Help me with Social Injustice project for English 101?

Hi, everyone. I have kind of an interesting English project this quarter in college. I thought about dropping the class after I read the syllabus, because it all sounded way too big for me to handle with the rest of my classes. But I thought about it some more and I'm going to give this my best effort, and hopefully do something meaningful to fight social injustice.
The theme for my English class this quarter is, obviously, social injustice. According to the syllabus,

Students will be required to pick a topic of social injustice and become involved in an organization or location outside the classroom. As well, they will receive training in compassionate listening (www.compassionatelistening.org ) to help them in accomplishing the service-learning requirement. You are encouraged to observe a social injustice within your own lives and choose a topic closely related to your own interest. You should begin listening on your own and see where the experience takes you.

Service Learning Purposes 1. Students will interview people at their service learning site who are in charge or work with people experiencing a social injustice. 2. Students will use the skills of free listening and compassionate listening with people at their service learning site who are experiencing a social injustice. 3. Through service learning, students will think about, write about, and put into practice the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for understanding their chosen social injustice. 3. As a result of the service learning experience, students will more deeply understand their relationships to their communities and be able to communicate their understanding to others who may not share their views.

Since the exact type of organization isn't specified, I think it would be perfectly reasonable to use an online discussion board. Can't think of a better one than ATS. We use a discussion board in class as well, since it's a hybrid online-in class setup.
So of course my teacher threw out the obvious examples of the poor, the disabled, gays, etc...all of whom are no doubt experiencing social injustices. However, I think there are much more pressing issues at hand. Also, my prof seems to have a somewhat disconnected view of reality. She wants to solve all the world's problems with hugs and compassionate listening. She is of the opinion that life should be fair.
I just can't agree with her on this one. Puppies drown, babies die, and most people don't care one way or the other. I don't think anything has to be fair. Our lives aren't just given to us right? It's a constant struggle for survival. Different people struggle for different resources. But we all have to fight to survive, right? I don't want to run into issues of entitlement with this project. i.e. a homeless man who won't quit drinking, and thinks society owes him something, even though he contributes nothing to it. I don't care about him, and I don't want to solve his problems for him. Hopefully by connecting with other ATS members, I can avoid that.
Some of my thoughts on social injustices that matter to me I might choose:

An unapportioned income tax-screw the 16th amendment
The frightening amount of non-food that the FDA mandates we consume-tetrazine, flouride, hydrodgenated anything, aspartame, etc...
Monetary slavery-debt=money
The education of our youth-I'm actually really happy with college so far, but I can't believe what/how I was taught in high school 10 years ago.
The war on drugs-Tetrahydrocannabinol is illegal. Oxycontin is handed out like candy. WTF!!!
Prison- we have almost 10 million people in the penal system right now. That number is approaching the total population of the country of Greece. Something is not working.

So in turning to ATS for help, I hope to more easily connect with like minded people, and get some really solid input for this class. I have a bit of a problem with anxiety and paranoia. I've been diagnosed with PTSD from the war. I'm kind of afraid of people, and I was really concerned about having to interview strangers face to face. I think an online forum would be a great way for me to do this.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights will play a big part in this project. There is a series of videos, each one minute long, explaining all 30 of YOUR human rights. I'll try and embed the first one here.
In case it doesn't work, here's the link my prof gave us www.youthforhumanrights.org...

I'm looking forward to this as a challenge to the way I am used to learning, hopefully a way to make some friends, which has been really hard for me to do since I left the military, and maybe to really do something, anything, to make a difference.
I would love any and all feedback and level of participation. Any thoughts, ideas on social injustices that you see every day?
I hope this thread doesn't get swallowed up in the maelstrom of crises and disasters and alien invasions of late.

