Think Before You Speak

Growing up, I went to a high school where I was the minority. Our school was 65% black and 35% white. I played on the basketball team in which I was the only white girl. I would say maybe more than half of my friends growing up were black. My sisters are six and seven  years older than me so when they went to our high school, the ratio of black to white students were flipped. For some reason, my one sister is very stereotypical when it comes to racial issues. She used to (sometimes still does) say a lot of racist comments that would enrage me. I never once let her get away with this. As soon as she said something I didn't agree with, I was the first one to call her out on it and ask her why she would even think or say that. In the beginning she used to just get very defensive, which led to many arguments between us. After awhile, I think me standing up to her made a difference. I remember one time I was driving her and her friends somewhere and she made a comment and instantly apologized for it. I don't know if my remarks changed her way of thinking but I do know that I made her think more before she speaks. I hope her resistance to these unnecessary comments will lead to a different set of beliefs. I know this isn't a huge step but it's a start...

Change

When I was younger, my mom and I used to go for a walk around our neighborhood almost every night. In the beginning of our walk, right by our house, was a creek. People loved to litter in this creek and before my mom and I started our walk, she always made me help her pick up the trash and throw it away. When I was younger this used to be an annoyance to me because I didn't want to pick up other people's trash. Today, that experience has the opposite effect on me. If I see trash on my way to class, I make sure to pick it up and throw it away in the nearest garbage can. Now littering has become an annoyance to me. I do not understand why some people just decide to make the oval or the sidewalk their personal trash can. I know that me picking up a few pieces of trash a day isn't going to clean up the whole world but it does two things. One, the trash that I pick up is that much less trash floating around. And two, I hope that when other people see me picking up other's trash that maybe it will influence them to also. Adler talked about that dog he saw in Israel that everyone kept walking past and I think that analogy applies to a lot of issues in the world and especially with littering. All of the trash that I pick up means that numerous people before me continued to walk past it, thinking that someone else would pick it up. When I'm walking with my friends, I do receive some negative feedback. Most of my friends ask why I'm picking up other's litter and then they usually say that's gross. It's not like I pick up other people's trash and then eat a sloppy joe without washing my hands. I haven't done this yet but one Saturday I want to invite my friends to come walk around campus/High Street with me and pick up as much trash as we can in a few hours. Hopefully this will have a domino effect on my friends and bystanders watching. Maybe one day, every first Saturday of the month will be known as Pick Up A Piece Of Trash Day. Besides that, I can't really think of any long term goals I have for this issue except that I hope picking up litter really will start to spread among others.

Communities

Because a community can be defined as, "a group of people tied together through some defining link. . ." I feel like the list could go on. But here are a few of the communities that I belong to, the Ohio State University Community, the Upper Class Learning Community, the Office Assistant Community, the Buckeye Connections Community and ServeCorps Community. For the first three communities, the main way I engaged in those is through participation. Whether it's taking classes here at Ohio State or going to social or athletic events. For the Upper Class Learning Community, I attend programs that the RA's throw and I attend work as well as social events for the Office Assistant Community. To be in the Ohio State and Upper Class Learning Community, I also pay a fee to be a part of them. For Buckeye Connections I volunteer my time to help the program, staff and participants. Through ServeCorps I also dedicate my time to the various events we have had so far, along with attending class every Friday. So far when ServeCorps has sponsored certain events, I have helped advocate these events by telling my friends and posting information about them on facebook. I think with all of these communities, the only way I can become a more active citizen is through learning. I can't continue to further my efforts unless I know what each community's needs are. One need for all of these communities is social capital. The more people that we know, the more likely they are to help us down the road which will in return benefit numerous communities. I think we can increase our social capital by talking to people. For instance, when I volunteer at Buckeye Connections, I can tell the staff members about my experience with ServeCorps. And when I am at ServeCorps I can talk about my experience with Buckeye Connections and so on... Knowledge is key. People cannot help fulfill other community's needs if they do not even know about the community in the first place. So I guess my answer to the question is word of mouth.

