Sweat context Flashcards
(12 cards)
Epigraph
An excerpt from Langston Hughes’ ‘Let America be America Again’ speaking of the American Dream that never existed for the lower class and the equality/freedom that immigrants hoped for but never recieved.
The Rust Belt
geographical region of the United States that underwent dramatic industrial decline resulting in widespread unemployment and decay.
White collar vs blue collar
Connotations of blue-collar job insecurity (hard work and manual labour) and white collar security (office, management)
Nottage’s research
When researching the setting for the play Nottage expected to be in Reading for two weeks but ended up staying for two years. Would interview townspeople asking ‘What is Reading’ to which the responses would be ‘Reading was…’ rather than ‘is’.
Nottage says Reading is
A ‘microcosm of what was happening’
NAFTA
(North American Free Trade Agreement). Ability of companies to export manufacturing elsewhere to make foreign goods cheaper for American citizens accentuating the rust belt and making certain industries leave America. This is a response to the neo-liberal economics of the late 20th and early 21st century. Massive layoffs in 2008 and 2011
The Great Recession
2007 - drug and alcohol addiction reached a new high
Racism in unions
Steelworkers’ union historically excluded black Americans
Reading as a town
Large influx of Hispanics. 44% have a high school diplomas. Poorest city for its size in America
Occupy Wall Street
2011 left-wing populist movement against economic inequality and corporate greed
Nottage about the people of the story
‘about a group of people who have fully invested in the American myth and discover that it no longer exists’
Tracey’s ill-formed reasoning echoes…
Both Ronald Reagan’s appeal to Democrats and Trump’s Rust Belt revolt alike; these politicians employed racist tropes of Black women from the figure of the ‘welfare queen’ conjured by Reagan to Trump’s insistence that Black women’s citizenship is inherently suspect
