We continue with Intersectionality...Racism, Class and Heterosexism

Well, class was interesting this week...Although I was certainly incensed by the thoughtless cartoon portrayal of the Trayvon Martin murder, I hope that the author is not somehow "murdered" by us in the same way.  I can respect the opinion of others even when I don't personally agree.  I think it's important to recognize that everyone will not always agree and that it's alright.  Social Justice requires a call to action.  I attended the Rally for Trayvon Martin held on Monday and even though it wasn't as large as the rallies I watched on tv in other parts of the nation, I was deeply moved.  First, let me be honest and say that this was my very first rally.  As a social work student, it served as a reminder of just how important social justice is to our profession, but as a human being, it served to remind me of the senseless and often brutal ways in which we continue to treat one another.  I made a video which included short interviews from Professor G, Dr. Aguillar, Dr. Gilbert and another visitor that has been to our class but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to upload it to my blog from my cellphone.  Hopefully, I will be able to include it next week.  More than anything, I wanted to show the diversity of the crowd and  how solemn of an occasion it was.  It also brought together every population that we have discussed in class. There were people of every race, class, sexual orientation, gender, and age represented in the crowd.  That, more than anything else, moved me the most. How does something as horrible as murder bring us all together and yet, also continue to push us further apart?  It's really fustrating and maddening to realize that we are still just as divided as we have ever been.  Someone mentioned the fact that a black man had killed another black man here in Austin two weeks ago and noone was making a big deal about that.  In the "hood" where it happened, there was a big deal made about it. A block discussion was held and flowers, balloons, and crosses decorated the corner where it occurred.  It mattered to the family of the "dead" son and to the family of the son who will be "lost"to the prison system.  It mattered to everyone in that community.  Who it didn't matter to was the media.  It garnered very little media attention but that's predictable considering that it happened in the "hood".  I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see that it mattered enough to garner the front page of the American Statesman in Saturday's paper.

East Austin neighborhoods want downtown-style safety measures

Ricardo B. Brazziell/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Enlarge Photo

Balloons and flowers mark the area on 13th Street near Chicon Street where 32-year-old Nicholas Jarmon was fatally shot on March 17. Area residents say the slaying is a repercussion of a troubled neighborhood.

So, yes, any type of murder matters.  I guess the only question left to answer is why it should matter?

 

To keep with the reading, I really liked the poem, 'To Stop the Violence against Woman", by Alice Walker.  It speaks to the fact that we as women must first stop the violence against ourselves and against one another.  I'm still not quite sure why we as women are always condemning each other or in competition with one another?  I understand that male domination likes to keep us oppressed and by inciting these two main C's (condemnation and competition), they keep us in servitude to them.  What will it take for us to unite and stop the violence against woman?

 

Finally, just a short comment on heterosexism.  For years, I lived in this place where I practiced the beliefs of the majority when I desperately needed to define and be my ownself.  So, in 2005, I shed the jacket of heterosexism and stepped out of the closet to embrace my own sexuality.  This created quite a disturbance and a disconnect in my family and almost destroyed the bond between me and my children and me and my mother.  It has taken several years for us to move past some of the stigma of my being openly gay.  I was pleasantly suprised when this past spring break my mother for the first time embraced my partner and my youngest daughter decided that if anything happens to me, she wants to be allowed to remain with my partner.  That's a miracle and a blessing!  There is still a long way to go as far as the stigma that society attaches to being gay but thank God for those who have advocated for the LGTBQ community so that I can remain free and feel good in my own skin.

 

Unitl next week....

 

 

 

Is Culture Institutional?

