Weapons of the Weak and Race Rebels

Danielle Marie Herrera
Prof. Maira
ASA 4
20 April 2017

Scott's excerpt from Weapons of the Weak focuses on a study of "everyday" peasant resistance in Malaysia. This resistance is against the authority figures that seek to exploit peasants and extract their resources from them. The forms of resistance that Scott cites include "foot dragging" and "false compliance," which he claims are "ordinary weapons of relatively powerless groups" (90). To me, the lack of a peasant uprising resembles the subservience I observed when I visited the Philippines in 2015. In the Philippines, the proportion of the lower class is much, much greater than the proportion of the higher class, with a virtually nonexistent middle class. I saw a difference in mannerisms as many workers at fast food restaurants rushed to clear away my dishes and employees at clothing stores followed me around the store. There seemed to be ingrained in these workers a dislike of their jobs - as indicated by their serious tone of voice and subdued heads - but a fear of otherwise being reprimanded by their bosses if they did not do their job as fully and as well as possible.

Kelly's excerpt from Race Rebels brings this analysis of passive resistance to a more modern context as he describes working in a McDonald's in Pasadena. As a young adult, I, as well as many of my friends, have worked in a similar setting where there was a pressure to work many hours for little pay. In my case, working at the Segundo DC, I was more fortunate in the sense that I worked with about a hundred other employees and would, for the most part, go unnoticed if I required a day of absence. However, for my friends at smaller businesses like fast food restaurants and retailers, their youth in comparison to their bosses probably played a role in the way they were treated. Because of the minuscule number of employees, many of my friends are basically expected to work on call or else risk losing their job. Bosses know that young employees have a constant battle with work they do not enjoy and a stable source of money, and the latter always prevents my friends from quitting. Still, they do have a sense of this abuse of power and try to make the most of their time by engaging in subtle forms of resistance during shifts.