Missing the Whitman story - treating people as dehumanized, undocumented and disposable

[Elmore Furth]

Tim Rutten in the LA Times emphasizes the point that the media are ignoring the deeper issues in the GOP candidate's alleged treatment of her former housekeeper: Whitman considered Santillan a throw-away person -- disposable any time she became too inconvenient.

The media are ignoring the deeper issues in the gubernatorial candidate's alleged treatment of a former housekeeper.

What really ought to concern people most are Diaz Santillan's allegations that during the nine years she worked for Whitman and her husband, they repeatedly forced her to put in more than her agreed-upon hours without compensation and refused to pay her mileage even though she had to use her own car to perform household errands. Whitman denies all this, but she does agree that she fired Diaz Santillan within days of the June 2009 conversation in which the housekeeper asked for help in legalizing her status. That may not be labor code-style mistreatment, but it's an odd way to treat somebody who'd worked in your home and taken care of your children for nearly a decade and who Whitman herself describes as "a member of our extended family." Lots of tough love, one surmises, in that house.

Diaz Santillan alleges that Whitman fired her in a phone call, saying: "From now on you don't know me, and I don't know you. You never have seen me and I have never seen you. Do you understand me?" With that, according to Diaz Santillan, Whitman hung up.

The facts of Whitman's relationship with Diaz Santillan remain to be sorted out, but we already know for certain that undocumented workers are treated like garbage — exploited as if they weren't human beings. They're forced into the shadows; darkness makes them vulnerable to every form of mistreatment.

The human and economic complexities of such a situation are unlikely to get much of a hearing in a round of "gotcha" media coverage. But they would if the media compared the realities of Whitman's own household with her campaign speeches denouncing any path to citizenship for undocumented workers and urging more raids, fines and suspensions of business licenses for those who employ them.

Missing the Whitman story

[livetohike]

1. Using people and walking all over them is status quo for

corporate types like Whitman and Fiorina. They have no souls.

[Duer 157099]

2. And it's not just undocumented labor that is thrown out like this

All of corporate America treats most of their employees exactly the same way.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. The media ignores it, but everyone here gets it. Go figure.

The other day a DUer pissed and moaned about the number of Whitman threads. Too fucking bad. It doesn't take a writer from the L.A. Times to "reveal" what the real Whitman story is...anyone with eyes, ears, and half a brain can do the math.

And in California, which has bled like a stuck pig during this "recession" or whatever we would like to call it, the worst thing I can think of doing is handing this woman the keys to the car.

I'll take Rutten's word for it...that there are people out there who are "missing" the story. It just grieves me to think that anyone could be that fucking stupid.

[JDPriestly]

4. Actually, many employers, but Whitman and Fiorina in particular, treat

employees as dehumanized, unimportant and disposable. Could they outsource their jobs without a sigh if they didn't?

[Stuart G]

5. Guess what...There is a group that realizes exactly

what Whitman is all about and what you have written here.
Latinos in California will read about what you have written here, and most will discuss this. She is a total fraud. Some, who thought she was ok, and listened to her and might have voted for her, now know what she really is. A racist asshole, just what has been written here:

"From now on you don't know me, and I don't know you. You never have seen me and I have never seen you. Do you understand me?" With that, according to Diaz Santillan, Whitman hung up.

I believe that Latinos and their supporters know, and have read this, and will not vote for her, and will vote Democratic. It is that simple.
This shit resonates through a community, and people tell people. Those that vote will know. She can take all the tests and say all that she wants.
That one line, resonates with many, and hopefully will send her to political oblivion.