Week 13

Once again, I am amazed at the literature. I find it hard to summarize my blog post of what I have taken from the reading this week, just as I always do. But self reflection is what I always experience after reading. I think that the chapter as a whole has reminded me that there are so many things that I can do to continue to stand up for social justice although I still feel blind. I am aware, but to stay aware without doing anything to help spread awareness, to encourage the social change to take place is tedious, discouraging, and sickening. I have so much to learn, I don’t know where to start because I have so many other things to worry about in my life, its all too much to take in but I will not give up looking and figuring out what it is that I can do to make a difference in this world. Out of all of the text that I have read, I feel like I can’t keep up with what I read anymore.

I have began to look at my privilege, not just as a white woman, and someone wouldn’t think it but my hearing loss is a privilege, as I receive the tuition exemption that makes my attendance to college possible. I am hesitant and embarrassed to share that information, but I guess it would be the first step for me to share something like that. Just because I have a hearing loss, my college is paid for, basically free, in the state of Texas. I have the opportunity to go to college for free unlike many people who do not. I have the choice of not working because my mother helps take care of my daughter while I go to classes and study. I worry about my mother’s future because she didn’t graduate from college due to health issues, so I imagine someday I will have to take care of her and wonder if I will be able to afford to do that? I also can't start working because I am dependent on Food Stamps, Medicaid, and Section 8. Even though these things help a lot, I would not be stable with a job in college, with kids, and unable to make enough money to pay for everything and risk losing the assistance that I need. Even though I have this great opportunity, it comes with stress, fear, past trauma, confusion, sacrifice, and doubt. 

This all relates to how it is 1000 times more worse and unfair for millions of people that have to struggle while going to college, or not being able to go to college, because they have no one else to depend on, or everything depends on them. Elites and dominant groups put the blame on oppressed populations as if it is all their fault for the poverty, crime, health disparities, and struggles that exist within life. If only roles could be changed, so much would come to the light, and the oppressors would be begging for mercy. I have made mistakes in my past but I have had quite a few handfuls of chances, unlike many stories that I have heard. I am not sure where to start on this journey in social work. Finishing college is the most that I can do while trying to take care of my children, reading and learning as much as I can, as I have the privilege of my mother here to help me through this. To see the problem of privilege and oppression clearly is very strenuous, I feel like I can’t even figure it out, how to get to the bottom of it, or most importantly, to the top of it. I feel like I know where and what the problem is, I just don’t know how to solve it because I can’t do it alone, how do I get everyone on the same page? Social movement, revolution, education, social media, but sometimes it seems like no one cares. Maybe right now not many care enough, or just don’t know what to do, they just let it go and focus on themselves, not realizing how connected everything is. I think that getting out into the real world in a job in social work would help me pin point a few answers to my questions and help guide me into the direction that I am feeling pulled towards. I have to do more research and find out what it is that I am looking for, and how I could be most of help to the world around me. Everyone deserves to be able to go to college for free, given another chance, and the ability to access equal opportunity. Everyone deserves a livable wage, home, and job. How to make these things happen for people is exactly what I want to do. 

