Equity andd Social Justice Exam Flashcards
Diversity & Identity
- Equity has to do with everyone having access to fair and equal treatment under the law, regardless of race, social class or gender.
- Social Justice extends the concept of equity to include human rights as part of the social contract.
Exploring Power and Privilege
- Dominant Groups = Privilege
- The classic sociological definition of a dominant group is a group with power, privileges, and social status. Another related definition is a social group that controls the value system and rewards in a particular society. The dominant group is often in the majority but not necessarily
- Ie. English is a dominant language in the world. You have an immediate advantage if you were born into the English-speaking world. It isn’t the most widely spoken native language - that’s Mandarin and Spanish. English is 3rd.
Becoming an Ally
An ally is any person who supports, empowers, or stands up for another person or a group of people.
How is equity different from the term “equality”?
While equality treats everyone exactly the same, equity meets people where they are to make sure they have equal opportunities. For example, meeting someone with bad eyesight where they are and giving them glasses and not giving glasses to someone with perfect eyesight. The person with perfect eyesight didn’t need glasses, hence why they didn’t get them. People aren’t treated exactly the same but they are given the resources they need to have equal opportunities.
Liberal View of History
History is a progression from one point to a better point. Rights, technology, democracy education, medicine, etc are all improving over time. The goal is to see past mistakes and make things better
Marxist View of History
History is a class struggle. The names change - king, pope. landowner, noble, capitalist, bourgeoisie, etc.. but one class is always exploiting another. The goal is to end exploitation and give power to the people.
Postmodernism
- 20th-century movement, emphasizing skepticism in the arts, philosophy, history, economics, and literature.
- Heidegger, Derrida, Foucault - the actual ‘truth’ is dependent upon perspective = not universal
- Effect is widespread indifference and detachment * possibly.
Anti-Oppression Theory
- A way to perceive the world to gain a clearer understanding.
- Identifies peoples’ experiences regarding race, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, class.
- Developed as a way of perceiving all factors that may affect a person = not all people face the same issues - not all feminists are white, straight…etc.
Feminist Theory
- The aim is to understand the nature of gender inequality.
- Discrimination, objectification, oppression, patriarchy, and stereotyping.
- Began in the late 1700s. Early focus was primarily based around suffrage.
- Susan B. Anthony is arrested in the US for illegally voting.
- She questioned how she can be arrested under the law, but not given rights or protections under those laws.
- Simone de Beauvoir - women are always seen as ‘other’ = the are not defined as individuals, but by their relationship to the men in their lives
Critical Race Theory
- Your perspective is defined by your race. Examining the intersection of race, law, and power. “Colourblindness” is an impossibility.
- Two common themes
- White power is maintained over time and law is the primary way this is done
- Racial emancipation is the main goal
- Racism is ingrained in society, and it is pervasive in the dominant culture
- Members of the dominant group can never really understand the oppressed groups problems
- The dominant group (ie. White People) are given a huge number of both large and small advantages that they tend to not perceive.
- The subordinate group is subject to micro-aggressions and systemic racism.
Post-Colonial Theory
- A method of examining how we view and are viewed in the world.
- Looks at relationships between colonial powers and colonized nations
- Colonialism was presented historically as the ‘spread of civilization’ = the colonized were subjugated, exploited, and abused.
- All colonized peoples were taught that they were inherently inferior and that their culture was without purpose.
- Their wealth was taken and their lands were exploited.
Indigenous Knowledge Approach
- Emphasizes the importance of local knowledge that is specific to a culture within that society
- Knowledge acquired over generations as these communities interacted with the environment
- Usually counter to the accepted knowledge of the ‘dominant group’ and usually ignored by them
Mechanisms of Oppression
(1) violence and the threat of violence,
(2) rendering the oppressed group or their existence as an oppressed group as invisible, so that their status is taken for granted and not questioned,
(3) ensuring that the group is ghettoized so as to be out of sight, out of mind,
(4) Engaging in cultural oppression by treating the group as inferior,
(5) When oppressed groups are easily visible, they argue that the oppression can be rationalized or excused or
(6) keeping oppressed groups divided within themselves or from other oppressed groups.
