Blue Collar Brilliance Essay

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“Blue-Collar Brilliance”, an essay written by Mike Rose, details his mother’s life as a blue collar worker in the 1950’s. While many believe a person’s key to success comes from obtaining a formal education, Rose defines and evaluates intelligence as something that is gathered through real life, hands-on experiences. Rose demonstrates how blue-collar workers are still extremely intelligent, despite not having a formal education, and how successful they are. Rose refers to his Uncle Joe and the accomplishments he had, and the little struggles along the way: “Joe constantly faced new problems and became a consummate multi-tasker… and maintaining a cool head under the pressure of grueling production schedules” (Rose 265). His skills further …show more content…
The essay shows A white-collar worker clearly differs greatly from a blue-collar as it relates to their day to day duties as well as responsibilities at work. “White-collar workers usually perform job duties in an office setting. They are highly skilled and formally trained professionals. A blue-collar worker is a worker that performs labor jobs, usually with their hands” (Scott). This article shows the roles of the two workers’ plus their differences, but the main variable that oftentimes occurs is the way others treat the workers. Rose states that people must not forget the demanding work that goes into every job, no matter the setting. Additionally, Rose introduces the point that physical and service work at times may be overlooked, due to requiring a different form of intelligence than white collar work.
Intelligence throughout “Blue-Collar Brilliance” intelligence is a concept that Rose defines through examples of blue collar workers he has known. Rose states on page 269, “If we believe that whole categories of people are not that bright, then we reinforce social separations and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides.” This affirms that the way workers are categorized on top of how classifying creates a greater divide throughout our country. If communities stop labeling the differences between workers, humankind will grow together with a result of prospering
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