The most recent buzz in the NYC comptroller campaign is a story in the NY Daily News about John Liu’s time spent working in the sweatshop as a child. It’s something that has come to illustrate, in a nutshell, the difference between Liu and other candidates for the position, and the nature of his historic candidacy. Liu’s desire to serve is clearly shaped by his roots in a struggling immigrant community, and you can see this in his defense of straphangers and other overlooked individuals.
Liu’s statement says simply:
After the interview, the reporter asked me for a paystub to prove I actually worked in the factory. We attempted to explain to the journalist how sweatshops actually work. Unfortunately, we were unable to dislodge her preconceived ideas about how illegal practices in the garment industry work.
. . . 35 years ago, I worked with my mom – inside a sweatshop and at home. For me, it’s not a shameful past. I make no apology for the work ethic I gained from toiling away many hours in a factory, and I remain as committed as ever to exposing and ending the sweatshop system.
Now the Daily News, and probably, rivals for the position, seek to undermine his story about child labor and his work ethic by interviewing his mother and other former sweatshop workers, who hesitated in talking about this difficult time in their lives. The Daily News has taken this apprehension and desire to save face as a negation of the difficulties and the burden of sweatshop work.
In my experience with garment workers, few are eager to come forward and talk about their labor. About the endless pile of skirts to be hemmed, zippers sewn, the injuries and abuses sustained on the job. The mediocre pay. The wage theft. Previous generations would understandably rather forget about all that because it’s seen by most as shameful work, instead of being viewed as what they did to support their families. It is something the older generation would rather sweep under the rug, like talking about undocumented immigrants, but it is an important part of each family’s history, and of Asian American history. For if we are willing to forget the past and to make a clean and simple storyline of success, we are just as responsible for the model minority myth. If we are not willing to share with others, no matter how hurtful the past might have been, there will be less understanding of the blood, sweat, and tears that Asian Americans and many other immigrant groups have shed in order to make it in this country.
I once worked with a garment worker who was willing, though apprehensive, to share her experiences publicly. She told me her story about how over 20 years of working, she only ever saw her salary go up by $0.50 per hour. I could not help but be stirred by her story when she told me, one on one. Then she went out and shared it for the first time in a public setting, at an immigrant rights rally. She wound up with tears on her face.
Afterwards, she told me that she was glad of the opportunity to share her struggle, that she “felt like a burden had been lifted.” She was glad to have spoken, and then clamored to speak at future events. I remember at a later event where they had an open mic, she charged right up there. Sharing her experience helped her to redefine the oppression and to wear it like a badge of honor. She became proud of all that she had endured, instead of locking the “ku,” the bitterness, inside her to fester for all those years.
I can understand the unwillingness and pain that talking about these times would cause, and the desire to protect the family’s reputation, not to mention that of a son in the public limelight, given that child labor was and is illegal. This industry is often referred to as being part of the underground economy because employers engage in shady tactics, such as paying less than minimum wage, stealing wages, and forcing people to work off the books. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Liu doesn’t have a paystub from over thirty years ago, when he was a child.
There are a number of issues that our community should really talk more about, like the undocumented and unemployed in our midst — so that older and younger generations can learn from each other, and so that other communities can share in the knowledge. I also understand the desire to protect loved ones from harm, to hold to old world ideals of saving face.
Historically, the generations who came here and paved the way for us have not wanted to dredge up family secrets. Often it takes decades to reveal that grandparents were “paper sons” and that one part of the family, was actually not related by blood at all. In reaching Gold Mountain, we should acknowledge that the rocky ascent was fraught, and not necessarily a smooth path to success.
– Caroline
