The World's Developmental Disability

The world's view about many things is distressful and in most cases uncivil. The US has the most issues with uncivility. We talk about equality, freedom and justice, and how important these values are to us; yet, no one is willing to act upon these values. We want equality for men and women, for races, we want freedom of speech, freedom of vote, freedom to choose, we want justice for the weak, for the honest, for the wronged. However, when it all comes down to it, individually we don't give equality to the men and women. Both sexes criticize each other and treat each other with disrespect and inequality. Individually we don't give equality to races or people of ethnic value. There are still groups that fight against the minority ethnic groups, there are still people who think that a black man is not a man, but something else. Individually we ignore those and supress those who speak out on what they believe in. Mostly in the media, talk about God is prohibited, it is shunned or looked down upon. Individually we don't give justice to those who are honest or have been wronged. And what about the weak? Who are considered weak anyway?
We think the weak are the poor or those who don't or can't speak out for themselves. Do we just consider women and children the weak ones based off of statistics? What about the disabled, the lowly of heart, the honest? Are they considered weak? Do they receive justice?
It seems to me that the world disregards those who are disabled. Why? Maybe because they really are weak, maybe because some don't look like everyone else, maybe because they can't do things everyone else can. And for these reasons, the world, the US, society looks down upon them and discriminates against them. The world has a problem with seeing the "different" as apart of the rest of society, as a human being. I put "different" in quotation marks because only the world sees them as different. They are the same as everyone else. They have a brain, a body, a heart, a personality. They have outsides and insides. They are human too.
The only thing that sets them apart is their developmental disability. They aren't able to do everything an average white male can do. And just because of that, society says they aren't human.
I think society needs to take a look at themselves, because they are the one with the developmental disability. The disablity of seeing someone as who they are, not by their differences.

Opressed Women

In my Human Behavior in the Social Environment class (SOWK 233) we are discussing the issues of minorities in the Social Environment; how society views minorities and how minorities deal with society. Yesterday our professor took us outside and had the class stand in a huge circle. We were then told to go in the middle of the circle when he calls out a name of a group that we identify with, such as people of color, GLBT, parents are divorced etc. The very first group he called were Women. I stepped into the middle of the circle along with all the other girls in my class. We faced the outside of the circle as he spoke of the views of society towards women.

He talked about how women are viewed as weak, lowly of heart, succumbed to violence and discrimination. He talked about how the reason women are more likely to be victims of batterers, violence, and discrimination, including discrimination in the work place. Even though the feminist movement gave women more rights, there are still so many things we're deprived of, especially equality and respect. It's amazing how many people, both men and women, believe that it's still ok to treat women with disrespect, to hurt them physically, mentally and emotionally. So many women are ok with this because they think that's how it is, and since they have no power there is nothing they can do about it. Men think that because they are stronger and hold more power in society that they can treat women however they want, that women should have no power. Society still believes that a woman still has a certain "place" in life. I think that even today those who claim that they don't believe women have a certain place in life and are women equality unconsciously, without meaning to address or act upon that belief.

I believe I am a witness to this thought that people unconsciously act upon the inequality view of women even if they believe in the equality and respect of women: Just yesterday my friend came to my house to do his homework with me. Sometimes we like to make fun of each other just for fun, after all we're good friends as. And friends like to joke around with each other. So yesterday we were kind of playing around and making fun of each other, however he started saying some things that caught my attention and made me think for a minute. He had said similar things to me before but I never noticed them like I noticed them now, and what they meant. One particular moment yesterday we were discussing how whenever I make fun of him for hanging out with one of his friends (who is a girl) he gets upset with me. The things I say are things like "How's your girlfriend?" or "are you guys going to make out now?" He gets upset with me when I say those things because he doesn't like the girl romantically. However, the same situation applies to him. Whenever I hang out with my guy friends he says the exact same kinds of things to me, but tells me that I'm not allowed to get mad about it. I asked him why that is. His reply were things like "because I'm stronger than you" or "because I'm smarter than you". Those words made me question why he would say those particular remarks. He doesn't think that girls should be treated with disrespect, he doesn't believe in violence against women either. But still, he alludes to inequality of women when he jokes around.
This made me come to a drafted theory that maybe no matter who you are, woman or man, if you believe in woman equality or you don't, that unconsciously we infer or indirectly indicate that women should be a minority and should not have the same rights and privileges simply because the fact that they are a woman. Oppression of women has always occurred in history, and no matter what we do, it will continue to occur.