Exploitation
- Those who begin with a $ advantage will have a competitive advantage in economic exchanges.
- The result is still greater inequality of income and assets, via accumulation. Exploitation is simply based upon unfair advantage.
Cumulative disadvantage
- refers to the manner in which over the life course of individuals and of entire groups and communities of people, such unfair exchanges can become institutionalized into a system of economic exploitation.
- Unjust outcomes follow from transactions between unequal parties within an institutionalized environment. The outcome is a result of exploitation.
Oppression
(1) Harm
Harm is a much-theorized concept in moral philosophy. However, the harm must be performed in an organized, institutionalized manner. It doesn’t necessarily mean a punch in the face.
(2) Inflicted on a group,
Oppression is a harm perpetuated on a social group - usually as a result of an institutional practice.
(3) by a more privileged group,
(4) using unjust forms of coercion.
Material oppression
takes place when one social group uses violence or economic domination to reduce the access of persons of another social group to material resources such as income, wealth, health care, the use of space, etc.
Ie - a landlord prefers to rent to white married couples, over people of colour or people on government disability.
Psychological oppression
is both direct and indirect. Direct psychological forces produce inequality through the purposeful actions of members of the dominant group on people in a subordinate group (including the use of terror, degradation and humiliation, and objectification).
Ie - Police stop an Audi full of young people of colour and ask about car theft. Same car full of white kids doesn’t get stopped.
Subjective oppression
is the conscious awareness that one is in fact oppressed.
In other words, a person realizes they are being unjustly and systematically harmed by virtue of their membership in a social group.
The group is treated differently than others.
Dehumanization
Recent theoretical and empirical work on the question of dehumanization has distinguished between two forms of dehumanization: animalistic dehumanization and mechanistic dehumanization
Animalistic dehumanization
takes place primarily in an intergroup context, in interethnic relations and towards groups of persons with disabilities. It is accompanied by emotions such as disgust and contempt for the members of the other social group.
Mechanistic dehumanization
involves the treatment of others as not possessing the core features of human nature. Dehumanized individuals or groups are seen as automata (not animals). It is called mechanistic because it is involves “standardization, instrumental efficiency, impersonal technique, causal determinism, and enforced passivity”
Dominant vs. subordinate:
Dominant is the oppressor because while they have access to power, economic control, set the “norms,” and privilege, subordinate groups are disadvantaged, categorized & labelled, receive differential treatment, and lack of power and influence.
Stereotype vs. Prejudice vs. Discrimination: what are they and how are they different?
- Stereotypes are mental ideas/images that are overly simplistic and exaggerated generalizations about social groups. They are used to spread misinformation and stigmatize a subordinate group.
- Prejudice is different because it involves having conscious arbitrary attitudes or beliefs and unfair bias towards or against a person/group. This is based on little or no experience and projected onto an entire group.
- Discrimination takes this to a higher level because it is an action based on prejudice. For example, excluding, ignoring, avoiding, threatening, ridiculing, jokes, slurs, violence, and unfair treatment towards a specific group. Discrimination is an individual’s external behavior
Stereotypes are
mental ideas/images that are overly simplistic and exaggerated generalizations about social groups. They are used to spread misinformation and stigmatize a subordinate group.
Prejudice is
different because it involves having conscious arbitrary attitudes or beliefs and unfair bias towards or against a person/group. This is based on little or no experience and projected onto an entire group.
Discrimination takes
this to a higher level because it is an action based on prejudice. For example, excluding, ignoring, avoiding, threatening, ridiculing, jokes, slurs, violence, and unfair treatment towards a specific group. Discrimination is an individual’s external behavior
What are the 5 faces of oppression and how do they affect people?
