I just finished the book Half The Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This book dove into the important issues of women’s oppression across our world. I am very lucky to live in my little bubble and feel comfortable as a woman, but after I read this book, I got exposed to the harsh reality of inequality women face around the world.
Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn write, “A major study by the world health organization found in most countries between 30% and 60% of women had experienced physical or sexual violence by a husband or boyfriend,”(61). This quote puts into perspective how horribly women are treated across our world. Similarly a quote from the article Why Do We Dismiss Girls Pain, by By Laurie Edwards, states, “Just 12% of girls who experienced harassment reported it to an adult at school, most likely for reasons including fear of not being believed, fear of retaliation and social isolation, the failure of schools to respond, and confusion about what actually constitutes harassment.” I never realized the reasoning behind why women would let violence or harassment go unpunished. We need to strive to create a world were women aren’t afraid of reporting violence or harassment taken against them.
The TED Talk above called Our Century’s Greatest Injustice focuses was spoken by, one of the authors of Half The Sky, Sheryl WuDunn’s. It digs into the unequal access to education, freedom, and healthcare women face in less developed nations. This TED Talk really helped make the concepts in the book I was having a hard time understanding all make more sense and really depend my understanding of the topic and book she wrote.
“Our own estimate is that there are 3 million women and girls (and a very small number of boys) worldwide who can be fairly termed enslaved in the sex trade” (10). After coming across this quote I was shocked to see that there are so many people enslaved in sex trade and also that I knew so little about this pressing issue.
“Yet many forms of assistance-particularly in health and education-have an excellent record…rescuing girls from the brothels is important, Krisher believes, but the best way to save them is to prevent them from being trafficked in the first place which means keeping them in school” (17). I have always taken my education for granted, but hearing that education is what helps prevent women from being trafficked completely changed how I felt. I know realize how important it is that everyone has access to education because it gives people power. While reading this quote I was reminded of another quote from the passage we read in class called Willing to Be Disturbedby Margaret J. Wheatley. In this passage it talks about how in order to grow as a person we must admit to ourselves we don’t know everything. Accepting this will bring us to knowledge even if what we learn isn’t what we expected or thought we needed to know.
In CST, this semester, we read a book called Citizen by Claudia Rankine. This book dove into all the injustices people of color face. This book was written from the second-person point of view and shared many true personal experiences. I was glad I had the opportunity to read this book and had my own takeaways that might be different from other people’s. In class, we got assigned to draw a visual representation of our journey/map of our experience reading this book. I had different things resonate with me so it was hard at first of a way to express my journey of reading this book. After a lot of thought, I decided to base my map on the game Candy Land. I chose to instead call my image Citizen Land. I chose to call this image Citizen Land not only to represent the title of the book but to emphasize how African American citizens in our country are treated. I wanted the emphasis to be that it is not okay that anyone, especially citizens of our country, is treated this way. In this map, I had different colors on the board that went along with certain things we read in the book. For example, the red spaces went with microaggression. I drew cards and wrote different things they stood for and called them citizen cards, again, to draw emphasis on the word citizen. I then started choosing quotes that stood out to me. These quotes started from the beginning of the book when it focused on microaggressions, to more racism/injustice, and then to the pain of all the stress and injustices building up. I also chose quotes that I felt built off/had some sort of connection to each other. I thought that using a Candy Land map would show how all the injustices African Americans face don’t ever leave them and how these experiences follow and haunt them forever.
I chose to read the book Half The Sky because when I read the summary I was very intrigued. I was disturbed to read in the summary how many women are held captive. I didn’t realize the extent of the sex slave industry and human trafficking. This was really challenging to wrap my head around because I didn’t realize how uneducated I was on this issue. I hope by reading this book I learn the troubling reality on this situation. I often watch Law and Order SVU, and other shows like Criminal Minds, and I felt this book could relate to things I watched but give me real life stories. I hope all my questions about the issue of women oppression will be answered. I want to be informed about this issue because it is a very serious topic and I would love to be able to do something to try and help the situation.
