficacy of germ plasm manipulation in non-human organisms, world attention has focused on the science more intensely as humans have become the center of genetic research. Within the shadow of attempted national eugenics programs during the Second World War, questions of ethics as well as law are intertwined with scientific advances brought about through the Human Genome Project, a worldwide collaboration to locate the more than 100,000 human genes by 2005, and the patenting of genetically engineered higher life forms. Indeed, this project moved ahead far faster than imagined, raising both profound ethical and “business” questions about the ownership of the mapped genome.
Though fictional films like Jurassic Park (1993; novel by Michael Crichton) depict a level of genetic engineering beyond current capabilities, the advent of Dolly the sheep cloned from her mother’s cells, focuses attention on implications of current research.
Popular notions of cloning that suggest a recreation of physical, mental and personality traits have given way to the reality that environment plays a large role in shaping the identity of an organism. The film Boys from Brazil (1978; novel by Ira Levin) illustrates the consequences of varying factors shaping personality Gene therapy and the production of medicines through genetic engineering have revolutionized modern medical practice. Gene therapy on humans began in 1990 and today nearly every medical school in the United States has at least one department working on gene-transfer research. Promising therapies for certain types of cancers and tumors, some forms of cystic fibrosis and diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and hypercholesterolemia have spurred major pharmaceutical companies and the US government to invest billions of dollars into genetic research.
Such research is not without its downside. Population genetics is the study of the distribution of gene types within populations. With the advent of widespread and available genetic testing, the fear of genetic discrimination has increased. Such screening may lead to the documentation of genetic variations occurring without the presentation of symptoms. Such variations could be used to deny insurance or jobs based on the potential future manifestations of symptoms in individuals or offspring.
Industry:Culture
Genre concerned with signaling the authority of “realism” and “authenticity” where programs usually shoot on location using shaky video-camera filming and actual participants. This relatively new but popular genre originated in the 1980s with shows such as America’s Most Wanted (FOX, 1988–), Cops (FOX, 1989–), Unsolved Mysteries (NBC, 1988–95) and America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, 1990–). Many other imitators followed, especially on FOX. MTV’s Real World (1992–) and the latest Survivors (2000) on CBS are new games where real people are placed in different situations in order to be simply on TV or to win million-dollar prizes.
A prototypical plot of Cops, for example, features actual police driving through inner cities and apprehending suspects. Frenetically paced edited video footage captures officers on high-speed chases. Celebrating the collective agency of the fraternal order, the stories reveal the officers’ extraordinary power to establish law and order. America’s Most Wanted is hosted by a civilian advocate for missing children. The program profiles missing children as well as fugitives using recent photographs and re-enactments of alleged crimes. Home viewers respond to the program’s toll-free telephone number with relevant information that has led to hundreds of successful resolutions.
These narratives first establish a vision of normalcy and calm that is swiftly overthrown by chaos. Disorder displaces order and the world turns upside-down. While each show relies on different tropes (funny disturbing or shocking), the dissolve of order propels the narrative.
While the programs have relatively similar production styles, techniques and economies, they have basic ideological distinctions. Programs such as Cops and Emergency Call portray official agents of the state or other powerful public institutions as social protectors. Each of these programs focuses on the cold-nerved and often violent heroics of professionals, and the means by which they restore order: firefighters pull children from burning houses; medical technicians revive accident victims; etc. In contrast, programs such as AMW and America’s Funniest Home Videos focus on the authority of average people, the absence of paternalistic social control and on the private side of individual lives. Frequently, these programs demand audience participation and include a casually dressed civilian host who reinforces the legitimacy of civilian morality and agency.
Reality-based programs have proliferated in part because of relatively inexpensive production costs. Consumer appetites for the format have also been substantial. Focus and survey research have found that viewers value the format as entertaining and informative “reality.” The public also tolerates the violence presented on these “reality” programs more than violence in fictional accounts. However, these programs have been criticized for insidious blending of exciting vérité and carefully constructed narratives.
The law-and-order variety have been further critiqued for their stereotypical portrayals of criminality that associate deviance with the dark-skinned figures populating urban terrain, ignoring larger social and economic problems and white-collar crime.
Industry:Culture
George Walker Herbert Bush (1924–), son of a senator and representative of the WASP elite, graduated from Yale University before serving as a navy fighter pilot in the Second World War. After the war, he followed the westward shift in American society migrating to Texas and heading an oil-drilling firm. In 1966 he was elected to the first of two terms as a Republican member of Congress. He would later become ambassador to the United Nations (1971–3), chairperson of the Republican National Committee (1973–4) and director of the CIA (1976–7). After losing the 1980 Republican presidential nomination to Ronald Reagan, Bush served as his vice-president (1981–9).
In 1988 Bush and running-mate Dan Quayle defeated Michael Dukakis in the presidential election. Faced with escalating budget deficits, he abandoned his electoral pledge of “read my lips: no new taxes,” and accepted a tax package that was designed to reduce the deficit but largely failed to do so as recession and an anemic recovery combined to produce the lowest growth rate since the Great Depression.
In foreign affairs, he ordered an invasion of Panama (1989) to depose Manuel Noriega, and in 1990 he committed the US to the reversal of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, which was achieved (1991) in the Persian Gulf War. Bush also signed nucleardisarmament agreements with the Soviet Union and Russia that called for substantial cuts in nuclear arms and the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. In 1992 he was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton.
