Pellow and Park Blog Post

Working in the Silicon Valley is anything but glamorous according to the article written by David Naguib Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park. The area is saturated with low-wage jobs and an abundance of pollution and toxic living environments. It has gotten to the point where workers inside the plant, but also outside of it are experiencing the drastic negative effects of this circumstance. The article discussed the environmental injustices that are happening in the work place as well as the inequalities that are present. In fact, there has even been policies enforced that women who are pregnant are no longer allowed to work in the harsh environments because of the birth defects that have occurred. Despite the facts, employers within the manufacturing realm claim that there is no causation to the correlation between the defects and the environment in which the parent works under.

The topic of racial inequality is discussed in the article because it highlights the "secret weapons", AKA the asian women workers who have nimble and precise hands. These workers are preferred because they can maintain the accuracy required for the technical work inside the manufacturing processes. Cheap labor has been acted upon within the races as well as unequal carrying out of policy. Women tend to be less likely to speak up their opinions, especially women falling under a minority category.

The reviews for the article give positive feedback because reviewers have deemed the article eye-opening. The authors are supported because they provide testimonies of workers who have undergone working conditions in the Silicon Valley. The authors, once researched, received doctorate degrees in sociology and also taught ethnic study courses at the collegiate level. Currently, both are professors in the sociology department at the University of Minnesota.

Ultimately, this piece is beneficial to read because the reality of the low-wage circumstances in the Silicon Valley is not something that should go unnoticed. The health impairments that workers experience as a result of working conditions have every reason to be acted upon. Pellow and Park do an excellent job of this, and they continue to research these areas further in their studies of racial and ethnic inequality, immigrant status, and environmental and social injustices.