Alvin, Period 7, 1/6/2022

 Alvin Mei

Period 7

1/6/2022

Modern Mythology 2022

Socio-political Consciousness

• What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

I believe issues of inequity and oppression have constantly plagued America since its inception. The civil rights movement was only in the 60s, still in living memory. Before then, African American kids could not attend the same school that white kids could, and more often than not, the only African American schools had lower quality education than their white counterparts. And going even further back, African people were being shipped like sardines in a can to America to work as slaves. The COVID-19 pandemic especially exacerbated these issues. The pandemic disproportionately affected minorities, with their already poor socioeconomic status putting them at a disadvantage when trying to recuperate from whatever the virus throws at them, whether it be losing their jobs or getting hospitalized.

When I see this injustice, I am disgusted by the people who instigate this. I know and am infuriated by multiple ignorant people who refuse to acknowledge that issues like police brutality are not a real problem, or by people who believe that African Americans are “genetically inferior” to others. However, I believe their beliefs are circumstances of the way they were raised.

Even with the negativity, I think it is possible to improve the situation of inequity and oppression. With better education, people will better understand how people aren’t all that different from themselves, and I believe that in the future, even if the issues of inequity and oppression will never truly disappear, it can be eased with enough effort put into it.

• How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Everybody has their own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences that define them. I would often reflect on them when reading the news, or when talking to my friends about their own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences. I see the conditions that other people are living in, or the struggles that my friends are going through, and I evaluate my own beliefs, which help me grow as a person. Whenever I can, I would look back at everything I’ve gone through too, and think about how my experiences led to the way I am today.

My beliefs and values shape how I see others. I believe people should treat others with respect, and when I see people disrespecting others, I see them in a more negative light. I also try to hold myself up to this value, trying to treat everyone I know with respect, and show them kindness too. I also believe that people should treat themselves with respect. This is something that I struggle with constantly. I put myself down often, and don’t even think that I deserve respect. When I was writing my common app essay, I would look at other people’s essays often, and I would compare myself to them constantly. It got so bad that I would be more busy seeing if I was “good enough” than actually writing the essay. This obsession with being “good enough” took me some time to recognize, and I’m still trying to stop comparing myself with others.