I must say Thursday class was Epic! (yes Nicolas I’m borrowing your catch phrase J)

Let me start by saying that Tuesday Vera fundraising event was incredible and I would like to thank Professor Stein, Professor Reitz, and Professor Waterston for setting up the event. I was in total awe of the spectacular event that unfolded that evening. I would also like to thank Professor Waterston who was able to make it to the event; we all wish you a speedy recovery. Additionally, thank you to all the mentors, Vera alumni and the new upcoming class who were able to attend. I would also like to congratulate the recipient of this year “Mentor of the Year” award to Ms. White. As the event unfolded, I had a feeling of nostalgia because of the change of perspective. When I attended the event last year, I was excited as a newly accepted student; the speeches were passionate and incredible with Timothy Fowler giving a riveting speech alongside the rest of the Vera class. After they spoke, maybe I was the only one but the thoughts that were running through my mind were how I am going to live up to that. Throughout the year, I feel we all lived to the expectations that the last class has left us. I believe that next year’s class will do the same and thereafter. Only this time our perspective is switched to alumnus.

Onwards to Thursday lesson, that class was such a great experience for me, and I am sure my peers can agree. We did two readings one on Kill the Man by Mary Wings and Lawns by Mona Simpson. We first started with the poem Metaphors by Sylvia Path.

An occurring theme that came from each of these stories was the lack of empowerment by each of the victims and the lack of control to solve their respective problems. In the poem “Metaphors”, throughout the poem the women had no control over the situation that she was there for the purpose of recreation. When asked how to describe the woman in the poem, Andre used the word “subjugated,” while Professor Stein used the word “powerless.” In Lawns, Jenny finds herself in a similar situation; however she was being sexually abused by her father.

One of my questions for the class relates to our discussion of Lawns. Professor Stein explains that everything is paradoxical, human behavior is similar. Do you believe this is an occurring theme in the stories? Another question I have based off the Lawns and Kill the Man reading is, do you believe that the victims are being demanded to change is an effective mechanism to fighting back? For example, Jenny makes the decision to tell her mom only after the dad visit.

In the Lawns’ reading, Professor Stein made a response that in my mind was very important; in the story, Jenny believed that she was in control of the relationship between herself and her dad.  Professor Stein explains that the victim need to believe that they have some form of control, which would allow the creation of a new perspective that, is faulted. What do you think of Professor Stein comment do you believe that relates to victims of today? 

What was a tremendously challenging and incredibly interesting class discussion

BY SALLY ABDELGHAFAR  (posted by Prof Reitz)

Thank you to all of you who were able to come to class on Thursday; I hope you enjoyed the class as much as I did. Everyone’s willingness to discuss in depth some of the moral grey areas generated insightful conversation as well as highlighted some areas that needed to be explored more. Professor Waterston we all still miss you very much! I know that your insight as an anthropologist would have provided a missing perspective, in terms of cultural relativism, that would have fostered further debate.

We started the class by retracing some of the claims that Martha Nussbaum advocates for in her “capabilities approach.” Plenty examples were given to provide some concrete examples to the abstract list of capabilities that Nussbaum puts forward. For example, Michelle mentioned that freedom of imagination should include any experience that an individual should be able to reflect on their own views and ideas without being fearful of being shamed or made fun of. Then, we analyzed the impact of culture through the gender workshop. As most of us acknowledged and/or realized, culture significantly impacts and changes what the capabilities approach may look like. The exercise involving the choice between legalizing female genital mutilation (fgm), also known as female cutting, or the use of the burka at first produced more in favor of legalizing the burka rather than the practice of fgm. However, several students changed their initial positions after some disagreement over the role of government. At the end of the class, I posed the question “what was the most messed up thing that you know.” Most the examples used involved commonalities of oppression that are grounded in human experience. With this in mind, do you guys agree with Nussbaum’s major claim that human experience should be the foundation for human rights rather than theories dealing with rights, duties, and other sources that are grounded in metaphysical support or the belief in a higher power? Or, as Professor Reitz said, do you feel that grounded human rights frameworks in experience may seem imperialistic?    

Professor Stein and I disagreed over the legalization of female genital mutilation. I argued that legalizing it would create a safer environment for individuals who undergo it because criminalization may create a black market that has been embraced in many cultures. On the other hand, Professor Stein asserted that having this system sponsored by the state would send a message that it is okay, and it would also undermine aspiration to eliminate it. Since we did not get a chance to finish this discussion towards the end of class, I am wondering what line of thinking is more persuasive?