Well, it's back to the grind so to speak... Hope everyone had a great spring break!
So, first, let's talk about the lecture.  I have to be the first to admit that I was disappointed by the way Dr. Edelman answered my question, "How much does culture play a role in the achievement gap?", but after having several days to think about it, how else should he have answered?  If the answer to this question is culture plays a huge role, then actually he responded as most Blacks have been ingrained to do since the days of slavery.  Seems a little harsh, doesn't it?  Don't get me wrong, that doesn't make it right but if culture is seen as an institution then some of the ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of the black culture may come from this place of inferiority and lower "station" that has long been breeded through the "privileged".  It seems like that brings us back to race.  Professor G. always says that the topics we address in Social Justice are intersectional.  I have to finally agree.  Why is it that we cannot talk about culture without bringing up race?  This is because many of the culture values, ideals, and attitudes of blacks in America today are not the same as those from the actual Motherland...Africa.  We have been assimilated to adapt to the ways of the Europeans and have lost our own sense of culture and identity as a result.  I do believe that through sheer tenacity and refusal to totally adapt, some of our ancestors kept some of that culture and that is what most blacks live by today.  We are still seen as inferior, however.  If you didn't read, "Why are Black Students Lagging?", by Felicia Lee tha Professor G. sent, I am including the link because it brings up some very interesting point.  http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/30/arts/why-are-black-students-lagging.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Rebecca, from our class, also shared some excellent ideas, videos, and clips that you should read.  While I don't agree with the entire attitude that Professor Ogbu takes in the article, I have to agree that there is something that makes blacks think success is unattainable and that it is ingrained and then somehow passed on to our children.  As a parent, I made sure to know of all the avaliable programs that were available in their schools becasue i realized that society doesn't deem the education of my children as important as the white kid who sits in the next seat.  It has to be the most important thing as a parent.  We have to become advocates and champions for our children and sometimes for others' children as well.

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the Trayvon Manor case.  It is an outrage!!  I'm still not sure why this has not garnered more media attention.  Is it because it happened to a black kid?  How unfortunate it is to be black in America!!  Sometimes, I start living in this ideal world in where we are all equal and treated as such and then I am slammed back into reality with something like this.
I have a son who resides in an all-white neighborhood in Maryland.  Should I be concerned that one day I may receive the same call as Trayvon's mother?  I would be horrified to think that my son was allowed to lay unidentified in a morgue while we searched frantically for him only to find out later that someone had killed him.  This was a hate crime and unless it's treated as one, I find that I once again must be disappointed with this "Great" country.  I feel like I must always somehow be afraid for my own son.

Until next week....

RECAP

Well, Spring Break is upon us and boy is it well-timed.  Class on Wednesday was interesting as we delved into the topic on reliogion.  I'm just glad that it didn't feel as anyone was pushing any one idea onto anyone and that everyone seemed comfortable with speaking on the topic.  I also was impressed with how people were able to be honest and speak on what they believe.  Religion is a touchy subject and to feel like you're not getting preached to or at is a wonderful thing.

I feel that a recap of our prior conversations and topics in class is a good way to end the first part of this semester.  I began blogging for the first time as the class assignment for Social Justice but what I've come to realize is that it also allows me to speak in a voice I didn't realize I even had.  Don't get me wrong, I know I'm a little wordy in class, but the ability to address the information learned in class and from the readings through blogging instead of test-taking has been real rewarding.   I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first, but it is not so bad really.  It makes me have to work at getting the information instead having the information handed to me on a million pages of paper that I will probably throw out at the end of the semester.  Besides, it also saves trees.:) 

The conversations on racism, religion, intersectionality, and classism have all challenged me to ask myself, "In what ways do I perpetuate these "isms"?  Do I believe that I have no biases towards those who I deem different or can I be honest and say, "Hey, I am affected by that?"  It what ways do I practice openmindedness and in what ways do I practice discrimination and prejudice?  Am I teaching my children what I learned as a child or do I strive to make a difference in their lives?  How many time a day do I refer to others as "white", "black", or "mexican"?  Do I see people who are unable to provide for themselves as lazy and worthless?  How many times do I roll down my window and give a homeless person a dollar no matter what I think they are going to do with the money?  Am I so busy looking for differences that I miss the similarities?  These are the questions that I have asked myself throughout this semester and if I'm honest, I have probably done one or more of these each day.  Social Justice requires that I look past the barriers that keep us separate and build bridges to draw us closer.  It is a must that I fight to eradicate the very things that keeps society unequal whether through race, class, sex, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or age.  Do I really believe in social justice?  If I do, what am I doing to end social inequality?  Why do I have to keep saying, "I'll do it once I'm a social worker?"  If I haven't learned anything else this semester, one thing I have learned is that I don't have to wait and that yes, even one can make a difference. 