In class, I have been lucky enough to be exposed to issues plaguing our country that I wouldn’t usually come across. For example, I have learned about the public health crisis surrounding Covid-19 and how minority/low income communities have been at a disadvantage receiving tests, care, and supplies. I have also researched the issue of immigrant detention centers and learned about the terrible treatment immigrants face. For my next SAMO I came across the issue of food deserts. You might wonder what even is a food desert? Mari Gallagher the author of Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago and also Principal of Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group, a firm that specializes in “going green”, health and wellness projects, immgration, and food deserts a says, “Food deserts are large and isolated geographic areas that cluster that have no or distinct mainstream grocery stores,” (TEDxWindyCity).
I chose to listen to podcasts, videos, and also found great websites explaining this widespread concern. Dymond Green, who works for CNBC, researched food deserts and found that in 2020 there were an estimated 19 million people who lived in food deserts in America. She highlights the disparity between healthy food access and income/race. She says this is the result of many stores opening in higher income communities and closing in poorer communities (Why food deserts are still a problem in America).This is due to systemic racism. Policies were put into place that caused segregation in urban cities and communities that are still withstanding today (“Unshared Bounty: How Structural Racism Contributes to the Creation and Persistence of Food Deserts20).
Food deserts can have a drastic effect on people’s health. For example, people who live in food deserts are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and obesity. This is because many of the people living in these communities do not have the luxury of having transportation to get to far grocery stores. In these places, they might have fast-food restaurants and other stores that sell unhealthy food but lack the nutrition found in fruits and vegetables (Exploring Health Equity Episode 3: Food Deserts and Obesity).
After coming across all this overwhelming information I thought about how it connects to my CST course. I have realized over the year that we have been learning about many different social injustices/issues that are affecting our country.
We read Willing to Be disturbed by Margaret J.Wheatley, and she says, “As we work together to restore hope to the future, we need to include a new and strange ally—our willingness to be disturbed. Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think” (1).
I believe that this quote is relevant to what I have been learning about. I agree that in order to create a better future we must look at the problems that affect many people around us. In class we also read Where Do We Go from Here by Isabel Wilkerson, The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward, and also watched “The Great Migration and the power of a single decision.” by Isabel Wilkerson. All of these sources highlighted some of the struggles Black Americans face in our country today. This connects with my SAMO topic because there is an unproportional amount of lower income black families residing in food deserts compared to other races. This all stems from systematic racism which is an immense problem in our country.
All my SAMOS have one thing in common; each shed light on major problems hurting many minorities in our country. Whether it’s the unequal access to Covid-19 necessities, poor treatment of minority immigrants, or lack of access to healthy food minorities face, these issues need to be addressed. Addressing these issues brings us one step closer to coming up with a solution. This year has made me realize how lucky I am to feel safe in my community and be treated fairly. I have always taken for granted that I have access to many different grocery stores, close by, such as Jewel Osco, Target, Marianos, Wholefoods, Sunset, and more. I hope more people realize how unfair our country is today and that the future brings more equality for all. These issues can no longer go unrecognized. We all need to come together to bring change in our country so everyone can have the opportunity to live up to their highest potential.
I was lucky enough to have the experience of being able to write the Mayor about something I felt passionate about. While doing research on issues in our community, I came across the issue of the unequal green space in parts of Chicago.
This is my final letter
This is me signing my letter
This is me mailing it
I hope my letter to Mayor Lightfoot brings change to Chicago. I personally love the outdoors, and when I heard there was disparities in amount of green space due to race or income It puzzled me. Outdoor space like trees, trails, and parks, give people a pretty place to come together. Especially today, with the pandemic, outdoor space is a safer place to congregate compared to being in doors. I hope Mayor Lightfoot reads my letter and sees there needs to be change in our city. Doing so will help everyones overall well-being. The environmental issue I chose is not too challenging to come up with a solution. The mayor could fund projects to help maintain the upkeep in parks and create more in communities with less. I hope to receive a letter back hearing the mayors thoughts and or plans to solve this issue.
