GEOG 432: Geographies and Politics of Poverty and Privilege |
On the first day of this course, the professor, Victoria Lawson, told us it was an experiment - it was born out of related classes and influenced by past students. She hoped that it would be a safe place: one for learning, listening, and expanding ideas.
As the class began to take shape, it was clear I was in the right place. The intimate class environment was a catalyst for the most intense critical thinking possible: critical thinking that forced me to reflect on and challenge the views that I held about poverty and privilege, and truly listen to the viewpoints and experiences of others.
We looked at how poverty is produced from a structural viewpoint, rather than through the lens of the individual. How do dominant discourses frame poverty, and what does it look like to challenge those discourses? How does the existence and maintenance of privilege produce and reinforce poverty? How does the world shape and act on me and how do I in turn shape and act on the world?
We looked at the strategies of participatory action researchers who study the causes of poverty by working with those in poverty to analyze and reflect on the societal structures that produce it. We discussed that it okay to struggle with tough concepts, grappling with how we participate in structures of oppression, that some solutions to poverty are too idealistic, and how we can engage in conversations about these difficult topics.
I did not expect that I would struggle with and feel personally connected to the concepts from this course. My main takeaway from the course is that ignorance is absolutely not bliss. I would rather be exposed to heavy and difficult issues and feel convicted to work for progress, than to be unaware of the situation of others.
As the class began to take shape, it was clear I was in the right place. The intimate class environment was a catalyst for the most intense critical thinking possible: critical thinking that forced me to reflect on and challenge the views that I held about poverty and privilege, and truly listen to the viewpoints and experiences of others.
We looked at how poverty is produced from a structural viewpoint, rather than through the lens of the individual. How do dominant discourses frame poverty, and what does it look like to challenge those discourses? How does the existence and maintenance of privilege produce and reinforce poverty? How does the world shape and act on me and how do I in turn shape and act on the world?
We looked at the strategies of participatory action researchers who study the causes of poverty by working with those in poverty to analyze and reflect on the societal structures that produce it. We discussed that it okay to struggle with tough concepts, grappling with how we participate in structures of oppression, that some solutions to poverty are too idealistic, and how we can engage in conversations about these difficult topics.
I did not expect that I would struggle with and feel personally connected to the concepts from this course. My main takeaway from the course is that ignorance is absolutely not bliss. I would rather be exposed to heavy and difficult issues and feel convicted to work for progress, than to be unaware of the situation of others.
Throughout the quarter, each student participated in a service learning position at an organization around the Seattle area that addresses poverty. I worked as an Employment Data Coordinator at the Millionair Club Charity in Belltown. For our final presentation, my course group wrote poetry that tied together themes from class with our experiences in service learning.
We focused on the theme of the messiness of encounters: encounters with poverty and privilege that force you to grapple with your place in the world, how the world affects you, and how you understand and impact the situation of others. Here's mine, where I reflected on my experience entering into a database the applications of people applying for job-placement by the Millionair Club.
We focused on the theme of the messiness of encounters: encounters with poverty and privilege that force you to grapple with your place in the world, how the world affects you, and how you understand and impact the situation of others. Here's mine, where I reflected on my experience entering into a database the applications of people applying for job-placement by the Millionair Club.
Income: zero dollars.
Homeless: check.
Been evicted: check.
Still owe money from eviction: check.
Work history: five pages.
Individual with extensive and impressive work history juxtaposed with the identity of homeless and unemployed.
Grappling with my preconceived notions: those which I challenged in the academic classroom but had yet to confront in the moment.
Reason for termination: no work available.
Reason for termination: no work.
Reason for termination: no work.
The production of poverty - structural not individual,
Theorized in the classroom, finally making sense in the moment.