Blog Post #6 - How Structural Racism Works by Tricia Rose (Argument)
In How Structural Racism Works Tricia Rose argues that research alone is not going to fix structural racism. She says that because there is so much research on this topic if research was a one-time fix-all, it would have happened already. I want to take this a step further and say that she is arguing that not enough people pay attention to the research that has been done. In this class, we’re actively learning about social justice issues and the different experiences they come with. But what about the average person? They probably know about issues like racism, sexism, and classism, but it isn’t always an active thought in their mind. As Rose says in her video, there has been so much research done on social justice issues. But how many people are actually reading and understanding that research?
I fully believe that we as a society are capable of taking steps to fix these issues. By watching videos, and reading articles we’re becoming more educated. We are exposing ourselves to the experiences of others. However some people get stuck in the “it doesn’t affect me, so it’s not my problem” mindset. I think this is something Rose wanted to draw attention to at the end of her video. She says “There’s no way we’re going to know all there is to know about structural racism so of course we want to keep learning and keep growing.” The research that exists doesn’t cover everything, but by putting it all together we can get pretty close to a whole picture. The only way for us to get close to fully understanding something like structural racism is to educate ourselves. We must pay attention to research and personal experiences. Research alone is not going to fix a social justice problem, it's the people that listen to the research that will solve the problem.
The University of Kansas put out an article that talks about advancing social justice. They mention that back in 2020 a lot more people became aware of social inequities because of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since then the number of people aware of social injustice has only grown. The article lists different ways to take positive action in your community. Cathy Dyer from edCircuit also wrote an interesting article that is targeted towards students. I think this article could apply to us now as college students, or to our future students as intended education majors. Dyer looks at learning about injustice, talking about it, and how to incorporate positive values into everyday life.
15 Ways to Advance Social Justice in your Community
3 Tools Students Need to Tackle Injustice
Hi Sarah! I really agree with your point that we have to keep learning in order to grow as a society. We can't help if we aren't aware of the issues and the research provides this awareness. Your argument was really clear and organized as well :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we need to keep making advancements on social justice. This is definitely not something that can be ignored and there needs to be a demand for more research and talks as a community about the problems around us.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I really liked your perspective on Rose and the emphasis you put on how we may not be able to understand everything. People try to use their ignorance as an excuse but you cannot ignore a person's efforts to try to become more educated to understand the broken system. I agree with everything!
ReplyDeleteI agree with one of the steps you mentioned to resolve this issue, by becoming educated. I think that education is the key that open many doors, and this would be one of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I wrote about your blog in mine. It was really easy to agree with your points and I completely agree that education is the biggest step to grow awareness for social justice topics!
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