“the frame that the court was using to see gender discrimination or to see race discrimination was partial, and it was distorting. For me, the challenge that I faced was trying to figure out whether there was an alternative narrative, a prism that would allow us to see Emma’s dilemma, a prism that would allow us to rescue her from the cracks in the law, that would allow judges to see her story.” and “Emma, like so many African-American women, sought better employment for her family and for others. She wanted to create a better life for her children and for her family. But she applied for a job, and she was not hired, and she believed that she was not hired because she was a black woman.” (Urgency of Intersectionality)
It is important for people to be informed on this subject so that people can recognize what they need to do to better everyone in our country.
“We can be led to believe that racism is only about individual mindsets and actions, yet racist policies also contribute to our polarization. While individual choices are damaging, racist ideas in policy have a wide-spread impact by threatening the equity of our systems and the fairness of our institutions. To create an equal society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives.”- Dr. Anneliese A. Singh https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/being-antiracist
Artist Statement: I created this mash-blog because I felt quotes and pictures made a complex issue seem more simple to people. I believe it is crucial for people to be educated of this issue so more people can be aware of how their behavior affects people.
America was built on the foundation of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” and takes pride being the “melting pot” of the world. Immigrants seeking asylum in America expect to be treated better than the countries and conditions they have left behind, but this isn’t always the case. There are approximately 170,000 immigrants that have been detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, that have wound up in detention centers. Immigraiton detention centers have been put into place for the purpose of holding people coming to America illegally, violating visa regulations or people being deported. Immigrants remain in these detention centers until they either get an approved visa or are sent back to their country of origin. Some detention centers are run by ICE, but many more are run privately. I found this topic particularly interesting because of the news coverage detailing many of the terrible things that have happened to immigrants while living in detention centers. As a result, I thought it was important for me to investigate further. While conducting more research on this issue, I have found that many immigrants living in detention centers have endured human rights violations. Terrible treatment by guards, poor nutrition and lack of medical supplies are just a few of the injustices recalled by immigrant detainees.
The mistreatment of women living in immigrant detention centers is one example of a human rights violation that is particularly disturbing to me. An article called Immigration Detention Is Dangerous for Women’s Health and Right, written by Nora Ellmann, describes many of the struggles women in detention face. Many women in detention centers are torn away from their family and are forced to live apart from their children and/or husbands. A quote from the article titled The parents of 545 children separated at the border still haven’t been found. The pandemic isn’t helping from The Washington Post states, “The 545 children are among more than 1,500 who were separated from their parents as far back as July 1, 2017, and whose cases were not immediately disclosed to the U.S. district judge who ordered the families reunited in June 2018, said American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt,” (Teo Armus and Maria Sacchetti). In addition, there have been many instances of violations regarding maternal health, reproductive care and mental health services. For example, women in detention centers do not have any access to abortion centers or proper reproductive care. Recently, it has come to light that women in certain detention centers were put through sterilization procedures unnecessarily and without consent. Women undergoing these procedures were not advised that they were taking place or the long-term consequences. A specific example of the inappropriate use of sterilization was discussed by Lisa Reinsberg and Sarah Paoletti in a piece titled The U.S. Bears Internal Responsibility for Forced Sterilization of Women in ICE Detention. They write, “According to the whistleblower complaint, a gynecologist providing healthcare to ICDC detainees removed the uterus of nearly every detainee sent to his office. The complaint includes a detainee’s report that the doctor performed hysterectomies on at least five ICDC detainees between October and December 2019, and that the women were confused about why the surgery had been performed. He reportedly sterilized multiple women who received incomplete or false information about the procedure or its purported necessity, including as a result of contradictory or inaccurate statements by medical personnel and inadequate Spanish-English interpretation”. As discussed in the book Ethical Reasoning by Dr. Richards Paul and Dr. Linda Elder, that we focused on in class, taking away a woman’s right to her own reproductive system is well documented as an abuse of human rights. Lastly, many women have reported being sexaully assaulted or raped by guards at their facility (Ellmann).