Week 12

As it is reality that all members in society play a role in keeping an inequitable system in place. I believe there is the opportunity to rise out of where the standards have been set and only we the people can make it happen, if we unite and work together. Through the socialization process, individuals are prepared to play roles that have determined many aspects of their lives. We need to improve the surrounding control factors that influence the process of socialization of how society works in order to eliminate the system of dis-equality. It was interesting to see the author say how there was no single person that can be charged with the creation of the oppressive systems that are in place. I believe someone started it a long time ago and it has evolved into this massive worldwide crisis. One of the chapters reminded me of how I wanted to live a complete vegan and green lifestyle for the purpose of wanting to participate towards social change to reduce inequality and bring justice but I still behave in the ways that preserve and perpetuate the system by not being vegan and using gas to drive my car, along with electricity, and other nonrenewable resources that are harmful to the planet, instead of solar power. It is hard. I was vegan for a whole year and told myself that I am obligated to the well-being of animals and the planet. But when I found out I had to move out of my old home where I had lived in for 18 years, I ended up buying fast foods, frozen foods, etc, all while overwhelmed with keeping up with my classes, kids, and finding a home that would accept our beloved pets. I lost my motivation and inspiration to cook vegan, to cook at all. It takes so much time and energy to find out what to cook or make to eat as a vegan because as a mother of three and a student in college, I don’t have the time and energy to look for recipes and plan for vegan grocery lists and meals. Just like how I buy things that I need, pull ups for my youngest child, baby wipes, different things like paying for gas to drive, clothes that were possibly made from slave labor, ect… I just wish that there was more that I could do to follow what I believe in. I have come to the conclusion that I just have to take it one day at a time. One day I will be able to focus on switching to a vegan lifestyle, and one where I can contribute honest labor and to helping keep the planet clean.

Having a liberatory consciousness sounds like something that I have but not totally yet, I am still practicing. I have experienced the symptoms of not seeing things the way that other people see like as in movies, or in public, general conversation, or like on Facebook. I thought that I used to understand everything about how I thought things needed to be done about the injustices that exist but now I don’t know and I feel like that was because nobody else felt the same way that I felt, concern, care, worry, obligated to do something about these issues, and that made me feel like what I cared about didn’t matter or it was irrelevant to what was really going on, like if I didn’t really know what was going on. Everyone may be in a different state of mind and I can understand that, there is only so much that we can do. But there is no excuse for neglect, ideas and actions spread, it is critical to ensure that we spread the right things that help instead of deprive society. I love the ideas of social networks related to goodness, we do need more connections, our society is as close as it is together, yet things are in chaos, and divisions are made everywhere, we need to unite once and for all.

One of the questions that come to my mind is why are there debts and taxes? We all have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and others, in a proper way. New forms of wealth have emerged and taken over society, controlling many different aspects of life, determining the direction of our lives. It would be a sight for sore eyes to see cooperation among society, which takes a lot more effort and knowledge about the issues at stake here. Everyone should be able to access this information in all institutions, not just in the School of Social Work or during their own research.

Week 11

Derek Thompson’s The Liberal Millennial Revolution proved a few points. His statement is quite gloomy, “Its here, its coherent, and its doomed, unless young people change their approach to political reform.” I often wonder if young people will ever push forward for change with the persistent effort that will make an everlasting impact. The struggle is never going to end until we all move forward towards the same goal together, so until then, it seems like there is only going to be less effort that doesn’t amount to the real change that we need. If young people are more liberal than their parents, then what does that tell you? The world has been on the path that humans have steered the direction. Now many things have come to exist. Although many people may believe in justice and making a difference in the world, like the author said, “all throat and no vote.” What else is going to happen based on what we do not do?

TED Talk by Ash Beckham made me think of myself when she asked the question, “Who am I?” Which made me think, who am I? A mother or an advocate? There have been a few times where my husband has told me that I can only worry about myself, not about anyone else. I know he is only trying to help me when I find difficulty in some areas in life but I don’t think that he fully understands what it is like to be a student in the School of Social Work. The lens and perspective that I see through, what I see, what I think, how I see, how I think, what I feel, how I feel, what I believe, everything is different and I frequently have thought in the past, how am I supposed to enjoy my life when there is so much pain and suffering out there? Yes, I understand that I have to focus on myself and my kids to ensure that I do what I need to do for us, but sometimes that is hard when I want to advocate for all of the things that I believe in speaking and standing up for. I also thought it was nice that the busser that Ash worked with was respectful towards her, how they respected each other although they had differences. I thought it was really sad when she talked about how she goes through the experiences of not knowing whether to keep on holding her girlfriends hand or not when they walk out in public. I found it inspiring when she mentioned how many things we can hold in life all at the same time.

