Week 4

Pryanka Narayan

ASA 141

20, April 2019

Week 4           

            The article Santa’s Sweatshop was a very disheartening article as it discussed the exploitation of humanity behind trendy clothing and objects. For instance, the article states the harsh reality, of how many of us become infatuated with clothing and objects that are featured in the U.S., such as H&M and NIKE, and don’t think twice of who really makes our clothes? The article also states a few examples of large companies such as Guess clothing; who exploits unpaid Latino immigrants and forces them to finish their work at their home, Mattel the toy company; who exploits young female Chinese workers for Barbie dolls, Nike; who exploits the people in Indonesia, and Disney; who uses countries such as Sri Lanka and Haiti. The article also states that the people who are running these huge companies are well aware of their exploitation of outsourcing workers, but try to deflect their responsibility by stating, they can’t know the reality of the hardships many of these workers face until they audit payroll records of all their employees. Personally, when I was reading this article I was heartbroken as throughout my education I have been told and known that the clothing and objects made in the U.S. are usually done by workers who are in third world countries, but I did not the full extent of their ordeals. I have family members who live in the very poor part of Fiji Islands, so I know how crucial it is to be able to find work to survive and at times even at the risk of being knowingly exploited. Though I cannot believe that we as consumers are enabling this exploitation by being customers of such high-end companies. One question I do have with America’s infatuation with trending clothing and objects, how do we increase awareness of human exploitation? How can we stop enabling this grave humane injustice?