January 7, 2011 Question E

Johnson makes several legitimate points in this chapter. I have always realized that people undeniably make up excuses for why oppression can be targeted to certain groups, blaming the victims on why the way things are the way they are. Johnson discusses how dominant members of society often design this ‘disability’ in which they define themselves or assume them to be something in which success resides within a person in themselves and is available to everybody. I do not believe this is always true, and I think it is these dominant members of society that should do something to help those who are falling behind in society. I believe all people should want everyone to succeed, rather than just a portion of our country.

Dominant members of society often blame the victim in many different ways. One of the ways the victim is commonly blamed based on that Johnson discussed in this chapter was in regards to racism. Just like men are having a hard time accepting women in the workplace, or skin heads accepting homo-sexuals, our society tends to believe that bad things happen to bad people. Besides women, gay people, or other oppressed members of society, people of other cultures are experiencing it much also. I know a lot of people that complain about foreign people in our country today, sarcaistically saying "go back to mexico!" or "why is there spanish on this public sign, this is America." After reading this chapter I was able to reflect upon these notions more and was even able to apply it to one of my own life instances from a discussion I had with my parents the other night.

Our cleaning lady is an amazing women, very kind and sweet. However, she barely speaks any English! She came here from Mexico and my mom has to e-mail her rather than text or call her because of the language barrier. The other morning the front door was locked and Venusa couldn’t get in so she left. Both my parents felt really terrible and were talking about it with me over dinner. I found my self responsing a little critically. I asked my parents if it was obnoxious that she can’t just text you and see what’s going on because she can’t speak English, going on to explain that all people should speak English in America.

My mother was born and raised in Sweden, and moved here having learned very little English, so she immediately stood up for those who experience a language barrier. My father moved to Sweden in college and also had to learn the language. He started to tell me how people would constantly make fun of his accent, calling him a ‘black head’ which translates as something as harsh as calling a black person the N word, because he had black hair, not blonde hair….strange. So they both sort of put me in my place and told me how ignorant it is to judge anybody based on their life situation let alone their accent, because our cleaning lady really is a wonderful, good natured women.

I learned a lot from this one chapter on how our American Culture does often fall into the cycle of oppression and I myself was one of those people. I really value that I can now understand a bit more about why we should all consider ourselves as equals, as human. I think the only way to interrupt this cycle is to talk about it, educate yourself and listen to what others have to say based on their own experiences. I learned a lot from my what my parents said the other night, anything can be enlightening.