SJ Paper #3: Understanding my own Cultural Context

In order to understand the origin of privilege and power in my life it has taken me all term to face the fact that I grew up in a racist and discriminating family. But my family is very loving and has given me very strong values to live my life by. However I am only now reconciling with being raised among a family who does not seek to understand diversity or find value in it. How could they be racist and yet be so loving? It is in this question that I have dug deeper into the cultural history of Detroit where I grew up. Why is there pervasive racism and social inequity in Detroit, and how is it now being perpetuated?

First, it is important for me to understand my own cultural context. Ethnically, I identify myself as a Caucasian, Northern-European mutt, mostly Norwegian, some Scottish, Welch, Irish and a tiny bit of Native American. My ancestors migrated to the US in the 1850’s as Norwegian loggers in Idaho, and came over the Oregon Trail to Oregon floating in the Columbia River in their wagon boxes. They endured hardship to make a better life for their families. One of my distant cousins married a Nez Perce Indian that she met in Idaho. In the photos it is easy to decipher the Native American daughter with her black hair and beautiful dark skin. My Grandmother always told me that she was adopted. Now I find out that wasn’t the case. The irony is that she is related by blood, which is a rare, being that the Nez Perce is a small and remote tribe. This precious piece of my cultural history was being covered up by my grandparent’s generation. It makes me deeply sad and ashamed. I believe they were trying to hide it in order to protect the family. Good intentions have perpetuated long-lasting discrimination. Embracing this diversity in my view would have been such an asset to our family history and understanding.

I grew up in upper-middle class suburban Detroit community with a fair amount of diversity between White-Christian, Jewish, Indian and Asian families. The African American community is concentrated in the urban core of Detroit. The urban core is also full of abandon buildings, boarded-up drug houses, poor schools and a corrupt local government. My Grandfather had the belief that African Americans were lazy and therefore poor. It is said that the origins of urban unrest in Detroit were rooted in a multitude of political, economic, and social factors including police abuse, lack of affordable housing, urban renewal projects, economic inequality, black militancy, and rapid demographic change. (http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm) The riots in the late 1960s were the result of the complex urban unrest and deep seeded racism. The most famous riot in 12^th street in July of 1967 left 43 dead, mostly African American, meanwhile 7,000 were arrested, mostly African American.

It deeply disturbs me that I was not educated about the racism and discrimination in my own city while I was growing up. Instead, we isolated ourselves in the suburbs, “othering” the black community and the zip code I grew up in was privileged and we didn’t have to interface urban Detroit. Thinking back to dinner table conversations as a little girl, I would cringe at my Grandfather’s derogatory language, his disgust for the black community and yet he had no recognition of his own power and privilege. I can rationalize his racism in my head, as I look at the historical legacy for racial tension in Detroit and other parts of the United States. But that obviously doesn’t make it right. Racism is a choice. It’s not a default.

Growing up with these influences, it is interesting to think about how I reacted to having a very diverse school experience in a progressive community that promoted diversity. I suppose my family left it up to others to educate me about the virtues of diversity and equality. I am so thankful for that exposure. I wonder what my values would be if I hadn’t been exposed to a diverse group of students and families at an early age? Does valuing diversity come from exposure? How can we expect isolated communities to fully understand power and privilege?

Education seems like the most logical piece. But how do we get people to become comfortable being uncomfortable? This is the part where I challenge myself to bring this back to my family in the suburbs of Detroit. The racism is not as pronounced as it was when my Grandparents were alive, but the lingering discrimination is present in the undertones of conversation: blame, distrust, frustration and misunderstanding. If I am to be a change agent of social justice it needs to start with those closest to me, although this feels like a path of most resistance. It is imperative and in some ways I have more to gain in my personal relationships, meanwhile I have the established connection and relationships to build trust and new understanding for white privilege. Ultimately it is a responsibility to me, to my community, to this planet and to my family to play a role in righting this wrong.

Family perpetuates life-long habits and it can be a foundational problem from where racism stems, like in my case. I do not pretend to be enlightened without philosophical discriminations. However my ability to separate myself and understand my own privilege and power is what gives me the ability to help overcome racism in our society. It takes trial and error; it takes the energy and effort to want to make the change. Now I must look inward, to my own family roots and start from my foundation. I fear failure and making waves with a family who loves me but I know the ultimate justice is worth the fight.

