Social justice project

Astor Meredith-Goujon

November 29, 2014

Reading and Writing for Social Justice

1.     My article is an example of injustice because it’s the Michal Brown case. In this case an unarmed black male was shot by a white police officer. The police officer came up to Michal Brown and Michal brown retaliated and got shot. Michal Brown was protecting him. How can the police officer say he thought he was in danger when that’s what he was doing to Michal Brown? He was putting him in danger. If the tables had been turned and Michal Brown had killed the police officer he would be in jail and be serving a huge sentence. It just shows how the racial unfairness in our society. This case sort of scared me because I am also black and I feel like I am in danger as well.

2.      

·      Woman glares at me with her kid.

·      People look nervously as a group of black kids biking down the sidewalk.

·      Kid is pushed around in his group. He is Asian. All the other kids are white.

One of the things I notice while walking to school is sometimes people will look at me nervously. One time when I was walking down Fourth Avenue there was this white women taking her kid to school and he was five or six. When she looked at me she sort of glared for a second. I usually walk closer to the edge of the sidewalk. So she then took her kids hand and walked to the other side of the sidewalk completely all while still sort of glaring at me. This took me completely by surprise. Especially because I wasn’t doing anything to look intimidating or threatening. I think it was really showing how much people judge just by looking they don’t want to take the time to find out anything about that person. If you don’t like me because I did something really mean to you or you don’t like my personality I’m ok with that because you actually took the time to know me. But if you don’t like me for my skin color then we have a problem.

3.     Interview for my mom:                                                                                        What is good about our world? What’s good about our world is that compared to the past many more countries are democratic which is good because people have a bigger role in deciding how they will be governed compared to a couple hundred years ago. There used to be dictatorships and monarchy where people had no power.                                                                                                                    What is unfair about our world? Is that for a lot of problems in the world and there are some relatively simple solutions. Getting people food and water because people are dying of starvation and thirst. Getting people vaccines for disease that can be cured. Malaria and polio are some examples. We have the recourses for every one to have what they need to live we are rich enough. But we don’t do it. People who have no power really suffer the most and are the people that are dying.                                                                                                                  What unfairness have you experienced? The greatest unfairness as a professional woman it’s much hared to be taken seriously than it is for a men it’s harder to advance. It’s harder to find mentors. It’s not worth to train women lawyers because they will leave for marriage or a baby. Unfairness is relative and it depends on the context. Women are expected to put kids first and also have jobs and be great at the jobs and it’s hard to mange both if you have a commanding career. People judge that your children aren’t the priority.                                 What do you want to change? Fundamentally for things to change everyone needs to understand that we are one people and are deserving of the same things. We have the same obligation and the reason for being on this planet. If people understood that ones they can look past ethnic and gender differences. A person suffering affects you to and makes the world less of a good place.  I thought what my mom said about people getting food, water and vaccines. She was right though. People have enough money to get people food and water. There is a lot of water in the world so it can be distributed. There are so many doctors in the world and so much medical equipment it would be so easy to treat people with disease. If people went to places in need of the medical treatment a lot less people would be dying in the world.

4.     One of things I saw on CNN was Trevon Martin’s mom getting interviewed about the decision to not convict Darren Wilson. She said she wasn’t surprised that he isn’t going to be charged with anything. If I was in that situation where my son was killed by a white police officer and it had happened again I would be very angry. Because another black teenager was killed and the police officer wasn’t convicted. I would also be extremely sad because another family had to go through losing a son to the police. I would also be thinking about how many cases are like this and don’t get any attention even though they are the same.

5.     What is your job? I am a Message Therapist.                                                                  What kind of people do you encounter? Most of the people are on hospice, which is someone in the process of dying, or their health is declining or they have a terminal illness. One lady who is very old and had an accident had some form of brain damage and it is affects her muscles. They are living in homes with their families. Her colon doesn’t work anymore one guy has autism works with autism. One woman has high blood pressure.                                                                     Do you enjoy your job? Absolutely I help with relaxation. It helps lower blood pressure. Helps people not break down when they are bed ridden. It helps relive muscles for the woman who had a stroke. Kid with autism has a messed up sleep schedule so me massaging him is good time for him to rest.                                                              Why did you choose this job? The thing that planted the seed in my mind was when my mom was dying I would watch my mom getting rubbed and how much it helped relive her and bring her joy. I wanted to do this for other people because of how much joy I saw it bring her.                                                                                              How do you feel while you are doing your job? I feel positive. I try to give them positive energy and bring them comfort. And I want to bring them to have relief even if it’s only for a short while.

Do you think you have a positive impact on the world? I think I have a positive impact on people in a small way. I feel I help take pain out of the world and bring people so much comfort. Often the elderly or the disables are over looked and we forget about them and they get less than second thoughts. We are going to be them one day so we can’t forget about them because if we do we know we will be forgotten when we are old.    

While I was interviewing my aunt I thought her job was so amazing. That fact that she brings so much joy to these dying people is so helpful to them. She’s removing so much pain from these people. I also thought the reason that she became a massage therapist was also really interesting. Just from seeing someone who was going to die feel pleasure and feel relaxed from a massage. The thing she said about the elderly was also really interesting because it is so true. It made me realize that I don’t think about the elderly at all. That proves her point even more. The elderly are still there and they deserve as much love as anyone else.

6.     The savages song in Pocahontas actually talks a lot about race and is very racist. One of the lines is, “They're different from us which means they can't be trusted.” That line basically sums up why people are racist. It just shows how long people have been racist. In todays society people will judge you based on the color of your skin. They will judge what type of person you are. A lot of people assume that white people are boring because they’re white. But I know plenty of interesting white people. A lot of people think that because you are black you are really cool. I know a lot of annoying and boring black people. So obviously there are people who don’t fit stereotypes and you can’t judge them because you think you know them by their skin color.  

In the shows that I have watched the teens are usually very attractive. They are usually white and live in fairly big houses. They have a lot of money and are pretty spoiled. They have nice parents who take care of them and try to do their best as parents. These shows make me think about how people are portrayed as these rich white families. It sort of adds to the whole thing about needing to be white to do well and have a perfect body. It makes people really self-conscious. It makes me feel sad to know that people think that they have to look and be like the people on TV. That they think that these people are perfect and are the right type of people to be. They don’t want to be themselves. The portrayals of teens are accurate in some cases but for most people they have a different experience in their life. They’re not white or they’re not rich. There are stereotypes in these shows. Usually the parents can’t control their kids and they are white. There is the stereotype that white parents can’t control their kids. Another stereotype is that everyone is rich in the suburbs. In the shows everyone is rich and they live in the suburbs in these shows. When I think of the suburbs I think of a bunch of rich white people living in big houses and all the kids are stuck up. I have stereotypes in my mind and I’m not perfect. It shows how much shows can affect how a person thinks.