Week 5

Even though we haven't talked about this in class directly, I'm going to talk about the shooting in Oregon for a little bit. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that for such a "progressive" country that we claim to be, that we can have mass gun fatalities every few months. On what level does that make sense? I read an article this week that there are already 310 million guns in circulation in the United States, which is almost one for every U.S. resident. I know that, because the 2nd amendment exists, that we could never outlaw gun ownership in the US, but there are so many other things that we could do to cut down on gun violence, and we don't seem to want to do anything. And even though mass shootings come around with distressing regularity, deaths from mass shootings are essentially "drops in a vast ocean of suffering" (as the article put it). Research shows that requiring universal checks for gun licenses can work, so why do we not implement laws like that on a federal level? Connecticut has a permit-to-purchase law that it introduced in 1995 and research estimates that the law reduced gun homicides by 40%. More "good guys" with guns are not the answer AND people with guns are more likely to kill themselves than to kill others. For every gun murder, there are almost two gun suicides, and firearm suicides are on the rise. And the demographics of gun murders versus gun suicides are vastly different. Young black men are more likely to be both victims and perpetrators of gun murder, but those who commit suicide via firearm are likely to be older, white males. And it's so easy to say "just keep guns out of the hands of people with a mental illness", but the vast majority of mentally ill people are never violent to others. The link between mental illness and gun suicide is much more powerful. Another thing regarding this most recent mass shooting that has bothered me is that now people (including many republican presidential candidates) are posting on various social media sites "I am a Christian". Apparently this most recent shooter targeted victims who were Christian. My problem with this movement is not that people are posting "I am a Christian", but that if the tables were turned and Muslims had been targeted and people started posting "I am a Muslim", many people would be saying "Why do they always have to make it about religion?". I don't care what religion, sex, race you are - you should not be targeted because of it and you have the right to be proud of your identity. I do think that it is very hypocritical to claim that "even persecution happens in America against Christians". Even though it might in isolated incidents, it is NOTHING like the institutional racism, sexism, and religious persecution that minorities face in our country every day.
              Back to things we actually talked about in class, I think it is so interesting that when Jim Crow laws were first questioned and brought to the Supreme Court, that they were deemed constitutional because they 1) Didn't disadvantage one race more than another and 2) "racial instinct might lead to violence if people are allowed to mix indiscriminately". One of the reasons I find history so interesting, is because laws can change depending on the current social infrastructures and opinions at that time. It floors me that a legal document could support and disseminate racism so directly. Of course, no law so blatantly racist could ever be passed today (or at least, I hope not), but institutional racism still exists and is perpetuated by some laws, especially drug laws. This institutional racism has been entrenched in our society since the very beginning. As Stern says in chapter 5, even when social welfare movements were beginning to gain traction, society wasn’t responsive to the needs of black families until much later. Even Settlement Houses, which were seen as a catalyst to kick-start social change, tended to lump the problems of blacks with those of other immigrant groups.
             The idea of a "culture of poverty" was also really interesting to me. I firmly believe that no one should have to live in poverty and that thinking that it's that person's fault, rather than looking at structural issues is a horrendous mistake. I know people that, even today, say things like "oh well if he/she would just get a job, then they wouldn't need to rely on the government any more". Sometimes I have to take a step back and remember that people can actually believe things like that (and worse) because it is so shocking to me. One of the reasons that I love the video below is that I think that it can really humanize people who are homeless for those people who often don't really see them as human. These people aren't "bad" people like society often views them - they are human and deserve the same respect that everyone else deserves. I'm usually a quiet and reserved person, but lately I've been getting more and more riled up when people say things about social issues that are just so wrong and I have to learn to keep myself in check sometimes. It's interesting, because I would say that most of us in the SP2 program have a pretty similar view about social issues (the beauty of being aspiring social workers!), so I don't feel like I have to hold in my political feelings, which is so freeing. I grew up in a relatively conservative household on my dad's side, so besides being able to talk to my mother about political issues, I've rarely had the opportunity to voice my opinions and I'm absolutely loving it.