Solidarity Reflection

Four things I have learned in this course are, Intersectionality & Inequality, homosexuality is not truly legal in America. Also, the health disparities, health equity effects all ethnic groups in America. Also, to recognize and honor the Formation and Legacies of racial and ethnic Minorities; history. The inequality, injustice, oppression, are the last things a person would think, of America due to the “democracy.”

In the past few weeks after reading more about different races and how they are perceived by other people, has got me thinking more in depth about the how’s and why’s behind this. How did racialization become a part of our world? Who came up with them? Why is racialization a thing? Between this class and ED 310, I am starting to understand prejudice, discrimination, privilege, power, and oppression much better and how it ties into racialization. It is apparent through the readings that all racializations are not equal in education.

What I am taking away from this class is that race and ethnic relations are a sensitive topic that has to be talked about. This class has impacted me greatly on my views of racial relationships and that even in the same culture or ethnic background can be a lot of differences, as we have seen in our classroom. We learned that through out the history of humanity, racial relationships have been challenging and not easy and that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. What most impacted me was the inequality that minority’s have been dealing with and still deal with today as a result of oppression. The decades of struggle from generation to generation in the African American community has deeply troubled me, especially the article

The culture and society topic was not just about the segregation between races, it was also about the inequalities between men on women. Women of today’s society are not considered as good enough leaders, they are looked on as just care takers, they are not being paid the same amount as men and they are said to be too vulnerable. While men on the other had are being paid higher, they are considered as the bread winner and the head of the house hold, and they are also considered as leaders. Nevertheless, as a trinity woman, this topic has taught me to not look down on other women and also to stand up for what I believe in because woman are just as strong as men, sometimes even

Don’t you hate it when you see someone that is going through a rough patch in their lives, and all you want to do is help, but don’t know how to help or if you even can help? Well, there is always a way to help someone, but it might be difficult, at first. There are several ways to help someone through a difficult patch in their lives, and all you have to do is talk to them. Talk to them and ask them what’s going on, and how you can help? At first, they might be oblivious about the fact that someone is trying to help them, but sooner or later, they will come around if they truly want help. Since starting this opioid unit, I have learned a lot about my community and the people that live in it. As a result of my work in this unit, I have

Don’t you hate it when you notice someone is going through a rough patch in their lives, and all you want to do is help, but don’t know how to help or if you even can help? Well, there is always a way to help someone, but it might be difficult, at first. There are several ways to help someone through a difficult patch in their lives, and all you need to do is talk to them. Talk to them and ask them what’s going on, and how you can help? At first, they might be oblivious about the fact that someone is trying to help them, but sooner or later, they will come around if they truly want help. Since starting this opioid unit, I have learned a great deal about my community and the people who live in it. As a result of my work in this unit, I have paid more attention to the crisis in Scioto County, and have wanted to find a way to help. Let’s start by explaining what my experience has been with this unit, so far.

I chose as my subject University of Cincinnati, the dining halls, the workers there, their personal communities, the interactions between the workers and the students. and lastly, I am interested in the workers that cross the bridge between worker and student and take advantage of the free classes. At first I was interested mostly in the interactions between students and workers. Every time i walk into a UC dining hall I am struck by the sense of community among the workers. Its so full of energy I always want to be apart of it. By observation I want to better understand what its like to belong to this specific community. Like all discourse communities, there is a common vernacular or dialogue, that I would like to understand a little more clearly. I want to learn more about it, and understand better the work life balance of this commune of labourers. And how UC helps to better the environment. Does UC take steps to make the environment comfortable and enjoyable, and do the employees enjoy their job? Because what the workers get out of their jobs directly affects the community in and around UC and Cincinnati at large. I learned more about the jobs and the university’s role in these peoples lives. I would like to see how the university helps to improve these workers lives. The university provides over 15,000 jobs to the Cincinnati area, and is one of the largest job providers as well. I am curious to see if there are any other benefits and improvements to the community

The first service learning activity I did was attending the Community Programs Office 9th Annual Welcome Reception featuring civil rights activist Dolores Huerta on October 23rd from 6:30PM to 8:00PM in Wilson Plaza. This reception is held every year at the beginning of fall quarter with a different guest speaking every year. This year I was fortunate enough to hear Dolores Huerta speak that night. She spoke about the obstacles and oppression she had to overcome throughout her life. She also spoke about current political issues and how we, as students, can help create change.