Thank you all for your time
Mike

reply to post by ZeroReady


I am intrigued. Could you please define how you consider the items you listed to be social injustices? They sound more like things you just consider to be unjust in general. If you can formulate a explanation of how they are specifically social injustices, I bet you can find plenty of people here to give input. The one that sounds most interesting to me so far is the prison one, but I would like to hear more of your argument. Good luck, it sounds like a very interesting project!

reply to post by gwynnhwyfar

"social injustice": subjective "lib speak..." define "social injustice" theres a semester right there.
"compassionate listening "???
Just give me the "f" now professor;so I can go on about my day! Theres way too many"feeeelings" and subjective judgements in the syllabus in this "english" class
lol..

you could join peta, or your local humaine society.
but i think the real injustice is the class you are taking.
it sounds that your teacher is trying to get you to join a
organization and get involved in what ever cause they are after.
why don't you tell her you are going to join a group of armed
suvivorlist who go into the hill on weekends and build bunkers and practice war games
for when tshtf.

Social Injustice =

Asking other to help you, whilst your class mates work hard and honestly.

You seem to be part of the problem

reply to post by CitizenNum287119327


Whoa dude. Its a collaborative project. We're supposed to seek help and input from other people/groups. As far as I can tell from the syllabus, I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to. WTF?

reply to post by gwynnhwyfar


Adams, Bell and Griffin (2007) define social justice as both a process and a goal:

The goal of social justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.

A federal income tax is robbery by and under threat of force and violence for non obedience and non compliance.
This could be a difficult argument to make, depending on what one believes one's taxes pay for. But most of us are probably aware that federal income tax is used to pay down the interest of the national debt. Gas taxes cover roads, tax on your cell phone bill covers 911 etc. If the federal income tax is only being used to perpetuate the cycle of national debt, then it is being used to keep all of us in a system of bondage/slavery to our creditors. Article 4 of the UDHR

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude

If I don't pay my income tax I will be imprisoned by the government. Why? Because the federal government owns my labor.

Article 25

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself, and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care

I've literally had anxiety attacks in the grocery store trying to find food that has less plastic in it than protein. I know there's real, healthy food out there. But it's getting harder and harder to read ingredient labels without a degree in chemistry. Chemicals are routinely put into food that come with warnings that they will cause cancer. The FDA is supposed to make sure that our food is safe. Food that will give me cancer is not safe, nor adequate for my health and well being.

Thank you for pushing me to expand on my ideas. It's exactly what I'm supposed to have ready for class by Tuesday. I'll keep working on them, but here's some thoughts on a couple.

reply to post by Seeker-2406


Believe me I felt the exact same way when I finished reading the syllabus. It's like she expects this to be a part time job. But I wanted to see what kind of input I got from ATS before I make up my mind weather or not to stick with it, since it's the only organization I belong to already, and the only one I really have any interest in. But yeah it seems really ambitious for English 101 at a community college. I don't want to drop the class because I need it to stay in a history class I'm also taking, which I'm really enjoying.

reply to post by ZeroReady


You need to decide if you care about the grade before you embark on this project. It does not matter what the quality of your work is, if you are not working within the realm of the prof's notion of social justice, you will not get a good grade. That sucks but it is reality in today's university.

Personally, I don't buy any of the social justice spew. It only leads to reduced freedom of folks whom the social justice proponents don't belive need or deserve justice. I also would want a good grade, therefore I would select a group of folks who, by no fault of their own were disadvantaged. By that I mean disabled or handicapped and not racial, sexual or religious minorities or poor folks, who in my opinion are not disadvantaged in the least.

With the three fantastic wars our fine leadership has us currently engaged in, you may want to take a look at doing a bit of work researching disabled veterans. How the stateside medical care is insufficient, job training and placement insufficient, post traumatic counseling inadequate, family counceling poor, all of those things. Unfortunately there is no shortage of them to speak with and who knows, you might raise a bit of awareness. Lord knows that the awareness for the other poster child groups has been raised enough

reply to post by dolphinfan


Thank you very much for your input. I ran a few of my ideas by the prof and she said if I'm willing to do the work to justify it, then I can pick one of the more unconventional topics. But basically yeah, I agree with you, it would be easier and better for my grade to pick one of the more frontline social injustices like you mentioned. Though being a disabled veteran myself, I'd like to stay away from that group to avoid any biases I might put into my writing. (Is that even possible?)

reply to post by ZeroReady


Firstly, thank you for your service.

