The reading’s this week were interesting seeing that it consisted
mainly of how white Christian Americans ruined history thanks to their beliefs
and outlooks on the foreign. Blumenfeld talked about Young’s five forms of oppression:
“powerlessness, exploitation, marginalization, cultural imperialism, and
violence” (Blumenfeld, 2013). There is an apparent form of powerlessness
amongst the minorities that has carried out throughout the years in America
starting with the first settlers. I honestly find it kind of ironic since one
of reasons why the Pilgrims fled was for religious reasons, yet once they
arrived everything was either their way or the highway, and they were not giving
up easily on their beliefs. Depriving the natives of their land, committing
cultural genocide, forcefully stripping them away from their way of life…the
settlers were not willing to stop at any costs. With this pattern occurring,
the same type of system that was set up by the settlers has been passed down to
our current system where Christianity is the most influential religion enforced
throughout the country. I remember in elementary school I became aware of the different
types of religion that differed from what I was used to, and one of the first
rules my parents taught me was to not speak about religion since it could be
viewed as disrespectful and on top of that it was just a rule of thumb to not
bring it up. I was pretty confused once I learned that the pledge had the word “God”
in it, I took note of the different religious holidays that appeared on my
calendar and nothing was ever said about them in school but once Christmas time
came around the entire school was focused on the “holidays”, and the days of
the typical work week was focused around the Sabbath. When I got, older I questioned
my teachers about it once or twice but they all would tell me that the school
respects other religions even though I never saw much of an attempt at it. The different
bans the U.S. had enacted upon other countries entering the country has not
seemed to stop. I did not know that there was an Immigration Act of 1917 and
for it to have been active for 48 years is pretty wild, but it does not surprise
me either.
Being an ally to the disabled would further advance their
rights and allow others to become aware of the problems occurring. I believe myself
to be an ally, but I do realize that I need to inform myself more on what is needed
by them. I did enjoy the chart that was given; it could give those who are
completely unaware the first steps to becoming an ally. I admit that some of my
vocabulary that I used to use fell under some negative connotations but I have
become better and more aware of my word choice. It slipped right by me the
issues the elderly who are disabled have. The elderly already have enough
problems with receiving help and attention from the government and society because
they are seen as not needed, but those with disabilities are portrayed as needy
receiving little to no help, and it’s something that has to be focused on more.
