Welcome to the class blog! The John Jay - Vera Fellows Program is a collaborative effort between John Jay College and the spin-off agencies of the Vera Institute of Justice, combining an internship and participation in a seminar taught by faculty from John Jay's Interdisciplinary Studies Program. (To see a video about the John Jay - Vera Fellows Program, click here.) Part of the seminar experience is weekly participation in the class blog, which keeps the conversation going from week to week and will be a place for you to share your thoughts and concerns about the materials discussed in seminar as well as the internship experience. The opinions expressed on this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the Vera Institute of Justice or its spin-off organizations. While the blog is open to the public and anyone, theoretically, can comment, only class members and invited guests will be able to post. You can also look for us on our student and alumni page on Facebook.
Each student has been assigned one week to write the "post." Please post within 24 hours after class. Every week, each student must comment on the post (feel free to comment more than once). Please comment by Monday afternoon to allow time for further questions and responses and so that we can read all the entries before class.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Dialogue and Social Justice

Hello All,

I hope you all enjoyed the class that we had today.

I thought that it would be interesting to debrief a little bit more on the final activity that we at the end of class. It seems like everyone’s reaction to Marina (the old white guy) was not intending on getting to know what was happening to him, but just to find a way to shut him off and get the bus running again. So my question is, beside from trying to silence the old guy, what would’ve been other alternatives that we could’ve used in order to address the situation more efficiently? (Think about Freire’s Problem Posing theory).

Arturo, How can you use the motivational interview skills to address that situation on the bus?

Going back to Freire’s concept of problem posing, he suggests that dialogue is the key element that leads to critical consciousness, which as a result leads to the transformation of the oppressed. With this in mind, how can youth of color in urban cities can get their voice heard through dialogue and transform the world in which they live in?
Is dialogue practiced at your agency placement? If so, how effective is it? Does it follow the Freirian approach? Meaning, the instructor’s goal is to assist the student in becoming critically conscious and aware of the different elements of oppression around him/her.

We did not get a chance to talk much about “operation Likofi” in class. Here is another chance for you to share your thoughts on the video? Did you notice the reaction of the population? What did you think about it?

Once again, thank you for your participation.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Complexity in Racial Identification for Latina/os

Hello All,


Providing you with a tiny piece of my research was a pleasure ! We spoke about generalization of Afro-Latino's/ Latino's in the media,  how "boxes" entrapped populations within identities that they do not quite understand, and how these "boxes" allocate resources although populations either get marginalized or are incorrectly labeled.

I would like for you to think about your placement and discuss the demographics of the clients at your placement (even if you do not work directly with clients). How do the racial boxes we spoke about represent the community? Do they marginalize them? Why or why not?

You can also discuss "boxes" that discriminate, exclude, or add negative weight to the clients you work with whether racial or not? Discuss the categorizations in which these clients/population are placed and the impact these categorizations have.

Keep in mind that these "boxes" are not limited to those that people use, but rather those that are used by the system to label people.