I am committed to advocating for racial justice because I live in a country that has a brutal history dehumanizing African-American sand oppressing minority groups. These injustices are not only morally wrong, they are unconstitutional. I aspire for the United States to become a place where all races and classes have an equal opportunity to live a dignified life; where poverty and mass incarceration are eliminated. Unfortunately, I have witnessed the injustices including inadequate housing and gun violence, being accepted as normal in communities of color. I chose the faith community as a method to seek justice for myself and other minorities, similarly to the leaders in the Civil Rights movement. I have a heart for community service, which led me to join the Social Justice ministry at First Corinthian Baptist Church where social justice is central to its vision and purpose. Fortunately, I travelled with the ministry to Albany, NY to attend an education lobby …show more content…
and rally day, for the first time. Once we arrived, we met with the assemblyman of our district, and I advocated for his support of Universal Pre-K (UPK); which would provide free full-day prekindergarten classes for all the four-year old children in New York. My participation with the ministry led to completing the Advocacy Academy for faith leaders of multiple religions, at the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies. After participating with the ministry for a year I became a leader. Along with the other social justice ministry leaders I successfully completed the Prophetic Leadership School at Faith in New York. That program focused on preparing faith leaders for social justice organizing and advocacy, including racial justice, in New York City. I am a native of Miami and I currently live in New York City.
Residing and volunteering in the Harlem area of New York City has further globalized my mindset and broadened my scope of advocacy. I have had roommates from Africa, Asia, and Europe, who had lived in multiple countries. Within the Social Justice ministry, I have worked on interfaith actions with multiple faith groups. These experiences have motivated me to study abroad as a law student, and to maintain a globalized mindset as an attorney. As an African-American, it is my responsibility to advocate for my race in particular, in addition to working as an ally with other minority groups. I believe that everyone has the capacity to be racial justice advocate and I aspire to continue this advocacy by remaining socially conscious, regardless of the position I hold. Hopefully, attending law school will afford me opportunities to build social wealth, and grant access to spaces of legislative power that can enhance my reach as a racial justice
advocate
Earl G. Graves said, “Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King expressed his dream that African Americans would someday be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character, the line between the suspect is a black male and black males are suspect remains dangerously thin.” Our nation needs to follow the five-step plan outlined by ACLU to allow our members of society safety and equal rights for one another.
Although our present day society still questions whether the rights of the Individual should outweigh the public order or the social order of our country should outweigh the individual rights, it has enlightened me to a distorted vision and a compromised system and questionable Leadership. “African- American men comprise less than 6% of the U.S. population and almost one-half of its criminal prisons.” Quoted by the Bureau of Justice statistics. When research is conducted by someone other than yourself yields such great crippling results, it does hold true to that which began before our awakening.
The task of identifying my social identity was easier said than done. I acknowledged the somewhat privilege I encounter along with the oppression I endure. In retrospect, my social identity unambiguously resembles a coin where on one side oppression lies with dirt rusting but on the flip side privilege stares right back at me, shining bright. I initially could not see the benefits since I’m a low income college student. I became too encompassed with one side of the coin. After we learned what the word, privilege, indeed meant, I realized the various facets of my life in which that word could apply. Self pity can greedily advance on you from out of nowhere thus averting you from flipping the coin. I familiarized with counting my struggles instead of my blessings. In accordance with my social identity I would say I’m privileged with the
...at are being fed to us by the media. This is definitely the harder way of doing things but there is power in numbers and even more power when those numbers are the people of the United States. We could leave the media powerless so that nothing they write even matters because we already know who we are and we refuse to fall into any kinds of racial stereotypes. One last thing that I’d like to mention is that it’s important to know that even if you are white and you think that racial injustice doesn’t affect you, it does. It’s also very important that you are aware of what is going on in your society since as a majority of the people it is your duty to help the minority of the people. Everybody, regardless of race, should be an advocate for social and racial justice because that is what being a decent and good human being is. So don’t be ignorant or encourage ignorance.