On Tuesday August 29, 2017 it was my first day of WMST 250. I was nervous and had so many thoughts and questions running through my mind. “I hope my professor is nice,” “She didn’t have any reviews on ratemyprofessor.com,” (Yes…I did look you up on there! LOL!) and “I wonder what the class material will be?” The questions we started off with were about feminism. Before our first class we were assigned to watch “We Should All Be Feminists” TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Our first activity was ordering images from least to most feminism. Before I began this activity I googled the definition of feminism because truthfully I was not familiar with feminism or feminist. Also one of our first readings was “Feminist Politics: Where We Stand” by Bell Hooks. We had several assignments throughout the semester. We had Reading Responses, Museum Visit Writing Assignment, Presentation in Pairs, Art-Activist Intervention, and Final Learning Analysis. The reading responses allowed students to ask questions and keep the reader engaged while reading. Personally, if I did not have to create questions from the readings I would not have been engaged in the reading or read as carefully as I did. The Museum Visit Writing Assignment allowed students to go outside of their comfort zone because we went to museums which many of us probably would not have done in our free time. Cara wanted us to feel like we belonged at museums and her goal was accomplished on my end. Before I went on my museum

In 2014, while living in Bermuda, I attended a youth conference with my two sisters in Baltimore, Maryland. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and when we arrived back in Bermuda it was all we were able to talk about for weeks. So much so that our aunt thought it would be a great idea to host a youth conference on the island. When she got the approval for the conference to take place in 2015 she told me that she would need my help in organizing it and I obliged since I love to plan big events.

Individuals discriminate others based on class, race or gender and in general the discrimination can take many different forms. In our today’s society we can’t avoid nor deny the separations from individuals based on their skin color. “The impact of racism begins early. Even in our preschool years, we are exposed to misinformation about people different from ourselves. Many of us grew up in neighborhoods where we had limited opportunities to interact with people different from our own families” (Tatum, 125). From my own perspective those sentences are unfortunately true in every way. We live in a racial world and it doesn’t matter if you in school, at the park or at work people treat individuals of color differently. Tatum makes essay a great statement in her essay “Sometimes it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always, day in and day out, we are breathing it in. None of us would introduce ourselves as “smog-breathers” (and most of us don’t want to be described as prejudiced),…” (Tatum, 127) the author compares and associates smog with racism “…but if we live in a smoggy place, how can we avoid breathing the air?” (Tatum, 127). We are living in a time where we have to accept each other, no matter of what or who we are but sadly that isn’t the case yet. The first step is to start with ourselves, do your part to help make this country even world a better place to live for future generations with equality for every race.

On November 2nd, I attended the VA-NAME 2017 Symposium at Radford University. The event was A Symposium for Educators: Understanding and Responding to Poverty, which addressed the multiple facets that both teachers and faculty, as well as individuals in the community, must be aware of when dealing with poverty in one’s own community. The keynote speaker, as well as the concurrent sessions speakers, brought logical arguments as to why current and future educators must change their way of thinking and how to go about making changes so that they and their students will not continue to be plagued by the inequalities that are found in many classrooms around the country.

After the hectic schedule and finally going to the town-hall meeting made me realize how these meetings help our community grow into a better university. My wellness team went to different ones and we didn't collaborate in the same ideas but seen a few in our times that went that we thought were a great influence on today's community. Of course at some points it became boring but I beleive main goal at the end of the meeting was to bring a topic that needed to be brought up and some ideas that can fix them.

My community placement is at Herring Cove Junior High, which consists of grades seven, eight, and nine. Grade nine students have a healthy living class, which is taken over on Wednesdays by a group called “Pathways”. Pathways works with the school as a student-mentoring program. There are two women who mentor the girls, and two men who mentor the boys, one class at a time. Pathways teaches various topics every week, which includes alcohol, drugs, and sex. Darcie (Dalhousie Nursing Student) and I sit in on the girls group weekly. There is one student in the girls group who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She comes in every week with her Educational Program Assistant (EPA); she listens well and is interactive with the group with the encouragement of the EPA. The main topic of the week was not sex, but the topic of sex arose during the discussion. When sex was being discussed, the EPA and the student left the class.

After Chief Anderson talked, the presentation moved on to a panel. The panel was introduced by Dr. Togo and Dr. Hesse read the questions to the panel. The first question that Dr. Hesse asked was the commitment between law enforcement and community. Ron Nierenhausen the Police Chief of Elk River was the first to respond to this question. One of the essential elements of community policing is simply knowing your community and engaging with the citizens. In addition, police departments must be proactive and programs need to serve the community. For instance, Elk River has a citizen’s academy, cry for veteran’s program, and school bullying program. These are all programs that are beneficial in serving the population in Elk River. Chief Nierenhausen noted that there are three elements in order to be effective at community policing: partnership, business community, and problem solving/organizational change. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Chief Nierenhausen, as he offered some great examples on how the Elk River Police Department engages with their citizens.