Class Discussions and Social Justice Readings 36-40

LaDon Matthys

When LaDon came to speak, it was a very emotional class. She spoke about the town's segregation that was never actually spoken about.

As I was listening to her story, I remembered probably the only discriminatory situation I've ever experienced.

I grew up in Flower Mound, which as I've said before, is the epitome of white suburbia. I didn't have the best time growing up there, because I never quite fit in. My mom still lives there, so I still visited Flower Mound even when I moved to Lewisville and subsequently Carrollton as soon as I turned 18. After becoming tattooed (and heavily tattooed in an area like Flower Mound), I hated visiting even more. If my mom would ask me to pick something up at the grocery store, I always got stared at. I remember a little girl asking her mom why I looked different and the mother just turning her daughter away from me without saying anything. I was standing in line behind them.... super awkward.

One day when I was visiting my mom with my boyfriend, John, we decided to grab a bite to each before we headed back to our neck of the woods. We decided to stop at "Wings Pizza & Things." We walked in and seated ourselves. No one brought us water. No one brought us a menu. I think we waited about 10 minutes when another group of people came in. They were promptly served water and were given menus. It was apparent that we were not going to be served. As we got up to leave, the host held the door open for us. Wow, I get emotional just thinking about it now. How did our physical appearance make our money not as good as another customers? Luckily we obviously had the ability to spend our money elsewhere, but I know that in the past not every person has had that privilege. (And by the way, what a shitty business model to turn away anyone who is willing to spend money on your services. THEIR LOSS.)

Anyway, I feel like this story may be silly in comparison to other discrimination that has been physical and violent, but it's the only way I can personally relate. And I don't remember thinking about that situation until I started to listen to LaDon.

Culture Boxes

Y'all, I loved your culture boxes. I got really nervous and couldn't tell you what part of Mexico we were in, but it was Playa.

Here are a few songs from the CDs I brought to class that I feel shaped my worldview and also encouraged me to pursue social justice.

Bikini Kill

"Rebel girl you are the queen of my world"

Operation Ivy

"Saw a civilization where grabbing onto wealth

Was the only guarantee of freedom, peace and health

Dollar sign value system upheld as a truth

If you can't find a place, it's gonna find you"

And especially relevant with all of this non-sensical birth control debate
No Doubt

"Cause I'm just a girl, oh little ol' me

Don't let me out of your sight

I'm just a girl, all pretty and petite

So don't let me have any rights"

The culture boxes were an emotional class. A lot of us were talking about things that made us uncomfortable or teary-eyed. I appreciate your honesty, and I loved learning more about a few of you. I am really looking forward to the rest of the boxes.

Social Justice Readings

I thought the Bonds of Sisterhood-Bonds of Oppression article was interesting, but also demeaning and maybe not fully representative. Was this article talking solely about in-home non-white domestic workers? If so, then I retract my previous statement, because I don't know much about that population. However, what about people that like to clean and take care of children? And what about domestic workers that work through companies like Molly-Maid? When my family had a housekeeper for a very brief period of time, my mom made us clean up before she came. My dad would joke, "Yeah kids, clean up since the maid is coming." (Which in hindsight might have been derogatory.) But the point was, the worker was only coming to sweep, mop, and wipe off counter tops. Plus, I'm sure it's much more expensive (and unnecessary) to have someone clean up your entire house (like picking up dirty laundry and other tasks mentioned in the article). I just felt like this article was disempowering and it was hard for me to read without a critical lens. I appreciate the point that was made about women going to work, but then hiring other women to continue to do housework. That's an issue that may be worth addressing in our generation.

The Classified article was also thought provoking for me. "My dad's analysis about investing is, 'that's the way the free market works.' But there's also the idea that you're loaning money to companies that are raping the earth, destroying people's homelands and paying money to special interest lobby groups that destroy democracy even in our own county," (Adams, p. 208).

The Debt Trap is incredibly relevant to our generation. I receive seemingly a million credit card applications a week, and the last thing I need is more credit. When my mom helped me open up a bank account, the banker told me to just put a tank of gas on it and pay it off to build my credit. Well, with good intentions that's not what happened when I actually got a credit card. I had a good job, would put everything on the credit card, and then pay it down when I got paid. Then I left that job to pursue school full time, but I was still used to having the credit card. I ran it up to it's limit, and I still work monthly to pay off purchases I made months or maybe even years ago. (Luckily the limit isn't outrageous, so it's manageable. However, this article says that the average households debt is $8,565 and up, which does not seem manageable to me.)

My boyfriend has never had a credit card, and that's also worrisome to me. Are we going to be able to buy a house if all he has is rental history? I'm not positive, but I don't think that goes very far. You need good credit to buy assets, but they sell you credit without teaching you proper ways to handle it, inevitably damaging your credit. It seems like a vicious cycle that in no way works in the consumers' favor. Why can't we get credit for properly managing a debit card, properly managing money we actually have?

Before you go:

I thought this song related to the Zinn readings well and also The Debt Trap. When reading, I couldn't help but to think of this song by NoFX "The Irrationality of Rationality." It discusses shareholders, mortgages, and how you're screwed once you lose your job. One lyric is, "the guilty don't feel guilty, they learn not to."

Don't listen to this if don't prefer crass language.

Well, I look forward to reading your blog posts, and I hope you're having a great weekend!

P.S. Does anyone know where to find the Kivel article?

P.P.S. Check out my personal blog!