- Exploitation - treats someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work
- Marginalization - treating a person, a group, or a concept as insignificant or peripheral
- Powerlessness - someone having a lack of ability, influence, or power and a lack of access to the people who have them.
- Cultural Imperialism - creating and maintaining unequal relationships between civilizations, in order to favour the more powerful civilization.
- Violence - using behaviours involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
Exploitation
treats someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work
Marginalization
- treating a person, a group, or a concept as insignificant or peripheral
Powerlessness
- someone having a lack of ability, influence, or power and a lack of access to the people who have them.
Cultural Imperialism
- creating and maintaining unequal relationships between civilizations, in order to favour the more powerful civilization.
Violence
- using behaviours involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
What is internalized oppression? Can you give any examples?
Internalized oppression is the incorporation and acceptance by people within a target group of the prejudices against them. For example, as a woman, we often deal with “internalized misogyny,” sometimes we want to look or act a certain way that is inauthentic to ourselves but attracts men. It is one of our ways of being affected by the patriarchy so much that it is in our own heads.
What is assimilation and what groups have challenged the idea in the past?
Assimilation is the elimination of group-based differences and essentially treats everyone according to the same principles, rules and standards. Black Power, Idle No More, the Women’s movement, and LBGTQ Liberation have challenged the idea of assimilation in the past.
Social Oppression:
Dominant group defines what is normal,
Differential treatment,
Internalized oppression,
Target group’s culture is discounted and dominant group’s culture imposed.
Systemic Oppression:
- Embedded in institutions such as: media, family, religion, education, language, economics, criminal justice and in cultural definitions of what is normal, real, correct, beautiful and valuable.
- Socially sanctioned and maintains an imbalance of power
Cultural Competence:
A set of behaviours, attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enables that system, agency or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.
Assimilation’s Ideals:
- Elimination of group-based difference; treat everyone according to the same principles, rules and standards.
- The belief that it maximizes “choice”. People can develop themselves as “individuals”, unconstrained by group norms or expectations
- Assimilation implies coming into the game after it has already begun – Blindness to difference perpetuates cultural imperialism
- Aspirations to assimilate can produce self-loathing if unable to “fit in”
Diversity:
- May create the illusion of participation, when in fact there is no shared power.
- Presence of diversity means very little without the power of decision making, an equitable share of the resources, development of agenda/plans, policies.
A stereotype is a
widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Cognitive Dissonance:
Holding two conflicting ideas to be true, at the same time.
Unconscious bias:
is defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Unconscious bias can manifest in many ways, such as how we judge and evaluate others, or how we act toward members of different groups.
The primary literature shows people can harbour
unconscious biases against, for example, white women or people of color, even when that person consciously believes that sexism and racism are wrong.
Milgram Experiment by Stanley Milgram
- Experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority, and personal conscience. Rose after the Nazis and why they acted the way they did.
- Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being. Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up.
- People tend to obey orders from other people if they recognize their authority as morally right and/or legally based. This response to legitimate authority is learned in a variety of situations, for example in the family, school, and workplace.
Stanford Prison Experiment
To investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life. To study the roles people play in prison situations, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison.
Immediately, guards began to harass prisoners, they dehumanized them. The experiment ended in 6 days
An experiment about partcipants taking on roles either being a role with higher authority and power or lesser than that. This experiment demonstrates how power can corrupt
- investigation of how readily people will conform to roles; to understand police brutality and if it is dispositional (sadist personality) or SITUATIONAL (prison-environment)
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards.
The “prison” environment was an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior (none of the participants who acted as guards showed sadistic tendencies before the study).
We mostly behave in ways that give us an advantage, not because we are “good” or “bad” people.
Social Constructionism
Social constructionism is a theory of knowledge
The theory centers on the notion that meanings are developed in coordination with others rather than separately within each individual
That means that all knowledge that we have, wasn’t you just DISCOVERING that knowledge. It was also you putting that knowledge into its social context.
