McIlwain 1

Caitlin McIlwain
Dr. Lawson
Honors 397B
11 March 2016
Honors 397B Reflection

When I started this seminar, I remember feeling like I knew relatively nothing about how
to effectively create change, but I knew that I wanted to do so. I knew that I wanted to make this
world a better place, but I struggled to find a way to productively think about what poverty and
marginalization really meant.
After one week, I was hooked on the idea of relational poverty. I realized that up until
this class, I had been taught to look at the homeless population as flawed individuals, and not
products of the power and privilege dichotomy that this country breeds. I realized that the
impoverished are a consequence of a societal flaw, struggling to ascertain their basic human
rights in the face of severe generalization and stereotyping. They undermine the American
Dream and are ignored because of it. I had never really thought about how easy it is for us to
donate to other countries to help fix their plight while we also struggle so deeply with the gap
between the rich and the poor. Are we truly a city upon a hill if we are ignoring our own deeply
rooted problems? No, I don’t think so. It is so easy to set aside our own problems, claiming that
our welfare programs and shelters are aiding those who want to fight the cycle of poverty. These
welfare programs only act as a band aid, and the homeless shelters are so formalized that they
lack a quality that almost everyone desires: freedom.
I was very struck by how this American Dream taints our view of what an American
citizen should be like. The neoliberalism in America (another word that I had never heard before)
makes us feel like we should all work hard for individual success, pulling ourselves up by our
bootstraps. But is this possible for every person who starts from scratch in America? Hollis
Wong Wear, Ananya Roy, Macklemore, LaShawnDa Pittman, and many others tell us that it
isn’t. People of color, people born to immigrants, people in poverty, people with mental
illnesses, and other people who are marginalized cannot simply pull themselves up by their
bootstraps because of the barriers that society creates. A white male starts out 5 steps further
along the road to success than a black queer female.
While our minorities are marginalized further, institutions make it difficult to receive
care, welfare, housing, or any sort of compensation. Why are there so many hoops that one has to
jump through to meet standard human needs? Why can’t every person be given equal
opportunities? Why is race still a problem in America? I am bothered by these questions daily,
especially as many issues of race and poverty are resurfacing in the #BlackLivesMatter protests
and the 2016 election. What needs to change in our institutions in order for us to see true equality
surface.
In Week 4 we discussed how our institutions make us ignorant. We are taught at a young
age how to be, how to see the world, how to act, and what we can achieve based on what our
predecessors achieved because of their own privilege. Privilege is so coveted that the fear of
losing status drives people to avoid discussing the idea of equality. This can be exemplified in
the fact our institutions make us believe that if all women and men were equal, then men would
technically be losing. Our competitive human nature denies the opportunity for equality. How
can we change this?
 McIlwain 2

One of the aha moments I had in this class came during Week 9. Discussing the Black
Lives Matter protests brought to light why the movement can’t be called #AllLivesMatter. The
protests aren’t denying that all lives matter in any way. But they are calling everyone to support
Black Lives, which are seen as without value in white supremacy. White supremacy squeezes
black people into boxes of normality that are defined by white people. In addition, I found it very
striking that the call for black liberation is not only meant to create equality in the black
community, but in every community experiencing marginalization.
This aha moment also relates to how the feminist movement can’t be called “gender
equality” even though that’s what feminism is defined as. It isn’t denying the equality of men,
only trying to improve the lives of women. If we change the name of feminism, we will be
undoing many of the movement’s successes. The problem lies with the connotation that the word
feminism has. It has been swayed by the radicals who have turned it from uplifting women, to
putting down men. Many men are afraid to call themselves feminists in the fear of appearing
weak, but that’s because society has made them believe that they can’t show emotion because it
doesn’t match the social construct. Even women don’t want to be labelled as feminists because it
is unattractive to men (many of which feel threatened by the belief that driving up equality of
women means that they will lose privilege themselves). I am an example of a woman who didn’t
like the term ‘feminist’ before this class, and after taking this class, I realized how much I am
affected by social constructs in my day to day life. Today, I am very proud to call myself a
feminist.
There is not a real conclusion to this reflection because there isn’t a clean ending to a
class life this. Change takes time, but it is important that we start the process. I believe that some
of this change can start by changing the history curriculum in grade schools. At 10 years old, we
are taught about the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and ultimately how America is a country
of opportunity and ‘firsts’. We are taught that America is the greatest country in the world. But,
greatness is in the eye of the beholder, and it doesn’t mean that we can police the world, mending
‘broken countries’ so that they abide by our own social standards. When we are 16, we learn
American history again, this time looking at the Cold War as an opportunity to see our great
diplomacy. But we barely touch on exploration, taking Native Americans’ land, the Japanese
internment camps, and how deeply rooted segregation is. Why? I believe it is because we are too
focused the flaws of other countries as we attempt to learn from their mistakes. But, the irony is,
we are no better than the other countries who colonized indigenous tribes to make room for their
own kind. It started the process of marginalization that affects so many lives today. This should
not be forgotten or skimmed over.
As a country, we have progress to make. This class has inspired me to get involved in my
own community. Voicing my own opinions about #BlackLivesMatter, embodying what it means
to be a feminist, and looking for ways to help the homeless feel like they are important too.
Because every life matters.