Honestly, especially seeing that you are in Seattle, I would punt on the non-traditional topics. I would place a 75% chance that she will either set you up or you will have to do so much more work to prove a point to her that she has already told you that she fundamentally does not agree with by the very nature of your assignment, that you will not get a grade commensurate with the quality of your work. It is ideal now should you do that as you have already told her that you were looking at alternative topics, essentially ones that she will likely be opposed to and swinging back will make her happy.

The business has nothing what so ever to do with English. What it is is her pusing you into some PC bs so she can feel good that she created "awareness". You are not going to learn anything doing this. Do what ever you think will get you the best grade and be done with it. Is that cowardly? No its not. It's understanding that she is playing a sophomoric game and letting her think that you're buying her bs.

I would say you are casting your net too wide with 30 universal declarations.
How long is your piece?
Even a post-grad thesis couldn't focus on all of them, and while it's good research, you may run into problems with the actual writing.
My advice is that the personal is political and therefore worth writing about, and it will hold your interest (passion is crucial for writing academically).
You already talk about having been in a war and suffering post-traumatic stress symptoms.
So why not focus on veterans in your country, and how they are treated in relation to three or four basic human rights in the declaration?
How do physical problems compare to mental problems suffered by veterans?
Is there a stigma in society?
Your experience with this (begin by including it) may take you very far.

Then, a good trick for any humanities/Art essay.
Race, class and gender.
Devote at least one paragraph to each.
Do black veterans feel more affected and marginalized, or poor veterans compared to rich ones, and how do female veterans feel? Do they access the same treatment? Do some feel more entitled or bitter?
What special problems or points can you add to academic knowledge in your conclusion?

reply to post by halfoldman


30 declarations is indeed a big net. But we only have to pick one topic of social injustice that we observe in our lives and is closely related to our own interests. So it isn't quite as broad as I may have made it sound. The papers we're supposed to write probably won't have to be more than 5 pages or so, and theres only 3 of them I think. I'm going to follow the advice I've gotten so far, yours included, and stay away from the alternative stuff. I think sticking with something I'm already deeply familiar with like veterans issues would be a good move. Maybe the guys that are still in, who, like me at the time, know that something is wrong, but are intimidated into staying quiet and not voicing opinions about the wars. It kills me inside that I went to Iraq twice, knowing full well it was wrong, and never stood up to say hey this is f'd up! Why are we going? I would have gotten in a lot of trouble, probably been kicked out, and not have any of the meager benefits that I'm fortunate enough to have now. But at least I could have taken a chance and said something while I was in, when I really could have made a difference, instead of waiting till I got out. Now I'm just a statistic. Thank you for your help!

I can imagine that what they want at that stage is an exploration of empathy - taking a personal experience and expanding it.
Without an ability to put yourself in another person's shoes, humanity or literature studies will be very difficult.
How can you apply character analysis in fiction or books if you haven't considered it in real life?
I think there is a personal point in us all where we just feel suffering, and that is how we can make the personal political by reaching out.
So it's getting you in the mindset of that academic thinking.
Watch out for simply writing off the experience of people like gays and so forth, just because your politics don't agree.
Academic thinking is a discourse apart from the wider world in that respect.
Be open-minded.

reply to post by ZeroReady

You are welcome good scholar.
However, the answers were all your own.
Just get cracking, the world is waiting to hear ...

Originally posted by ZeroReady
I think sticking with something I'm already deeply familiar with like veterans issues would be a good move.

This is my first thought after reading your opening post. Yes, you could try to make a statement with your professor and try to prove something to her. Or you could get involved with a subject (I would choose homeless veterans and/or veterans that our country otherwise uses and then spits out) that your teacher would "approve of" and go for it. You could interview some people and get statistics and make a pretty nice report.

There's a man who lives in an small tent in the woods near our house. I'm not sure if he's a Vietnam vet or from the first Gulf War, because he looks pretty beat up and it's difficult to tell his age. But a few neighbors around here help him out. We make sure he has clothes and blankets in the winter and food all year round. He's so grateful...

Don't be afraid to walk up to a group of homeless people and start a conversation. You could get some GREAT stories!

Anyway, that's probably what I would do. But in school. I was always and approval suck, trying to get As on everything.
.

You could troll the professor by pointing out that people always take out their anger on the rich and that is a social injustice.