The United States and its Classless Society

"The USA is a classless society."

I am not even sure that anyone believes this anymore. During times when there is "prosperity," it might not seem like the differences between classes is that large, but since the recession, it has been pretty clear that our society is split into two groups, the "haves" and the "have nots." A tangible example of how our society is split into classes is the city of Austin. The city is split up where the East, South, and North parts are the working class areas, and the West and Central parts are the upper class. This is not speculation. A person can see it in the upkeep and sizes of the properties of the areas.

Mantsios proves it in a more academic way with facts and statistics. He claims that "one out of five children in the United States under the age of 6 lives in poverty" (149), "3.5 million people experience homelessness in any given year" (149), and that "between 1979 and 2000, the gap in household income between the top fifth and middle fifth of the population rose by 31 percent" (150). These numbers speak for themselves, yet because many of us are so sheltered in some of our communities, we might not realize the disparity.

Another example is Hurricane Katrina. Michael Eric Dyson makes the argument that the "poor had been abandoned by society and its institutions, and sometimes by their well-off brothers and sisters, long before the storm" (186). He sites the statistics that "more than 90,000 people in each of the areas that stormed by Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama made less than $10,000 a year" (187). Specifically in New Orleans he talks about how the concentrated poverty "fueled metropolitan expansion" (187) and in effect left the residents in those areas with poor schools and poor health. The cycle of poverty persisted because there were little opportunities for those residents. He also notes that African-Americans were not the only ones affected by the storm in these poor areas. Mexican-American (some illegal), Native American, Vietnamese, and Filipino communities were also heavily displaced.

When the storm hit many of these poor communities were left stranded, while the wealthier communities did not suffer as much damage. A telling statistic is that "in New Orleans, 53 percent of poor blacks were without cars" (159). If people did not realize that our society and its institutions were very much based on class after Katrina, then they were clearly misinformed.

North Korea Photojournalism Essay

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/recent_scenes_from_north_korea.html

I thought this was really interesting, especially the pictures of Pyongyang. With America being a consumer-driven, post-modern society, it's amazing to see a city of that size with no advertising or any type of commercialism. The contrast is so stark that in its own singular, anachronistic way, Pyongyang seems kind of beautiful (as art).

Social work academics seem to agree on the NASW's main tenets, but where they differ is their approaches on how to uphold these tenets. The conceptualization of empowering an individual versus empowering a collective group seems like nitpicking, but the nuances of these arguments (and further, the one that prevails) will shape our policies in the future.

Pelton represents the theory where "justice is impersonal and nonjudgemental" (Pelton, 433). The approach is that if one meets a client on their level no matter what race, ethnicity, etc. there would be less discrimination collectively. He believes that by taking into account a person's race, ethnicity, or gender when working with that person, we have already set limits on where they will end up and what they will achieve. His evidence is in the United States' welfare policies where he says "differential benefits to individuals in need have based upon what constructed group one presumably belongs to" (433). In a utilitarian sense, our "color-blindness" enables us to reach more people in need by understanding them as individuals first and seeing them as part of a collective second.

Critical Race theorists though, would say that Pelton's "color-blindness" is part of the problem that perpetuates the cycle of poverty and prevents social workers from empowering the most people as possible. The key of this philosophy is the idea that race, ethnicity, and gender are vital to the formula of helping people. Accepting racism as "abnormal and individualistic"(Abrams, Moio, 251) would be shortchanging a person's experiences in life and would also help to perpetuate institutional racism. The macro-to-micro outlook values advocacy for the change of policies for a collective group of people, while also keeping in mind the uniqueness of the individual. If we create change through public policy, then the micro level problems would easier for the social worker to deal with.

I tend to agree with the latter theory in practice, but in the United States today, it seems harder to reach people that way (The irony of that statement is that I might be committing the white-and-privileged-kid-does-not-know-shit-about-the-real-world fallacy the Critical Race paper talks about). The gap between the have and the have-nots is getting wider and by just focusing on certain groups, we are excluding people. Further, I believe that our institutions are changing by not only being discriminatory to certain races, but also to just poor people in general. That might be unfair to the African-American community or the Mexican-American community, or any other minority community who have valiantly struggled (and are still struggling) to get their share of social justice throughout United States' history, but the way our institutions are run now, money and profits trump race, ethnicity, and gender. Hopefully if and when I practice social work, Critical Race theory plays a large part in how I go about my job, but ultimately it seems like our institutions are so entrenched in a racist and for-profit mindset that a macro-to-micro focus will take a lot more energy away from me when I could be directing that energy to help empower another person or client.

