Blog 6

The film The Philosophy Kings was an extremely good example in which to look at the concepts of exploitation, alienation, false consciousness, and lastly double consciousness. While the film was very good at showing a glimpse into the lives of custodians, you could definitely tell that they weren't delving completely into the negatives, simply to save face for themselves and also the companies they worked for. In class, we were asked the question of whether or not custodial careers were romanticized in the film. I would personally answer that question with a solid yes. While the human-ness of the social group is definitely a main focus, the film didn't touch on the entirety of the human experience. The human experience includes both the good and bad that happens in an individuals life, whereas the film tried to portray the custodial positions as almost glamorous.

While the film did a fantastic job of giving examples of exploitation, alienation, and false consciousness, the topic that stood out to me most was double consciousness. Above is W.E.B. DuBois explaining his concept of double consciousness. It was extremely apparent in almost every custodian example that they offered that they viewed themselves in two very opposite ways. Corby Baker had his custodial life, but kept completely separate he had his art. Despite the fact that he worked at an arts school, he attempted to keep his job and his hobby very separate. The individual that stood out to me the most was Oscar Dantzler, simply because of one line. He made the comment that when he is gone from his job, people tell him that they missed him once he is back. He pointed out the fact that it wasn't actually them that they missed, it was the clean bathrooms. While this isn't exactly an individual viewing themselves separately, it is still the concept of viewing separately almost without realizing it. I personally found it incredibly interesting to think about. 

Overall, the film gave an interesting insight into the lives of custodians and did offer some food for thought as to wether or not a job similar to that is something that something should be happy with, or working towards in life.