Author: fox.1289

Text Review: The Lottery

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The Lottery, a documentary film by Madeleine Sackler follows the heated debate over charter schools in America. The film follows four children and their low-income families who live in Harlem and Bronx. The guardians of the children are attempting to get these kids into Harlem Success Academy, a charter school known for its great success in education. To get into a charter school, one must enter a lottery and get randomly selected to attend. They have no tuition fees and so getting accepted is highly competitive, as large amounts of students are entered in the lottery. The parents tell the stories of how their local public schools are very unsuccessful in the education department and often lead to kids later on in life to drop out and so they are hoping for a better education for them. It also follows the founder of the charter school and how she is trying to expand the schools more for low-income families and all the struggles she faces in attempting to do so. The charter school topic is a large debate there are many who are against it and many who for expanding the programs and the documentary shows this debate throughout the New York City school system. Through teachers unions and politicians, Sackler explains how the education system leaves out large amount of kids, especially those less fortunate.

The film clearly highlights injustice for children seeking the equal opportunity of education. Throughout this course we have talked about the concept “can the subaltern speak” by Spivak. Talking about how people who are seen as less because they have less. They are not given the same opportunities as those who might have more. This can be applied to The Lottery because we can see how the public school system is failing those who are less fortunate, not giving them the same opportunities at a quality education. Its deeply upsetting watching this film and seeing how these kids are not even given a chance to have a great education because of the situation they are in. All children should have equal opportunity at education and that is what Sackler attempts to show through her film.

Yo, Is This Racist? Healthcare

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Hi everyone, I’m Tara and today I want to discuss the topic regarding racism in our healthcare system. This topic in particular really interests me because I am planning a future career as a medical professional. My interest in this issue actually stemmed from another class I am taking here this semester, called Ethics in Healthcare, where one week we were assigned to listen to a TED talk discussing racism in the field. In addition to the crisis we are facing today with Covid 19, we are able to see how communities of color are being hit harder than others. It is important to note that racial inequality in the healthcare system is also in part due to racism in other parts of the  system. Economic disparity for some communities of color due to past policies and structures in America creates an unequal access for people of color to receive healthcare. This unequal access is what leads to health issues in these communities, like the fact that “Black people are 3.57 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people.” Black people are also likely to experience things like higher blood pressure, lower access to vaccines, and even lower life expectancy. In the TED talk Doctor Mary Bassett speaks on her experiences in Zimbabwe where she spent years helping deal with the AIDS epidemic. She explains how she watched Wester civilization receive treatment for AIDS through drugs while her patients in Zimbabwe were left in the dust with no access to those same drugs. Bassett says, “But I knew that epidemics emerge along the fissures of our society, reflecting not only biology, but more importantly patterns of marginalization, exclusion, discrimination related to race, gender, sexuality, class and more. It was true of AIDS. It was true just recently of Ebola.” I found this quote to be so powerful because she explains how the problems we face in regards to infectious diseases always impacts those who are marginalized more and we see this through the AID epidemic and Covid-19.

Now not only is it an issue with securing access to healthcare but racism also happens within the hospitals amongst medical professionals in terms of treatment and care and happens intentionally or unintentionally. Bassett explains the medical community has stood by idly while the Black Lives Matter movement has been working towards equality. She explains how they never use racism in research studies as an explanation or component to certain medical trends. We can see within the medical community that there is incorrect treatment for patients of color because preconceived ideas that black people have different traits that would change their diagnosis or treatment leaving them vulnerable to more damage. Even in the emergency room, people of color are less likely to be emitted and are more likely to die. This is an issue that largely does not affect the privileged and non marginalized groups as they are able to gain access to medical attention. An article published by the Harvard Medical School explains the system that allows racist acts to come from doctors who are not inherently racists and from our implicit biases. We need to understand within our selves our own implicit biases in certain cases. It is so important to see the environment around us to understand what is the right and wrong thing to do. As healthcare professionals it’s not just solely important to eliminate racism within your close quarters but to join the overall cause. As Bassett says, it’s important for those pursuing and in the medical field to help set the alarm bell along with the movement towards equality. This inequality can be changed through the understanding and alliance of the medical community. I think the issue is not only reliant on the medical inequalities but other aspects of systemic racism. Inorder for true strides to be made we cannot only move forward in the medical aspects but also help support issues regarding police brutality, the education system, the housing industry, and so much more. All of these parts systems work off of each other to create disadvantages for people of color. I think inequality in the healthcare system is one that largely goes unrecognized. The issue of free healthcare and different plans is a largely discussed political topic but a lot of the other parts go unrecognized. I also think that people just do not understand the unequal access to healthcare is damaging to these communities in different ways. Many do not understand that this leads to black women being more likely to die during childbirth or that black babies are more likely to die between birth and their first birthday. Healthcare is such a fundamental right, it is how to live a long and healthy life but we allow our system to deny access to it. With this pandemic and all its effects it’s so difficult watching communities of color get it even harder than anyone else because of the system we created. 

