Cowboys and Cattlemen Essay

The unite States as a nation is ever changing. The U. S. population is growing every(prenominal) year, and the unthe resemblings of vitrines of ethnicities continue to flood into the terra firma searching for the Ameri quite a little pipe dream. However, how human macrocosmy a(prenominal) people actually see this dream amaze a verity? The answer to that is incredibly disheartening and was even stead sprylyer to declare in the preliminary years of the Statess history. Un little you were a white male in the late 1800s to 1900s, the Ameri sens Dream was exactly that a dream.This failed nonsuch(prenominal) can be explored through the inequality expressed in that of race, gender, and sieve passim American history, particular(prenominal)ally during the time of cowboys and kine unravel force. Additionally, such(prenominal) in exclusivelyices can be visualised in todays agile diet fabrication with the struggles of the employer to employee. comp be and contrasting cowboys with cowsmen and issuers with employees will demonstrate how such issues come into affect. In effect to express the inequality faced within the workforce between cowboys and cattlemen, the priming of their field of work, who did the work, and their differences need to be taken into account.When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th blow they brought their cattle and cattle- height techniques with them. Huge land grants by the Spanish government that was ruin of the hacienda system, let ined capacious numbers of animals to roam freely over vast argonas (Wikipedia)1. legion(predicate) traditions developed that practically related to the original location in Spain. For example, the buckeroo tradition of Northern Mexico was to a greater extent organic, developed to adapt to the characteristics of the region from Spanish sources by cultural interaction between the Spanish elites and the native and mestizo peoples (Wikipedia).As settlers from the United St ates moved west, they brought cattle breeds from the east coast and atomic number 63 and adapted their management to the drier lands of the west by borrowing give a focus elements of the Spanish vaquero culture (Wikipedia). From 1865-1900, raising cattle was the most salient(ip) job position in the western United States. The Homestead spell of 1862 attracted more settlers to come west and set up farms. This is because the Homestead ferment gave some genius the ability to own farmland for no cost at all however, the besides requirement needed was proof that the land had alter during the time of ownership.Therefore, it was very favorable to obtain land, save improving it was the biggest challenge. farm is a difficult task of raising grazing livestock such as cattle for meat. The owners of these lands know as cattlemen had to invest time in farming and raising crops such as hay and grains for feeding their animals to heighten a profit. The cattle would go from the banquet to the trail, to the slaughterhouse, and eventually be distributed throughout America. But who ar the people behind the scenes that raise and break the cattle or horses, and who does all the work on the ranch?Cowboys. Cowboys were the proles on the ranch who helped maintain it. Cowboys strived toward bonny men and they viewed the title of being a man based upon the masculinity surfacen. Cowboys demonstrated their masculinity in terms of their skills on the job, their control over their on the job(p) conditions, and their ability to make independent decisions. level(p) in their time of leisure, they still would do things to prove their masculinity such as gamble, drink, fight, and indulge in sexual pleasures with prostitutes.In the book, Cowboys and Cattlemen by Jacqueline Moore, she con usurpes how Anglo cowboys recognized skill regardless of disguise, which provided exceptional men other than whites a fortuity to brighten respect (Moore)2. However, a majority of the hard work was leftfield to the Mexican or bootleg cowboys. Thats why umpteen black cowboys were so skilled in the more difficult areas of work such as breaking bulls because they were forced to do it the majority of the time. Today, many industries homogeneous the exuberant victuals industry employ people considered as the over work out ramify.It is non common to walk into a McDonalds and see Donald Trump working the coin register. Cowboys are seen as these demoralize class people and it so happens people of color both in this time and today are still struggling to climb out of the lower class and into high economical standing. Moore goes on to argue that cattlemen trusted the loyalty of their black cowboys and would often comport them carry out sensitive missions, such as guarding large sums of m atomic number 53y while on the trail (Moore). However, cowboys of color, despite their ability to gain respect with their amazing skill level, were still not able to develop catt lemen themselves.Many cowboys for that matter didnt create much room to improve, which is why the relationships the cowboys had with unity another were so strong. Many of the cowboys werent ashamed to show affection towards each other because these relationships were the most important in their lives. The expiry of a friend was always the worst tragedy. Furthermore, many of these friendships seemed to be more than superficial. People questi mavind them because the cowboys bunked to protrudeher which created chances for sexual relationships.To continue with their intimate relationship woes, these men had a tough time attracting the more respectable women, who usually cut out for cattlemen because they were more financially stable (Moore). This lead to the cowboys encounters with prostitutes. Not many cowboys, for that matter, were married, and if they did get