Social Health & Diversity

Reflection Paper, Spring Semester 2016

Instructor: Jennifer S. Orison
Laura Maestas

This class has been very interesting and informative to me as I have always been
the kind of person who roots for the underdog. I dont like bullies and I dont like to
see people being bullied. To me, bullying is really what oppression is; someone
using their power or strength against someone who has less power or are weaker
and cannot stand up and defend themselves. If I were to pin it down to walking
away with one important idea at the end of the course it would be that most, if not
all forms of oppression overlap and that we all fall into at least one or two of the
categories at some point in our lives. I think that Pastor Martin Neimoller summed it
up with his poem referring to the holocaust:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade
Unionists And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.
In the end we are all potential victims of some sort of oppression and it is our
responsibility as human beings to understand that we are ALL human and we are
ALL in this crazy world together. Lets look out for one another!
One of the first subjects that raised my hackles was the treatment of Native
American Indians. These people were here LONG before the white man and the
ways in which we stole their land and heritage was appalling to me.

Page Two
Laura
Maestas
I have wandered the Southern Utah deserts and stumbled upon many an ancient
ruin and the thought of our forefathers taking away what was so rightfully theirs is
difficult for me to understand.
The topic that stood out for me in the section on classism were the consequences of
inequality and the growing loss of the middle class, which to name just a few
include the decline of leisure time and the breakdown of the family, loss of
adequate and affordable health insurance, rising debt and declining savings for
retirement and higher education being out of reach. We have to ask ourselves what
the future looks like for many of our children and grandchildren if things dont
change.
In the chapters on sexism and heterosexism I was intrigued with the idea that
gender roles are socially constructed and we are taught what is masculine and what
is feminine. There was a quote in the chapter on heterosexism that will stick with
me and it goes like this, As for the notion that allowing gay men and lesbians to
marry will destroy conventional marriage I have found heterosexuals perfectly
willing to do that themselves. Amen!
I was very disturbed by the story about Alexander Graham Bell in the chapter on
ableism. How could someone born to deaf parents possibly believe that deaf people
were defective and assume that deaf marriages led to deaf children? That does not
even make sense to me and epitomizes some of the irrational thinking behind
oppression. His ideas to try and take away the form of communication that worked
best for deaf people only crippled the poor people further in my mind.
Nearing the end of the text book, in the chapter on ageism, the idea that there are
dominant and subordinates in every facet of life and that we all toggle from one to
the other was very relevant. In the sentence that read, Every single human is or
has been young and every human who lives long enough will become an elder it

made the main thought I walk away with the same. We are all potential victims of
one form of oppression or another at any given moment in our lives. The bottom
line is that it is in every human beings best interest to actively work towards
dismantling all forms of oppression. We never know when they will come for us.