Recently, I’ve had the honor of reading Blue Collar Brilliance by: Mike Rose, and it was incredibly eye-opening. He did a great job of explaining the complex concept of Blue Collar jobs vs. White Collar jobs. So this got me to thinking, “Is there equal value in such work compared to white collar work?” A short answer in my opinion to that question would simply be “No,” but let me elaborate. There are too main thing that serves as a barrier between the next generation and Blue Collar work… society, and race. I think that we can all agree that society shapes the way we look at a lot of things. It’s crazy how society can make us like or hate something when we don’t actually feel that way. Now this doesn’t just happen with music or…show more content… People tend to get boxed into certain jobs because that’s all they know.
Nothing is wrong with this, but then the dark sheet of society comes into play and you suddenly find yourself at the bottom of the “respect-chain.” For example, black people had to take the most menial jobs in the Jim Crow era, so these jobs are now looked upon in the 21st century as “bad jobs” even though people of other races are doing the same thing and getting higher pay. It’s one of the sickest in unspoken double-standard that exists today. So these blue-collar jobs that you see aren’t bad, but they’ve just been tainted by the racial injustice of the past. Another common misconception that happens with blue collar work vs. white collar work problem is that blue collar work can be done by anyone. This simply isn’t true! Although many people are qualified to do blue collar work, this work still requires skills. On top of that, blue collar work develops skill! Being in a blue collar job, such as Mike Rose’s mother, you acquire both social and physical skills. This is not common in white collar work. In many cases, white collar workers mainly use the education they already have to do the given task but in blue collar jobs, you have a chance to build on what you already possess. This is the pure beauty of blue collar