As social workers, oppression and privilege are subjects that we will face every day in our work with clients. It is our role to help our clients cope with their experiences and well as empower them to fight against oppression. However when working with clients in communities different then our own it is important to examine our own bias so that we can keep them in check when working with clients. One way we can understand and recognize our biases more is by looking back on our life.
I am a twenty-two-year-old Mexican American woman who has faced a variety of experiences when it comes to my culture, race, and social status. At this moment in my life I would consider my social class to be middle class but this was not always the case.
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My family immigrated to the United States in search of a better life and more opportunities. Although I am not fully aware of my great grandparents’ journey to the United States, I know that my grandfather experienced deportation several times on his journey. After arriving in the United States, my grandfather and my great grandparents were determined to thrive in the United States, each in their own ways.
A few years after my great grandparents immigrated to the United States, they opened a corner store on the South Side of Chicago. With their store, they not only provided for their family of six children but they also employed other Mexican immigrants. Eventually they were able to open more stores which helped even more. Since they lived in a neighborhood made up of many other Hispanic immigrants, they felt comfortable holding onto and expressing their Mexican Culture. My great-grandparents did not make many attempts to assimilate to the American Culture as they spoke mostly Spanish and very little English. Their children were raised with Spanish as their first language and they did not learn English until they entered school. Although my great-grandparents held on to their Mexican Culture, their children did not. Their children made many efforts to become Americanized with their cloths, speech, and customs. As a result of this, my cousins and I do not know Spanish and we do not
In Mantsios article “Class in America” he states that Americans hold beliefs that blind them to social classes, citizens in America have four myths they use to ensure talk about the classes never take place. America has the largest gap between rich and poor in the world, and the lower class has no means to an end they can’t afford health care or quality education. The upper class avoids talk about social class the most; wealthy people don’t want to admit that they are better off than others. While the lower class sees how much better off others are than them, but they still don’t like to label themselves. I agree with Mantsios that most Americans avoid talk about classes although I am not one of them. Also I
Within this essay the areas in which discrimination and oppression occur will be highlighted and then evaluated to show how ‘good’ anti oppressive/ discriminative practice within social work can ‘aid’ and empower service users who are in groups that experience oppression and discrimination to overcome their problems. Gil (1994) states that “the conditions that cause people to seek help from social services are usually direct or indirect consequences of social, economic, and political institutions, and... the profession of social work is ethically committed to promote social justice. Insights into oppression and social
There is much debate about the issue of social class in the United States. There are arguments about whether social classes are distinctly separate or fluid, dependent upon one’s community or society as a whole, and if they are subjective or objective (Hughes and Jenkins). However, despite the debate surrounding social classes, it is still important to try to define them and analyze their effects, as they are such an important part of our identity and our opportunities in society. Although our society has tried to appear as though we have no classes, and it is becoming harder to tell what class someone is in by material goods, classes do still exist today (Scott and Leonhardt). The trend has been to divide the U.S. into four major
Social workers are often on the forefront in the fight against any form of oppression as against the marginalized society. These demanding but oftentimes unappreciated efforts are often addressed through the conscious use of skills and knowledge of the problems being solved against. When such oppression is however committed against them within the organization where they work, the social worker seems to be mum about the situation, or their efforts perhaps are rendered inutile. North America social workers experience this form of oppression within the social service institution. For this reason, I examine the arguments why the social workers need to be aware of the existence of this unique form of oppression. In order to eliminate oppression in the social welfare workplace, the social workers, in their pursuit of social change, must have a competent understanding of the theory around racism and oppression.
Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,
Although the United States was a British Colony in the early 1700s, the differences between the two were definitely noticeable, especially in the socioeconomic fields, mostly due to the fact that slavery played a much larger role in the United States.
Social class is a division of a society based on social and economic status which can include levels of wealth, success, power of authority, and influence. Status is can be defined or grouped having common economic, cultural, or political interests.
At the very core of nearly every aspect of the modern life, social class can be seen pulling at the strings, orchestrating every move. From the obvious, like salary, housing, and friends, to the more subtle, like fashion, news, and art, social class is at the center of it all. However, one thing that social class is rarely ever attributed to, is religion. Surprising as it may be, social class directly affected American's choice of religion, and whether or not they have a religion, throughout the entirety of the 1900s.
p.p. 68-99. Challenging oppression and confronting privilege. Oxford University Press. (31 pages) Ross, M. (2018). 1BB3: social work, week 5 notes [PowerPoint slides].