Your thoughts are entirely ‘socially constructed’ information about reality.
A social construct is a concept or category that has socially and culturally mediated meaning.
You behave in ways that people expect us to behave, based on how we think they see us. We define ourselves by how others perceive us.
Social Constructionism
Nature & Nuture
Nature - Your genetic information and how it is expressed determines who you are.
Nurture - Your society and its values, and how you are raised determine who you are.
Race is:
- Categories defined and assigned significance by the society
- an ever changing complex of meanings shaped by socio-political conflict
- not a fixed, concrete, natural attribute
- socially or culturally and historically constructed
- shaped by those in power
- social meaning which has been legally constructed
Social Meaning of Race Affects…
Life chances
Where you live
How you are treated
Access to wealth, power and prestige
Access to education, housing, and other valued resources
Life expectancy
Ethnicity
Shared cultural characteristics of a group
What is Racism?
- a doctrine or belief in racial superiority, including the idea that race determines intelligence, cultural characteristics and moral attributes
- Racism thus makes an association between physical psychological and moral attributes and these are used to justify discrimination and prejudice.
Racism Definition
- The notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a person’s genetic lineage
- One group becomes ‘normal’ - the way things are supposed to be, and every other group is judged as lesser by that group.
- Race is employed in order to classify and systematically exclude members of given groups from full participation in the social system controlled by the dominant group.
The Drop of Blood Theory
- The “drop of blood” theory = “Hypodescent”
- Southern segregation laws: 1/64 black = black
- The obsession to classify people by race in the US began as a by-product of slavery
- These are social, not biological ideas
The 13th
While the 13th Amendment abolished slavery it upheld an exception allowing slavery for prisoners. This loophole allowed Black people to continue to be imprisoned and enslaved for relatively minor offences.
This impacted the black community psychologically, economically, and politically. People of colour were negatively impacted by later policies like the War on Drugs and tough-on-crime strategies, which contributed to racial inequalities.
Slavery is still considered to be legal in the US, so long as it is used as a punishment for a crime
Rather than outwardly pushing discrimination against black people, the US government made the general population associate drugs with the race to promote discrimination
Media and pop culture has perpetrated dangerous stereotypes about black people. These stereotypes have perpetrated ideas that POC are criminals or are dangerous.
This affects POC through destabilizing communities and breaking up families, while upholding the prejudice already held by society.
Socialization of Gender
The most compelling explanations of gender inequality explain gender inequality as an outcome of how women and men are tied to the economic structure of society. This leads to social stratification.
They point out that women’s roles of mother and wife, although vital to the well-being of society, are devalued and also deny women access to highly valued public resources.
Dangerous for both genders - as women accepting abuse, and men being told that their place is to BE abusive.
She is treated more protectively and she is subjected to more restrictions and controls;
He receives greater achievement demands and higher expectations – academically, and physically.
Tough Guise
Dr. Jackson Katz is a former all-star football player who became the first man at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to earn a minor in women’s studies.
Images of masculinity became less sensitive, less understanding, more violent and more dependent on muscle power to get the job done
It is mostly learned through media – which is, in actuality, the primary educator of our time.
1) Katz says we must change the “cultural environment” – to begin, men must have the “courage” to work with women and speak out. They need to see a more honest portrayal of male vulnerability. Then, they can also join with others – such as in gay/straight alliances – but change must happen on a personal and institutional level (media are institutions, along with the typical ones like schools, etc.).
2) All of society must show they value men who reject the tough guise.
3) People must work to break the media controlled by rich, white men who control the existing stories – and include MORE STORIES about men as humans not trapped by the guise.
Masculinity is an act. It is social performance.
Miss Representation
Women are presented in the media through: stereotypes, are sexualized, and are shown as unimportant.
People say that women shouldn’t be running for leadership positions unless they look good. Even when women are shown to be empowered, they are still valued through their physical appearance and are still sexualized.
