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By Stephen G. Bloom New York: Harcourt, 2000. 324 pp., ISBN: 0-15-100652-0
Here was a kind of experiment in the limits of diversity and community, the nature of community, the meaning of prejudice, even what it means to be an American. (p. 81)
Through the prism of our identities life is refracted into multiple colors, revealing the complexity of events, people, and ideas. What at first glance may appear to be a single beam of truth quickly becomes shades and hues of intricate webs of meaning. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in our social interactions. Through individual identities and single points of contact, we come to see one another in a particular light, illuminated by our expectations and experiences.
These meetings of individuals are, concurrently, often mediated by one's group affiliation. Our corporate identity, developed over years of socialization, creates expectations and behavior patterns that guide us through our lives. As these interactions occur clashes may result when the presenting identities are at odds with each other. In Stephen G. Bloom's book, Postville: A Clash of Culture in Heartland America, this conflict is ably shown occurring among the pig farms and cornfields of Iowa.
Refraction
Religious Purity vs. Cultural Assimilation
Postville is a town located in the northeast section of Iowa. Historically, Postville has been a town populated largely by western and northern Europeans with a strong Protestant, predominantly Lutheran religious tradition. A town priding itself on self-sufficiency, hard work, and community, Postville was slowly dying as a result of the farm crisis in the 1980s. In 1987, Aaron Rubashkin, an Hasidic Jew, offered to buy an abandoned slaughterhouse just outside of the Postville city limits. His plan was to create a slaughterhouse that would sell kosher meats to Jews around the world. His plan was a great success and new economic life was breathed into the Postville economy. While the economy grew, so did the divisions between the residents of Postville and the growing population...