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Joshua Sun

Dr. Childers-Mckee

LBST 2215 Citizenship

30 November 2017

Final Reflection: An Unfamiliar Face in an Unfamiliar Reality

I call Charlotte, North Carolina my hometown, but it is so different from what I

remember it to be. Charlotte has grown a lot in the past two decades; however, for many reasons

the city and the country that I once knew, has changed. In my midterm essay, I alluded to the

metaphor of humans living in a cocoon that contains our immediate experiences. I thrived in that

cocoon because in the warmth and safety of my comfort zone, I was not subjected to the societal

issues that other people faced. My ignorance and complacency hindered me from seeing what

was really true about the world around me. At the end of that essay, I talked about how this

course opened my eyes to the issues in our society; however, I failed to focus on how I can

utilize what I have learned in the course of this semester and change my identity positively as a

citizen. I was able to identify prevalent issues in the community and the United States, but I

lacked internal reflection of my role as a citizen. Throughout this semester, the topics and issues

discussed in our class alienated my past perceptions of the city I call home. My exposure to all

these different issues was a paradigm shift in my view of Charlotte and the United States;

however, the process of learning about these social issues, practicing Community Engaged

Research, my groups partnership with Helping Homeless to Housing have challenged me to

become a citizen that by learning, understanding, and listening, I can bring positive change in my

communities in light of turmoil and chaos, now and in the future.

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During the process of learning about the issues of poverty and homelessness, I realized

that I knew so little about everything regarding those issues. In my social location reflection

essay, I revealed that I was from South Charlotte and lived a relatively sheltered childhood that

was distanced from issues of poverty, school-to-prison pipeline, and homelessness. In the past, I

would have known that homelessness existed; however, I never would have known that these

issues are happening so close to where I lived. The issues of poverty and homelessness

completely opened up my eyes to how these issues are deeply rooted to the invisible structure of

our nation and how interconnected these issues are with other societal issues such as racism. In

the beginning of this course, I believed that poverty and homelessness were problems for cities

because media has painted a picture that associates homeless people and those in poverty to

being in the dumps of the city. However, in the video Poverty in the Suburbs, I was completely

baffled by the revelation that there is a large population of people facing poverty in the suburbs

(11/30/17 PBSNewsHour). This was a new concept to me; I lived in the suburbs of Charlotte my

entire life and I never considered that there were people in poverty in the neighborhoods around

me. As we discussed more about homelessness and read about the Housing First Initiative, I

realized that the first step to being a good citizen is to be informed. As a citizen of Charlotte, I

have the responsibility to being aware of the social issues that we face so that in the future,

whether it is election officials or finding an organization to contribute to, I can make the best

decisions that can benefit Charlotte as a whole. Learning in a classroom setting is a good start in

becoming informed of these social issues that Charlotte faces; however, similar to how

knowledge and understanding are different, reading and learning in class alone cannot achieve

true understanding of the roots of the issues.

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Community Based Research is the healthy mix of knowledge and understanding. In his

article, Origins and Principles of Community Based Research, Strand says, Community

Based Research has three major principles: collaboration, validation or multiple sources of

knowledge and methods of discovery and dissemination, and the goals of social change and

social action to achieve social justice (11/30/2017 Strand 15). With that being said, Strand

advocates for CBR because it stretches the meaning of knowledge so that it extends into

understanding. Paraphrasing Strands ideas, this means that Community Based Research strives

to discover the scholarships of integration and application. Similarly, citizenship closely parallels

those ideas. Because citizenship cannot exist without community, the knowledge and

understanding of integration is important for a society to cooperate and flourish. In other words,

the second key principle of citizenship that I learned in this semester is learning how to integrate.

The dictionary defines the word integrate as, to form, coordinate, or blend into a functioning

or unified whole (11/30/17 Merriam-Webster). The core beliefs of Community Based

Research combines understanding and integration in order to strive to unite people through

solving social issues together. As a scholar and a citizen, I find the idea of Community Based

Research to be fascinating. I grew up in an academic setting and research is something reinforced

throughout the entirety of my academic career. So, the concept of Community Based Research

appealed to my natural tendency of seeking academic knowledge while incorporating the ideas

of citizenship right into the middle. Therefore, learning about Community Based Research, itself,

has taught me that knowledge is a good thing to have; however, knowledge is useless without

application. End the end, true understanding comes from integrating myself within different

communities, and that is the essence of citizenship.

