Hello everyone! I’m Sarah Hayes, and I’m a junior social
work major. Already, I’m so excited for this class because although I do have a
passion for helping others and do want to be able to fight for social justice
in whatever career I have one day, there is simply so much about different
groups and communities and things that have happened to contribute to the
ongoing fight for social justice that I don’t
know. During the self-interview project, time and time again I found myself
thinking, “Wow, I’ve never thought about this before.” Needless to say, since I
learned so much within the first week of class, I’m eager to see what we’ll all
learn before the semester is over.
I loved the way
Junot Diaz encourages people to take a possessive investment in other people’s
struggles. I think that too often, the people “above” choose to look the other
way rather than taking the time to focus on and help the people “on the
ground.” Like he said, compassion is a muscle that has to be exercised. I
actually remembered listening to someone say that on an episode of TED Radio Hour called “Just a Little
Nicer.” The findings presented matched up with Junot Diaz’s idea that people
can relearn to have compassion, and get better at it with practice. It seems
like in our society, we have gotten so used to the norm of self-centeredness.
Maybe if people were encouraged to practice one act of compassion a day, it
would be (for lack of a better term) “easier” to obtain social justice.
Additionally, Diaz’s idea that “privilege cloaks itself in silence” spoke
volumes to me. I had never thought about why it’s so hard to speak up
sometimes—but now I realize that it is because
talking about your privilege threatens your privilege. However, if I learned
one thing from Diaz’s interview, it’s definitely that especially as social
workers, we can’t afford to be silent! Words are powerful; talking about things
that no one else wants to talk about is powerful.
After reading Inequalities
of the World, my eyes were opened to the different types of equality. I
think previously, I could say “Oh, that right there is inequality,” but I think
that understanding the three dimensions of inequality is important because if
you can pinpoint exactly what the
inequality is (vital, existential, or resource), you can better identify how to
assist the individual or group. While reading about the shapes of inequality
(circle vs. ladder) it was easy to see how the circle applies, because when I
think of inequality, I often think of ingroups and outgroups and exclusion. It
was a little harder for me to understand how the ladder applies. If anyone
could shed some light on the situation, I would really appreciate it!
The first chapter of Johnson’s book, “Rodney King’s
Question,” was my favorite thing to read this week, probably because I can
identify with the author because I know I’m pretty privileged. I felt like he
was talking to me when he talked about “stepping back from defensive
sensitivity” in order to be part of the solution, because privilege is a
problem for both sides of the
spectrum—the people that have it and the people that don’t. Like Junot Diaz,
Johnson touches on saying the words to
talk about oppression, which, for me, confirmed the importance of being bold and
speaking out.
Finally, similar to the way in which Therborn clearly defined the types of
inequalities in order to help us better identify them, Adams’ definition of the
conceptual framework of oppression also helps us understand better ways to
approach the issue. Sometimes, reading about all of the different ways people
are discriminated against is super overwhelming, particularly when they overlap
and intersect. At the same time, it makes me think of something I once read
somewhere about a way to look at the traumatic events taking place in the world
that we see on the news all the time—no matter what’s going on, look for the
people helping. There are always people helping. It’s so exciting that we can be those people!
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510298/ted-radio-hour
Adams, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice
Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference
Diaz and Moyers, Rewriting the Story of America
Therborn, Inequalities of the World
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510298/ted-radio-hour
Adams, Readings for Diversity and Social Justice
Johnson, Privilege, Power, and Difference
Diaz and Moyers, Rewriting the Story of America
Therborn, Inequalities of the World