married it usually meant their career was over. To make matters worse, towns began to find ways to beat back away cowboys by prohibiting guns and fining, arresting, and punishing them on the job which forced them to play along with the regulation of their public leisure.Discredited at work and in leisure, cowboys seemed more and more borderlineized, out of step with the rest of American society (Moore). though cowboys of color were respected for their skill and, to an extent, racially tolerant, racism was still frequent within society and in their work. Racism was not all living during the era of Martin Luther King Jr. and the historic Civil Rights Movement, which was steered toward breaking color barriers in the Solid South, but it was seen as early as the generation of the trail and cattle ranching. It affected the lives of the workers.People of color and women both were victims of discrimination. Women oddly had no say in the way of life of the ranch because their credit was not taken into account. The job of a women consisted of only terce things. nonpareil raise the children, two do all the housework such as cooking cleaning and laundry amongst other daily household chores, and three handle financial situations such as doing the bills and buying groceries. There were cowgirls however, their stories arent heard because there were very few and womens cattle raising positions at the time were irrelevant.Prostitutes were even more greatly degraded because of their less than condonable lifestyle. On the ranch, cowboys of color had no chance of becoming cattlemen. White Anglo cowboys had a slim chance but colored cowboys had even fewer. This is because these nonwhite races were seen as not sufficiently evolved to achieve true manhood. Segregation between white cowboys and nonwhite cowboys was overly consistent on many ranches during this period. For example, Anglo cowboys ate with the owner while Mexicans would multitude out with the herds. such segregation and discrimination didnt allow women or nonwhites to move up in the social class. Cowboys in general, if born in to a cowboy family, were destined to be that and that only. Freedom for cowboys is a myth. Ultimately, cowboys were simply employees and confused what independence they had in their field of work. Cattlemen on the other hand had easy living. Cattlemen usually obtained their position because their fathers before them were. In a way, its resembling they were taking on the family business. Inheritance was a huge head start fleck for many of the men.However, to fully become a cattleman, emphasis on being men to prove themselves was stressed. This was done with a proper education, the contribution they do towards society, and getting married. Marriages usually lead to gifts or property, which was also another sucker of manhood. The jobs cattlemen did were similar to that of businessmen- they did whatever they could to make a profit. Most of the successful cattlemen experimented with different types of breeding techniques and invested heavily in land. They even had other business in terests out-of-door of the cattle industry (Moore)3.Cattlemen looked to socialize with people in the towns around them sooner than just the men on the ranch. As towns grew, so did the development of associations and entertainments that the men had known before coming to town, and socializing with men of equal placement was more common (Moore). Nonwhite ranchers were nonexistent and those who were in lower classes would never be seen socializing with cattlemen unless it was on the ranch. Furthermore, the way ranchers carried themselves in public, and the economic stability they have allowed them to attract the more respectable women who were better suited to be housewives.Similarly, in order to understand the workforce of the fast fodder industry, background discipline close to the industry needs to be taken into account. The fast feed industry goes hand in hand with the cattle industry. In aboriginal America, nearly 40% of the land was cultivated to become one-time(prenomin al)ure for cattle that would supply cheap beef to North Americas fast food industry (Myers)4. Furthermore, the cattle raised in Central America are raised on grass, making the beef lean and only suitable for the fast food trade (Myers).Fast food has become in high demand because of its low prices and its convenience of location. Its hard to miss these eaterys because driving around in a city you are guaranteed to see some of these consumer-crazed fast food chains on just about every corner. They can even be found in local retail stores, airports, and gas stations. Fast food is quicker than preparing home-cooked meals and harmonise to the article, Convenience, Accessibility, and the Demand for Fast Food, fast food accounts for 35% of the total away-from-home food expenditures (Binkley, et al)5.Moreover, according to the same article, fast food chains have an amplify in consumption when located in areas inhabited by African-Americans and Hispanics (Binkley, et al). Targeting low-inc ome races with inexpensively priced food allows this industry to continue to grow because those of low-income wont be consistently eating at a sit down restaurant ordering a meal for twenty dollars when they can order one at McDonalds for as low as four dollars. Price, accessibility, and convenience are major factors to the success of this industry.Similarly to the point previously made about the low socioeconomic standing of cowboys, a majority of the employees of the fast food industry are working class people. The working class is becoming only certain ethnic groups- Hispanics, African Americans, and both legal and prohibited immigrants. Once immigrants enter the U. S. they are placed in the lower class regardless if they have been in the middle class in their country of origin. These people of color are hard-working employees and have families.However, they still earn only minimum wage after years of experience. Typically, these ast-food jobs are oriented to be temporary posit ions for teenagers who are looking to make some extra cash before going to college. But it has become a social norm that its the job position of those who are living off a paycheck-to-paycheck basis, struggling to make ends meet. Jennifer Talwars book, Fast Food Fast skip Immigrants, Big Business, and the American Dream, states, the fast food restaurant offered me a way to understand how different ethnic groups relate to each other in their attempt to survive but also improve their circumstances at the bottom of the American urban economy (Talwar). 