During the last few months I feel like I gained so much from Social Justice. Social Justice was a great experience, I feel like I learn a lot coming to this class. There were so many different concepts like, sociological imagination, global sociological imagination, racism, discriminations, LGBT community and many more. I would say my favorite concepts in this course were global sociological imagination and racism. With global sociological imagination I felt very connected, due to the story that Dr. Charles Quist-Adade told about the cocoa beans. I never realized something so small can impact many other around the whole world. I honestly was amazed in his story, and now I think about it as a daily life about anything that comes across my mind. This concept actually made me realize that my life is not only connecting to my parents and my friends but also many people in other parts of the world. I now understand that my actions I take in my life can influence other people. As I mention earlier about my own global sociological imagination about my family store, I feel I was able to relate to Charles story due to the impact to others. Another concept I thought was very important was racism because this plays a huge role in our lives and many other. Racism well probably always be in our lives and no one can really change it but just to ignore it. As we watched the movie, Danger of A Single Story, made me understand that many people around the world still this day have racist terms against one another. Also affects many others and changes them for who they are, especially in the video Danger of a Single Story, as she describes how her first writing at the age of seven was all about white, blue-eyed character, which drank ginger beer and talked about the weather. Adichie did not think people like herself could exist in literature, all her literature she knew was Foreign, British books. She also tells us how her American roommate felt sorry for Adichie before she saw her. Her roommate had a single story of Africa, a single story of disaster. In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way. No possibility of a connection as human equals. It’s sad to know that this affects people lives, but we need to understand and learn how to not let this affect us and live our lives the way we want to. That is of course happiness and respectful. We all should be living in a peaceful place and not where we get discriminated for the way we are or the way we look. Another video I was pretty upset was The Gacaca Justice System, I was just shocked how many people died for no reason. And not to mention the Gacaca Justice System wanted the society to forget and forgive these men, but how can you forgive when they did such a big crime. Overall I really enjoy this class and had lot of fun. I have gain a lot of knowledge that I never thought I would come across.
Privilege
One of the concepts we talked in class was Privilege, what it was and what privileges we have as individuals. Privilege is an interlocking system of advantage often outside of consciousness such as: the security and comfort of living in a culture in which aspects of identity such as one’s language, religion, race, gender, history, and values are normative. Privilege is also having a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most. Example I have privilege of my family, education, culture, food etc. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is defiantly as asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.
Video 3
What have my Cocoa beans have to do with Canada?
After watching the video of, “What have my Cocoa beans have to do with Canada,” made me realize how something so small can affect the whole world. Like for instance, Dr. Quist-Adade was a young boy who planted seeds of cocoa beans in Ghana, are now holds in chocolate bars. Also it tells me people around the world do things that defiantly affect others. I was definitely amazed when I saw this video and knowing it’s my Professor in Social Justice. My own sociological imagination I can relate to would be my family store which has being running for the last 30 years, unfortunately, we are closing it down end of March due to the loss of my father. However, knowing my dad and mom had this family business going on for 30 years has impacted me and many others. From the goods and bad experiences, we had experiences of meeting new people and becoming great friends, as well having tragic memories like getting robbed. One of my memories from this store is, one night a robber came with a gun and robbed my brother. That very same night, the robber went to two different stores and shot 2 men. We were lucky that he did not shot my brother, however due to two men got shot a new reporter of CTV came to make awareness of this dangerous robber. My dad was on the TV on Nov, 19, 2008 and made a message to share, “Don’t confront the guy you know, why should you like that instant happen there, two people got shot, you know is not worth it for a couple of bucks to lose a life,” (Dave Atwal) Knowing my dad was on TV and said a message, I’m sure it has impacted many individuals. Many people that I don’t know still come to the store and talk about how awesome my dad was.