Service Site

So far at my service site I have had a blast. I go to the RPAC every Friday for two hours before class and basically just hang out with the participants. There are about 6-10 participants there every Friday from ADD (Adults with Developmental Disabilities). Fridays are their fitness days so we either play tennis, ping pong if it's raining, run on the track or just hang out in the Nike Lounge Room in the basement of the RPAC. So far every Friday it has been the same participants; Leena, Alex, Jane, Matt, George and Andrew. I treat each of them a little different because just like everyone else, they have their own personality. For example, Jane is older than everyone else and likes to talk more about her school work, chores and health. Leena on the other hand, is just like one of my friends. She loves to laugh, goof around, dance, sing and meow. I think one of the biggest things I've learned so far though is to not treat them as if they do have a disability. In the beginning when we would play tennis, I used to always go get the ball for Matt and Jane when they missed it but I realized through class that I don't need to do something for them that they can do for themselves. Once I realized that, I stopped treating them as if they were a kid and started treating them like they were my friends. The most interesting thing to me from volunteering through Buckeye Connections is how high functioning all of these participants are. Even Andrew who is in an electric wheelchair, can't talk or eat without a feeding tube, can still do quite a bit. In class we always talk about how we shouldn't treat others differently based on their race, class, ability, sexual orientation, etc. . .and I agreed with that before volunteering and even more so after my experience thus far. These six talented adults have showed me that they can still do pretty much everything an "abled" adult can do. I have incredible respect for them and because of this service site, I think I look at people who are different than me in another light now. I always knew that just because someone is different, regardless of how, that it doesn't mean anything but this experience has just made that belief SO much stronger. The only difference I can really think of is the issue of race, class, gender and sexual orientation. In class we have talked about how these identities have and still do create certain social statuses in life and stereotyping. But with Matt, George, Alex, Andrew, Leena and Jane, these aren't issues. They could care less about any of these things and they treat each other, the staff and the volunteers all the same regardless of any of those characteristics. It's kind of a a nice change of pace to volunteer in a such an innocent and carefree environment.

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

After reading this question, the first experience that I could think of was my interaction at the JO. In the winter I would go there to play basketball at least three times a week. There's usually always a game going on which means there are people waiting there turn to play the next game. Walking back to the courts instantly made me aware that I was the subordinate group. If I was lucky there was this other girl there that I knew but almost 80% of the time, I was the only girl there to play basketball. In the beginning of the quarter when I would go there, not many guys would ever ask me to be on there team unless they were a person short and were desperate. After playing some games for the next few weeks, I was able to show the "regulars" there that just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean I'm going to run around the court like an idiot who has no clue what they're doing. Although I wasn't as strong as them (not by much, just kidding), I think through my play that I impressed them. After this fact, now they would ask me to play even if there were other guys to ask. I think growing up, it's easy to develop our views and stereotypes young. Like the last article mentioned, those three year olds all drew pictures of Indians with feathers and knives. They were only three and they already were stereotyping Native Americans. I think the same applied with these guys. Women's sports are not taken as seriously as men's and to live in a world where that's just how it is, I'm not surprised that in the beginning they never asked me to be on their team. I think it's easy to stick with what we know but once what we know is disproved, that's when I believe the engagement can become positive. Once those guys saw that I could actually play basketball, they were able to change their view and treat me as if I was another guy at the JO.

I think that these types of positive engagements between dominant/subordinate groups can take time. It can be hard at times to think differently of someone else if you've had an opposite point of view growing up. In order to be successful with this type of interaction through ServeCorps, I think it's important that people get a feel for each other at these events. For example, say we planned an event where two distinct groups were participating; a subordinate group and a dominant group. Maybe before the event starts, the participants should have do some type of an icebreaker with each other. In their daily lives, these people may be at different levels, but when you put everyone together in one room and make them participate in an unknown activity, I think it helps level out the "playing field." Once everyone hopefully can gain more respect for each other, this mutual respect could do wonders for the community. When we're all on the same level, we all respect each other and listen to each other. Because of this, more ideas can be heard, more plans can be made, more things can get accomplished, etc. It sounds easier said than done but I think it can be accomplished.

