assignment

Exercise 5: On the Waterfront and “Sinful Social Structures”

1) Using the On the Waterfront article “God on the Dock” [begin at the paragraph on the 1st page beginning with “The real story . . .) list and describe the ways the workers in the historical events behind the movie were exploited. Be extensive as possible - by who, why, how, etc.

Include actions by the entities below that either directly or indirectly contributed to this exploitation (treatment of another person or group to increase as much as possible one’s own advantages)

A. The mob

i. And so on

B. The workers themselves

C. The local Catholic church

D. Our economic system at the time

E. The culture of Catholic/ethnic communities in the region

2) In Table 1 on the next page, categorize these different contributions to the worker’s oppression in Table 1 below by listing whether they were intentional or unintentional.

Comment on: Are there some ways that are hard to put in one column or the other? Why?

3) In Table 2 on the next page, indicate whether you think each type of oppression was committed by either an individual or by a social group?

Comment on: Are there some ways that are hard to put in one column or the other? Why?

4) What would be a situation you could identify today that has similar characteristics as the situation in the 1950’s on the waterfront in NJ and NYC (some type of exploitation; hard to place blame on any one individual or group; some part intentional, some part unintentional; etc.)?

5) In General: Briefly – how would you describe the situation in the Waterfront article and the situation you identified in #4 above in terms of the definition of “sinful social structure” below? Why does this make problems like these harder to alleviate? How do you think we should go about trying to alleviate the problem you used as an example?

A. Structures that oppress human beings, violate human dignity, stifle freedom, [and] impose gross inequality;

B. Situations that promote and facilitate individual acts of selfishness; and

C. Complicity or silent acquiescence of persons who do not take responsibility for the evil being done.”

TABLE 1 – Intentional and Unintentional (Describe very briefly why you categorized the person, action, and/or attitude as intentional or unintentional – don’t just place an “X.” The columns will expand as you type).

Person, action, and/or attitude	Intentional	Unintentional

Table 2 – Group and Individual – See instructions above.

Person, action, and/or attitude	Intentional	Unintentional

EACH QUESTION OF ASSSIGNMENT IS WORTH 10 POINTS – 50 POINTS TOTAL