final project

Joshua Wilson 

Art and Activism 

Americans Greed: The poem written by Joshua Wilson 

“American and greed go hand and hand and it has been since the dawn of the country but that greed never shows itself. 

The greed of this country is always hidden six feet under the ground and is the foundation for beautiful skyscrapers and buildings and like the Great Wall is China still stands today. 

The greed in America should be the ninth wonder of the world because of how many admire it.

something everyone wants a piece of but only the shameless and ruthless can obtain yet it’s something about greed that we can’t seem to stop. 

Nothing can not even a pandemic shutting down clubs and replacing them for Walmarts where the lines are long and the Vip are the essential workers 

So many have lost jobs yet all prices remain the same only change is in gas cost to encourage people to come out 

making something like a mask to go from a commodity to a trend and selling them for a high price  

The most influential, highly recommended and most essential. Greed has such a hold on our society and some minds that the world revolves around it and it identifies with one common name currency. “ - Joshua Wilson 

Mcdonald's aka the golden arcs are what they only care about the gold. Amazon will sell everything from A-Z to get to make sure the money gets delivered and all in between. All the greed in these companies show they only care for the profit and will ignore the very people that are buying or working for them to ensure the dollar makes it back to the very building that was built off the backs of the people this is American Greed 

The greed in America Truly shows itself in a time like this we’re facing a pandemic and the big business has a way to truly disguise helping the customers compared to doing it for their self-interest. We are at a sad point where even POTUS has gotten into the heads of the hit supporters to go against the new rule of the stay at the home band to go outside and protest to lift the band and allow businesses to open back up. To then attempt to say it was a social distance protest This is all for the sake of money. He rants on his twitter to say that his speech was trending. He wants people to return to jobs for more big businesses and events to run and go back to business as usual not caring about the thousands that have already passed away due to the virus. Ignoring the health of the people and being more concerned with the economic standing. Making it worse making it seem like its to open a small business and really it's so the big businesses and events can continue 

 Many if not all small and local businesses have shut down due to the spread of COVID-19 however the billion-dollar business has not. It seems normal to us and our society we wouldn’t expect the big business to close but why? The resources are the same people need employment they need to shop for goods and services. The impact is only felt by the low and middle class and it’s odd. Big business has been affected by it, in fact, it has helped most of them they can lay off a percentage of their workers and get the shelves are being cleared even in terms of big restaurant business have operated in the same way. And to make it worse they are putting up this illusion that they are doing all they can to help just to protect their dollar. If you’ve noticed just in the recent few days companies have now given staff materials to feel safe but that’s how far it goes most companies aren’t even giving out sick leave because they know they need for jobs are in high demand so that just means easily replaced. At times like this, there should be a need for job security but it’s not just business security. Companies like Amazon, McDonald’s, Walmart and in between are forcing the bad if it’s employees to work or to be like the millions of people as of now under unemployment because they don’t have benefits like paid sick leave. Leaving staff out dry. Not just the staff but the customers are also getting a false sense of safety. Speaking from personal experiences and working at McDonald’s they sold a False sense of safety with the Big Mac. Tho gloves that were worn to hand out food and food prep however when it comes to making the food mask aren’t worn yet we have to keep the smiles.

     As a McDonald’s employee, I can speak first hand as to what a pandemic like effects everyone from the customers to the staff. It can be broken up into two parts 

 1.the rules that must be followed by staff 2.The way the corporate office is handling the situation.  The rules have not changed just edited since the pandemic as the staff has been feeling uneasy about the situation sadly there is nothing they can do they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Empowerment understands that it’s hard to find a job elsewhere and McDonald’s is exploiting that. When talking to some of my employees I feel powerless to the situation and the company they work for isn’t providing anything to make it better. To only get paid 9-10 dollars an hour and no benefits to them are told they must act accounting to not scare away the customers when they are worried about their family for just to be paid the minimum wage and if they get sick no such thing as paid leave they would just have to quit and there’s still contact between customer and staff meaning they are exposed to COVID 19 only thing separating them is a pair of gloves. Going right into the corporate office because some instructions are optional based on my rules they have to listen to is the ones they demand all chains such as staying open and operational and not allowing paid sick leave. They sugar coat everything including the pandemic making it seem like the doors are open because people need to eat not but aren’t dropping prices or even reaching out to attempt to make the establishment safer for staff and customers. I’m fortunate enough to not have the ability to leave and thousands cannot do the same thing but the corporate office is doing nothing to ensure that the people they hired and customers' safety. 

This is the artist that reflect my topic and other research and resources that influenced my work :

• Robert Karimi: he is a cook that organizes dinners and or mobile dinners this to mean is significant due to him doing almost the exact opposite of what big companies are doing his face to face with the consumer making himself not just a CEO but a staff catering personally to the consumer.
• Akosua Adoma Owusu: she is a filmmaker from Africa that compares their society to Americans. Her work inspires me to really think outside the box in my approach because not only does she film but she organizes protests for social injustice.
•  Favianna Rodriguez: She is an artist who usually does posters when I first came across her work it made me want to almost recreate the same emotions that I got from seeing her pieces at first then I realized I'm not as artistically talented but it pointed me in the direction I wanted to go.
• Barbara Kruger: she is the originator of the supreme logo and when it comes to her work it more accessible to what I can manage it's thought-provoking minimalistic yet noticeable it immediately catches the eye especially to read what she has to say in fact when digging more into her work  I found myself looking up some of the causes she attached herself to.
• Maranda Dekine aka Sapient Soul: she is a poet who takes about social injustice from the views of a black American. I've yet to master any type of poetry however after reading and listening to some of her work I found myself wanting to mimic her art style because it's easy to digest and comprehensible yet still remaining profound. I hope my poetry can reflect close to her work. 

Different movements writers and documents have helped me further my research and reasoning as to why this project needs to be done :

• The civil rights movement  
• Labor organizations
• Name kleine: burning fire, shock doctrine 
• History of worker rights 
• fight for 15%
• Green new deal 
• Ad busters