You Are Who You Know

            Climbing the social ladder in society today is practically impossible to pursue alone.  I grew up in Weed, California (a tiny town in Northern California). When I was 15-years-old I decided it was time to find a part-time job so I could stop mooching off of my parents.  The only pizza place in town, Pizza Factory, was owned by some of my really good family friends, my brother worked there when he was in high school, and my mother worked there for a short time when I was younger.  The owner’s son was a boy I had dated at a younger age, so in order to avoid any discomfort between the two of us, I refused to apply there for work.  I looked virtually everywhere for a job in Weed, but couldn’t come up with a job.  My family ordered pizza one night, so when my brother went to pick it up, he thought it would be thoughtful to pick up an application for me.  Since I was so seemingly desperate, I turned in the application and was hired the next day.  I wound up working at Pizza Factory for three years.  When I moved to Chico for school I found the same problem; I couldn’t find any work.  I started getting so frustrated, so I just applied at Target (where my roommate works) and used her as a reference.  Sure enough, I used her name in the interview and was hired that very same day.  This whole semester I have been attempting to find work, and just recently found that my friend’s boyfriend is a manger a Best Buy.  Keeping that in mind, I went out of my way to make an impression.  We became friends, I went into Best Buy with him as a reference, and I just recently got hired there.  It seems a little ironic that the only places I was hired at were places where I was familiar with, or friends with, other co-workers or people of a higher authority.  It’s almost like the social ladder is missing a few steps, and you have to call in for a little help in order for those gaps to get replaced. 

            In a class discussion the other day questioning the voice of the subaltern it made me wonder: why is who you know more important than what you know?  We watched two video clips; one of Miriam Makeba and one of Brenda Fassie.  Both women are African musicians and seem to have a very similar form of artistry.  We found that Miriam Makeba is affiliated in some form with Paul Simon, a Grammy Award-winning musician who is on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Brenda Fassie, however, seems to be missing a few gaps in her social ladder.  I personally haven’t heard of either woman prior to this exposure, but it was obvious by the clips themselves that there was a huge difference in popularity.  Makeba sang in front of an incredibly large audience while singing, in English, to a seemingly catchy tune.  Fassie sang in what I’m assuming to be her native language, and with no audience (it was a music video).  Our professor made a comment at the beginning of class basically expressing the idea that without YouTube, Fassie wouldn’t have any exposure at all. 

            It seems strange to me that two women with such similar vocal experience are popularized in such a different manner.  I also wonder, with today’s mass media, if Makeba altered her work according to popular belief.  A student in class made reference to the idea that we would never see music like Fassie’s in mainstream American culture.  I completely agree with this statement, for this generation at least, but wondered what Makeba’s style of music was prior to meeting with Paul Simon.  My curiosity got the best of my, so I decided to do a little historical research on Makeba.  According to the findings on the web, she was offered a lot of opportunities with acting and singing throughout her days, but it was always through some other source.  Makeba didn’t walk into Enterprise Records or something and say “I’m a musician, give me a record deal.”  She got to know the right people, exposed herself, and is now popular with the crowd who enjoy listening to her music. 

On an entirely new level of thought, we discussed the idea of Fassie speaking too realistically about women abuse.  One thing about our society is we like to be happy.  It’s almost like we don’t like to talk about issues that affect us directly, so we talk about issues facing other people to avoid the topic.  On the contrary, the news and the media in general show an immense amount of violence.  We can all deem that as being horrible, but the majority of us can sit back and watch it and say “wow, I’m glad that’s not me.”  There are things that directly hit home, but they’re not talked about in mass media.  Fassie was singing about women abuse, which hits home for a lot of people, so we don’t want to see it.  It’s one of those, if we can’t fix it, why are we watching it, type ideals.  It’s admiring to see Fassie singing about this, and I think if she comes into contact with the right people, her gaps will be filled.

            This idea reminds me of the whole idea of walking through the door of opportunity.  You have to unlock the door before you can open it, and I think you have to find the right people that are holding the key you need.  The subaltern voices, those who are disempowered, are the people looking for the keys.  How do we go about finding these keys, though?  In a sociology class I’m currently taking on classical sociological theory, we are reading Emile Durkheim on Morality and Society.  Durkheim believes socialization with groups to be an important aspect of society.  In his definition of organic solidarity, he talks about how every individual in society has their own special task, but everyone has to work together as a whole in order for it to be successful.  Durkheim also says that groups in society create the yearning in individuals; it makes them want to be a part of the group.  Similar to my idea of the gap in the social ladder, perchance the gaps arise from not being a part of a group.  Once Fassie meets the right group, her gaps will fill in and she will be heard.