Throughout this course we have been analyzing stories that apply to concepts regarding discrimination. The current state of our healthcare system is the perfect example of “othering” explained by Hegel. White communities have labeled people of color as the “other” creating systems and policies that do not allow them to have access to the same rights that all humans are supposed to be granted. I think a large majority are oblivious to this issue without really knowing. Many are against racism in the smaller sense but do not understand how the way this country functions is in fact racist as it does not allow for equal opportunity. That is what the Black Lives Matter movement is trying to find out but so many still do not see the issue. The movement is trying to voice the injustices the system has created for black people in so many ways. This also ties into Spivak’s, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” when it explains how certain groups are perceived as less because they have less than others. Therefore these groups do not have the ability to stand up and take what they deserve. People of color are receiving worse health care and assistance due to a racist system. These communities are trying to gain justice and the medical field is just another part of the system that does not allow this.

In all, it’s important to understand how each backbone to the system in their own ways creates disadvantages for black people. These systems work off each other and so we need to understand that the less opportunities given in education, housing and so much more also impacts healthcare and vice versa. 

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-state-of-healthcare-in-the-united-states/racial-disparities-in-health-care/

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/racism-discrimination-health-care-providers-patients-2017011611015

Diary of Systemic Injustice: American Health Care System

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This week, in one of my health science classes, I was required to watch a TED talk about why doctors and healthcare professionals should speak out about racial injustices. When I watched this, I immediately knew that it was something I wanted to discuss in this class. The TED talk featured the New York City health commissioner, who previously had none medical work in a country in Africa during the peak of the AIDs crisis. She explained how at the time she really felt as though she was helping, as she was teaching safe sex, while also caring for patients who needed assistance. She said she never spoke up about change on the government side of it all because she thought it was not her place since she was not a citizen, however she now really regrets this decision. She watched the black population being completely left out of the medical aid that people in the west were receiving. The populations in Africa were completely devastated by the AIDs epidemic because they were not represented equally in the health care system. She then transitioned this whole situation into America’s healthcare system and how people of color are more inclined to pass away earlier or have other complications with their health because they do not have the same health options as white people do. She says as the new health commissioner in New York, she is going to remember how she felt back in Africa and she is going to use that to advocate for social justice for those who are fighting for it. She explains that if you want to be a healthcare professional, you are there to help people and that should make you want to be a part of the movement for social change. I had not previously understood or known how people of color are affected by the healthcare system, but I completely agree with the point she made. I am looking for a career in the health field and the reason for that is because I want to help people and this includes helping people fight for social justice. I do not think you can claim you want to help people if you do not also want to fight for social justice within the systems of America.

This can relate to different topics we have talked about throughout the semester. One in particular I think this issue can relate to is Spivaks, “Can the Subaltern Speak”. Spivak speaks on how certain groups are perceived as less because they have less than others. Therefore these groups do not have the ability to stand up and take what they deserve. People of color are receiving worse health care and assistance due to a racist system. These communities are trying to gain justice and the medical field is just another part of the system that does not allow this.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-state-of-healthcare-in-the-united-states/racial-disparities-in-health-care/

Week 5: Context Presentation: “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

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In “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, Gayatri Spivak writes about how the wester cultures write about and examine non western cultures. Spivak is a professor at Columbia University and a member of their Comparative Literature and Society. She claims that western cultures report on “others” in ways that benefit themselves. Spivak touches on the idea that this also helps the colonial project, as usually these reports help to justify conquests of other cultures.

Western Cultures usually change the history or the truth about nonwestern cultures inorder to benefit themselves and their actions. She touches on the ideas of referring to these other cultures as the “other” that are the selfs shadow. Spivak refers to the subaltern throughout her paper, meaning the colonial groups that are not considered apart of the hierarchy that is considered imperial colonies. She brings up these ideas that were proposed by Michel Focoult a French philosopher, who has proposed theories on the connection of power and knowledge. He claims that “each society has its regime of truth, its ‘general politics’ of truth” and furthers the idea that societies create their own knowledge of the truth which creates their own sense of power, which are taught through education and media sources. This ties directly into Spivak’s argument, on how western cultures create their findings on other cultures and shape them into a way that shows western cultures ideologies as superior.

Spivak throughout her essay, uses the British colonization of Indian as main example to express her arguments. She is referring to the time when the British colonized Indiana for around one hundred years and talking about the previous Indian tradition of “sati”, which the event of a widow sacrificing herself for her husband. This was a part of the Indian culture dating back to the fourth century and 1800s their were attempts to outlaw it but it was never actually ceased until British rule took over India. Spivak uses this example to comment on how colonization of other countries is changing other cultures and labeling them to then hold themselves at a higher level of power.

Citations:

Gaventa, Jonathan. “Foucault: Power Is Everywhere.” Understanding Power for Social Change Powercubenet IDS at Sussex University Foucault Power Is Everywhere Comments, 2003, www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/foucault-power-is-everywhere/.