Verna Myers TED Talk reminded me how violence continues and victims are often the ones who are blamed. I wonder will the world ever be a place that is open to black men? We need to teach kids how to respect themselves and others because without respect, our world will burn to the ground with all of this discrimination. Kids need to learn and understand that we share this world with others who are not only the same but different from each and every one of us.

Clint Smith quoted MLK which has been one of my favorite, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends." This means a lot to me because it is true, silence is consent. Consequences of silence manifest in the form of oppression which is one of the things that really needs to change in all places of the worlds, homes, stores, schools, job places, everywhere. I love how he said that, “all you ever needed is your voice.” Sometimes I feel like I cannot put my voice to the best of use because I am really nervous and shy but deep down inside, I know and feel the urge for speaking out for what is right, and I intend to practice becoming better at that.

Week 10

The assigned readings and video should be shared on T.V. instead of a lot of these commercials that waste a lot of time and money. For the first reading when the author said, “What forces are in motion” reminded me of how that is the hardest for me to figure out. That is one of the things that constantly bugs me every day, what forces are in motion that is steadily causing these inequalities? It seems like a lot of forces are in motion everywhere, except some kind of forces that are not being given the opportunity to take place. When it was said that there are flesh and blood women and men that are involved, it made me think of how I heard in another class lecture that was said about how humans have made all of this happen. Which leads to the question of, only a certain group or all? From the looks of it, the dominant group is causing all of this chaos. There are people who are living in inequity without a choice to do anything else, so when the author had said that there hasn’t been any finding good ways to go from unequal to equal, I feel like there are ways and it is just not being done. Maybe I shouldn’t say that because I don’t know everything that is going on in the world but if I can wish for world peace, and think of at least a few ways to fix some things, then surely there must be so many brilliant brains and ideas out there with solutions that can be established that could work better than it is now. The system was made into what it is today and I believe that it can be fixed to meet the needs that are urgent, by doing what is not being done, by doing it instead of all this procrastinating, but I guess it doesn't happen because not everyone is stepping toward the same goal: justice and liberty for all.

Another fact mentioned was how your birth defines you. I find that interesting in how it supposedly relates directly to astrology, which that is the case of how your birth defines you, that the time and place of our births define each of our personalities that are defined and created by the different locations of the planets and the stars that affect all aspects of our lives. But speaking in this social foundations of justice context, there are labels that are destructive and created by the dominant group. The last questions of the chapter were the same ones that I have been asking, who sets the terms? It is time to set the right terms, it is time to get the right people to set the terms straight and keep it the way that it should be.

 In the second reading, it verifies that banks have a responsibility other than just profit. When the author had mentioned how one of the students had said that they needed to balance the budget for the good of the country instead of helping others, that made me automatically think to myself, what was the country like in the first place? It seemed like it was doing good enough without all this complexity.  It wasn’t always like this, so how did humanity survive before all of these issues? Native Americans seemed to live in peace amongst each other with the way things were before someone came over here trying to dominate and control everything. This country is built and based on a bunch of whatever you want to call it and it has made excuses for everything that it has done in the past. It is time to get down to the nitty gritty and settle the real issues once and for all.

Now the video really pressed my buttons. The very fact that when people come out of prison and there is nothing there for them, except being labeled as a felon where most jobs wont hire, difficulties with Medicaid preventing people getting their medicines, along with neglected trauma victims, and convenient liquor stores, what other options do they have? The system has only came up with incarceration as the only answer to the problems that exist. Wow, I mean if it doesn’t get any more obvious than that. (I still don’t understand). But if someone does good in jail just because someone is there to feed them, tell them what to do, then that means when they get out, there is no where to go, nothing to do, because all options have been taken away from them, there is nothing out there for them because of the way that it has been made to be like that. Nobody trusts them, or gives them the opportunity to try again. That is what people need, these chances with a real opportunity, and not just something that they can barely get by with.