Stereotypes of women within media include: female leaders are bossy and rude, women in general are emotional and dumb, and overall women’s main goal should be getting a man.
The majority of female characters in prime-time television are between the ages of 20-35 years old
The lack of proper representation of women in powerful positions leads to difficulty for women and girls to envision themselves within these roles.
The idea that women are supposed to be dumb, useless, objects for men, and decorative pieces are repeated constantly in the media
Boys who engage with violent media can be influenced into believing that behaviour is ok, which can lead them hurting others (particularly women).
Mainstream media Hollywood films tend to underrepresent women in their own stories. Often female directors are told that a man would better direct a movie or a female director isn’t even shown on a list of potential directors.
Two stereotypes tend to be used in the representation of female leaders; either they are likeable and sexualized, or they are aggressive and viewed as disgusting for being assertive. Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton are two examples of these stereotypes.
When both young men and women see women only shown in such a narrow lens - one where it’s only “hot” for women to be powerful if they have exaggerated physical features and a lack of physical attire - we teach society that women are two-dimensional beings.
The main side effect of representations created in a patriarchal system is young girls having a lack of aspiration to become women in power.
Jennifer Pozer claims that the representation of women on reality television is dangerous as it often showcases women in conflict with one another.
LGBTIA+ Stereotypes
LGBTQ+ stereotypes are conventional, formulaic generalizations, opinions, or images based on the sexual orientations or gender identities of LGBT people.
Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers and mass media, or, more generally, through a lack of firsthand familiarity, resulting in an increased reliance on generalizations.
Many societies had no concept of sexual orientation. The concept of gay or straight didn’t exist.
Not all gay men are flamboyant, not all gay women fit the “butch” archetype. But your voice/clothing are not a singular signifier of your sexuality.
Like in all areas, rigid social constructions are restrictive for people. We classify and then immediately limit the possibilities for those that we just classified.
The self is always performing. The heterotopia often shows you HOW you are supposed to perform.
Foucault argues that prisons, mental health institutions and even schools are such types of heterotopias - prom “king” and “queen”
heterotopias are seen as natural, necessary and harmless when in fact they are a way for society to regulate our behavior.
According to Foucault, heterotopias are almost invisible and perceived as natural by members of a society, but they are nevertheless measures of disciplining, controlling and punishing of the different and deviant. In other words, heterotopias are seen as natural, necessary and harmless when in fact they are a way for society to regulate our behavior.
The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
Oppression
Authority
Privilege
Post-Colonial Theory
Opression
Theoretical system to understand the nature of gender inequality
Post-Colonial Theory
Post-Modernism
Feminist Theory
Critical Race Theory
Feminist Theory
This theory examines imperialism and its effects on other nations.
Post-Colonial Theory
Feminist Theory
Gender Fluidity
Social Contract Theory
Post-Colonial Theory
The idea that members of certain dominant groups in society have been given greater access to materials and greater ability to succeed, based on their membership within that dominant group.
Privilege
Racism
Dehumanization
Indigenous Knowledge
Privilege
This type of dehumanization emphasizes that the group being dehumanized possesses traits that lower the group’s value level down to that of an animal.
Animalistic
Psychosomatic
Mechanistic
Marxist
Animalistic
The type of dehumanization emphasizes that the group being dehumanized possesses more robotic traits and is, therefore, seen as less human.
Mechanistic
Animalistic
Fraudulent
Comprehensive
Mechanistic
These are derived from the inherent dignity of the human person and are defined internationally, nationally and locally by various law-making bodies.
Human Rights
Freedom
Legal Rights
Educational Differentiation
Human Rights
This is an identified set of specific institutionalized individual and collective behaviours which help explain how durable social structures in the social environment impact our daily lives.
Systemic Oppression
Microaggressions
Human Rights
Privilege
Systemic Oppression
This is a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favour of a new system.
Revolution
Cold War
Election
Social Activism
Revolution
This is the creation of meaning around ideas involving race, gender, class, etc…These attributes are not inherently meaningful, society gives them meaning.
