Topics:  History, Anthropology, Labor Rights, Society,  Society Changes

Title: History and Anthropology Perspectives: Past, Present (COVID-19), and Future
of Labor and Society
Participants:  Elliot Kim,  Historian

Release Date: 09/08/20
Homepage : http://www.dreport.org,

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“The only justice that exists in this world is that which we create...”- Elliot Kim

Discussion Topics:

• “Hustory” is the human story.
• What happens when you intersect labor rights as lived experiences with the academic perspective of a Historian?
• How does the long history of people advocating for a just compensation of their labor, connect to the present COVID19 labor      issues?
• Why do we need to work 40 hours a week?
• How will our work patterns change as a result of COVID-19?
• How did the “unskilled worker” get reclassified as an essential worker?
• Is there a difference between Hazard-pay and Equitable-pay?
• What happens to the people that cannot do their jobs remotely?
• Can we update an employment model that is approximately 200-years-old?
• How do we recognize dignity in all labor?
• Are the creative opportunities of employment changes being co-opted to reproduce exploitation of labor?
• Did Adam Smith believe it was economically more advantageous to convert a slave into an employee?
• Do employers only see workers as non-human capital?
• As a human being, how do you want to participate on this planet?
• People power
• Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914. Why did the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company guards attack 1,200 striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow, Colorado?
• How do we dream big? Dream beyond the  expectations of being reasonable.
• Have you read Looking Backward by Edward Belamy?
• What is the utopian vision for labor for an equitable  world?
• What is the difference between a living wage, family wage and a fair wage?
• Does the arc of history bend toward justice or chaos?
• Change is constant.
• Are expressions of our power as individuals, able to change our reality?
• Did COVID-19 sever our sense of collective work experiences?
• How fast can we change society, to make it more equitable for everyone that is currently struggling?
• Can we turn around society for the better in a week?
• History happens through incremental  changes but also through abrupt shifts and marked moments.
• Was Emit Till killed as a result of a lie from Carolyn Bryant?
• What is your perception of time?
• How do we image the future?
• How do we acknowledge our own agency to do better?