This is a collection of essays and blog entries written for the MSW course 504: “Diversity and Social Justice” at the University of Michigan, fall of 2017.
Do you remember what it was like before the internet? If you’re reading this, I bet that there’s a pretty good chance that you don’t, and I may as well be asking, “Do you remember a Land Before Time?” I remeber a time before the internet, I remember when planning a night out with friends…
Since entering the MSW program at the University of Michigan, it has become abundantly apparent that “identity” has taken stage and is the official University of Michigan School of Social Work buzzword. Students are awash with discussions and assertions regarding the need for sensitivity and awareness of intersectionality of identities, identity based oppression, identity…
Reacting to “Rabbit Proof Fence” Rabbit Proof Fence, a 2002 film based on actual events about the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Australian “half-caste”, or mixed race children, recounts the story of Molly Craig, Daisy Craig Kadibill, and Gracie Fields as they escape a cultural indoctrination camp and make their way back home, on foot, across…
After a careful review of the available options, and spending some time reflecting on class content thus far, I have found myself attracted to the digital story telling option for the final project. I see this as a natural extension of the opening assignment of the course, the Mo’olelo, but with the added opportunity to…
Culture is the context within which all human interconnectedness occurs, and the intersections of those interconnections is where we find all meaningfulness and all sense of identity. Identity is relational, and relationships necessarily happen within a cultural context; blurred lines delineate the border between the cultural context within which the relationships that shape identity occur,…
“An injustice to one is a menace to all,” – Montesquieu This powerful quote captures a certain essence of interdependence, itself sometimes slightly elusive to define. Interdependence, in this sense, is in part an immediate and intimate sense of a common and shared humanity, something directly experienced on a felt level, beyond concept, and almost…
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This…