One of the girls has all of these goals and when she starts talking about her father, she says she doesn’t care, but she starts to cry, saying she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. In my opinion, she has to talk about that to someone who can help her get through that, get some kind of therapy counseling because I know what it feels like, to not have a father there when needed. Yes, my father loved me and said that he wished he was here with me but he made the wrong choices that led him somewhere else, even though he has found another wife, had two young kids and he is finally doing for them what he never did for me and my older brother and sister. He is still not there for me, financially, mentally, emotionally, he says he would help me but he never does. He has problems of all sorts, supposedly now he is sober, and it still affects me because its like I made the mistakes in my life because he wasn’t there, but I knew what I was doing in the past, or maybe I didn’t. But whatever happened, happened, now I am on the right track, and I still need his help but I know that I cannot depend on him and that still hurts, but I got to grow up and be the woman that my kids need me to be. I feel better that I have told him how I felt, but its all the same. That is like when these people get out of jail, they still need help and they don’t get the help that they need. For the kids, they got their whole life ahead of them but the way that the life is made for them sets them up for failure. Imagine how many kids grow up without the parents that they need to depend on? It is time the USA as a whole community makes the changes that need to be made now. All these institutions and people who get paid for a living to work in all those bug buildings need to get started on something and keep up with it. They got started on something that is obviously not working, so what is the next step? Have a meeting, talk about these issues that exist, mass incarceration, discrimination, laws, employment, education, etc. It is time for these systems to be updated.

Week 9

The two articles assigned for this week made me think of my husband and our sons. Based on what I have seen in my two boys and getting to know my husband throughout the 11 years we have been together, being a boy and becoming a man involve many aspects in life, just like being a girl and becoming a woman.  Getting to know ourselves is important, as well as our surroundings that affects almost everything in our life. It is very important that boys and girls are able to live in a positive environment, learn how to love themselves and be themselves, who cares what anyone else thinks or says about them. Although, it is wrong that may be a safety hazard in the world we live in because it is infested with ignorance and hate. It is best to learn about these things and to become skilled at knowing  how to maneuver this planet and lifestyles that exist in it.

Cyntoia's story reminded me how permanently wrong my life could have went a long time ago. She didn't deserve to be in jail serving her life for a crime that someone else had committed. She was out and about where she should not have been, doing what she should have never been doing, but that doesn't justify the law to charge her for the murder of the man who was committing a crime in the first place. They basically put her in jail for killing a man who was going to pay a minor to have sex with him, or who knows what he was going to do, he could have killed her. She was obviously experiencing trauma, severe trust issues, and whatever else that was bothering her. How did she get there in the first place? The closed captioning wasn't perfect so I struggled to keep up with what was going on but clearly, the system is messed up big time. Cyntoia was ignored, its like the law doesn't care or acknowledge that they can do better than what they did. This happens all over the world, when is it going to stop? We as a community have to step in and intervene.

Because Who is Perfect is another first of its kind that I have seen. It was nice to see something different, artistic, and like a teachable piece of display that could be useful and used more often. I have been reading a lot about disability lately as another class is focused on the social construction of disabilities and while not really have been close to many people who have disabilities, it feels good to learn more about the area of disabilities. This video made me think how there may be differences in life and indeed, no one is perfect, but perhaps they are in their own little way?

I saw the video A Girl Like Me Before and but it wasn’t closed captioning like this one but I think I understood most of it. I think it is really, really, disappointing that black girls have experienced this. In my mind, it just doesn’t make any sense, like, how people could even set their mind to making people thinking like this but I guess that is the nature of evil, oppression, discrimination, ignorance, hate, and narrow-mindness. I hope that this kind of negative perspective can fade away. When one of the girls started talking about how not knowing where they are really from in Africa, because there are so many different tribes, cultures, and origins, it totally makes sense, that not knowing your true ancestral line and where your family originated from is a negative feeling and reality that I have been experiencing lately. I want to know where my family is from, who they were, what they did, how they got to this country, and from where, etc. I feel like because of not knowing where we really come from, that makes life more difficult, disconnected, and srange. What black girls have had to go through due to society’s oppressive, discriminative, and racial perspectives need to come to an end once and for all. Black is beautiful, but it looks like it is painful too.

