Tonight’s segment featured a restaurant in Elkhart, Indiana. Times are hard and the owner has already laid off several employees. He may have to close in a month, putting more people out of work (a single mom, a pregnant teenager, an older lady, etc.).
I don’t usually watch CBS News so I don’t know if segments like this are typical of this series; I expect they are.
I have a problem with the title. “The Other America”? What’s the other “Other America”? People with jobs? Rich people? Network anchors?
Hard times are more and more common. Being unemployed or underemployed or owning a business that’s losing money hardly makes one an “other” American, does it?
Call it “American Faces” or something. Not “Other”.
What do you think? Does it rub anyone else the wrong way? Would you like to be considered part of an Other America?
It wasn’t weepy or sad sack – I don’t like those either. This was more matter of fact and pragmatic: This is what’s happening in many parts of the country, an example of the effects of the economic downturn.
My problem is calling people who are down on their luck “other” Americans. It sets them apart, but apart from who? (Whom?)
Although probably unrelated this sounds a lot the GOP talking about the “real” (small town) America versus the unreal America which apparently includes the elite east and west coasts. Intentionally splitting the country like this sets up an “us versus them” mentality and I don’t see how that helps us work through our serious problems.
The economic downturn impacts most Americans regardless of where they happen to live… billionaires excepted.
Yeah, that’s part of it, and I hope we’ll see less of it.
I think “other” is just as divisive as “real”, even when the portrayal is sympathetic.
Actually, I’m not sure how sympathetic it was. I can see some people judging the pregnant teenager and the single mom and the old lady who cooks and thinking not “there but for the grace of God” but “why didn’t you stay in school”.
I don’t like the idea of setting an entire subset of the population apart. I would’ve thought that the point of a program like that would be to demonstrate, “Hey, this can happen to anyone. And this is what people like you and me are going through.” It almost seems like the program is inadvertently setting them up to appear defective.
When I hear the “Other America,” it reminds me of my mom who used to refer to people she thought were uncouth as “*Those *People.” Drove me nuts.
huh…coming from CBS I thought it was a documentary on red states when I read the title.
But, yeah, I agree it’s divisive, just as “real” Americans, or my favorite, “working” people. So what, a lawyer or an engineer who puts it a 60 hr week isn’t a “working” person?
For my dear mother in law, English is a second language. She refers to my wife and I as “you people” when asking about our plans, for example. It sets my teeth on edge every time, but I know it’s not meant in the socially divisive usage we commonly assume, that it’s just a language thing.
I’ve always thought that “working people” means people who work at low-level jobs and have little control over their future.
Yes, lawyers and professionals may work harder, but they usually feel that they have control over their careers.