Blue Collar Brilliance

            This chapter in “They Say, I Say” is about blue collar workers.  Most people tend to think blue collar workers are illiterate or stupid.  This however is not true. Mike Rose argues how smart blue collar workers are and how their jobs require intelligence.  For example, when making something like a cabinet or fitting something through a door when being delivered, you need to measure the length and width to see if it will fit.  Another example in this chapter was Rose.  She was a waitress and had to memorize up to twelve people’s orders at time.  She had to anticipate what the customers wanted and judge how long orders should take to prepare.  There is also a lot of reading involved in blue collar work.  They have to read manuals, directions, instructions and so on.

            The argument is basically that blue collar workers are just as smart as white collar workers or even more in some cases.  This relates well to Mike in the workers’ book.  Mike was a blue collar worker and felt like his boss, a young white collar worker who was fresh out of college looked down on him.  When in reality Mike was just as smart as his boss was.

            No matter what job you are doing, you need some type of intelligence and most people assume they don’t.  The basic argument of the story is that white collar workers are not better than blue collar workers.