Intergenerational Effects of Oppression

Every time I read or hear something about the Japanese internments camps I am astounded at how much of a parallel there was to the Nazi concentration camps with regards to the arbitrary arrests the night of Pearl Harbor, the numbered family identities, the shades drawn down on the buses or trains they were traveling in, and the barbed wire and guard towers surrounding the camps. How the US got away with doing that really is an amazing feat. I think it is appropriate to note though, how much we have moved on as a society by not doing the same thing to Muslims after 9/11 (the Japanese internment camps were only approximately 60 years before).

Although the US does not blatantly oppress minorities like that anymore, oppression of minorities still lies throughout our institutions. Similar to how the Nisei felt that "internment was a 'direct assault on their expectations and identity'" (Nagata, 129), I do not think it would be a major leap to assume economically disadvantaged minorities have similar crises in today's society. Being part of the privileged, white class I have never had to struggle with those ideas. Sure, I have my Jewish-American heritage to think about but living in the Northeast, my identity was never really a problem. Maybe in growing up in Texas as a jew would be different, but the fact is that I would still be a white kid living in America. The next step of researching intergenerational effects of oppression would be comparing how gradual institutional oppression compares to something like an event that defined the Japanese experience. I think the results would be somewhat similar.

Guardian Article on Rick Perry/Austin/Texas

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/04/rick-perry-economic-mirage?CMP=twt_gu

Recently I have argued to my friends and family that right now more than any time in America's history, apathy is at its highest. There are still wars going on in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya even though we as a collective society have identified that these wars are a detriment to our future growth. Corporations are making record profits in a time when unemployment is at 9%. Our journalism institutions are outraged at Wikileaks even though these same institutions are being slowly disassembled by the powers Wikileaks are providing checks against. In theory, the middle and lower classes should be outraged at the exploitative nature of our government and corporations, yet there is not much being done to organize and seriously react. The London Riots were something of a push back, but anarchy only leads to the upper classes feeling reinforced in their views that their privileged ways are more humane. Astonishingly, the people who are organizing in America are the people who qualify as the dominant class in Kirk and Okazawa-Rey's graph. So, what is the problem in America today? Are we implicitly letting the wealthy get away with exploitation? Or are we so socialized to social injustice in America that our apathy is a product of the institutions that make up our society? I hope it is the latter.

In Harro's "Cycle of Socialization," the most important part other than understanding how our institutions and culture socialize us to conform to the dominant culture is the idea that there is a "direction for change" or a "movement towards liberation." In order to start a path toward this liberation, Harro believes that we need "something [to make] us begin to think, to challenge, to question the system." Unfortunately in America, the catalyst to get us to start thinking like that is a neglected and unequal public school system. As the situation stands, the most underfunded school districts are in the most poverty-stricken and oppressed areas. It is no wonder students drop or go on to join gangs because with poorly accommodated school systems and very little opportunity for jobs, kids are alienated and see that education provides them with no future. As a country, we need to value education over profits and see that neither the teachers nor the kids are the problem because poor public schooling is a symptom of a larger institutional problem.

If the public education system has failed minorities as a catalyst for organizing, then an outside influence needs to step up, but who can we/they rally around as inspirational figures if there are a lack of them in our society? It seems that our generation has no Malcolm X's, Martin Luther King Jr.

's, Cesar Chavez's, Muhattama Ghandi's, Harvey Milk's, Gloria Steinem's, James Baldwin's, Spike Lee's, or Chuck D.'s to carry on a tradition of social justice within oppressed and minority groups (Sure, we have President Obama, but how much actual social justice has he provided/inspired during his Presidency? Not all of that is his fault though). This is in part because our education system is so bad and undervalued, but it is also because of the vilification of these types of more "radical" or outspoken people in the media. The vilification not only comes from individuals like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but it also comes from the larger problem of for-profit media. In today's society, a Spike Lee film or a Public Enemy album does not sell because people do not want to see the harsh reality around them. The majority of the market only wants to watch or listen or read about inconsequential things. Because of this, people who have messages like David Simon (the Wire, Generation Kill, Treme) or Spike Lee or Chuck D. are pushed to the fringes and are not as widely viewed or heard as they should be. 

If we do not have inspirational leaders who provide that catalyst towards a "movement of liberation" coming from education, politics, or art where do we find them? To be honest, I have no clue and would love to hear other peoples' takes on this (although that may be a cop out, I am admittedly cynical myself and feel we are so entrenched in this individualist/capitalist society we will have trouble finding solutions).