Social Constructionism
Racism
Animalistic Dehumanization
Patriarchy
Social Constructionism
For each image, give at least 3 points that explain the content and relate it back to something we have discussed in class.
Image 1 - Man in pink background with housework things behind him, Girl in blue background with tools
This image is a picture that reverses the typical stereotypes we place on women and men through the socialization of gender. This correlates back to our class discussion on how we as men and women, were treated differently simply due to to gender we conform to. We discussed examples such as all girls being in hairstyling classes and all boys being in autoshop classes.
Three points to futher explain the content are:
1) As soon as children are born we automatically place them into stereotypes of “boy” and “girl.” The toys children play with showcase girls doing makeup and hair while boys are supposed to play with trucks and dinosaurs. Additonally, girls are supposed to like colours such as pink and boys are supposed to like colours such as blue. We place children into these “masculine” and “feminine” boxes.
2) This image reverses those stereotypes created by society. The image with the woman actually has a blue background while the image with the man actually has a pink background. This effect is supposed to catch your attention because it is the exact opposite of the stereotypes we see in the media. Additionally, even the drawings around the man and woman are reversed. The man is surrounded by objects that are supposed to be stereotypically “feminine” and the woman is around objects that are supposed to be “masculine.” For example, women are supposed to do laundry (ie. laundry machine), while men are supposed to build things out of wood hence, the saw drawing.
3) Not only do the visual aspects of the photo question the way society has socialized gender but the very way the man and woman look reverses the gendered stereotypes. The man is wearing an apron, he has a smile on his face (because women have to look pleasant and kind all the time), and he looks approachable and is in a relaxed pose. The woman however, is wearing a dress shirt and pants, has stern facial expression, and is in a determined hand-on-her-hip pose. Thus, very way men and women are supposed to behave is reversed through the irony of this image because the man is in a sterotypically feminine presenting appearance while the woman is in a stereotypically masculine presenting one.
For each image, give at least 3 points that explain the content and relate it back to something we have discussed in class.
Image 2 - Stanford Country Prison
This image is an photo taken of the Stanford County Prison experiment conducted by Zimbardo. This correlates back to our class discussion on how we behave in the way our social roles expect us to.
Three points to futher explain the content are:
1) Regular college students signed up for an experiment that tested the limits of how dynamics between two groups will change when one group is given authority. This specific experiment wanted to see how police brutality arises. So, students with no past criminal history, violent pasts, or mental disorders, became either a prisoner or a guard and were treated as such.
2) Almost immediately, the guards began to conform to their socially contructed role. They were given objects such as sunglasses (shown in the picture), as to not make eye contact with the prisoners and to dehumanize them. The more they felt as if they were actually in authority, the more they took advantage of that and actually began harrassing the prisoners.
3) This experiment proved that the behaviour of brutal police officers was not based on dispositonal factors such as a sadistic mindset, but was rather entirely situational. This is evident because none of the guards behaved in that violent manner or had any underlying factors (violent history, mental disorders, etc) to make them act this way. The only factor in making them violent towards the prisoners was the situation (the experiment that gave them authority), thus, Zimbardo could conclude brutuality in authority figures within society was entirely situational.
For each image, give at least 3 points that explain the content and relate it back to something we have discussed in class.
Image 3 - Prom King & Queen
This image is a photo taken of a prom “king” and “queen” during the typical highschool celebration. This correlates back to our class discussions on heterotopia and how society is regulating the way we behave even in places such as schools.
Three points to further explain the content are:
1) Foucaux was a french philosopher who examined the way we conform society into believing they should be heterosexual from a young age and from many social instutions. Although it is hidden and not something someone in the dominant group would notice, society is always leaving little hints that the two people in relationships should be a man and a woman in order to regulate our behaviour.
