Scratching Out a Living, Volume 38: Latinos, Race, and Work in the Deep South

How has Latino immigration transformed the South? In what ways is the presence of these newcomers complicating efforts to organize for workplace justice? Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing plants and communities, where large numbers of Latin American migrants were recruited in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest-paid jobs in the country. As Americaandrsquo;s voracious appetite for chicken has grown, so has the industryandrsquo;s reliance on immigrant workers, whose structural position makes them particularly vulnerable to exploitation.

Based on the authorandrsquo;s six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, this book explores how Black, white, and new Latino Mississippians have lived and understood these transformations. Activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse argues that peopleandrsquo;s racial identifications and relationships to the poultry industry prove vital to their interpretations of the changes they are experiencing. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the industryandrsquo;s growth and drive to lower labor costs, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living paints a compelling ethnographic portrait of neoliberal globalization and calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.

What does globalization look like in the rural South? Scratching Out a Living takes readers deep into Mississippiandrsquo;s chicken processing communities and workplaces, where large numbers of Latin American migrants began arriving in the mid-1990s to labor alongside an established African American workforce in some of the most dangerous and lowest paid jobs in the country. Based on six years of collaboration with a local workersandrsquo; center, activist anthropologist Angela Stuesse explores how Black, white, and new Latino residents have experienced and understood these transformations. Illuminating connections between the areaandrsquo;s long history of racial inequality, the poultry industryandrsquo;s growth, immigrantsandrsquo; contested place in contemporary social relations, and workersandrsquo; prospects for political mobilization, Scratching Out a Living calls for organizing strategies that bring diverse working communities together in mutual construction of a more just future.

Angela Stuesse is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida.