Flashback Friday.
This series of pictures is from a San Francisco Chronicle article about flash mobs, or “an international fad, partly anarchistic, partly absurdist, in which a mob of participants suddenly materializes at a public place, engages in odd behavior [like pillow or shaving cream fights] and then disperses.”
One picture is of Martin Condol, one of the city workers brought it to clean up after the revelers. He is the only worker to be included in the photographs — appearing in two images of the 20 — despite the fact that the article was specifically about the problem and expense involved in cleaning up.
Though many of us see such workers in our everyday lives, they are very rarely made visible in news accounts of the world. Even when they’re relevant, news producers seem to prefer to show the faces of happy white people to those of the men and women whose hard work keeps cities, businesses, and families flourishing.
Originally posted in 2009.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 17
Franklin H. — March 18, 2009
It's the city worker's job to clean up crap. They get paid for it. They don't work overtime. Sounds pretty sweet to me.
OSJ — March 18, 2009
So, the city worker suddenly has a ton more crap to clean on his beat. He doesn't work overtime, so, half his beat is still dirty when he leaves. I'm sure his superiors will understand, they always do. I'm sure he feels great about leaving his beat dirty - he couldn't have any actual pride in his labor.
As long as the kids have fun! Yay! Responsibility, cleaning up after oneself, and caring about the effects of your behavior on others - so hopelessly web 1.0.
Will — March 18, 2009
Sorry, but anyone who thinks city cleaning and maintenance crews don't work overtime is living in a dreamworld. In these economic times, those staffs have mostly been cut to a skeleton crew.
More importantly, if this pie fight happened inside a mall or a Starbucks or wherever these hipster kids like to hang out, would the management turn a kindly eye toward it and say that it doesn't matter, they have employees who are paid to clean up? Or would they say: "Your mess costs us money. Be an adult and clean up after yourself."?
Inky — March 18, 2009
This reminds me of when I was at a May Day demonstration in Tempe, Arizona. The demonstration was organized by our local chapter of Food Not Bombs and Earth First- an environmentalist group.
While marching, I saw this white middle class college kid dumping confetti everywhere. Here he was, a member of Earth First (as he later confided) littering and celebrating the worker's holiday by creating a mess that an actual worker was going to have to clean up. Niiiice...
Penny — March 18, 2009
I've heard folks say, "oh, but the shaving cream will just evaporate in time," and it will, but... meanwhile it's a slip/fall hazard for pedestrians. And depending on the "flavor" of shaving cream, some ingredients can also damage some paint finishes, if left to dry in hot sun. If it's scented, it's also an unpredictable risk for people with MCS. So, not only does someone have to clean it up, they have to do so quickly and thoroughly, before there are damages to property or even injuries. Not-so-harmless fun for the city maintenance folks.
AL — March 18, 2009
How would our reactions be different if similar "fun" was being had by a group of black or Latino children?
Gabrielle — March 18, 2009
Having participated in a flash mob before, I can attest that the appeal lies in the thrill of finally being able to do something outside public social norms without feeling like the "weirdo" because, well, everyone else is doing it too. It's your little secret that the public doesn't know (shhhh).
While, like most forms of leisure or recreation, it is selfshly-motivated, mobs are open to all and participants don't intend to create an incomfortable racial dynamic.
That said, they should either just stick to activities that won't damage and/or dirty things or clean up after themselves once the public has caught on and they've had their fun.
alby — March 18, 2009
What a bunch of over-privileged little brats. Are rich hipster kids not taught to clean up after themselves?
Michael Stevens — March 18, 2009
I thinkAl's question above is most interesting. I imagine that a crowd of Black or latino kids doing this would be viewed negatively, as a threat to public order.
The ethnic breakdown of labour in the US (and here in NZ) is particularly sharp when it comes to these sort of jobs. Race/Ethnicity acts like the dye biologists put on slides to highlight cell samples: If we can see a certain group occupying these places of emplpoyment it speaks to real social stratification.
Why Les Miserables is Still Significant - Linkspam edition* « But I’d Rather Have a Bowl of Foxtrot! — March 19, 2009
[...] and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of [...]
chuk — March 19, 2009
I think one of the most interesting things about the comments on this post is the overt sense of general shock and outrage. It's like three pictures of a flash mob, and a picture of a person of colour cleaning up after them, exposes something out of the ordinary.
Although, it's true that the flash mob is out of the ordinary, the racial dimension of the clean up crew is not. In fact, this is everyday, all the time, right down to the people that clean up my very own office. If it's not a flash mob, then its something else. The problem isn't the flash mob (which can be judged according to what we think about social propriety or whatever), it is the systemic segregation of opportunity along lines of race and citizenship in America, and the blunt fact of how "low skill" wage labour runs under the current construal of capitalism.
Jack Stephens — March 19, 2009
Thanks for the link Lisa! :-)
Gortamor — September 12, 2011
While these flash mobs are messy/childish etc., they are not the menace that the new manifestation of such is in Phily, Chicago, Milwaukee etc. When is someone here going to deal with these violent phenomena? Or will you just stick your head in the sand like the mainstream media does?
M — September 19, 2014
Have you written about the inmates who clean up after mardi gras parades? I lived in New Orleans for a couple years, and participated in Mardi Gras, but never got used to seeing the bus loads of inmates dropped off to clean up the mess. Insert social commentary here!
Jen — September 20, 2014
I always try to say thank you to the folks who clean our streets and buildings. It's a simple gesture, but it's a way of showing them they're recognized.
Bill R — September 20, 2014
Unlike quite a few public positions like lawmakers, firemen, and teachers, sanitation workers just do a tremendous job without beating their chests about it.
I give them credit for their humility as much as their good work.