Sunday, September 13, 2015

land of "Opportunity" hyperlink


America, the land of opportunity right? Not right, we make it seem that everyone can come here with a path paved in gold for them. But in reality that path is filled with struggle, hardship, and no opportunity, but barriers and set backs. In the article USA, Land of Limitations? by Nicholas Kristof he explains that these lower class people that come here looking for that opportunity to thrive never are given the chance to do so. Our society likes to do something called "Blaming the Victim", I am learning about this right now in my social work class, and that means that we would rather say its their fault for not working hard enough to be in middle or high class, when in actuality people in lower class work harder than anyone in this country. They are our construstion men, our servers at all hours of the night in fast food resturants, and the people who fill in all the jobs that we higher class people don't feel like doing. The opportunity for them is slim, its almost impossible to come out of the lower class and OUR SOCIETY makes it impossible, not the people. Some of the men and women of our age believe that the only way to get out of the struggle is to become famous somehow.  The singer 2pac raps about the struggle and how hard it is to become something when society looks at you as nothing. He explains the struggle of a rise growing from concrete, it is possible but as Kristof would say its only a small or slim chance that it happens. And its that deception that we can make something out of anybody in this country, but they expect people to do it with absolutely no help, especially in the lower class.  For example housing is important, many can't move out of the lower class neighborhoods because the rent is so inexpensive and their jobs can't afford to live anywhere else, and if they go to school the government won't give them as much money compared to if they worked 20 plus hours a week with no school. We want to keep people down as a country and not watch our lower class grow, but be stagnant in the same place.  
     Kristof talks about a man named Rick who had to forcefully drop out of school because the principal decided to suspend him for six months instead of talking to rick and finding out the real problem, and seeing that he was the victim in this situation.  It's that judgmental mind we have that this kid is low class, and so he must just be a little punk.  No its not that at all, its that this kid experienced more in life than that principals children ever will, and had to learn how to survive at the age of 5!! Just think about that, 5 years old...  But this is what our country does, we don't help.  We watch people struggle and then say its their fault for struggling in the first place. If you search the web there are many personal stories of people who struggle with our governments welfare and are trying to get a move on in life, and make something of themselves. The personal story I hyperlinked is about a man who has a personality disorder and can barley live off of the money he is given, and sometimes starves because he does not have enough money for food.  He also has no education so it is difficult to get a good job that he can survive and make an actual living from.

WE OPRESS, NOT HELP PROGRESS






7 comments:

  1. Our country is determined to bring to keep the lower class low and not pull them up from the dirt but actually blame them for bring there in the first place. Our welfare doesn't help, but hinders those in the lower class because its almost like a tease, we give them a little but we are in actuality taking a lot more than giving. We are taking lower class peoples right to get a good education because they can't survive off of the money they get when in school, because they get more if they have a job. We take away the right to live in a better community because the amount of money they get can only afford housing in non-safe and nice areas. We take away the right to eat healthy and good food, because the money doesn't cover organic, gluten free, or healthier food options in general. And most importantly we take away opportunity; opportunity to grow and become something more than where we currently are. We are as Kristof puts it, "The land of Limitations".

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  2. Hi Ilana, I really enjoyed reading your response. Truth in everything you mentioned.

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  4. I really enjoyed reading your response and I totally agree with you on what you said.

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  5. Hey Ilana. I really liked the way you explained and made connections. I actually also read Blaming the Victim and you're right, in many day to day situations we see the victims getting blamed even though they may be working twice as hard.

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  6. hi Ilana, I really enjoyed reading your thoughts on the reading. what I loved the most was about you sharing "blaming the victim" because I feel like that's something someone goes through everyday.

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  7. I loved reading this, and agree with everything you had to say. I really liked your connection to "blaming the victim"; unfortunately you are very correct and many people who are born into circumstances they cannot help are simply passed off as having no chance at success by society and our government. INstead of trying to reach out and bring them higher, the US finds it easier to overlook this and pushes them down even more. Thanks for sharing!

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