I LOVED the TED Talk for this week. It reminds me that the U.S. Constitution is really not what it sounds like it is. There are so many things wrong with it and the society that has been structured to follow rules of some made up agenda that is totally off track from where we should be. LGBTQ should be able to adopt children without any problems, they should be able to live without worrying about what the law or anyone thinks about or does to them. I really hope that these things will change but just today someone was telling me that the world will never change. That is the hardest, not knowing what to do or say, I can only keep hoping, and learning what to do that might have more impact on the world.

Week 8

Jacqueline Novogratz mentioned that the problem and question that I also had noticed was how poverty is defined. I can speak from personal experience, my mother did not finish her college degree due to health issues. Her mother and father both worked but they couldn’t afford health insurance, like anesthesia to numb the pain while the doctor burned the tumor off the skin of her back. Growing up on the east side of I35 and witnessing domestic violence at home sure made a difference. Although we had a place to live, food, water, and clothes, the limited choices and lack of freedom took charge of our lives.

My mother always said to be thankful that we live in America and not in another country sleeping on the dirt with no food and water or the opportunity to go to school/work. But now I am realizing how wrong "America" has been and I don't know how to look at it anymore. I have lived in a low-income household for 27 years which can be depressing, depending on the way I look at it. The future looks brighter with plans to ensure I build the foundation for my children that they need to have prepared for them. I struggle but my life is nothing compared to what I know many others endure. My mother never gave up on me, taught me the importance of getting a college education, so that I would not struggle with my children as she did with my sister and I. Being where I am now makes me not give up, I want to serve others in some way, somehow.

I am most passionate about the horrors and tragedies that have been committed against Native Americans and African Americans. Aaron Huey’s discussion about greediness of white people have once again proved to me I am not imagining things. Tan Le’s immigration story is another one that truly touches the heart. I still find it shocking that this is the world that we live in, how millions of people are still fleeing a place that is supposed to be a home, to find another home, to be only lacking what people deserve; justice, complete equitable harmony, opportunity, and peace.

When Jimmy Carter mentioned the religious misinterpretation of holy books that belittle women to be secondary compared to men in the eyes of God is another reason why I think there is something wrong with religion. When we moved from the place where we lived for 18 years, we found a church next to the new home. Wanting to find somewhere to raise my kids in church thinking that it is a good environment, I looked it up on the website and it had mentioned how women were below men and that it would stay like that. Once again, absurdness draws the line around life and I try to make sense of it. I feel like Love is the right religion, if anything.

It was encouraging to hear, “Then I realized, the first step to solving any problem is to not hide from it, and the first step to any form of action is awareness.” I am becoming more aware everyday although I find it difficult to talk about it, in the best way that I feel like I should know how. I guess it takes practice, and finding that spark that lights me on fire. I am still shy, afraid, and nervous to speak out. But I plan to take action to advocate as much as I learn how to do so.

Tears came to my eyes when Mellody said that her mother told her, “Mellody, you can be anything." And because of those words, I would wake up at the crack of dawn, and because of those words, I would love school more than anything, and because of those words, when I was on a bus going to school, I dreamed the biggest dreams. And it's because of those words that I stand here right now full of passion, asking you to be brave for the kids who are dreaming those dreams today.” This made me think of my kids. Sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough for them or for me. I am so caught up in classes and trying to get through what I need to do, it feels like I have no time for them, and they live in their own little world, without the attention that I feel like I am not giving them. I want them to know that they can be anything too. I want them to love school, but I want them to be taught the truth. I want them to be successful. When I find myself stressing about these things, I think of others, ALL THE TIME. Am I being selfish and greedy thinking about how hard my life is, what I want and need? What else can I do right now to help others? Knowing about the wrong doings in the world just kills me. But that is why I majored in social work, because that is where my heart is, besides my kids and creating a better life for us, I wish to help others have a better life too. Although we might all be on our own path, we all walk and cross paths together, which means that I can’t just look the other way regarding injustice.