One of Nussbaum’s main points throughout her article is that individuals should be critical of situations in which an individual has had one of her capabilities restricted, e.g., right to bodily integrity.  In other words, we, as activists, should focus on making sure individuals have the ability to function in certain ways without being critical of the way they function. So, for those of you who disagree with the practice of female genital mutilation, would you still object to the practice if an individual who had access to all the capabilities still choose to undergo the procedure?

A World Shaped by Implicit Bias

Hello my loves,

Thank you all for your wonderful contributions to the class discussion on Thursday. Especially since the topic of implicit bias is extremely complicated, anecdotal experiences as well as scholarly views are equally helpful to understand the implication of implicit bias within the context of social justice.

In class we discussed the concept of cognitive system one and two; one being rapid, intuitive, and error-prone, while the latter tend to be more deliberative, calculative, and slower. Our instinctual feelings are mostly the product of system one, which reflects our bare emotions, such as anger, fear, joy, and repulsion. Some of us may like to think that their behaviors are independent from cognitive system one, because it is easier to believe that we have conscious control over our own behaviors. But we might be surprised to learn that there, in fact, are a great degree of interconnection between unconscious thoughts and our actual behaviors. We could, however, cultivate and rationalize our cognitive system two, through, for instance, moral and literal education. Whenever we encounter an incident, our initial feelings and thoughts are derived from system one, though some of us may express this bare emotion more explicitly than others. It will take longer before the authority of system two kicks in, such as the role of our ethical beliefs and logical thoughts. Unfortunately, there aren’t always enough time for people to make rationalized decisions basing on their system two. Although it often takes less then a minute for some one to unconsciously exhibit bias driven behaviors, but consequences can be dreadful. These examples can be seen through those white pedestrians in Staple’s story, police officers who shoot at unarmed young minority men, and even George Zimmermann.

For my first question, I want to re-raise a topic we discussed in class. Some scholarly suggested the option of utilizing law, education, or therapy to “encourage a system two override of the system one impulse.” Do you think it is feasible to adapt this approach in police recruit, legal training, and hiring process of government positions? This question is worth further discussion because it is important to explore possible means to combat implicit bias buried deep in the criminal justice and political spheres.

Most of our discussion on Thursday evolves around the social phycology perspective of implicit bias, and I know that some of are dying to pour out their thoughts on our readings. Here is your chance! Please choose ONE question from below to discuss whether implicit bias is capable of creating a biased social atmosphere that permanently cripple individuals’ self-perceptions.

Option 1) Why would Staples adopt “tension-reducing measures” to alter public place, and what is the significant behind a perfectly innocent man’s conscious efforts to “decriminalize” his physical appearance? 

Option 2) What do you see as the main contributing factor(s) in staples, Trayvon Martin, and Kimani Gray’s terrifyingly similar unfortunate encounters? Also, what do their tragic personal experiences suggest about existing collective social sentiment toward young minority men? 

Sylvie

Charter Schools

Thanks for coming to class on Thursday for those who were able to make it. I first want to say, To Professor Waterston we all wish you a speedy recovery. On to the lesson, we saw that charter schools can be seen both as benefit as well as a burden to the community.  When charter schools are placed in affluent neighborhoods, the limited resources that are given to those public schools would then be directed into the charter school. In a good neighborhood that is seen as a burden because it is taking money away from the good schools. However if a charter school is placed in a poor neighborhood it may be seen as a benefit because it is seen as an experiment which can possibly lead to success. In either area the stakes are considered to be high considering that children’s education is on the line.

                Another issue that was given attention to was the funding methods, in the “Scholarly Investments article”, private investors was investing into the charter school’s network.  Sally made the comment that it reminded her of the social impact bonds.  I look backed on the social impact bond's discussion. I agree as well that it does pertains to our conversation. The question if “the potential benefits outweigh the potential risk, as people in the status quo need help now” still exists just through a different framework, charter schools.   

The exercise that was given to the class was to decide which school out of the two which share the same building would stay open one being a charter school and the other being a public school. The differences from the outset should have been easy to make a decision considering that the charter school was given an A and the public school was given a C. However one of the comments that Professor Stein mentioned repeatedly was be skeptical of the sources. The main obvious was being that the DOE's measures of what was considered to be an A school.  Some of the differences that was discussed during classes was one being the population for the public school was quite larger that the charter school. Another being that one has the larger amount of resources which can contribute to the education inequality. An important factor that was mentioned was through Sally comment which was whether the schools had an effective Parent Association.  At the end of the exercise the majority chose to allow the public school to stay open (including myself). The biggest problem which was not discussed in depth in class is why is closing a school even an option. Since the beginning of Bloomberg’s administration, 140 schools have been closed with even more slated to be closed this year.