Cap'n Trade how do we reach the BOPS

In our Economics class we are delving more deeply into Cap and Trade. I am curious how this top-down approach is really addressing the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP's). If more than 80% of the global population has less than $3,000 of disposable income per year, and they are also the part of the population that is going to require the most energy (possibly fuel) to convert their quality of life, how can cap and trade really get the the meat of the climate change problem? I am impressed that global cap and trade emissions has already created a massive asset class in emissions trading, but it does not address the majority of our global population that is not yet responsible for emitting carbon. I am optimistic that we can find solutions to our carbon problem that do not perpetuate inequity for the BOPs. The social implications of climate change are only subtle undertones at this point. Glacial melt will eventually displace indigenous communities in high alpine regions of the world. How do we address these approaching threats while continuing to innovate and mitigate emissions from the industrial nations?

The Challenge of Compassion

Over the past month I have been grappling with marginalization in the United States and how we as a society are perpetuating stigmas within our culture through policy and business practices out of a lack of compassion.
I am puzzled by American culture and how families are slowly scattering and moving apart. It seems like a cultural indicator that undermines our generational connectedness. Many retirees move to homogeneous communities where they have no family ties and grow old by themselves. The elderly within our communities are placed in homes and generally isolated from society. There is little integration and acceptance of the elderly. I feel that my generation is losing compassion for older generations. I am left wondering what implications this disconnection will have on our policy-making for the future. Of course health care is the most relevant public policy. The mental models around the elderly are divisive for our society. We have much to learn from other cultures’ embrace of their elders. The value of wisdom, story-telling, understanding and history has to some extent been lost in modern culture. This has larger implications on how we function as a society and how we develop our priorities.
The baby boomers will soon be the elderly and a considerable portion of the US population. In some ways I believe that our need for health care reform is distracting from the need to care for ourselves and as a society take responsibility for our friends and family who are aging. It takes an enormous amount of resources to care for an aging population. This is an environmental, social and cultural dilemma. Compassion, however is only part of the solution.
The social stigmas around mental illness and disabilities are many. Growing up with an uncle with Bi-polar disorder, my Grandparents experienced great shame for his illness. For many years we didn’t have resources to learn about his illness, and we were unaware that many others were suffering from the same battle. When I walk the streets of Portland, I am continually struck by the number of individuals who are wandering alone, with mental illnesses. Why have we failed as a society to care for these individuals? And why does the only solution become isolation from the rest of society? I believe we have succeeded in “othering” and failed to embrace a community of people who cannot help themselves. The importance is Social Ventures is paramount in addressing the inequities of people dealing with mental illnesses.
The biggest question is how can we move from charity to philanthropy with these causes? I see charity as a band-aid mentality for social well-being. However the notion of philanthropy seems to have stronger cultural implications and social initiatives are more engrained in compassion. Currently if we continue to marginalize people with mental illnesses and disabilities we cannot move forward toward equity.
Continuing on the thread of charity and philanthropy in the United States, I would argue that they are both derived out of compassion. In fact, my dollar given to a man on the street will not have the same lasting impacts as a dollar given to an organization that has organized philanthropic efforts. Thus, compassion alone is not enough to drive social justice with these marginalized communities. To a larger extent I think we are lacking the skills to proactively engage and learn from our elders and from the disabled community. If we can break down these walls of disconnection we can form a more cohesive society that is better equipped to handle other challenges over time.

The Only Way Out is THROUGH

Everything I am reading and experiencing is giving me the message that "The Only way out is THROUGH". Change from within. Reform, not abandonment. Last night we heard the story of the Spiral Garden project. By creating a project at the center of challenged neighborhood, the positive impacts are spiraling throughout the community. By creating solutions juxtaposed with the direct problems, progress is intertwined with the existing conditions and likely to be more enduring.

Reflection Paper: Living with Intention, Monster Trucks and Cheeseburgers

As change agents, there is a paradoxical snag in the charge to “live with intention”. Meanwhile our decisions and habits may be directly and indirectly violating the rights of others. To “live with intention” is a powerful statement and yet I am entitled as an educated, white, female with the privilege of having such an aspiration. What that means for me is pursuing work which positively impacts my community, and going beyond meeting my own basic needs. As I delve more deeply in this notion, it is the confines in the power structure of our society, business community and culture that are preventing people from having the choice to “live with intention”. This circumstance is something I will attempt to explore from a business standpoint, to deeper my grasp of this topic.

