David Grazian's Blue Chicago

In his book, Blue Chicago, David Grazian defines roles based on interactions that people have in Chicago's Blues clubs. Roles such as these can be assigned to people in any social situation. This principle can be extrapolated to other social contexts such as the expression of gratitude between Oberlin College students and the staff at Stevenson Dining Hall. This is demonstrated through the observation of interactions between students and staff members in three different scenarios: swiping in at the door, dropping off dirty dishes, and getting food from the servers. In each of these scenarios, there are those who express gratitude by saying "thank you" and those who don't. Of the students who do thank the staff members, there are two roles that can be identified. These two social …show more content…
The circumstances in which a student chooses to thank a staff member indicates which social role they play in Stevenson Dining Hall. Whether or not a student is genuinely grateful can be inferred by the circumstance in which they say, "thank you."
Students who are not genuinely grateful use the expression of gratitude as a method of avoiding awkward interactions. After students are finished eating, they dump their excess food into the trash and put their dishes at the drop-off window. The dishes are washed is in a room closed off from students walking by so there is often little interaction between the staff and the students. However, a worker will sometimes come out of the room to collect cups by hand. This creates an awkward situation in which students must have a face to face interaction with a staff member. In order to avoid the uncomfortable interaction,