David Mark Brown, Author at David Mark Brown

Fair wage? But Poverty Makes Some Nice Pants

April 29, 2010 by David Mark Brown

1903sweatshopchicago — Sweatshop in Chicago

Sweatshops. Sounds kind’a nice as I watch the snow fall outside my window here in SLC, in April. Oh, to feel the sweat trickle down the small of my back and then slowly spread along my waistband front and back until it looks like I have thoroughly wet myself. Oh to feel a hard dirt floor with my blistered and cracked feet and to be able to gnaw on my swollen, spongy tongue longing for a cool drink of water. Instead I just sit here at my fancy computer typing away with a hot mug of tea watching this freekin’ frozen crap cling to my grapevines and tulips.

Surely I jest. But seriously, in my quest to discover the truth about global sweatshop numbers and stats I have discovered that this is an idiotic quest. Much more important are the numbers and factors that make sweatshops not only flourish, but attractive.

Redneck Sustainability: Dress to Impress… Cattle

April 16, 2010 by David Mark Brown

The textile and clothing industry, like every industry, has been facing the green facts. Cotton, the big fiber on the block, is taking its hits. Being half granola and half redneck myself I can feel both sides of the issue. My father and grandfather supported themselves with cotton, yet I like to strut around in nothing but hemp. Good enough.

But as it turns out, cotton makes wonderfully soft and affordable clothing while using relatively high levels of chemicals, resources from the soil and lots of water (during growth and processing). But, if we know all this about cotton, why do we still wear so much of it, and more importantly, why do we keep so much more of it hanging in our closets and tucked into our dressers? Most of us keep buying clothes as if we intend to throw away a brand new green suit once it gets its first bit of pheasant blood on it. Sheesh.

Once again, we can learn something here from our Redneck brothers (I’m not so sure about sisters). Rednecks are particular about their clothing. It has to be functional and affordable. And now, I’m not making light. These are two very serious considerations in clothing that I am not so sure civil folk understand. For a redneck shopper these two dueling forces create a dilemma kin with taming the jackalope.

Reviving Blue-Collar Environmentalism

April 13, 2010 by David Mark Brown

AlfredPalmerwelder1 — by Alfred T. Palmer

Environmental racism has been coined as an expression describing any policy, practice, or regulation that negatively affects the environment of low-income people. Everyone seems to acknowledge that the poor get the short end of the stick when it comes to negative environmental impacts, but at the same time the broad assumption is made that low-income people simply don’t care about the environment.

Now if I were to say that poor people hate the earth then you would probably cry foul and fill the comment box at the end of this post with vitriol and lingual excrement. But if we are honest, yes, the majority of us well-to-dos operate under a low-level yet constant assumption that low-income individuals (whether rednecks, urban minorities or simply blue-collar) don’t care about issues of sustainability. These assumptions have been built on a long tradition of alienating all brands of low-income folk with hoity-toity environmental clubs and lofty policies built on negative reinforcement. What do I mean?