This was taken in McAllen, Texas
In addition to the abuses faced by immigrant women, the children living in the immigrant detention centers fail to receive proper care. Claudia Flores, a legal scholar, interviewed many immigrants living in these centers and recalled some of the disturbing stories she’s heard in a podcast from Uchicago News calledU.S. Immigration and Hidden Abuse (Ep. 9). She states, “Sexual abuse, physical abuse, just general verbal humiliaztion-calling children dogs and pigs”. Not only are children abused, they are also not provided with enough food or water and have to stay in atrocious living conditions. Claudia Flores discusses the importance of storytelling and how crucial it is to address these human rights issues. Her statement of storytelling is consistent with a Ted Talk we listened to in class called The Danger Of A Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In her Ted Talk she shares the following, “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity”. This is an important message. Without immigrants telling their story about their experiences in detention centers, the public would be left unaware of the ongoing human rights abuses facing these children. Without storytelling no one would learn the real hard truths about what is happening in detention centers. Storytelling is a safe outlet for immigrants to share their perspectives and realities.
A possible explanation for how these human rights violations continue to occur is that many of the immigrant detention centers are run by private organizations rather than the government. The New York Times published a video named “For Private Prisons, Detaining immigrants Is a Big Business”. The video claims private detention centers were created as a result of the rapidly growing illegal immigrant problem and lack of space in governmentally run detention centers. Private detention centers often have money oriented goals so they want and need more people living in their facilities. They offer bare necessities and hold onto people as long as they can. It has been said, in these facilities detainees do not have anyone looking out for their well-being so they are often mistreated. This is especially problematic now as a result of Covid-19, which has hit these detention centers very hard. These centers do not have enough medical staff or supplies to properly keep the immigrants safe from sicknesses. I believe regulations need to be implemented and government oversight needs to be put in place to make sure the organizations owning these detention centers are required to maintain certain standards of living and care for their detainees
Diving into the darkness of our immigration system is critical. People come to America in hopes of finding a better and safer life than that they are leaving behind. Immigrants reaching America should be entitled to being treated with dignity and respect. Instead, immigrants are finding not only their liberty taken away, but also that they are victims of gross human rights violations. CST has pushed me to dig deeper to uncover truths/ “third space” that may be disturbing to learn. Learning about the problems in our immigration system has enlightened me and made me more aware of our “imperfect” country and how there is a lot of work to be done to end these injustices. It is not acceptable for people held in immigration detention centers to be stripped of basic human rights and be treated like prisoners. America holds itself out on a pedestal as a world leader that advocates for human rights, but when digging deeper, I have realized, we, as a country, are guilty of committing offenses not much different from countries that we accuse of being some of the worst human rights offenders. In order to ensure that immigrants in detention centers get treated with dignity and respect, the first step is educating ourselves on the issues and then working to resolve it.
Our world is a crazy place today. If you were to tell me that our world would be the way it is today a year ago I wouldn’t have believed it. Never in a million years could I have imagined a world where people fear being in contact with each other. Sadly, this has turned into our reality. Covid-19 has hit everyone differently. People have all lost something due to the Coronavirus. One thing that struck me really hard is how Corona is affecting people differently based on race. When I heard this fact I was puzzled on how a virus could be more dangerous to certain races. With all that I’ve learned in my CST class, I felt that it was necessary for me to dig deeper to find the root of this problem. While doing research on this issue, I discovered that there are major race and economic disparities that factor into why Corona hits certain communities harder than others.