Intersectionality is a term used to describe a situation whereby an individual has multiple identities and as result, the person feels that he or she doesn’t belong to one community or another. Because of the many conflicts in an individual’s identities, he or she could be a victim of multiple threats of discrimination (Williams, 2017). The discrimination could be a result of race, gender, age, health and ethnicity among others. To give an example, a black transgender woman could be discriminated in the workplace because of being black and also because she is transgender. From an intersectionality perspective, the woman faces multiple threats of discrimination because of the overlapping identities of gender and race and therefore the transwoman faces a bigger struggle (Barber, 2017). Transwomen of color will most likely encounter prejudices in the form of homophobia, racism or sexism in many dimensions of their life. The perspective of intersectionality is not only applicable to women but it can also be applied to males. For example, a gay Latino man could be discriminated based on race because he is an immigrant into
Now that it’s been concluded that racial equality has not been reached the question must be asked of what steps society should take to fight for it. Recently violent race riots have broken out all over cities in America, like the one in Charlottesville, Virginia. White supremacists and anti-racist protesters broke out into fist fights. These riots are exactly what Martin Luther King Jr advocated against. He believed that the solution to improving race relations was to love and respect all people not fight them in the streets.
A victim advocate is someone who helps people who are victims of a crime or sexual abuse. They are usually only referred to as victim advocates, however they can be called victim coordinators, victim specialists, or victim service providers.
It should never be a case that a harmless, unarmed person must lie down on their back, die and receive no justice for us to want to get up and support racial equality. We must rebuild the Black liberation movement. We have to promote racial equality when African American children are serving years in jail for possession of marijuana, but privileged White children get 6 months on a rape charge. We have to also promote the minor injustices in the Black community; we cannot wait until the next death to decide we want to speak out. We have to take action now to speak out for the rights and freedom for all people. To give the next generation, who may even be your own children the benefit to not have to fight this fight of racial inequality and they could have the opportunity in seeing everyone as
What does it mean when we say that social problems may arise out of objective or subjective concerns? What are the differences between these two distinctions in how they explain problems?
Inclusion classes are very important to the school system. Inclusion classes allow children with disabilities to get their education to the fullest extent. While children with disabilities are in inclusion classes they can also be placed in standard classes to get them introduced to other kids. While no one really knows the true definition of inclusion, the definition is very clear. Inclusion classes help the school system by integrating regular students with disabled students. Both regular students and disabled students benefit from being integrated into standard classes. Inclusion classes are for disabled children that provide the best education possible in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and they help the school system by allowing some of the disabled children to be in standard classes to be integrated with other students and teachers.
Social justice is a topic known all to well in today's society. Such issues as social heirarchial structure and unjust representatives of citizens of nations are issues in need of attention by those in power. Corruption, lies and greed by those in power however stand in the way of this form of justice from occurring, leaving many with little or no social status open to prejudice on race, religious and sexual grounds. William Shakespeare illustrates the ease in which power can corrupt in his play, Measure for Measure.
Explain the concept of affirmative action and provide reasons for why affirmative action programmes often fail.
The best solution to this dilemma is for Professor Austin to report Cindy to the Dean, so that her fate will be left in the hands of the administration and not the teacher. In doing this, it allows him to become objective to the situation. This solution is supported by the Fairness Approach because Professor Austin is able to follow all elements of the approach -- no favoritism, treating everyone the same, and acknowledging the distribution of benefits and burdens. He would not have to make the decision that would present the most challenge for him, which is having to choose between the integrity of the school, or his team. Professor Austin is both teacher and coach, this dilemma difficult because he has two different roles to fulfill. He
There are many social problems plaguing the world, including the issue of aging inequality and elders. This social problem is significant because the baby boomers of the 1946-64s are now starting to be the youngest old. Our society is starting to, and needs to, change to accommodate the needs of the elderly. There are many different problems coming with this making people have many political viewpoints, theoretical perspectives, and solutions for this social problem. Baby boomers are a group of people that were born between the years of 1946 and 1964. Just nine months after WW II ended people were having babies at rates higher than ever before. In the year 1946 there were 3.4 million babies were born, nearly 20% more than the prior year. This
On a professional level I have also been inspired. While working with adults who were coping with an acquired brain injury, I immediately noticed how adaptable these individuals were to their new situations. Despite the fact that their lives had been dramatically changed and they faced discrimination and bias on a daily basis, they demonstrated resilience in the face of adversity. As a counselor with the Last Post Fund I assist economically disadvantaged families dealing with the loss of a loved one, obtain funding for the funeral costs as well as provide these families with emotional support. Too often in our society, the economically disadvantaged groups are stigmatized and made to feel ashamed when they reach out for support. I am proud to work with an organization that ensures a dignified funeral and burial for the families of war veterans who may not otherwise be able to afford such services. I have also had the opportunity to experience a vastly different culture first hand when I lived in Kenya for three months and volunteer...