Barbara Bush (1925–) was generally considered a mild-mannered, supportive First Lady, with the exception of her outburst against Geraldine Ferraro, Dukakis’ runningmate.
Her role as selfeffacing “helpmate” redounded to her benefit when contrasted with the garish flamboyance of Nancy Reagan, who preceded her, and the more politically charged Hillary Clinton, who followed.
The Bush’s eldest son, George Walker Bush (1946–), followed his father to Yale and also worked briefly in the oil industry (though with less success). As managing partner (1989–94) of the Texas Rangers baseball team, he gained public attention that would facilitate his election in 1994 as Governor of Texas, where he has set a record for the number of executions carried out. Capturing the Republican’s 2000 presidential nomination, he set the early pace following his refusal to accept public money to finance his campaign, thus allowing him to get around limits placed on private donations. Widely considered a moderate in spite of his position on capital punishment (at least until the John McCain insurgency pushed him rightward politically), he initially reaped the benefit of the backlash against right-wing Republicans who led the protracted struggle to impeach President Clinton. Another son of the former president, Jeb, currently serves as Governor of Florida.
Industry:Culture
Given the predominance of religion in American public discourse, film-makers often have looked to Judaeo-Christian narratives to inspire products for revival tents and Hollywood glory Indeed, by the silent era, film-makers discovered that religious stories could cloak multiple and explicit sins—luxuriant orgies, scantily clad but sometimes repentant heroines and beefcake actors called to divine sacrifice. In the 1950s, the dialectic of sin and morality underpinned epics such as Cecil B. De Mille’s second Ten Commandments (1956, after his silent 1923 version) that meshed lust, spectacle and barely clad hunks (Yul Brynner (Pharoah) and Charlton Heston (Moses)) with specialeffect miracles and redemption. Other films also fleshed out the Old Testament “where needed,” whether Samson and Delilah (1950) or David and Bathsheeba (1951).
Stories of Jesus and early Christianity received similar star treatment. The martyrs and revelation of Quo Vadis (1951), The Silver Chalice (1954), with Paul Newman’s debut, and Ben-Hur (1959), again with Heston, justified visions of delectable decadence and cinematic miracles in pagan Rome. The Christ narrative itself also reflects changing concerns over generations, from Jeffrey Hunter’s blueeyed Jesus in Kïng of Kïngs (1961) to the 1973 hippie savior of Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar to the tortured but still Anglo-Saxon Jesus of Martin Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ (1988), which drew protest from religious groups.
Industry:Culture
Government Report in 1965 titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.” Its author, sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan, had served as an assistant secretary of labor in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations (was later elected senator from New York between 1976 and 2000). Focusing on urban black communities, Moynihan made conditions that were general to all poor people seem specific to African Americans. This was clear in his suggestion that the black family was stuck within a “tangle of pathology” derived from experiences in their history of slavery and segregation (drawing on the work of slavery historian, Stanley Elkins, and sociologist E. Franklin Frazier). The critics of Moynihan’s report accused him of racism, and of positing a “culture of poverty” argument that amounted to “blaming the victims” for their own condition. Moynihan’s focus on the need to remasculinize black men (if necessary with training in the armed forces), and discourage emasculating women from working, became a focus of considerable attention among black feminist scholars who noted the work’s fundamental sexism.
Industry:Culture
Governmental unit that oversees the communications industry. Its chairperson and members are appointed by the president, subject to congressional approval. The Commission began with the Communications Act of 1934, which reorganized the previous Federal Radio Commission. Although the importance and activity of the FCC varies, its stance towards telecommimications and broadcasting industries has remained constant: it protects the ability of business to utilize public airwaves for profit. While its charter demands that it protect the public interest and access to its airwaves, in effect, the FCC has favored corporate conglomeration in allocating broadcasting licenses and decisions not to ensure a growing place on the broadcasting spectrum for public and educational broadcasting. Currently, the FCC, while fining disc jockeys like Howard Stern for obscenity is also involved in trying to assert “decency” on the Internet. Such endeavors again might promote larger corporate interests.
Industry:Culture
Groucho (Julius, 1890–1977), Harpo (Adolf, 1888–1964), Chico (Loenard, 1886–1961), Gummo (Milton, 1893–1977) and Zeppo (Hebert, 1901–77). Vaudevillians who brought unforgettable repartee and strongly defined comic characters to films like Animal Crackers (1930) and A Night at the Opera (1935). While individual lines and scenes have permanently enriched American humor and speech, the primary trio also conveyed interesting critical perspectives on class (Groucho’s constant sarcastic romancing of the rich dowager), sexuality (the aspirations of Harpo’s child-like mute) and immigration (Chico’s Italian persona). While their comedies have continued to entrance audiences, only Groucho developed a strong television personality and career in the 1950s.
Industry:Culture
Ground and air force established in 1775 under the aegis of the Department of the Navy (although not the navy itself), marines are known for rugged shock-troop action and rapid deployment to combat zones “from the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli” as their battle hymn proclaims. In mass media, marines are often emblematic of patriotism, masculinity and traditions embodied in their motto Semper Fidelis (always faithful), adopted after the Civil War. Their training and character have also been the grist of many movies. Nonetheless, the sitcom Gomer Pyle, USMC (CBS, 1964–70) offered a more comic view of the corps. In 1998, the US had 172,632 marines on active duty; less than 6 percent were women (compared with the air force’s 18 percent).
Industry:Culture
