Prejudice, Discrimination, and Police Brutality

While reading about social justice and civil rights, I began to think about all of the recent reports of police officers using excessive force when interacting with African American men and women.  Such as when the school police officer in South Carolina grabbed the student out of her desk and threw her to the floor for not complying with an order to go with the officer.  When I first read this article and saw the video, I was shocked, and I wondered if this would have happened if the student was white and not African American.   http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/26/us/south-carolina-spring-valley-high-school-student-video/   There have been many incidents in the past few years that have been similar to this incident in that a white police officer used excessive force when interacting with an African American suspect or person of interest.

I also began to think about how many times people have seen only some of the facts and leaped to some conclusion that has nothing or very little to do with actual events.  In these cases, events can quickly spiral out of control before all of the facts are known.  This was portrayed in a recent episode of CSI: Cyber in which a video of police brutality was taken out of context, modified to make it look like the African American suspect was killed, and released to the public.  These events led to rioting in the town portrayed in this episode.

Something I thought of while reading about the incident in the South Carolina school and after seeing this episode of CSI: Cyber was that maybe incidents like these would not happen as much if people were better able to relate to the victims of prejudice.  An attempt to teach children what discrimination felt like was made by Jane Elliot in her third grade classroom in 1968 after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  This was called the brown-eyed and blue-eyed experiment.  In order to demonstrate to her students the effect that discrimination can have on a person, Jane Elliot divided the class by the color of their eyes.  The brown-eyed children were allowed to sit in the front and were told they were better than the blue-eyed children, who had to sit in the back.  She then observed the differences in their behavior.  The following Monday, she switched the groups so that the blue-eyed children were told they were better than the brown-eyed children and observed the changes in their behavior throughout the day.  Although this was a very controversial experiment, the children had had the opportunity to feel what it is like to be discriminated against.  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lesson-of-a-lifetime-72754306/?page=1

The topic I would like to talk about this week is the misconception of the word “welfare.” When we hear this word, we automatically assume that the people on welfare are those that are lowlifes. What people do not know is that everyone, not just the less fortunate, is actually receiving welfare as well. The textbook definition of welfare is “people contributing to care for others and for themselves. The system exist for two primary reasons: (1) to create a “safety net”… (2) to provide for services that individuals cannot provide.” In a sense, the world revolves around welfare. Therefore, welfare can be universality or selectivity depending on your situation. What bothers me the most is when people say, “all people on welfare are poor and lazy.” What they don’t know is that there are actually many requirements that the participants need in order for them to receive these benefits. For example, they must have a job, or work X amount of hours per week. So these people are working just as many hours as those who are not on welfare, but the reason why they need it is because even though they work long hours they still cannot make ends meet due to their low wages. The people not on welfare will then use the “blaming the victim” approach, and will try and find any reason to blame the individual rather than the society for the inequality in the economy, after all they’re the ones making the people poor in the first place. The problem here is that instead of addressing the big picture--the economy, they are blaming the individuals on welfare themselves for making the economy bad. This is a problem because with this mindset, nothing will ever be resolved; the rich will stay rich and the poor will stay poor. What also bothers me is when everyone believes that these “poor and lazy” people will live on welfare their entire lives and not find a job to improve their life. What people don’t understand are these programs and how they work. For example, the TANF program has a five-year limit, and limited funding.  There are many loops and regulations that need to be met, and not everyone who applies can receive it and everyone has to understand that. It is just mind boggling that some people are so quick to judge, not taking into consideration that everyone is brought up differently. Nobody wants to admit that they are on welfare, but in reality we all are.

http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/11/common-myths-people-welfare/

The cost of Privilege

During our last class session a subject was brought up that I found very interesting.

We often take for granted all the privileges that we have by simply being born in the United States, during our class we have examined the devastating effects of poverty in America and all of the hardship, tribulations, and sacrifices one must when living below the poverty line just to get from day to day. I believe however that is is important to keep things in perspective, in that even our poorest are living in relative luxury when compared to those living in poverty in regions such as India, west africa, rural china, and the middle east etc. where things that we view as basic necessities of life such as running water, education, fare wages, democratic elections, and electricity are often completely unattainable. I don't say this to devalue or dismiss poverty in America, or to suggest that we stop fighting to improve the quality of life of americans living below the poverty line but simply to put things in perspective. Especially when even the most minute aspects of first world living (our cell phones, clothes, shoes, electronics) are obtained at the expense of the third world wether through labour or resources it all comes at price. We live at the expense of others and it is something that we should always be aware of. As perspective social workers we would be doing ourselves and the world a dis-service if we choose only to focus our efforts on advocating for the rights of those living in U.S our focus should be global, to increase increase increase quality of life and advocate for the rights of all people. If we do not we are simply perpetuating the notion that
an American life holds more value then another.

