The readings that were assigned this week included the same questions that I have been asking myself for the past few years. It is reassuring to know that I am not the only one who thinks and wonders about why things are the way that they are in this world. The video, “Love Has No Labels” brought tears to my eyes because it is beautiful and means so much to see proof that love has no labels. Imagine the world without any labels, how different life would be. Hate, stigma, dogma, and discrimination against different beliefs seem to be one of the major influences of injustice.

I don’t remember the first time I read the Cycle of Socialization in class but I think it was last summer semester, or the year before. Reading it again is for sure worth the time. It makes me think of how much difference there would be in the world if all people began to appreciate differences and treat each other with respect, and how much I wish that was possible. As each of us are born into a specific set of social identities based on gender, ethnicity, skin color, first language, age, ability status, religion, sexual orientation, and economic class, it makes me wonder, how on earth did these categories come to exist? As if there was no other way to go about these differences in a better form or fashion instead of letting these things fall in hierarchy positions in society. In a way it’s like, aren’t these things just imaginary made up labels that cause problems by dividing the people?

The chapters assigned this week are helpful in directing me to finding out where I can begin to make a difference. I understand that I need to analyze my privileges and how I can help others who don’t have the same opportunities that I do. I acknowledge that I am beyond fortunate to be able to go to college, have a place to live, a baby sitter, Medicaid, and food stamps so that I can work on graduating from college, get a job, and be able to hopefully afford to raise my children without major financial struggles that I face now. It bothers me as I acknowledge that many people do not have the ability to go to college or access to equal opportunities for many different reasons that prevent them from doing so. The Park Avenue film totally explained to me exactly what I had suspected all of this time. I thought I was just being paranoid into believing conspiracy and quick to point the blame at the rich, but it is true, they are the ones responsible for the wealth and income inequality that forces people to suffer from poverty. I am just totally dumbfounded at how this is still happening, people blame those in poverty for the tax dollars that go to food stamps and Medicaid, when really, it is just not their fault. I feel like the government could do a better job at protecting the American Dream as well as the whole entire planet itself.

I do experience guilt as I have privilege and I fear not finding out what I can do to help others gain the equal opportunities that they deserve. But that is why I am majoring in social work so that I can learn what it is that I can do so that I can make a difference. It is a bit intimidating knowing how hard I will have to work to brainstorm, research, read, investigate, and explore the dualism, hierarchy, competition, individualism, domination, colonialism, and the scarcity principle that stimulate the root causes of inequality in society.

The Cycle of Liberation has totally described what I am feeling and it explains exactly why I was drawn to social work. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in college after I graduated from high school, but as I took a career exploration class in my third semester at ACC, I decided social work was the field that I wanted to go into. Taking all of the basic core requirements kind of wore me out, especially with kids, and I became confused as I didn’t understand why I was going to college anymore. Now I wish I had paid more attention to all of my classes as each subject does relate to social work in a way to where all things are connected, and influence one another in some shape or form. Starting the major social work classes have stimulated a lot of new feelings by the readings and material that I have been waiting so long for.

These chapters helped me see a little more into how we as a team can help uplift the oppressed. The ideas of how we can all come together, aware of how we are all different in ways of privileges and differences, and understand that love has no labels, give hope and inspiration that equity, justice, and world peace could be more of a possibility. There is so much more that we can do for others who face inequities 24/7, we just have to stand together, work together, and coalition together for the improvements that we wish to see and people deserve.