Over the last weekend, while visiting my family members, I was able to witness the reinforcement of societal prejudice. Although my they come from a conservative background, what was said during a conversation at dinner was inexcusable. With my brothers sitting at the dinner table, a family member openly made comments degrading people of the Middle East. Read the rest of this entry »
An ally is a person who identifies within a dominant identity, yet chooses to aid or fight alongside those who identify with subordinate identities. An example of what an identity can be is how I identify as being a white, straight, male. Those are all examples of dominant identities and the supplement subordinate identities would be a person of color, gay, and female. I now consider myself an ally to all subordinate identities, even though in the past I didn’t give my support. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the past couple of weeks I have been discussing where I identify with social class and how my new identity has changed my outlook on life. Now the question remains, what am I going to do from here? Being in an area of privilege, I have the opportunity to serve a community that is oppressed throughout society. Over the past three weeks I have been reading ad researching various ways to serve communities that are oppressed due to class. Although breaking the institutionalized classism in America is difficult, starting to slow the growth of classist remarks on a personal level is extremely feasible.
In light of the recent attempted bombing of Pioneer Square in Portland, and the resulting burning of a mosque in Corvallis, I question how a person makes the leap from an individual’s actions to holding a whole religion responsible and thus burning a place of worship. As I reflect on the situation, the essay “The Moral Insight” by Josiah Royce comes to mind. Read the rest of this entry »
After reflecting on how I identify in the sense of social class, I have started to pay more attention to my access to wealth. My immediate family is a low income family in a manufactured home neighborhood, aka a trailer park. My extended family, on the other hand, has an abundance of resources. I have been struggling with identifying as lower class, based on my immediate family, or upper middle class with this new consideration of my access to wealth through my extended family. Read the rest of this entry »
This article marks the end of my first term as a Community Relations Facilitator for the residence halls. Although, with the help of the RA’s great programs have been done within the residence halls, I can’t help but wonder what the rest of my year will look like. Social Justice is not something I can’t just learn or teach and then move on to the next thing in life; it is a process. Read the rest of this entry »
Moving into the residence halls this year was a major turning point in my life. I never would have imagined that my skin color would ever be a thought in my mind when meeting new people. Although I have some Japanese ancestors, throughout my life, I have grown up primarily in a white family with white friends in a white neighborhood at a white dominated school. I considered myself a part of the pack. I assumed the role of a white person. I thought I fit in. Read the rest of this entry »
Several times throughout my life I have had an individual or a group become angry or displeased at me for no apparent reason. Most of the times this occurred it was from an individual who held different identities than my own. When I say identities I mean social identities such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and many others. These types of occurrences used to make me very upset at the individuals because I believed they had no right to act this way towards me especially since I hadn’t done anything wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
Last year at OSU I went through some amazing changes/realizations in my position as a Community Relations Facilitator. It took me over two terms of intense self reflection and training to finally grasp the concepts behind these things called social justice and diversity. I thought I would never again see myself disrespect or oppress another identity through my words and actions. I believe it was my young, cocky attitude that came out when I believed that I only needed a year worth of learning to really know everything I needed to know. The realization of how wrong I was hit me during this summer as I returned back to my hometown and started hanging out with the friends I hadn’t seen on a regular basis for a year. Read the rest of this entry »
Diversity Fun Fact
Did You Know…?
Tuesday, June 1st
Thursday, April 8th
