Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 6

There were so many things that I learned from the week where I crammed a

semester's
worth of material into five days. How our society is set up and how we play a role,
whether we
think we do or not, is for the most part fixed based on a lot of things we can't
control or change.
This all depends on what identities you have and if they fall in one of the two
groups Tatum
described as dominant or subordinate. Each group has certain privileges that
other does not
and this begins to form the base of how everyone views something differently. In
general, I
learned that no matter how hard people try to sell it, the world isnʼt black and
white.
Gender, place of birth, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class are all some of
many of the
examples of ones identity. Each has an effect on how someone goes about doing
the same
thing. The issue is that if you fall outside of the dominant group something that is
easy for the
dominant group to do can be almost impossible just because of their identity. All
of these
identities do not work independently, but, in fact, affect one another not just on a
personal level,
but in a group, systemic, and institutionalized level. The dominant group usually
does not see an
issue with how the system is set up because it works and will continue to work for
them. The
thought, that the system is unfair, can be extremely hard for the dominant group to
grasp as I
noticed on the first day. I grew up working class, but for the last ten years have
been lucky
enough to live in an upper middle class tax bracket. We arenʼt super rich, but we
are far from
poor. I saw the system from the “top” and as a young, upper middle class, straight
light skinned
male it was great! I honestly believed that “American Dream” even though the
evidence pointed
otherwise with the wealth gap and unemployment numbers as evidence. That was
my first
realization that privilege was playing a huge role, but more on capitalism later.
My privilege has shaped life for the most part to what it is. I never really looked at
racism
because I felt it didnʼt affect me. I didnʼt realize that the things I do today all stem
from choices I
made as a child who picked things that were pro the status quo. Sure I could have
been
different, but it was so much easier to find white friends and just like the things
they liked. I
realized I was allowed this with few hiccups because of my skin tone. Looking
back, it was the
article by Beth Omansky and Mike Oliver that really exemplified privilege to me. I
never knew
how bad it was for people with physical disabilities to do almost anything without
having to go
through a great deal of work. In fact, I not only didnʼt know how awful it was, I
actually thought it
wasnʼt too bad because they have ramps, right? The article showed me glimpses
of the
struggles that people with disabilities have to deal with on a day to day basis. The
stories about
MetroAccess rides sound like something set up by Beelzebub. If I want to go
somewhere I can
just go, but for people with disabilities they have to make sure itʼs accessible so
they donʼt have
to struggle as much. A whole world that I never thought of brought to light made
me further
question the reason why I never questioned it more. I noticed the recurring theme
that all these
issues were in a nebulous state.
How are all these things so bad when we see a change being made every day? It is
true that
laws have and are going to pass that will grant people of certain groups equal
opportunity. The
issue is that it is not equal opportunity because if it was then those laws wouldnʼt
have had to be
created. I realized that what these laws have done is not make our society into a
more
accepting one but just a more tolerant one. Whatʼs wrong with being more
tolerant? Isnʼt it better
than nothing? On the surface, yes, but deeper than that it does nothing more than
mask the
issue. Tolerance allows for short term change to occur, but the dilemma with short
term change
is that itʼs usually never a solution to the overarching problem. Becoming more
tolerant as a
society is not solving the issues we are being faced with. It simply gives the
illusion that issues
are being resolved. A wheelchair ramp at an airport is a good example of this. On
the surface

