Identity and Social Interactions

     The TED talk by Jaqueline Novogratz, “An Escape from Poverty” was very moving. In her talk, she discussed the poverty people face in the Mathare Valley slums in Kenya. She particularly discusses her interaction with a lady from the slum named Jane. She discusses Jane’s journey and struggles and how she was able to overcome those struggles and help others struggling. As Novogratz was talking, I found myself thinking of my mother and all that she had to go through go get to where she is now.

     My mom grew up in a small, impoverished, village in Kenya called Kamukunji, in a similar situation as Jane and the people of the Mathare Valley slums. It is truly a miracle that she is where she is now and I have so much admiration for her. As a girl, she was discouraged from going to school- she had 4 brothers and 4 sisters and when her family couldn’t afford to send some kids to school they just sent the boys. The same came to food, when there wasn’t enough- they only fed the boys. It was a really screwed up childhood. By high school, most of her female classmates had started dropping out and having families. Similar to Jane, she had a goal and a dream. It was not so much of a dream of what she wanted as much as what she didn’t want. She didn’t want to be like the women in her village. She didn’t want to marry a man at 14 and spend the rest of her life as a servant to his every need. She didn’t want to fall asleep and wake up hungry. She didn’t want to get AIDS or have to sell her body for money. It was fear of these things that motivated her to get to where she is now.

     When I was 13, my family took a trip back to her hometown to visit family and see where she had grown up. It was the first time she had been back in 20 years but the people in her village still remembered her. She was the first female at the time to ‘make it’. After she came to America though and went to college, she was able to break the cycle in her family. The other girls in her family realized that it was possible and finished school and are doing ok- better than the boys. Back then, people thought she was crazy for not marrying a man and thinking that she could support herself. It was not until she got a scholarship to a college in New York and was able to get a job and start sending over money that they realized she wasn’t crazy. It was really emotional to see my mom reunite with classmates on the streets and see what her life could have been. When I hear stories of people like Jane or my mom, it inspires me so much more to work hard and make the world a better place for those who are struggling.

Theories of Difference, Part 2

I found the reading this week entitled, “How We Find Ourselves; Identity Development and Two-Spirit People” by Alex Wilson to be very enlightening. Wilson discussed two-spirited people- a topic that I really had not known much about- and how society fails to accept those who are different. It was so sad to read about the injustices and discrimination that the Indigenous American culture faces at the hands of the government. In the article, the Five Stage Minority Identity Development Model is discussed which basically outlines the stages in which a minority develops their identity. The creator of this model, Susan Barrett, created this to “encompass the experiences of all others, including those of us who have been “othered” because of racial and sexual identity.”

After reading through the different stages and learning how being considered different causes you to have these complexes and suffer through unnecessary shame and feelings like somethings wrong with you it made me question  how much simpler everything would be if we would just stop trying to make everyone the same. This relates to Rosie King’s TED talk, “How autism freed me to be myself.” In her talk, she discusses the benefits and downfalls to having autism. While there are some hard things about having autism, she says she wouldn’t change it because it allows her to be creative and be able to communicate with her brother and sister who are also autistic. This got me thinking about what I might be missing out on by trying so hard to conform to society’s standard of acceptable. As someone that struggles with mental illness, the decision to take medication was initially made with the hope that it would allow me to live a safe and fulfilling life. But, in my opinion, the real goal for them was to fix whatever was “wrong” in my head and make it so that I was “normal”. Who decides what is normal though? Similar to Rosie King, before I took medication- I was able to escape the real world with my imagination and feel free from society. That said, I could not sit through a class, or even make it to class sometimes because of it and eventually decided to just drop out of high school. While medication made it easier to feel “normal”, it took away a big part of who I was. Yes, it allowed me to better function in society, graduate, and be more productive, but it also took away my ability to see things differently. It is understandable to see why medication might be necessary for some people but it seems like a lot of these mental illnesses are exacerbated on those who are different by making them feel like something is wrong with them. I feel like it would be best to find some sort of balance for people who deal with these issues instead of being so quick to medicate them. It all seems to go back to the fear of the unknown. People are scared of what they don’t know.    

Theories of Difference, Part 1

Lee Mokobe’s poem about what it feels like to be a transgender was so powerful. Her use of imagery in the poem and the passion that she spoke with emphasized the truth and importance behind her words. A part of the poem that I found especially enlightening was when she described her “coming out”- or lack of.  “Naturally, I did not come out of the closet. The kids at my school opened it without my permission.” Her comparison of a house to her body did an excellent job of explaining what it feels like as a transgender. She explains, “It had nothing to do with hating my body, I just love it enough to let it go, I treat it like a house, and when your house is falling apart, you do not evacuate, you make it comfortable enough to house all your insides, you make it pretty enough to invite guests over, you make the floorboards strong enough to stand on.” Her poem in relation to identity theory offers a view point of the struggles and societal opposition a transgender person will go through by defying society’s attempt to choose one’s identity.

Mia Birdsong offered an interesting perspective that addressed the ways in which the story we tell about poverty is not true. This story she talks about is the one in which we tell ourselves that if you work hard enough, you will become successful. In saying this, it goes on to imply that those who are not successful simply did not work hard enough. “We have a wide range of beliefs about what that something wrong is. Some people tell the story that poor folks are lazy freeloaders who would cheat and lie to get out of an honest day's work. Others prefer the story that poor people are helpless and probably had neglectful parents that didn't read to them enough, and if they were just told what to do and shown the right path, they could make it.” When it comes down to it, what separates the rich from poor is luck, among other factors. Birdsong goes on to mention how she is the exception. I really liked her solution to how to help put an end to poverty. Instead of relying on wealthy people to solve the problem, she suggests to turn to poor people themselves. She says, “The quarter-truths and limited plot lines have us convinced that poor people are a problem that needs fixing. What if we recognized that what's working is the people and what's broken is our approach? What if we realized that the experts we are looking for, the experts we need to follow, are poor people themselves? What if, instead of imposing solutions, we just added fire to the already-burning flame that they have? Not directing — not even empowering — but just fueling their initiative.” This is such a powerful statement because it challenges society’s view of poor people’s capabilities. The answer to the problem of poverty can actually be solved by the people in this population.