One good source to learn more about this issue was through a podcast. A podcast published by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University called “The Brain Architects Podcast: COVID-19 Special Edition: Creating Communities of Opportunity”. Sally Pfitzer and Dr. David Williams talked about this concerning the issue. They discussed the many reasons why Covid-19 is hitting underprivileged communities harder. One issue I found to be very troubling is that there are not equal resources to help battle this virus in many poor communities. Many people in these communities have lower income and have jobs that don’t provide health insurance. The lack of insurance makes it harder for members of such a community to afford a Corona test. Lack of insurance results in a lower access to health care which means that this population suffers from more pre-existing conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. Because their health is already compromised, contracting corona can become more deadly. Not only do people lack health insurance, but testing sites frequently are not in close proximity to these communities. One thing Dr. David Williams said was, “We also have evidence of the persistence of discrimination in terms of access to tests in addition to the fact that most of the testing sites are in suburban communities and there are fewer testing sites in central city communities that have a larger unrepresentative minority population.” This generates the problem that many members of these underprivileged communities have corona but do not have access to proper resources to diagnose, contain, or treat. The structural and economic racism is being amplified due to this pandemic. People need to become more aware of these issues so that everyone in our country has equal access to testing and treatment.
When people first glance at the number of people with corona in communities vs. the number of deaths, people might miss the patterns that exist. I found an online seminar at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics called Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Communities During the COVID Pandemic. This seminar discusses the problem of why certain communities in Pennsylvania are harder hit than others. They dig deeper into the racial division issues that cause this and show examples from other big cities in America. Executive director of Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics Rachel Warren showed a chart of corona in Chicago and said, “you can see that black residents not only have the highest rates but once infected, are more likely to die. Another chart showed that African Americans constitute 15% of Illinois’ population but have almost 30% of all coronavirus infections and account for more than 40% of deaths from the disease.” It was overwhelming and devastating to learn that the high amount of deaths from corona were in lower income black or Lationo communities. This seminar continued to explain that not only are healthcare resources limited in these communities, but also, many families have multigenerational households. This is problematic because many people in these communities work as essential workers and are at higher risk for contracting the virus at work and then bringing it home to older family members that are at higher risk of complications from the virus. Lower income people do not have the option of not working. Continued employment often means continued exposure to the virus.
Above is the Image described in the seminar which shows certain communites and how corona has impacted them.
Learning about these terrible truths has given me a new perspective on the way I look at our world. I am guilty of living in my bubble and not branching out to learn about other people’s lives. CST has taught me the importance of finding the “third” or new perspective on issues. An empowering quote from a TedTalk called “If a Story Moves You, Act on It” by Sisonke Msimang says, “And then lastly, I think that audiences can make the world a better place by switching off their phones, by stepping away from their screens and stepping out into the real world beyond what feels safe.” A downfall of the internet and social media is that people often focus on themselves. We are a “selfie” generation. It is important that we stop this inner focus and open our eyes to difficult truths particularly the racial and economic inequalities in our healthcare system. Once we take the time to educate ourselves on important issues in society, specifically how corona has been affecting certain communities harder than others, we can all take steps to work together towards finding solutions.
Today there is a lot of conflict going on in the world as a result of letting things divide us. People believe “fake news” and information given to them by sources that only have one perspective. It is important to know that there is a third space. I believe that the third space is information from different perspectives that may not usually be addressed. It is information that people have to dig deeper to find. Finding the third space pushes us to challenge what we know and be open to being disurbed by new information we may come across. In the passage “Willing to be Disturbed”, Margaret Wheatley says, “Our willingness to have our beliefs and ideas challenged by what others think. No one person or perspective can give us the answers we need to the problems of today.” I believe in order to create positive change in our world and find the third we need to defy stereotypes and understand that everyone has their own viewpoint. We are so comfortable living in our little bubble that going outside of it can be intimidating. Overall it will be rewarding and we will gain greater knowledge and truths about our world.
I wasn’t aware I was missing out on so much information. I am guilty of believing what people tell me without much question. Recently this has changed. Watching the Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has made me realize that I’ve been living in the dark. I haven’t challenged any of the information I’ve been taught. I never realized each person has their own story and truths differ depending on the storyteller. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says, “stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.” After hearing this Ted Talk I concluded how important stories really are and how important it is to tell them right. I realized I need to be more aware of the storyteller. I need to know the source of where the information is coming from and accept that there are probably more sides to the story.
