As my partner puts it, Waffle House is "the most multiracial eating establishment in Central Ohio" (at <http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/11/no-sharing.html>) -- and very working-class.
It's working-class sharing for survival that is especially discouraged -- from food to shelter. The more workers are individually dependent on the market, the more exploitable they are.
The message of No Sharing often has an anti-immigrant working-class subtext as well:
<blockquote>Several months ago around midnight, police and building inspectors in Mount Kisco raided a gray clapboard house in this affluent New York suburb of 9,000, roused the 25 Hispanic laborers who lived there, photographed them in their beds, ordered them to pack, and told them they could spend the night on the floor of a community center across the street.
The laborers, The Times reports, were charged with one offense: living in overcrowded housing. The punishment: a $1,000 fine and 15 days in jail. ("Immigrants and Suburbia Square Off," <a href="http://archive.aclu.org/news/w120296a.html">December 2, 1996</a>)</blockquote>
<blockquote>At first, the Spanish-speaking residents of 54 Greenwich Street didn't know what to make of the crackdown at their cavernous brick apartment complex in Hempstead.
It started in June, when building inspectors from the village began walking the dimly lit hallways, crossing once-grand mosaic floors and mounting the grim stairs to the upper stories. In the early morning hours, officials knocked on doors, waking the occupants so they could conduct surprise inspections and count the number of people inside.
In the weeks that followed, the tenants received certified letters from their landlord, accusing them of overcrowding the apartments and illegally installing partitions to make extra rooms. For the Latino residents, many of whom fled civil war and death squads in Central America, the unannounced visits and certified mail proved they were being spied on by the powers that be.
Then, in August, the landlord sent the most threatening letter of all: an eviction notice that packed a special wallop for people whose legal status to stay in the United States may be in doubt. "It has been brought to the attention of Management that you may be harboring illegal Aliens. If this proves to be true this behavior subjects you to Civil and Criminal penalties, as well as eviction from the subject premises," read a letter from Parkoff Management, which tenants said was mailed to at least a half-dozen Spanish-speaking residents, many of whom are from El Salvador. "In view of the above, Immigration and Naturalization Services sic has been contacted regarding same." (Laura Conaway, "Get Out Get Out," <em>The Long Island Voice</em>, <a href="http://www.immlawyers.com/News/ImmigrationNews/US%20Immigration%20News/10-26-99%20US%20Immigration%20News.htm">October 27, 1999</a>)
<blockquote>Overall it appears that the majority of immigrants live in decent housing, although it represents a heavy financial burden. However, some localities are using the pretext of building code violations to pass invasive or discriminatory laws. The town of Brookhaven, NY recently proposed a Neighborhood Preservation Act that would limit the number of people renting a house and allow authorities to enter and inspect homes without a warrant (Cooper, 1999). Anti-immigrant groups are supporting the law as they profess concern for newcomers' safety. Civil rights groups argue that the law would still allow homeowners to crowd as many persons as they wish into their own homes.
Stefan Krieger of the Hofstra Law School asserts, "This is happening in many places." Similar laws have been passed in several other New York towns. In Patchogue, Freeport and Mount Kisco police and building inspectors join forces to make midnight raids. In the Chicago suburb of Addison, an entire neighborhood of Latinos was forcibly removed under eminent domain. Many of them were immigrants (Morales, 1997). (Laurence Aurbach Jr, "Recent U.S. Immigration: Geography, Assimilation and Neighborhoods," <a href="http://users.rcn.com/aurbach/ImmigrantGeography.htm">December 1999</a>)</blockquote> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>