Question what is a benefit and a disadvantage of closing schools? What does closing  schools mean on an individual level, as well as for society? And to make this more relatable, how have we been affected by a school closing directly or indirectly.

Visit to Esperanza

Thanks for coming to Esperanza Thursday. And for those of you who were not able to make it, you were greatly missed. You were given a task to create criteria for potential youth clients to join our organization and participate in the program. Then you had to unanimously choose 8 out of the 12 youths who fit those same criteria. Our goal for that exercise was to give you an insider’s perspective of what is like to hold a person’s future in your grasp and the pressures that come along with the decisions. Looking at the group’s function, some wanted to save everyone, whereas others were willing to make compromises. In reality, individuals like Jon and Omar couldn't always be saved. The decision for the two will ultimately have ramifications for the other who wasn't chosen.

 My question for the class is why did having a support system (family, guardian etc.) play a role in choosing whether or not you accept the individual into Esperanza and who would you consider to be part of your support system(family, guardian)?

The Prisoner's Lens

As soon as I walked into the Eastern State Penitentiary, I felt strange chills. I've been to the Otisville Correctional Facility before, but walking into Eastern Penitentiary was something completely different. It was a much spookier vibe. The whole environment, the strange air, the 30 feet walls, the metal doors, the feeling of actually being a "prisoner," it was very depressing. We were just visiting and I felt those feelings. I can only imagine how the prisoners must've felt. I feel the most powerful part of the tour was when we actually stood inside a cell block. I felt trapped and secluded. After we were all inside the cell block, Kevin closed the door and I felt more chills. At that very moment, I felt like a prisoner and I got a sense of how isolated the prisoners must've felt.

As soon as we finished the tour and we walked out of the penitentiary, I felt so much better... Even though we were outside most of the time, actually walking out of the penitentiary gave me such a breath of fresh air and freedom. My first question to you is, what were your reactions/ feelings upon entering the penitentiary compared to leaving? My second question is, what did you feel was the most powerful part of the tour?

Identification & Misinterpretation

Everyone,

Thank you for such a fun and engaging seminar. The energy was great, the comments were insightful, and it was great (and very entertaining) to moderate the fierce debate. I hope that it was a learning experience to see, even on a small fictitious scale, how the worlds of non-profits and alternative to incarcerations function, especially when it comes to funding.

So to recap, we saw that when pitted against each other, to programs that have similar goals (reducing or combatting violence) and want to essentially help people can get hostile very quickly. The way philanthropy has been set up has created a world where organizations, advocates, and non-profits have to fight for limited resources, most of the time in a very formal respectful manner but nonetheless as competitors. However, as we saw today (and not to say that how class was run is how funding is determined), groups can be quick to antagonize other groups, come up with negative press, or fight tooth and nail for money. The stakes are high, with the lives of the community, the victim, the offender, and let us not forget the donors of the funds and the politicians, up in the air. In our class, we saw how even collaboration may be difficult, especially after the critiques of each project.

Something that was brought up during the debates by Minerva and Sylvie, which was not discussed in length during the debate, was the concept of misinterpretation. Both ceasefire and common justice have components that tried to respect and work with identification. For Ceasefire, it was by respecting masculinity and gang culture. In Common Justice, it was about addressing how offenders, or the responsible party, may also be victims of violence and starting a conversation about context. Both try to respect the interpretation of identity, be it masculinity, or what it means to be a victim, which is integral to the success of each program. However, this also leads room for misinterpretation. Imagine someone coming in and telling you how you should identify yourself, or using what they believe your identity to be as a way to interact with you. Who is to say that the interpretation is correct? And what if it isn't correct? Can it be harmful?

Imagine for a moment if there was a program founded on the premise that it wanted to help Grendel, simply because he was a monster and he needed help fitting in. As we have discussed in class, Grendel was not necessarily a monster. He had a mother, experienced fear, and was very human at times, more human that the humans themselves (which is up for debate). So, isn't the program that is trying to help Grendel doing some harm in already labeling him with an identity that he himself did not agree to? Furthermore, who has the authority to give him an identity anyways?

The question is - how can using what we think we know about masculinity or victims harm the people that both Ceasefire and Common Justice are trying to help? What does this mean on an individual level, on a organizational level, and also for society? And to make this more relatable, how have we been effected by instances where the use of our identification has harmed us. For example, me being a Latino may sometimes bring with it assumptions that may hurt me - such as me being an undocumented immigrant, poor, having already fathered a child, etc. The list of stereotypes can go on. The same goes for the implication of calling someone masculine or a victim. What if they don't identify as such, or disagree? Thought on how these labels and identifications can harm instead of help.

Again, thanks for a great class! It was valid and epic.