I have become aware that I need to ask more questions. I cannot be satisfied with the bare minimum of information I’ve been fed. I need to dig deeper to create change and get involved in important problems in today’s world. In the Ted Talk “If a Story Moves You, Act on It” by Sisonke Msimang, she says, “And then lastly, I think that audiences can make the world a better place by switching off their phones, by stepping away from their screens and stepping out into the real world beyond what feels safe.” I need to be okay with stepping out of my comfort zone and exposing myself to reality. This Ted Talk opened my eyes to how obsessed our generation is with technology and how if we actually looked at the real world we would be more educated.
This is me In Israel their country supports and promotes loving everyone
Today, many of our world problems surround the issue of power and how we let it divides us. The article “She Unnames Them” by Ursula Le Guin highlights the problem. She addresses the fact that giving things names bridges differences which leads to power struggle. Instead of celebrating everyones uniqueness people are more focused on what sepertes us. The author talks about how if we were to unname things there would be less divide amongst people. I believe this is super relevant in our society today. There are stereotypes and negativity associated with group names. If we focused on the similarities not the differences everyone would treat each other better. If everyone accepted each other for their differences and disreagarded steortypes there would be less power struggles which would create a better world for everyone.
This Is a photo from a concert I took where everyone has come together for a common cause
Finding the third has enlightened me on the problems in our society. We are taught to believe one set of facts, but what we don’t realize is that there isn’t always one truth. We need to be open to listening to stories and understanding that there are always multiple perspectives. Once we recognize that there is no one set of facts, we can dig deeper and gain a wider range of knowledge. Our world is divided. We let differences tear us apart. Once we take away stereotypes and focus on embracing differences we can work together to fix our world and focus on what we do have in common. I am thankful for learning about the third because now I know I need to search for other perspectives to learn truths about the world. I believe if other people have this knowledge our world would be a better place and it would be less complicated solving world problems.
Learning can take place in many forms; whether it’s inside a classroom or by experience, learning is an essential part of everyone’s lives. I don’t think education should revolve around future careers, but I think there needs to be a balance. I think education needs to incorporate a balance of history, relevant topics, and tools to succeed in life. “When we structure students learning around their lived experiences and present needs, they not only develop content knowledge and skills but they grow to care about and for one another. They are equipped to collaboratively face the world they are inheriting,” (McCall1). I wish my classes would focus on the curriculum but then relate it to relevant events. I think especially during E-Learning teachers and students need to navigate the balance so students feel that education is still important.
I believe that learning needs to become more enjoyable. I think it is necessary to give students a voice to create the best learning environment. The article “Why Go To School” states, “Children should have regular opportunities across the curriculum to initiate learning, explore their own questions, and learn about their own interests,” (Wolk 652). Allowing kids to have some say in what they are learning and express how they like to learn will lead students to be more present in class. I believe that if my teachers incorporated my interests in class, I would be more interested and thrive more. For example, I enjoyed being able to choose my topic for my junior year research project. I produced better work due to having more passion and interest in the work I was creating. During online learning, I find it easier to discuss what is going on in our lives. I think it is crucial to address the changes and crazy things going on in our lives so that we have the tools to succeed in this climate.
Claiming my education means to me, that I am equally in charge of what I learn as well as my teachers. I willingly open myself up and continue to challenge myself to gain as much information as I can on various topics. The article “Claiming an Education” discusses how to claim and education, it says, “This means seeking out criticisms, and recognizing that the most affirming thing anyone can do for you is a demand that you push yourself further, show you the range of what you can do,” (Rich 1). It is important that teachers give students room to claim their education more. Wolk discusses how most of the time teachers “spoon-feed” students an education. I agree with his idea because through elementary, middle, and sometimes high school, teachers would give assignments with a lot of direction and not a lot of room for imagination. I think especially during E-learning, it is up to students to claim their education and try and adapt to the new environment of learning.
Sophie's Blog 