2) In this image, a highschool prom is being held and a “king” and “queen” were elected. This showcases heterotopia because something so small and hidden to a straight person, is actually trying to change the behaviour of students who may be LGBTQIA+. Why can’t it be a “king” and “king” or a “queen” and “queen.” This small and seemingly unimportant social norm is actually an attempt to change our behaviour.
3) When a queer student at the same school sees these two individuals being elected as “king” and “queen” it is only a reminder that they are not the dominant group and are shamed for being the subordinate one. It is a small dig in the countless societal practices that are aimed to support hetero-relationships and not people who do not fit into that group. Thus, this will create feelings of internalized oppression as queer individuals are shown time and time again that they are not the leading group in society and are shamed for it.
What is the indigenous knowledge approach when examining modern issues? Give examples.
The Indigenous Knowledge approaching when examining modern issues is the idea that the people who have lived on a land for thousands of years probably are the people who have the most local knowledge about their respective area. An example of this, is how when the Europeans invaded North America, somewhere native to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, the United States, etc, they suffered from illnessness due to being in unfamilair land. This is because they lacked the knowledge of the land that the Indigenous people had and did not know how to harvest healthy food, survive cold winters, etc, as they were not local to the area.
Explain the concept of privilege, in the simplest terms that you can as if to someone that may not “get it”. Give examples of areas of privilege.
The concept of privilege is simple, not everyone is born on an “even” level because
we live in a society of dominant and subordinate groups. Thus, when some people are naturally born into dominant groups and some are born into subordinate, some people are naturally given advantages that others lack, aka privilege. However, it is important to acknowledge that most people fit into both subordinate and dominant groups and are given privilege in some aspects but not all. For example, I am priviledged because I fit into the dominant group of heterosexual people but I am also not priviledged in the area of being a woman because it is the subordinant gender group. Almost everyone is priviledged in some area or another, it does not mean your life can’t be hard, it just means there are some disadvantages, such as not being able to be physically affectionate with your partner in public, that you will never experience as a result.
“Race is virtually meaningless from a biological perspective. But it means a great deal sociologically.” Explain.
Race is entirely socially constructed. In terms of biology, there is no skin colour, head shape, or really any aspect of physical appearance that changes someones inteligence or their morals. However, in society we have created races from aspects of physical appearance and used them to place ideas of inteligence or moral values on people of different “races.” It used to be thought that Black people were more likely to not listen or not value morals but there is nothing about the way people decended from Africa look that accurately scientifically backs up that claim. Yet, as a result of these racist ideologies prejudice was seemingly “justified” and essentially allowed Black people to experience racism. Thus, race really doesn’t mean anything biologically because racism cannot be backed up by science but because of the society we live in, sociologically race is important as it does change the way people treat you. Often POC are less likely to get job opportunites, are more likely to be arrested, etc, merely because of the sociological value we have given race.
Explain four areas in your life that work towards creating gender roles.
Four areas of my life that work towards creating gender roles:
1. I perform best in english and history based courses - STEM is dominated by men because it has been socially constructed that men are better at science and math and women are better at humanities. I work towards creating this gender role because I am a woman who happens to suceed in humanities more than I do in stem.
2. I want children - Women are typically thought to be the keepers of the household and have the role of raising the children. I work towards creating this gender role because although I am career driven, I do at some point in my life want to have and raise children, fitting the stereotype of the women presented in society.
3. I love femininity - I express myself in a very elaborate and hyperfeminine way through my clothes and makeup. I work towards creating this gender role because it is thought that women should always look put together and dress nicely which is exactly what I wake up at 7am to do.
4. In my relationship, I want to be taken care of - Although I will always support myself economically and will never rely on a man for money, I do enjoy being taken care of as a girlfriend. When my boyfriend and I go out, he always pays and he never lets me pay. I work towards creating this gender role because it is thought that women should not act “masculine” by covering the bill as it is a man’s responsibility.
What is Jackson Katz main thesis in his work Tough Guise? Explain.
