Welcome, new Verons,
I’ve taken the liberty of taking my notes from today’s
class, combining them with Marina’s (thank you Marina!) and synthesizing
them in such a way to identify the issues on your minds and “what
you’d like to learn” over the course of the semester (at least as far as I "read" the conversation and the notes!). Please read, reflect,
expand on, subtract, revise or respond to what I've written as it strikes you.
In writing out this blog post, one thing that came to my mind was the recent video posted on youtube of another police
shooting in Missouri. Warning: This is a difficult video to watch—even as it incorporates nearly all the issues touched on in today’s class: media, brutality, stigmatization, mental illness, violence, the ambiguities and
meanings of bystander in the Internet age, fear, safety, humanity--and more, I am sure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTBPtWUJqPM
Social Justice
Issues; Goals for the Class
Ferguson, Missouri, police brutality. Police brutality: it’s
not a new phenomenon, it’s not just Ferguson. WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: What
people think about it? What are the issues? What exactly you can do? Why
is it happening? How pervasive is it? Help educate me about these issues.
Children and migration crisis at the border; the media. WHAT
I’D LIKE TO LEARN: How the media portray the
situation in Arizona and NY, differences and similarities in portraits and
portrayals and how these portraits shape people’s perceptions. Also, what are the immigration
policies and practices in different states?
Larger issue related to the media: "(We live in a world) where media is allowed
to tell my parents to buy into what the media says is 'true" (i.e., 'This is
the truth.'). I could be more of an optimist if people would see things
differently.” What does it mean when cops (and others) say, “Well, the cop needs to protect
himself.”? WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: How
does the media shape perception? WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: What does safety and protection mean?
Palestine/Israel. “Same exact thing” in terms of how “truth”
is constructed: How is Palestine/Israel being portrayed? Why does one “side” seem to have “the right”
and the other doesn’t? Isn't that situation about the oppressed versus oppressor? It’s not a conflict since "conflict"
suggests two equal sides--and these two sides are not equal. Is it true you can’t change the media? How can you
ever get to the truth? Also what is the role of the Internet in promoting or
silencing voices? Who controls the filters and how are they determined? How do
we manage to advocate for more freedom on the Internet? What does such
“freedom” look like? WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN:
How to deconstruct the situation (the situation being about Israel/Palestine; the situation being about the shaping of perception) and try to get at what is true.
The educational system: Interested in how it is great for some and not so great for
“others.” Who are those “others”? They include the disabled, disenfranchised, marginalized. WHAT
I’D LIKE TO LEARN: Why is the educational
system we have the way it is? How did it get like that, and how can it be
improved?
People with mental illnesses or diagnoses of mental illness:
Concerned with how they are viewed and how they are treated. Issues around
stigma, lack of access to care (health and mental health care), especially in
prisons. What is the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice
system? Also, the strengths, talents, abilities, potential contributions of
people stigmatized as “other” are rendered
invisible by virtue of their disabilities. WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: What are
the sources of such misperceptions? What are the consequences? How to address
this?
The world is at war. Humanity is at risk. We need to step
out of the specifics to ask: Are we safe anywhere? What are the roots to the
issues that give rise to all the violences? And what of the bystander? Are we
all bystanders? Why are people bystanders? How does “complacency” and/or
“conformity” fit into the equation? What is the line where individual “rights” end and being a
part of the larger community matters? How to understand the tension between the
individual and the larger social? How do we look at someone’s experience and
extrapolate from the personal to the political and from the political to the
personal? WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: How can we connect the dots to understand all
of this?
Reading the 2 summer reading books: The solutions are
Band-Aids, but these solutions/programs are not adequate. WHAT I’D LIKE TO LEARN: What are some other kinds of solutions, what
are the substantive solutions that will really change things?
Wow! What an agenda. I'm glad to be a part of this class.