Me, Myself and I

In the last article, the most interesting point of view to me was the excercise the author did with her pyschology class. I remember learning in sociology class some of the dominant identities in America. Knowing this, I guess I still never realized that when the dominant group describes themselves, they do leave out the obvious dominant traits. If I was asked to describe myself, I would be lying if I said I would say I'm white. Mentioning that wouldn't have crossed my mind, except for now that the article talked about it. When I actually think about this exercise, it makes me feel sympathetic towards the students who mentioned their specific race, sexual orientation, age or gender. This sympothy is caused by the fact that in her article she says, "The parts of our identity that do capture our attention are those that other people notice, and that reflect back to us." This sentence bothers me because to me it's saying that we identify ourselves by the non-dominant characteristics that others notice about us. By no means am I saying that any of these possible non-dominant characteristics are bad, but if a white person doesn't feel the need to mention his/her race, why should anyone else? I understand that we have a tendency to do this because our society thinks highly of certain identities are disgustingly of others depending on the person or group of people. I know this isn't going to change over night and I don't even know if it will ever change but the reality of that sentence just really bothers me.

The importance of someone's identity is to help differentiate them from the other six billion people in the world. However, sometimes these differences can cause problems. At first, women were deprived of a lot of opportunities such as voting, jobs and school. We are not completely equal with guys today but we are a lot closer than we used to be. African Americans were once used as slaves and were also deprived many opportunities like being able to use the same water fountain as a white person. African Americans are almost treated as equally as white people, there are still a handful of people in America that discrimate and are racist. Another identity that has been discriminated against and still is, is a person's sexual orientation. The first article mentioned how LGBT members were once considered to be mentally ill. Today, some states allow same sex marriages. All of these identities are still discriminated against to a degree but not as much as they used to be. I think community service is a great equalizer for all of us. When we all get together to put forth our efforts to the greater good, our identities are put aside for that moment in time.

Class

In high school History class, we used to learn about the different classes that were once put in place in Europe years ago. I was never a fan of History class, so at the moment the only type of class I can remember is peasants. I don't think America's class system is to the extreme of how Europes' was but we definitely do have a system. After reading about our class system, the only thing that really surprised me was the in between class that doesn't receive recognition. I was aware of the lower, middle and upper class but I guess I never realized there was an inbetween one. I was also shocked to read about poverty line.I believe that it needs to be reevaluated. I don't think $19,000 a year for a family of four is reasonable. My rent for next year will be a total of about $5,000 for eleven months, for a three bedroom apartment. If you multiply that by three, there is only $4,000 left over to pay for groceries, medical care, dental care, transportation and other bills. I don't see how the government expects anyone to live on that type of budget, especially with the price of living continuing to increase. To be considered "lower class" makes life hard enough but I think at times it might be even harder to live in the inbetween class. If someone is below the poverty line, they should atleast have access to welfare and food stamps. But for those who are above the poverty line but below "middle class," they do not have these options. Most communities are lacking certain needs, such as these options available to their members but because  of their "invisible" appearance, they may be easily forgotten. It is probably fairly easy to drive through a community, see that it has a school, a park, and a community center and to not think anything else of it. But if you go inside some of those locations, I bet the experience would be similar to the tour of the East St. Louis High School. These hidden needs are similar to society. If you walk across the oval, you'll pass by plenty of students who look like they're happy and have a great life. But in reality, we all have problems, some people are just better at hiding it at others. This concept also applies to our communities. Even communities that have nice facilities probably still have problems. There problems might not be run down schools but maybe it is a lack of involvement from their citizens. Look at Desperate Housewives, that community seems perfect, but every Sunday someone is being killed, cheated on or robbed. The point of this random rant is that every community has problems, whether we are able to notice them or not. And I think the only way to assess these needs is to break down the invisible wall, explore and take inventory of a community.

JOE

       Last quarter I was part of a service-learning project through my art education class. Every Thursday we went to Columbus Collegiate Academy where we taught sixth to eighth grade girls how to use Photoshop on the computer. This project was put in place because of a study done that showed girls are more likely to sit back and not learn as much about computers when boys are present in the class. This is why we only worked with girls for our project. All of these girls were very smart but lacked confidence and skills when it came to working with computers. By the end of the quarter all of the girls knew how to use Photoshop. After reading the second article, I can see how deficiency-focused services would be anything but helpful. However, because the girls we were working with didn't know we were focusing on their "deficiency" they were able to fully embrace the program.
         I don't think promoting a gift-focused service would be successful without increasing civic capacity. It's easy to pull up an article on the computer and read about problems we have in our community but I won't know the strengths of that community until I actually find out for myself. By actually finding out the strengths of a community we can use those to help better it, instead of focusing on the defects and making members of that community feel under-qualified.