Week 7

Rosie King’s TED Talk was interesting as it shed a little light on autism for me as I don’t really know too much about Autism. I appreciated the way that Rosie was explaining how her personal experience with Autism is unique. I also thought that it was really weird that there would be a google list that pops up in a search that says people who have autism are demons.

The chapter by Alex Wilson was a good read as I have never read anything that discussed the identity development of gay or lesbian Native Americans. The phrase “two-spirited” reminded me of something that I had read in another book that described something about individuals who identify as gay or lesbian, which unfortunately I cannot remember what it was, but it made sense to me. I totally agree with the statement in this chapter, “We understand that the spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual parts of ourselves are equally important and interrelated. When one aspect of a person is unhealthy, the entire person is affected. This too is true for the entire community; when one aspect of the community is missing, the entire community will suffer in some way.” I feel like this is a perfect explanation of why there is so much chaos in the world. There is something wrong in so many places and homes in society due to the discrimination, judgment, and marginalization of individuals that affects people in all kinds of ways that get under the skin, spreading all over the world.

Adams chapter 44 reminded me of how mostly all of my family is Christian, and most all people that I know. I used to think that it was normal, even though I did not really understand completely. Eventually, I thought I understood, but then I became confused. I started reading and doing research to find the answers to my questions, which I think I have found them, or at least some, but I still don’t know what to believe in and how to direct my life regarding my spirituality, although I am a vegan at heart, and wish for world peace. It is really weird, its like this world is full of secrets and mysteries. I know there is a God or Gods, but Christian privilege is an odd aspect of this world that has an ugly history which I feel like still has responsibility for a lot of the issues that exist today. I would think that we wouldn’t have these religious problems, but we do, and the famous question of mine is, why?

Adams chapter 45 really underlined the major points that need to be addressed. Scriptural justifications for slavery, destroying Native American culture, oppression of the Japanese and Muslims, religious justification for exploitation is just INSANE. I cant get over it but wow, the world we live in! To me, this also pertains to the animal cruelty of factory farming that is a current holocaust that happens every second of the day. I often look around myself and wonder how Native American lands were considered useless but where stolen and taken advantage of. All of this in the name of God, a Christian God. So many different religions, who is to say what is right and wrong, true or false? The world and universe that we live in goes farther than the eyes can see, there has to be something else that is the missing solution to all of these issues, that I feel is being kept away from us, or it is the willpower of individuals and society that is misled and distracted. It is absurd how people can claim anyone different from them to be devil worshippers, not realizing that their hurtful actions make them to be that they are the devils themselves.

Chapter 113 and 118 touched on a topic that I am learning more about in another class, Social Construction of Disabilities. I think that it is true that this topic is minimally examined and understood. I thought that the page that discussed how to become an ally was really good, it should be posted everywhere for everyone to see. It seems like all of the money and attention is distributed somewhere else that does not serve the elderly and people with disabilities. The gap in services is created and it can be fixed by implementing improvements in the service systems. The next step is just making the move towards the changes that needs to be made in all aspects of life on earth.

Sources

Adams, M., Blumfeld, W., Castañeda, C., Hackman, H., Peters, M., Zúñiga, X. (2013). Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. New York, NY: Rutledge.

King, R. (2014). How autism freed me to be myself [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/rosie_king_how_autism_freed_me_to_be_myself.

Wilson, Alex. Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Class: Dimensions of Inequality and Identity. Sage, Los Angeles 2015. pp. 205.