U.S. compared to other countries

I found a statement in our reading, “we are a nation of resources but not a nation of social services aimed at preventing poverty and poor health” this statement supports a lot of what we discussed in class this evening when Susan asked us where does the US rank in social welfare. I believe the two correlate, in most cases than none someone in poverty is likely to have health concerns due to lack of funds, education, and resources. Our country life expectancy is below most other developed nations. The U.S spends the largest amount of money on health care. My question is where does it go? Yes we have great technology, as Mahria mentioned during our discussion but why is our infant mortality higher than other countries? There are resources available many which were presented this evening, SNAP, WIC, and Medicare, etc. Our government puts a lot of prominence on the wealthy, allowing for breaks with taxes for employment, home ownership, and education. Those funds could be used in lower income communities, providing accessible resources for families. In some low income households it is difficult for a single parent and in a few cases a two parent household to afford transportation other than to work and home. Funds could be used to provide mobile serves to identified areas in need; I believe this could improve our rating. If all U.S. citizens were treated fairly we could decrease the gap between the rich and poor and improve poverty and poor health.

The older adults

According to CNN.com, by 2029, the youngest of the baby boomers will reach retirement age by turning 65; it is also estimated that by 2030 the older adult population will have doubled. "Possibly more than 80 million will be on Medicare and social security"(CNN.COM). If we don't come up with a new plan, our generation will struggle after retirement without social security benefits. I work with the elderly community and for most of them, social security is not enough to live of, but it helps. I was also talking to my elderly next door neighbor just the other night, he is retired due to health issues, but his wife is still working full time because they can not simply afford not to. As social workers we must advocate for the rights of the elderly and become more involved in policy making. I included a video that talks about the social security program crisis and the lack of working people vs. the people getting the benefits. I think that this is a very important issue for social workers to be aware of because it at some point, it will affect everyone as we continues to age and eventually retire.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgzJe0FNwUU

Week 1 blog update

In light of the recent readings, I feel this huge responsibility that I've been somewhat aware of on a personal level, to fight for human rights and advocate for issues by resolving problems best suited to the wishes of our clients. I find it interesting what the Chu, Tsui, and Yan article called attention to as the standards that we are responsible for upholding. I believe it would be a conscious effort especially for me in not allowing my own personal beliefs to affect my performance as a social worker in advocating for the rights of my client even if I don't share the same beliefs or values they would uphold. It's a charge and a challenge to every social worker after reading this article to make an effort to be conscious of any biases or indifference they reflect and to acknowledge them as a tool for staying impartial to the rights of the client.

"Poverty" in America

           One thing that stood out the most when reading the assigned chapters and listening to today’s lecture from class were the negative connotations that are directly correlated with the word poverty. In class, when we were going around the room and discussing what comes to mind when thinking of the poverty, mostly everybody’s reaction was one of negativity or pessimism. I believe it is fair to say that the society we live in today assumes that poverty comes from a lack of hard work or determination. In my personal opinion, that could not be further from the truth.  

There are millions of workers in America who work full-time jobs, sometimes more than one, to try and support their family’s needs but somehow still fall under the poverty line. “In 2011, the US Department of Labor reported at least 10 million people worked and were still below the unrealistic official US poverty line, an increase of 1.5 million more than the last time they checked” (Quigley, 2013). That is an astonishing number, to me, for a couple reasons. Not only is that simply an obscene number of people who are working but still struggling to provide for their family, but more importantly, how many people need to struggle in order to get their voices heard. Nobody who works hard in America should struggle to feed their children. Yet, nothing substantial seems to be done for the “working poor” in America to end this ridiculous problem.  

This is also a very serious problem I’ve seen my entire life growing up in a small town outside of New York City. One perfect example that I have from my adolescence that proves this to be sadly true came when I worked my first job in a kitchen at the local hospital in town. One of my co-workers was a mother of three, and worked six days a week, 7:30 to 3:30, day in and day out. She also worked a night job about three days out of the week. One day at work I overheard her talking to her friend, who also worked at the hospital, saying that the night before she had to put her children to bed hungry. She simply did not have the money or resources, for dinner, on that particular night. I remember thinking how absolutely ludicrous that sounded, and I haven’t forgotten since, and probably never will. In fact, the more I think about it, the more infuriated I become.

One of the biggest reasons why the working poor are left with absolutely no money or resources, is the outrageous income disparity in America today. Over the past 25 years economic growth has not been beneficial to all workers, in fact, it really only benefited those who were already well off. “ The top 20 percent of households in this country realized an increase of more than 50 percent…while the bottom 20 percent realized an increase of only 2 percent” (Segal, 2013). A 2% increase over the past 25 years? While the rich just keep getting richer? That doesn’t even seem possible in this country, but it is. Does that sit well with you? Because it sure doesn’t sit well with me.

Therefore, my main goal of this blog post was to simply get everyone to think differently about the word “poverty” if you haven’t already. Poverty does not describe the type of person you are, or how much effort you put in every day of your life. So next time you hear a discussion about poverty and the negative connotations that go along with it, maybe drop some actual knowledge on what poverty in America truly is.