Social Justice & Inclusion (SJI)

Reflection

Throughout this semester, I have really been forced out of my comfort zone –but in a good way. I have learned so much from this course and I feel that the Sensoy and DiAngelo text was a major help. It has educated me on ways that many parts of me are privileged and because of those privileges I am incredibly capable of being a part of trying to make this world better. There are a few things that I noticed I have actively changed or become more aware of. The mid-western “you guys” is hard to detach from vocabulary, but I have really tried hard to stop using that phrase, as I understand that it may be offensive to some. It is not overly difficult to change “you guys” to “y’all”. Although small I think that this change would be appreciated by many who do not identify in that way. Sensoy and DiAngelo talked about movies and how they sexualize women and just other things. Many movies I have watched since then I have been able to pick up on the sexualization of women and even how racist some movies can be. There was a movie I just recently watched that I cannot recall the name, however there was apart in it where I said out loud wow that was racist. It is stuff like this that I feel bad that I have spent most of my life either not caring or being oblivious to situations that are shown in movies but also real life. It has been a very eye opening and growing experience.

I do not know if this exactly counts, however, I feel that my social justice philosophy was put into action just a few weeks ago. With my assistantship, I went to NACA with my seven students on the Campus Activities Board. We had a situation that revolved more around ableism. I have a student who has debilitating anxiety and they are set off very easily. Anxiety is an invisible disability, and because of that many people do not understand what it’s like to have that kind degree of a disability. I think because they cannot see it, they do not know how to handle it as well. With this incident, I had to advise me other students to leave the one student be while they coped with, they anxiety attack. I, however, did sit with them. I told them I would not talk unless they wanted me to and would be there to listen and support them. They were able to calm down but, with this individual when they have such bad anxiety attacks, they then turn around to gain back the control that was lost. This has been an issue before, but they had snapped and told everyone to shut up while we were all sitting at a round table. I then stepped in again to stop further negative interaction and essentially told everyone that we all needed to calm down and respect one another. This has led to further discussion as a team on how to treat one another. The team does not understand what crippling anxiety feels like and although the student has not told any of them about their disability, we may need to figure out some sort of exercise to help the students understand one another. This is not the first time this has happened. This student I have use as an example also is very dyslexic and has made mistakes on presentations for CAB where her peers have called them out on the mistakes and in ways made fun of them too. So, I think knowing all of this now and going through this class has helped me prepare and become more educated on the things I can do and the things I can look for when I see issues where social justice is not being thought about. It makes me sad because I know how hard this student struggles and how sensitive she really is for it. I feel like I could have done better for them as their advisor and maybe asked if they wanted me to proof read before the event. Also, maybe sitting down with them and asking if there are things I can do to be more of help before, during, and after an anxiety attack. Mental health is such a taboo still to this day but we really need to be educate and have our students educated on some of this stuff so that we can be more of use to our peers and more understanding. The CAB students have kind of alienated this other students so its just hard to see because they are a very sweet person.

Final Reflection 

To begin, I think it would be good start with a follow up from the previous reflection. Since this last post the drama between the CAB students had gotten work. Fall 2022 was a rough semester with and for the team. Starting in Spring 2023, I set expectations on very early that we were going to strive for a better year and that the past will stay in the past. I have worked on making sure the team when they are together are inclusive with one another. Making sure and being aware that they do not speak over one another or like that have in the past alienate another student that is apart of their team. I also did a StrengthsQuest workshop with the team where they were able to physically see that they had different strengths than one another. Through the workshop they were able to talk with one another about what their strengths mean, and this gave a better insight how each one of them work during big events. The things I have done to create a safer and a more happy space for the students is a growth in myself since my last  reflections. I have been able to provide inclusive and social justice professional development to my students. With some of the expectations and the open honest conversations, they know they are going to be held accountable to their actions that were not maybe held accountable in the past. Something I would like to do with the team in the future or with another team would be to do some sort of mental health awareness training. It is important so that just because they do not see something physically wrong they think about how their actions and words can impact others.

CAB has wanted to do more events that are more inclusive as well as addresses things issues that are happening across the world. They want to make sure they are supportive of other campus partners and fostering relationships with them. In my role as their advisor it is up to me to help with those relationships and make sure that they happen and keep the meaning they want behind it. We have helped many organizations across campus bring cultural speakers and other events that engage many areas of campus. 

Overall, I think there is a lot of work to be done in this area. This is always going to be an important competency to reflect on and continue growth in. I really want to take a deeper dive into this competency over the next few years. I think it is important to be able to advocate for social justice everywhere. When I have been doing and learning new ways to do so. I plan to keep constant growth in this area because the world continues to grow diverse and we will continue to serve a diverse group of students.