Johnson Wang, Pd7, 1/9/2023

 Socio-political Consciousness

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

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

Throughout human history, the issues of inequality, oppression, and power have been very prevalent. Concepts such as slavery and the idea that white people were much more superior than the blacks were also a major pillar in the idea of inequality. In my opinion, I feel like these atrocities and discriminations shouldn’t even have happened in the first place. Everyone is human, so what right does one to rank themselves higher than the other? Back in the days when segregation was still a thing, I really admired what Rosa Park’s did on the bus: not following the norm of segregation and giving up her seat to a white person. Her actions, along with others such as Harriet Tubman in her fight for equal rights for slavery, made me realize that there still are some humane humans fighting for the cause of others rather than taking advantage of them. On the other hand, oppression is something that makes me think how society came this far. Nothing good ever comes out of oppressing others. You can force others to do something, but they would remember you and might plot revenge against you. For power, I believe in the saying that “with great power comes with great responsibility.” I feel like this statement is true but not upheld by many people. People who are in power in my opinion don't really use that power for the good of others. For instance, I recall that there was a certain person during the Great Depression committing some idiotic actions. The Great Depression was a period of time where the American economy was in great turmoil, causing conflicts and increasing the poverty rate within the US as well as major economic conflicts happening outside the US. This person(I forgot the name, I think it was Herbet Hoover, but I’m not sure) knew this and instead of helping the poor out, he donated money to the rich. 

Currently, I feel like I can experience inequity the most through the major discriminations being shown through various “hates”, “Black Hate,” “Asian Hate,” and etc. I for one don’t understand why there is so much hate towards a specific group of people. People would go out on protests and walks but it doesn’t seem like that’s enough. There was this time I was just walking out on the streets and someone just walked past me and said “Covid” to me. I was confused at first but when I told my peers about it, I realized that person was showing some sort of hate towards Asians because of the Covid-19 incident. In my view, society wouldn’t go far if people are all acting in their own accord and no collaboration is shown through the major groups. Hate is something that would inhibit the progression of civilizations and small wars and conflicts might break out because of it. My belief is as the saying goes, “treat others the way you want to be treated.” Only by accommodating others and treating others as equals would advancement be spurred.