The context of social justice within business intrigues me as we build our understanding throughout this course. In the first week, we learned about the U.S. based business, Unilever who is using their positive global influence to create community economic development projects throughout Southern Asia. Unilever is effectively raising the standard of living for the rural poor by providing a profitable commercial business opportunity to communities that have very little sources of income. Unilever is not only decreasing a negative impact on already disadvantaged rural communities, but they are making a positive impact and providing opportunities for the poor. Conversely the U.S automotive industry is consistently challenging their responsibility to care for the environment and human health that is adversely affected by carbon emissions of monster trucks. The automotive industry is caught arguing minimal changes to minimize the impacts on humans and the environment rather than finding solutions to positively impact them. I am deeply challenged by this framework for social justice. Coming back to the notion of “living with intention”, how is the automotive industry creating positive change in its current form? There are obviously immense opportunities for this industry.

How we can allow businesses to continue to threaten our global livelihood through the perpetuation of a broken value system? Have we failed as humans in creating a society that does not take care of it’s global citizens? I like to think of the analogy of parents caring for their children and role modeling good behavior, in the way that they are “living with intention”. Business is role modeling for our society constantly and although we have virtuous organizations that are leading the charge of doing business through the lens of social justice, it is clear that we have a long way to go.

Corporate Social Responsibility has emerged as an effort to right businesses towards social good. As sited in the Vogl article, in 2001, McDonald’s was placed 14^th among the world’s most respected companies for environmental performance. I am appalled considering the companies implications on social justice. To have a large presence in low-income communities by providing affordable and extremely unhealthy food has been a huge contributing factor towards global obesity. How can we value and respect McDonald’s for the degradation of human health with cheeseburgers? Low-income families, who wish to live with intention, cannot afford to do so. Businesses that take advantage of social inequity and that further divide those less able to make choices, should not be rewarded for their performance.

In hearing Kevin Hagen, from REI, speak about the CSR at REI, the advent of transparency has been very valuable to REI and it’s connection with it’s co-op members as well as local communities. However the unfortunate development of CSR is that it is allowing companies to further enforce how they want to be seen and not how they actually are. It is ultimately part of marketing the business and reputation management. Frameworks like the GRI, have furthered the standard for reporting, although it is a language that is far from being well understood by the consumer. If CSR can go beyond changing the face of business to changing the way they do business, there is a beacon of hope.

To be able to “live with intention” should be an attainable human right, and yet corporations of the world are making social inequity an ever wider gap to bridge. My privilege for choice has never been so apparent. Ultimately where do I fall in this puzzle? My goal is to “live with intention” and I believe to truly understand where I can optimize my impact is by helping to break apart the paradigms that exist within business. Of course creating social equity takes a multitude of pathways. However, as we are learning more about the ways that businesses and corporations operate, they are an ultimate source of oppression and act to further marginalization within our culture. They are not the evil, but they are flawed and within that there is great promise and opportunity. The monster truck SUV’s and low-grade cheeseburgers of the world are a reminder that we can do better for our communities beyond the status quo. By knowing, we can reach understanding and become responsible. Intension can be an attainable goal.

The age of simplicity: Compassion and Happiness

Stewing on yesterday's NYT article about Happiness
(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/opinion/17kristof.html?em), and contemplating Jon Ramer's Compassionate Action Network brings me to a conclusion that we need to strip down to simplicity to strive for equity. People in this world are much happier than we would imagine from the surface level, although what the article fails to recognize is that happiness can easily be denied with inherent inequity that is built into society and culture. We are all capable of compassion to drive equity. Giving is an act of receiving. It is a selfish act, and also a win-win. But how do we leverage compassion in areas of the world that have such deeply embedded cultural inequity? My time abroad in Africa and Central and South America would dictate that apathy surpasses compassion. How do we transform empathy from apathy? Something to chew on for the next few days..

MLK Day, pick up the pace

Much to ponder on this day. I am continually struck by how much my 95 year old Grandmother has witnessed in her lifetime. Looking through her old photos of marching for Women's rights in the 1920's and hearing about segregation in her school. This change and progress is somewhat rapid in the scale of human kind, but it today's context, social justice needs to pick up the pace. WE need to pick up the pace and it is our human right and responsibility.