level the ramp gives people in wheelchairs access they wouldnʼt have otherwise
and thatʼs
great! But are the people inside trained to handle someone in that condition? As
we read in the
article, airplane companies donʼt really train their employees for these situations
so when they
come up, the disabled person has to suffer. This step back applies to almost every
“step
forward” our society has made. Racism and sexism were solved with laws that
prohibit
segregation and discrimination on gender, but just gave people a quota they had
to fill. Being
tolerant makes a culture that doesnʼt solve issues, but just sweeps them under the
rug until they
grow out of control and a bigger rug is needed. Thanks to capitalism, we can buy a
bigger rug
so itʼs not really an issue until it is.
Like my parents and millions of others, I also believed in the American Dream.
Capitalism
allowed me to feel that if I worked hard enough I can come out on top. I saw and
read all of the
success stories almost every day. People who dedicated themselves and worked
their butts off
were always given the results they expected. No matter who you were you can
make it. How
could you not buy into it? It sells the idea of hope when the odds are stacked the
other way. It
wasnʼt until I read the article Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination that
the curtain
was pulled back and I learned how McNuggets are made. Capitalism sets it up so
the people at
the top not only stay there, but it also gets harder and harder to break into the top
percent. If you
are poor the system is set up to keep you that way. A good example is having to
pay to cash
your checks. If your credit is bad, banks donʼt want your business and the only
way to cash a
check is to pay places a fee to cash it taking out more money from the little that
was earned.
The whole idea of capitalism is to make a profit. Profit is king which leads to the
people at top
cutting cost whenever they can. Outsourcing jobs to places where they can pay
people fractions
makes unemployment a growing problem. This leads people to taking lower paying
jobs and
having to struggle to keep what they already have. Capitalism also creates an
oppressive power
structure. It gives a few people the majority of the power while the rest fight for
whatever tiny

percent is left. Slavery, a huge issue in United States history, came from capitalism
and the idea
of cheap labor. The anti-slavery movement by the north wasnʼt something that
occurred
because they felt bad for slaves itʼs because the slave owners were taking all the
jobs. Ending
slavery was just the effect of trying to level the economic playing field for whites in
the north.
The thing that makes capitalism so bad is how well it can hide from being seen as
the problem.
The people at top have a middle class that are used as a mirage to conceal the
real dilemma.
They pin the middle and lower class against each other with overlaying issues
such as race and
gender to distract from the true culprits that are exploiting the system to prevent
change.
I began to wonder how I could believe in something that was clearly so awful. I
tried looking
at something that I viewed as crazy and see how those people believed the things
they did. I
looked at extremism in the middle east because that is something since the fourth
grade Iʼve
been seeing. I noticed a glaring similarity and itʼs how both examples, to create the
best
outcome, start young. From an early age, you are told something over and over
again until it
gets stuck. How was I fooled? School. The public school system in the U.S. mirrors
capitalism a
lot more than I thought. From kindergarten to senior year of high school I was not
only taught,
but I experienced the idea of working hard and getting rewarded. If I went to class
and studied
for the exam I was able to get a good grade. The harder I studied the better the
grade. The
same was true for when I didnʼt study and I failed the test. This sounds very
familiar to the work
hard and move up idea the American Dream is based on. For twelve years, I was
conditioned
over and over with this system that showed me if I worked hard I could come out
on top. I
perceived this to be the way in how the world worked because for those twelve
years that is how
my world worked. If you follow the rules you can come out on top too.
How can I do it differently? I came to the conclusion that we are trying to change
the game by
playing with the same rules. In class when we were asked how to solve certain
issues my mind
froze. I couldnʼt think of any solution that at the center didnʼt have all the faults
our current

system had. I was being asked to think differently and I couldnʼt. I couldnʼt
realistically imagine
the world without a dominant/subordinate power structure because it was what I
was taught to
believe to be the best and fair. It was Hooksʼ chapter on changing the perspective
on power that
for the first time I could see how society would work with different rules. I realized
my criteria for
the solution and the issue had something in common. Both want a quick fix. I was
only thinking
in a way that praised a quick and visible change in my lifetime as opposed to long
term goals.
My experience in this class was a positive one. I came in seeing mostly black and
white, but
quickly realized that it wasnʼt so simple. I always knew that our system had issues,
but any
issues I saw could be solved by working harder. I still believe in the idea of jumping
class, the
only difference is that itʼs down and not up. A lot of -ism issues are not as visible
as they were in
the past, but that doesnʼt mean theyʼre not there. Learning about who I am and
why I think the
way I do was eye-opening, to say the least. I think the reason I had a good
experience is
because the people in the class were also very easy to work with. A lot of people
discovered
and shared personal stories that allowed me to grab a glimpse into issues that the
articles
talked about that I couldnʼt relate to. The way the class is set up is also a huge
bonus. Since
everything stacks on itself the concepts that were introduced on day one that
seemed so foreign
were constantly being explored and brought to light. I came in thinking that I
wasnʼt a victim of
these systematic boxes everyone was being put in but realized how a lot of us are
playing the
game even if we donʼt know it.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi