6 1 April 10, 2015
The Guilfordian
OPimoN
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM/OPINION
Minimum isn’t good enough
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$7.25 an hour.
The pay seems reasonable, generous even, when you consider
that many minimum wage workers are teenagers and college
students working part-time jobs and supporting only themselves
However, this is not the case half of the
time.
According to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, around 50 percent of
workers paid the minimum wage are
over the age of 25. These workers are
far more likely to be struggling with
some of the many fmancid woes of
the 2010s. College debt is growing
far more common, and the price of
starting a family, let alone raising
BYANNl E—one, is staggering.
FULWOOD Workiiig at a minimum of $7.25
Staff Writer or below is just not feasible in today’s
economy.
In addition, 10 percent of part-
time workers and 2 percent of full-time workers are paid the
minimum wage. These numbers may seem small, but they add
up to 3.3 million Americans working at or below the minimum
wage.
In North Carolina, the situation is dire.
North Carolina is one of the 21 states whose minimum wage
is at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25. While many
northern or western states have passed legislation to raise their
minimum wage, as high as $9.50 in D.C., southern states generally
keep the federal minimum. Exceptions include Louisiana, Alabama,
Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee, who have no mandated
minimum wage, as well as the few who have lowered their statewide
.nmimum wage to below $7.25.
Raise Up for 15, a southern movement connected to the
international Fight for 15 organization, is nm by the combined
efforts of the Southern Vision Alliance, Ignite N.C., N.C. Vote
Defenders and the Youth Organizing Institute. Their mission is to
force all large corporations to raise their hourly wages to $15 and
allow employees to form unions without repercussions.
Currently, Raise Up is assisting in the planning of a regional
event on April 15 to protest the minimum wage. Other groups
across the country, unified by Fight for 15, will band together and
strike against unfair wages. Fight for 15 has branches of workers on
strike in 150 different cities, as well as members spread across six
continents.
A similar event took place last July, when 1,300 fast food workers
gathered in Chicago to push for higher wages.
Among them, solutions varied from a nationwide sit-in proposed
by grandmother and Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen worker Mary
Coleman, to a far more radical response.
“We are going to break the law,” said McDonald’s worker and
Illinois citizen Nancy Salgado as reported by MSNBC. “We’ve got
to do whatever it takes to win,
and we’ve got to do civil disobedience. We’ve got to do it.”
A major argument from those who protest the minimum wage is
the inability to support dependents on such a small pay.
“For the work we do, it’s not that much, but I’m not as dependent
on my income as other people would be,” said sophomore Jocelyn
Foshay, an employee at the Office of Admissions. “It’s impossible
(to rely on the minimum wage while raising children), but the only
person I have to support is myself.”
Other Guilford students also note a need for a bit more than
$7.25.
“For the amount of work that I do, the education that I bring
to the communities around me is priceless, but the money is nice,”
said sophomore Brandy Craig, a Community Scholar. “I don’t eat
in the Cafeteria much ... so I have to buy my own food, and I’m
gluten-free, which is expensive. Minimum wage just does not work
out for me.”
North Carolina is just one of many states that need to face
the changing economy and stop allowing fast-food and other
corporations to cheat workers out of their pay.
“I think it’s possible... >vhen you connect these movements,” said
the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP
to MSNBC after being asked whether the minimum wage would
ever be raised to $15 in North Carolina. “When you connect the
call for $15 (to) voting rights, to all of the other movements. This
is a civil rights issue, (and) it’s an economic issue.”
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j%iiinicivioii •
a medium,
not o oenro
THESE MOVIES SHOULD
NOTJUST BE FOR CHILDREN
BYGRAYSTANBACK
Guest Writer
Imagine, if you will, a world
where pretty much the only
books written for the past
century are the ones aimed at
young children. That means no
"Great Gatsby,” no “Catcher in
the Rye,” maybe even no “Lord
of the j^ngs” or “Harry Potter.”
It would not be very pleasant,
for surely there would be stories
that could not be told otherwise.
Now stop imagining because
something very similar to that is
happening right now in the real
world in the realm of animation.
For far too long animation has
been seen, at least in America,
as a medium suitable only
for entertaining children and
families. When adult animation
does exist, it is almost entirely
represented by satirical comedies
like “The Simpsons,” “South
Park” and “Family Guy,” which
are in many ways just as immature
as children’s cartoons. Yes, there
are exceptions — Japanese anime,
for example, and the works of
some independent filmmakers
like Ralph Bakshi — but they are
far outnumbered by works aimed
at children and family audiences.
This view of animation is
so pervasive that it has even
infiltrated official movie awards.
The Oscars have separate
categories for Best Picture and
Best Animated Picture, and to
date only three animated films
(“Beauty and The Beast,” “Up”
and “Toy Story 3”) have been
nominated for Best Picture.
Animation, for all its potential
diversity, is seen as a genre and
not a medium.
“The Incredibles” is just as
much an action movie, “Wall-E”
is just as much a science-fiction
story, and “The Prince of Egypt”
is just as much a biblical epic
as any live-action movie in
those genres. They have other
elements, but so do many live-
action movies in those same
genres. But, you will rarely hear
those movies spoken of that way.
Instead, to most people they all
fall under the generic umbrella of
animated films.
Adults who go to animated
movies often speak of the
experience as “reliving their
childhood” or “feeling like a child
again.” They never, it seems, give
the movies the dignity of being
approached simply as movies.
Animation is perhaps the most
versatile visual medium in the
world, and the fact that so many
people have such a rigid mindset
of what an animated film should
be is nothing short of criminal.
What should be done about
this injustice? Certainly the
major film studios, which release
the same formulaic G and PG-
rated films every year are not
helping. Neither are independent
animators, who have the will but
lack the budget and marketing
strength to reach wide audiences.
Unless some brave individual
decides to take the risk, American
animation may be constrained by
its reputation forever.