Dr. Aguilar visit and more

I enjoyed the visit from Dr. Aguilar! He really spoke to us with his hand in his heart.  Through the examples of his own life experiences I could really understand what type of concepts he was talking about.  The most interesting part of the whole presentation is that he brought to light once again is the fact that we cannot change somethings, like he said "you can't change the fact that I am colorblind, AT LEAST NOT NOW..." I appreciated that a lot because sometimes I get caught up with the ideas that I am not doing anything(or enough) to change the world, but I can't do it on my own, nevertheless, it can't all be changed at once.  I look forward to going for what I want to help change in this world, but now I hope to change only what I know will be feasible according to my surroundings and resources.


Changing the subject a bit...


The rapping explosion!

I personally would not listen to rap if I had the choice between it and alternative rock. I do have to say though that I am beginning to appreciate it because in this political rap I am not seeing the typical "lil wayne" rapper making women look like they are just wash cloths.  Anyways! This article portraying rappers like Deeb, Mr. Toure, and Mr. Ben Amor is really getting to the core of what the rappers are really trying to show.  I think rapping is strong and powerful so using this type of art to impact society and our generation for social change movements and all is great! Power to these great artists!

Readings for the week

Last week we talked about two very interesting things in my opinion: Dominant and Subordinate groups.  I  thought that it was very interesting to know that subordinate groups know the benefits the dominant groups have and they are constantly trying to survive in society while dominant groups sometimes go without mentioning their benefits because they are so taken for granted they don't realize how good they have it.  When I was growing up I knew that I was in a subordinate group just because of the number of crayons I had.  I knew that compared to the 64 pack of crayons the rich little kids to my 10 pack, I knew money mattered and I wanted my parents to have more to buy me the crayons the little kids had to feel special in class too.

I liked this week's reading and how it talked about identity and how there are micro, meso, and macro levels that can define our identity. As a young woman and part of the UT community I understand my stance in society.  However, I wish I could make a greater difference in the macro level and change the roles that society usually inputs on us: as a woman you are not able to fight with the rest of the men in the military and as a woman you have to be thought of twice or maybe three times before people decide to elect you to be president.

Our generation is growing and here is a question for you. If our community is constantly changing and growing together, becoming allies, marrying out of their race, and having relations with other groups of society could this help the discrimination we are going through now end? Maybe having more understanding and respect for the different attitudes people have would help up break the chains of discrimination?


Social construction was a part of the reading I really liked too and how sometimes we go by labeling people and unconsciously recognize people because of that label.  I have for instance a great operah singer that I really admire, Andrea Bocceli, that I grew up thinking "he's the blind guy that sings real pretty..." I see how wrong I was for thinking that way when I was little.  I try to step out of those heuristics to remember people because they are not fair and demean people of their talent.

The five faces of oppression is one other subject that I really liked.  The one that stood out the greatest for me was cultural imperialism.  I thought this was really interesting because when this oppression is in action the person being oppressed is thought as invisible in society but also marked as the other; thus, your values are taken away and the label you are placed with is just "other" ( you are part of the other group).

To be truly honest, I feel that sometimes I am part of the oppressive group and part of the oppressed group just as equally.  What I like about this class is that it is opening our eyes as social workers to see that we are not perfect and that even if we end up oppressing people we will be conscious of the societal modes that are making us act that way. Constantly being aware of our positive and negative effects on the world will help us reach out to and speak for social justice.

Peace is the one aspect of life that I wish for everyone in this world one day...

"Don't let anyone tell you, you cant"

I think this is a good example of how people living in poverty or just in low income in society sometimes feel they can't excel. However, I like how this video kind of twists at the end with a motivational notice that dreams can be met but you have to "go get it" and don't let any one tell you you cant!

Some thoughts

So Wednesday we talked about the oppressed: dominant and subordinate. I would like to say that personally I feel that I am a subordinate individual because I have two major characteristics. I am a minority Latina and a woman. I had a conversation with my boyfriend today and I feel like a lot of the times that I talk about something he usually ends up having the last word in the conversation.  I don't mean to say we have a bad relationship or that he is the one in control of the relationship I just saw how this whole concept of being a subordinate fell into place in front of my eyes and I was just awed and I could not say anything about it.  BUT! This realization has just encouraged me to speak my mind more and bring to light more of these amazing socialization realities that happen every day.

Social Justice entry

Alright everyone! This entry might be a bit crazy but forgive me this is my first time doing any of this blog business thing. Anyways! The social justice/injustice articles really opened my eyes. In that sense I mean, when I first decided to consider becoming a social worker I knew that there was  injustice thus,  I wanted to help everyone struggling with it. When I read Pelton's article I was shocked when he pointed out that when you look at group differences instead of commonalities you are creating discrimination (Pelton 2001, 436). However it leaves me thinking if we don't consider the differences of groups how would we know what they need?  Another question that arose was the one about groups. So if we should not group people to implicate an intervention then how would we be able to reach out to the greater population? Pelton said we should focus on the individual but our population in this world is of 7 billion how would we be able to reach out to so many people? Everyone needs multiple needs not just simply food or money ect. I am not trying to say we should stick to only doing group focus but of course individual needs too but in order to reach our population we would need to look in macro level terms  and also consider helping the other people who have not been included in this intervention processes.  I leave you with a quote from Scalon "Coalition  building and political activism require that interest groups be able to identify some benefit for the expenditure of time and...capital in pursuit of justice for others (Scalon and Longres).

Im excited to further discuss this in class Monday!

Alright never done a blog before so I am thoroughly lost in the process.