Video 2
The danger of a single story- Chimamanda Adichie
In this video, Chimamanda Adichie talks about her own experiences of the single story. She describes how her first writing at the age of seven was all about white, blue-eyed character, which drank ginger beer and talked about the weather. Adichie did not think people like herself could exist in literature, all her literature she knew was Foreign, British books. She also tells us how her American roommate felt sorry for Adichie before she even saw her. Her roommate had a single story of Africa, a single story of disaster. In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way. No possibility of a connection as human equals. Yet Adichie also admits that she has not just been a victim, but has she bought into the single story. I feel Adichie was right in all her arguments that she made like for example, you “show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” I think we should never judge a person based on their physical appearance and instead be an open mind to all race and accept them for who they are. Because in the end of the day were all the same, just different culture backgrounds. I believe Chimamanda was really a good speaker. If she continued to talk to everyone I hope everyone would have a different opinion on race. As well have different view in seeing one another instead of just the way they look.
Video 1
The Gacaca Justice System
Watching the video of The Gacaca Justice System was pretty upsetting knowing so many children, women and men have died. Also the fact that the murders that did this had no shame what so ever. When I saw how many dead bodies were in the church it was pretty heart breaking knowing so many people have lost there loves ones. The Gacaca Justice System of jurisprudence is to achieve truth, justice, and reconciliation. It aims to promote community healing by making the punishment of perpetrators faster and less expensive to the state. Their main goal was to achieve national reconciliation; they felt it was clear that without justice it was impossible to speak of reconciliation and forgiveness. In the begging they had about 120 000 people to be sentenced. They felt that people should be forgiven and accepted, so sooner or later the guilty person would be back in the society. Personally I do not think its okay for Kassian and there group to go around and killing people and expect they would be forgiven after and free of their charge. Especially in the part where one of the men admits he did the crime and one of the women started crying saying, “That was my brothers you’ve killed,” it was very hurtful to see that. The Rwandese version of the Gacaca system viewed in class and the theories of the social justice does make it questionable, because it feel like each country has their own way of dealing with this, whereas I believe once you commit a crime you would be put in jail or killed.
Social Justice Issues in Local and Global Contexts Chapter 8:
Social Justice in a Local Context
Dialectic Reading
| “What question did the chapter raised?” | “How did the text answer this question?” | “How does this answer match our own ideas and experiences?” |
| What is Race and Racism? | The difference between race and racism is race does not exist, at least in the scientific sense; it is a chimera, a phantom. Racism however, is a powerful reality: an invention that is absurd, illogical, irrational and nonsensical. | I agree with this statement, I feel that race is what the society invented based on skin colour, hair colour and texture, features etc. Example a Ibo man became a member of the so-called “black” race and the Englishman became a member of the so-called “white” race. |
| What is Racial Profiling? | Racial profiling is a form of discrimination by which law enforcement uses a person’s race or cultural background as the primary reason to suspect that the individual has broken the law | I find this very discriminating to many people that get pulled over by a police officer because of their race. Example a group of black teenagers are pulled over because of the kind of car they are driving. |
| What is Multiculturalism? | Multiculturalism is the doctrine that several different cultures (rather than one national culture) can coexist peacefully and equitably in a single country. | Multiculturalism is a very beautiful thing where all different culture can connect. When I was in high school, every year we had a multiculturalism day where our whole school would share different types of culture and celebrate it. |
Social Justice Issues in Local and Global Contexts Chapter 4:
The Sociology of Human Rights and Social Justice
Dialectic Reading
| “What question did the chapter raised?” | “How did the text answer this question?” | “How does this answer match our own ideas and experiences?” |
| What are Human Rights? | Human Rights are universal moral rights that all people possess by virtue of being human. Human rights are entitlement and protections human being, irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion and national origin. | I think this is pretty straight forward, everyone should be treated fairly and have their rights. |
| What is Retributive Justice? | Retributive justice involves the punishment of wrongdoers who have participated in voluntary relations such as criminal acts. | An example that I heard based on my experience would be, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Meaning the notion that for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of justice. |
| What is Socialization? | Socialization refers to the process by which we learn to be human makes us who we are or who we will become. It also makes us flexible and unpredictable. | This matches my own idea because I totally agree with this statement. I believe what we see and learn throughout our society is what makes us or who we will become. |
| What is Religion? | Religion speaks to the fundamental question of life, How to relate to each other? How to deal with problems of death and loss? How are goals and means to be established? | Religion is very important to many people throughout the society. I feel these questions do match about religion. Everyone deals with religion differently |