6 Like the cowboys, workers in fast food become separated from the owners and higher-class society so they turn to the relationships of one another.However, unlike the cowboys who were unable to become cattlemen, employees of color in the fast food industry can become even owners of a McDonalds or Burger King for example. According to Talwar, Phil Hagans an African American man started out as a burger flipper and later became an owner o f four McDonalds restaurants in Houston, as he was able to climb the hierarchies (Talwar). 7Just because there is marginal room for improvement of a workers position in this area of work doesnt mean there is an absence of inequality. The fast food industry is a business built on the ideal of low prices resulting it in having to keep labor and other operating cost to a minimum. According to the book, Labour Relations in the Global Fast-Food Industry, Royle and Towers explain that low wages, minimal benefits, tight staffing, and efforts to intensify labor are inevitable out-of-pocket to competition environment (Royle and Towers). 8This allows employers to have control and does not allow workers to have a say in changing working conditions. Such factors are not subject to change and the issue of unionizing poses no bane to the fast food business. This is because major fast-food companiesare employed by franchisees, many of whom own only a few restaurants or just one, like Phil Hagan s (Royle and Towers). This fragments the workers not only physically but also to the extent that they are under different management. Unionization is also unable to arise due to the role technology plays in standardizing the work of fast-food crews.These new machines basically carve up the employee when to proceed on to the next step of the routine of preparing a burger or fries, resulting in a minimization for the need of skilled workers. Furthermore, having an education is not needed to work for fast food places such as McDonalds because these jobs dont require higher-level skills. However, while fast-food work is generally treated unskilled, it is not easy to perform well and it can be hard and exhaust work, especially during busy periods (Royle and Towers). 9 Mangers have complete control over their workers, starting with the scheduling of the workers hours. It is also a way to keep employment be down and can be used as a disciplinal system. For example, managers can call in employees on their days off and have them work late hours. Cattlemen of the ranch had different tactics for maintaining control but the outcome was the same. Unionization is further challenged in the fast food industry because many unskilled workers are young teens that only see this type of work as a temporary position.According to Royle and Towers, only one third of those employed by the industry actually try to turn it into a career (Royle and Towers). Cowboys needed to have specific skill sets such as riding horses, being able to round herds up the trail, and manage the farmland. Teens and those who work the oven and fryers dont need to have a specific skill set because each skill is specialized. It can be position to an assembly line where a worker will perform one task all day that requires low input of labor.Therefore, the value of work from cowboys compared to employees of the fast food industry is diminishing. As seen with managers and employees of the cattle industry of the past and fast food industry of today, the hierarchies of the workforce are evident and harbort been drastically modified. On the ranch, a cowboy (especially one of color) couldnt become a cattlemen. In the fast-food industry a burger flipper can become an owner of his own franchise but, unless its handed down like a ranch from cattlemen to cattlemen, its an outrageous number of years to climb in rank.The hierarchy in a typical fast-food restaurant is as follows, from final job to highest crewmember, crew trainer, manager trainee, second and first assistant manager, connect and general manger, store supervisor, and finally owner. By the time a worker reaches the top theyll have white hair and be ready for retirement. uprise the different levels isnt promising. Thats how owners of big industries want it. The higher class will continue to improve and gain wealth while the lower class will struggle to fight for a higher economic standing for the majority of their lives.Many work ers wont ever obtain the life they thought they would achieve in a nation known to be the home of the free and the land of the brave and where an American Dream is possible. The United States needs to adapt to make lives easier for its people by better-looking health care, increasing minimum wage, and actually listening to the voices of the people who prohibit this great country. If the United States industries continue to suck the life out of their workers and have total control over every aspect of these laborers, then the ideology of being equal will be never be in existence.