Socioeconomic status measures as a combination of education and income. Poverty levels have similarities of lower education and poor health for children’s and families. Little has been found to understand how poor, single African American mothers view marriage as a strategy to end poverty and their reliance on welfare (Deborah, H., & Domeinco, P,2008). A strong influence on academic level on socioeconomic status within the United States. The delayed of marriage by college-educated women have benefited from marriage later than other demographic groups. Higher education impacted the age and length of marriage. Likewise, women who graduated from high school or some college education have approximately 30 percent and 20 percent lower odds
The idea of social inequality dates back since the time of our founding fathers. The mistreatment and unlawful equality and opportunity that these foreigners received became embedded into our history—this endless list includes, just to name a few, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and most notably the African Americans (Blacks), who became slaves to the American people. Here in the United States, the current social class system is known as the class system, where families are distributed and placed into three different existing class—the upper class (wealthy), middle class (working), and lower class (poor). Since then, improvisations have been worked on into the class system, establishing now roughly six social classes: upper class, new money, middle class, working class, working poor, and poverty level. Social stratification is a widely common topic of debate because there have since been many arguments and debates on this controversial situation of social inequality and how it relates to social class and social mobility. According to Economist Robert Reich, he states that "The probability that a poor child in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago..." (Reich, par. 5), meaning the given amount of equality, opportunity, and support that these struggle families obtain have gone mainly unnoticed by the government that it has gotten worst. The constant uproar of social inequality and injustice that these middle and lower working class families stem
As long as it has been in existence, society has always been fractured into social classes, the very rich and the very poor. I see within our society the chasm growing by the year. The proletariat, boxed into cramped houses, while the bourgeoisie reside in mansions that jut up towards the sky touching the clouds. The rich, who control mostly everything in todays age, capitalize on those less fortunate than themselves and bask in the ignorance of the lower class. It is painful for myself to see the common worker, the average person, being taken advantage of and not even knowing his rights against such things.
We should care because the middle class is being exploited financially and socially. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The wealth gap is further increasing and the middle class growing narrower and narrower. However, this narrow group of Americans is the ones paying the taxes to keep this government operating, which doesn’t seem logical. The middle class will be faced with more taxes. However, these taxes are not benefiting the middle class that much, instead, they are helping people in poverty as well as the rich in case of bailout or even filing bankruptcy. The middle class has to work even harder because they don’t receive the same benefits that other socioeconomic classes receive. So the more the middle-class works, the more they will be taxed on. This becomes a cycle that can’t be stopped.The middle class doesn’t get any help from the government because they are the ones supplying the government. Many of the middle-class members are blinded that these taxes are for the general good including them, but the general good does not
What 's interesting about arise and relationship to class and economic status or wealth amongst its members, arise benefits from middle and upper-class societies who for any number of reasons feel compelled to donate volunteer or financially fund through tax exempt donations to cover the gaps that occur as a result of financial limitations in the ongoing threat of state and federal financial cutbacks. Another economic situation that other nonprofit organizations like no one leaves does not combat is providing unbalanced services by placing homeless people into motels or other type of housing arrangements out of their pockets until families who can be placed in housing are able to have a roof over their heads officially. Such examples of this donation of skills resources and community wealth and efforts is someone like Ann Ferguson. Her role at arise has been demonstrated during an independent fundraiser herself and one other person organized in artists auction were local community members then made bids on the collected artwork. This event was completely orchestrated and executed by Ann Ferguson and the other person raising financial funds for arise through their personal access to previous relationships established throughout their lifetime.
To say that this assignment is difficult would be a gross understatement. As I attempted this assignment, I tried to cut out as many pre-paid expenses as possible short of living in a tent and not bathing for two days. I planned it out so that I didn’t have to go to class and that I didn’t need to use public transportation. Even when I tried hard to cut out expenses, I still failed. On Saturday mornings my roommate and I usually go to brunch at either one of the dining halls or a café around Boston. I had to cut all of that out of my day, because both options cost anywhere from twenty to thirty dollars. After Brunch, we normally head to Curry Student Center so that we can get work done. While there we usually go to Starbucks for coffee or stop at On the Go for a study snack. To give this assignment a fair try, I also skipped this ritual. In the meantime, I eat a banana that was in my dorm room but by 5:00 PM I was starving so I stopped at Au Bon Pain and purchased chicken noddle soup. With