Scratching the Surface (STS) contains four sections, and begins with a discussion of methodology. An approach to historical texts often relies on primary and secondary documents to develop a thorough descriptive work. STS is offered as a methodological alternative which is meant to be critical of the current state of affairs for marginalized people within the U.S. (We choose the word marginalized because “minority” implies that a population is numerically not the majority. Yet, many times the so-called minority out numbers a privileged class; even in the U.S. today.) Since criticisms of the U.S. are often countered by accusations of selection bias in sources, STS aims to address this issue by pulling the majority of its citations from popular news reports. While it is impossible to cite every angle of the topics addressed in STS, an effort is made to pull in a broad set of citations in order to meet skeptics half way. The real problem is not so much that information is unavailable but that people are not willing to abandon American nationalist myths. One premise is that the majority of information in general newspapers often dispute American nationalist myths. Given the nature of news media, however, these stories are read and then forgotten as new reports emerge by the minute. Given this problem, these stories are never pooled together in order to frame the main problems faced by marginalized people in the U.S. The biggest problem facing marginalized people, ultimately, is that they fail to recognize themselves as marginalized. STS is a new methodological approach to pooling the fragmented tales (puzzle pieces) of marginalized people into one collection with a clear focus on issues relevant to their lives.

STS begins with the premise that a myth called the “American Dream” has been carefully crafted in a way that incorporates as many people (marginalized and otherwise) residing within the U.S. border as possible, even if those people are not legally supposed to live and work in the U.S. This theme is carried forward into the second chapter on unpacking the conditions of the working class. It traces the working class’ origin to a caste system in the U.S. based on slavery and racism. The caste system in the U.S. is argued to continue to persist mostly due to efforts by leading power figures such as the wealthy, those in control of political institutions, and those with a vested interest in maintaining such a balance of power. These broad topics are tied together as a few of the puzzle pieces which are brought together under modern democracy in the U.S. Yet, uninvestigated in other analyses of U.S. institutions of oppression are the origins of democracy itself and its reliance, even in Greek times, on a caste system in which the majority of the people were not capable of influencing their own government. In many ways, Greek style democracy is alive and well in modern times but its tenacity should not be equated with unexamined optimism.

A deeper analysis of the working class poor comes in section two. First, there is a treatment of the modern condition of immigrants in the U.S. and their inability to access political institutions, while their contributions to economic institutions go unacknowledged. Specifically, a larger, often ignored issue must be confronted when the burden of life in a capitalist system falls into the lap of modern day children and women who typically do not receive any pay in terms of a wage. Women and children must often fill the gap between wage labor and starvation. Given the last two chapters premises that immigrants, women and children may be more in line with a slave caste, the question concerning the real definition of the working class is discussed. It is argued that it is much more convenient for the working class to remain undefined not only to themselves, but to the society at large. As such, this section of the book largely tries to contextualize what is often seen as “normal”.

Section three addresses how those failing to conform as outlined in section two are ostracized by modern political and economic institutions. Activist behavior is regarded by the society at large as deviant and potentially dangerous yet framed as something to be considered a nuisance and ignored. As such, when “activist” behavior is exhibited, it is largely within the confines of the political institutions of the U.S., which severely limits its effectiveness. When activism does have the potential to impact U.S. hegemony, it is framed as “criminal”, and individuals engaged in behavior framed as criminal often find themselves facing steep penalties. Simultaneously, activists classified as criminals lose their credibility in terms of how they are portrayed and how they are viewed by those who sit quietly and follow the rules. Criminalization of people also pervades the treatment of U.S. homeless populations. These various themes are brought together in a conclusion. In many ways, the fragmented information collected in STS is written as a wake up call to marginalized people. With the coming tide of China and the unstable U.S. economy, serious attention needs to be given to a post-U.S. hegemon world or marginalized people will remain marginalized regardless of what entity emerges or remains hegemonic on an international level.