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January 15, 2007
Rank and File
by Nova Stubbs, insurgent49

Cause for Celebration

     This evening, I was hanging out with some friends having a good old time. We were caught up in our usual banter, when one friend mentioned that he didn’t have to work the following day because it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Another friend asked if the buses were running and, because I am a People Mover warrior, I of course knew that they would be running and said so.

     The same fellow who has the day off thought that the buses shouldn’t run on such an important holiday because it should be celebrated more widely. While I agreed with that aspect, I noted that it was poor people who ride the bus for the most part, and that their jobs usually only stop for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but not for any Civil Rights kind of day.

    People who work in customer service jobs, retail jobs, and pretty much any other job that serves the public are the ones who are least likely to get the day off on MLK Day. Yep, these are also the people who are in the lower income brackets.

     Chances are, Wal-Mart employees are not going to get the day off, or even get time and a half, because many corporate leaders and business owners consider it a “frivolous” holiday. I mean … why would they want to decrease profit based on yet another American holiday? Instead, these employees rarely get any paid time off and only get paid a bit more during Christmas, New Year and Thanksgiving.

    The irony here is that many employees who work in such jobs are also often from racial minority groups. I am not saying that white people don’t work these types of jobs as well, because they do. However, according to a study done by The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2003, 46.2% of service employees are from a minority. Sure, the majority of this industry's workers are white, but there is an obvious imbalance considering that these whiteys also comprise 77.1% of America’s population.

     In other words, about 23% of America’s population belong to minority groups, and a disproportionate number of them work in an industry that pays no attention to MLK Day (or ‘Civil Rights Day’ in some states).

    So, has this holiday, which is meant to promote equality, become just another holiday for the majority (i.e. whitey)?  Has it essentially become a holiday where those of a higher economic bracket get a paid day off? 

    Many public schools, such as the Anchorage School District, close school for the day. Meanwhile, parents who are employees in the service industry have to either take the day off from work unpaid or find a babysitter.

    Out of all of the holidays that we celebrate, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day should be most valued by our society. We celebrate Thanksgiving, while forgetting the oppression of Native Americans; we celebrate Christmas regardless of the fact that not all American’s are Christian. MLK Day is day that promotes justice and equality for all human beings, but for some reason it is nearly forgotten.

       
     
          


     

      Nova Stubbs is a freelance writer and activist, and is co-founder of Insurgent49. Nova resides in an undisclosed location in downtown Anchorage and may be contacted at nova@insurgent49.com.

     'Rank and File' appears on insurgent49.com every Monday.
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.