I guess all I had was questions this week...  Oh well, Professor G. always says that if we knew everything we wouldn't be in school.  Have a great break!!!

Until next time.....

Man, is it just me or does these weeks seem to be just flying by?  Before you know it, we will be nearing the end to another successful semester.  Strengthened, reformed, and overwhelmed with knowledge.  I will make one remark about Walmart.  What the ....?  I never would have guessed that Walmart was a company that used its employees in such a way.  I was really surprised because personally, I liked Walmart and so spent a good amount of money there each week.  If I'm totally honest, I'm not even sure that I will stop shopping there.  I'm sure that my closest friends will find me insensitive, but I'm just saying...

Enough about Walmart.  This has been a really rough week for me. I have had a headache for the past two weeks and it is really starting to get to me.  I did, however, find time to do some reading.  The idea that domestic service reveals a contradiction in feminism because the very thing that pushed for women's involvement outside the home, was the very thing that bound some women into oppression.  Employed middle and upper-class women escaped the double day syndrome by hiring poor women of color to perform housework and child care.  Some feminists defines domestic service as progressive because traditional women's work moved into the labor market and became paid work.  This would be fine except for the fact that when women hire other women at low wages to do housework, both still are women and both are still oppressed by men.  My mother used to work for this white couple when I was growing up.  It pained me to see her catch the bus, then walk for over 5 to 6 blocks to slave in a big house for not even enough money to pay the bills.  Sometimes they would give her leftovers from a party or offer to drive her home and I remember always being embarrassed by the fact that my mother was a maid.  I went to work with her a few times so that she could get off earlier, but she didn't like it because I would have to miss school.  I could tell she was really tired at the end of each day but she always managed to come home and still provide for us kids.  Today, mostly immigrants work as domestics, but there was a time when only black women were maids.  I think the fact that most of the middle and upper-class women could afford to pay someone else to do their housework, they felt that this elevated them to a different station even though they are both women.  This idea of classism that makes one woman feel superior to another woman when in fact both are oppressed and thought less than by men is truly sad.  While the women that my mother cleaned for escaped the toils of housework, my mother was left to care for two homes.  I am grateful to my mother for all she did to provide for us.

There's a saying that you don't get into an argument about politics and religion.  I think there's some truth to that.  As a kid, my mother insisted that we go to church. We were raised Baptist and so services were held all day on Sunday, Wednesday was Prayer Meeting, Saturday was Choir Rehearsal, and the rest of the time you waited just in case something else was happening at another church. We had services where the women and men would shout, speak tongues, weep, and holler out the name of Jesus.  As a kid, I didn't understand the spirit that they were displaying so I often wondered what religion was really all about.  As an adult, I shy away from religion because I still don't understand it.  What I have been able to figure out is that spirit that I saw those people display years ago.  The spiritual part of my journey has been filled with an ecletic approach to religion and I find that I could borrow something from several religions if it helps to improve my connection to God.  Many people have different views about this, especially those who believe that what they believe in is what I should believe is as well.  So, it's a constant struggle to find my place with the religion piece.  Also, as a gay, black woman, I have struggled with family members who view same sex relationships as an abomination to God and that I'm going straight to hell.  I'm not sure about that either.  What I do believe is that if God is all-knowing, all-seeing, loving, forgiving, and bigger than any problem I can have, then I'm secure in the knowledge that He loves me.  That has to be enough for me because if not, I'm stuck in confusion and always second-guessing myself about what I believe.

Well, I guess I will end for now but as we continue with this idea of religion over the next couple of weeks, let's be mindful that everyone doesn't believe in the same thing and that's ok.

Until next week...