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My groups community partner for our Community Based Research was Helping

Homeless to Housing, and collaborating with and researching this organization, I was able to

understand the deeper roots of the issues of poverty and homelessness. By interacting with the

homeless community, I was able to listen and soak in the truth of homelessness. I was able to

have a glimpse of their reality and find answers to why poverty and homelessness exist and

continue to exist. Although there are countless reasons such as, racial injustice, zoning issues,

white privilege, poor public policy, and education system flaws, one of the most important

reasons that I learned from interacting with the homeless is the lack of faith in those who are

or have been homeless. The general public has stigmatized the homeless population and tried to

push the homeless people out of jobs and other opportunities. People have a false heuristic that

all homeless people are drug addicts or mentally unstable. However, by interacting with the

homeless people representing Helping Homeless to Housing. I was able to witness that these

stereotypes are just creating a greater divide between the homeless community and the rest of the

community. From this experience, the third principle of citizenship that I learned in this course

and in Community Based Research is to listen. As a citizen, I have the responsibility to know

that there a lot of different people with different backgrounds with different opinions, and it is a

citizens duty to truly listen and take in the information that other citizens share.

Speaking of listening, I think the most memorable part of my Community Based

Research was being able to interview to Justin Markel. I remember walking up to his room in

Moore Place, and sitting down and spending 30 minutes listening to Justin share his story. He

talked about how the recession of 2008 had made him lose his job and eventually become

homelessness. He talked about his transition out of homelessness and into affordable housing. He

detailed the greatest need in Charlotte was to have more affordable housing units and the policies
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that hinder the establishment of more affordable housing. Justin talked about how he is involved

in the community, nowadays, striving to change public policy so that the homeless will have

more opportunities of finding housing and opportunities. However, the most thought-provoking

thing that Justin said to me was, if you walk several blocks downtown, most likely you would

pass 10 homeless people and not even realize that they are homeless (12/4/17 Markel). It was

not until this moment, I realized the importance of Community Based Research. In my

Community Based Research Reflection paper, I basically only wrote down the definition of

Community Based Research; however, this was the defining moment that allowed me to see the

significance of Community Based Research. What Justin said could not be found anywhere

online; it takes integration and listening to be able to dig deep into these issues. The moment

Justin finished his sentence was when I realized how blinded by stereotypes I was to the truth

about homelessness. Being a citizen requires listening. Community Based Research is about

listening. There are so many issues that we face as a society, where we just need to sit back and

just simply listen.

Too often, we look up from our endeavors and cannot recognize our surroundings. We

were too focused on our own lives to realize the changes that have swept the nation. We see so

many different issues in the news and are confused at what has happened. We ask ourselves

questions, What has this world come to? and we say things like, life was much simpler back

in day. However, that is exactly when we become the unfamiliar face in an unfamiliar reality.

My belief at the end of this course is that citizenship is about listening learning Justins story,

understanding and integrating Community Engaged Research, and making that initial surge to

gain more knowledge learning and reading. The United States of America has the word unite

in its name; however, we have an addiction to separating, tearing apart, and dividing. Not all of
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us will be influential politicians, but all of us are citizens. With a little bit of knowledge, a tad bit

more of understanding and integration, and a lot of listening, we can become a country that

comes together to solve social issues. Citizenship is a mindset we must practice. Throughout this

course I learned a lot about different social issues that we face in Charlotte, all the while,

indirectly learning what it takes to be a scholar-citizen. Moving forward, personally, I hope to

become more aware of the issues around me. I hope I actively train myself to seek knowledge,

try to understand and integrate myself in different communities, so that I can listen to the voices

that are not heard, never becoming that unfamiliar face in an unfamiliar reality.
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Works Cited

Integrate. (2003). In Merriam-Webster's dictionary (11th ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam-

Webster.Retrieved November 30, 2017.

Markel, J. (2017, October 26th). Personal Interview.

PBS NewsHour (2014, January 11). Poverty rates surge in American suburbs. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjsrdcbbPBU

Strand. (2017). Origins and Principles of Community Based Research. Retrieved December 1, 2017.