Catherine Thorne, Period 2, 3/15/23

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?

Inequity is a part of our world that I don’t believe can be completely eradicated. It’s defined as a lack of fairness and just treatment without favoritism or discrimination. That is a lofty goal for a society where we are implicitly taught from the day we are born to judge others based on their appearance. We automatically form opinions of others, whether it’s based on stereotypes or what we’ve been told by our parents. In this society, we are constantly shown reminders of these stereotypes and ideas by popular media and in modern literature. For example, racial stereotypes are still prevalent, and have even led to increased violence against minorities in recent years. Racism is embedded into American society and can’t be so easily changed. For there to be equity, and to give everyone the same opportunities, some group will have to relinquish power that keeps other groups oppressed. Since the beginning of humanity, people have controlled others by taking away their power. This still continues today with the hierarchical nature of society, with those on top not allowing those on the bottom to advance because it would threaten their own standing.

I believe part of the problem in society’s division is the narrative of the “other”. Most people grow up in communities where those around them look like them or at least all have the same beliefs. They will naturally gravitate towards these people and trust them more because they know they already have things in common. I’ve seen this in school, where different social circles tend to be made up of people with similar backgrounds. While this is normal, the problem occurs when people develop prejudices against groups other than their own. They form beliefs that their group is distinct and separate from another, which creates distrust. There is less understanding of differences and more ideas about superiority over other groups. This is not conducive to a fair and just society because instead of working together, different groups of people stay apart, isolating themselves. We should be helping one another, focusing not on our differences but on how similar we are to overcome the many challenges of the last few years as well as the ones to come.

When we reflect back on recent history, it’s not hard to see proof of what division has caused in America. For example, a surge in Asian American hate crimes in many places, but especially New York, has been seen. On the news, there would be countless stories of Asian Americans attacked for no reason other than their race. It made me scared for my own family and there seemed like there was so much widespread hate. However, even though those stories of violence dominated the media, there was also a surge in support for the Asian American community, of people speaking out against the hate. It was movements like those that gave me hope that even though racism and oppression seem so ingrained into our society, there will always be voices that push back and people willing to unlearn the stereotypes they had been taught. Even though the divisions between different groups may be getting worse in this country, history has shown that it’s not impossible to reconcile our differences. Despite a variety of appearances, religions, and cultures, we are all human and dividing ourselves is only detrimental to our progress as a society.