Jackson Katz’s main thesis in his work Tough Guise is that:
1) Men need to be shown more honest versions of vunerability so they feel comfortable expressing themselves in a more feminine and realistic manner that does not encourage violence.
2) Society needs to value men that reject the hypermasculine, “tough guise” persona so that men can see that people actually prefer a calmer and more gentle man.
3) The results of the “tough guise” ideology is harmful for both men and women as it: tells women they should allow themselves to be abused by men, and tells men they should do the abusing. The white men who continue to show these stereotypes in media should be replaced with people who want to accurately showcase how men should actually act
Choose one social justice documentary that you viewed as a part of your project OR that we viewed in class. Explain the thesis given by the writer, and evidence that they use to prove their point.
One social justice documentary that I viewed in class was Miss Representation. The thesis the writer gave was that when we do not showcase women in positions of pwoer, we do not allow young girls to envision themselves in powerful roles. Evidence used to prove this point was how the number of boys who believed they could be president was a lot greater than the number of girls who believed they could be president. This proved their point because there has never been a female president whcih actively discourages young girls from seeing that as an option.
Explain how the construction of gender negatively affect BOTH genders.
The construction of gender negatively affects both genders as it tells women they should allow themselves to be abused by men, and tells men they should do the abusing.
*Our current dominant narrative is that
somehow people live in poverty because they did something wrong → they are to blame for their mistakes → this narrative is flawed and not helpful
BIG IDEA:
poverty cannot be blamed on the poor
Poor Us - Overview
Takeaway:
- To understand poverty, we need to understand the history of poverty - where it emerged from
People without studying history, economics and society are telling people experiencing poverty what they are doing wrong - Industrialism creates a wider gap between the rich and the poor (increase in income inequality) → this is because of the division of labour and capital
- The example of India showed us that wheat and grain were being exported to Britain when millions of people were experiencing a famine
– In order to make more money, the whole country was left to starve
Why is it important to understand where poverty came from?
Can we really understand something if we do not understand the history behind that thing?
Describe the conditions as they exist in “hunter-gatherer” societies. Was there poverty?
There was not really poverty in a “hunter-gatherer” society because money wasn’t really a thing.
You may be hungry, but not “poor”
If you survived, “hunter-gatherer” societies were actually functioning pretty well
If you had time beyond finding food, you had time to do things we considered hobbies now
What was the Ancient Greek impression of poverty and trying to alleviate it?
Poverty is the most evil thing in society and also most definitely necessary in society
We need the constant threat of poverty to scare people into getting jobs that they might not actually want
What did religions believe about poverty and the poor?
In early Christianity, you were supposed to adopt a “poverty-ish” lifestyle to prove your faith
These people (ie. Monks and Saints), would pretend to be poor and take resources from people who were actually poor
In Buddhism, people were encouraged to essentially rob the poor by taking food from them.
These people were just playing a role and putting on a show that gave actual poor people less money
How did colonialism lead to the impoverishment of the Incans and other peoples?
Colonial powers exploited indigenous resources, such as gold, silver, and land, leading to economic and environmental devastation.
In Canada, when the Indigenous peoples’ land was colonized for pelts (beavers) and then they faced genocide Canada was not really seen as valuable once all the pelts were gone
What does the example of India show us?
Their crops were given to other countries to make more money while the people of India starved
The money the other countries make doing this is seen as more valuable than the people starving in India
How did the rise of cities lead to increasing inequality?
The Enclosure Act made it so that people could purchase land and do what they wanted with it (ie. when they die they could give it to children)
The people who can’t own land (ie, poor farmers) can’t own anything can be forced off their land because it’s been sold to someone else. They then travel to cities that cannot handle the number of people there.
An influx of people from the country who can’t farm and have no real skills in the city
Society changed too fast
Nobody had anywhere to live - cities were filled with trash, no sanitation, human filth, disease, etc
What effect does industrialism have on poverty?
Poverty was made worse by it
No minimum wage, like sweatshops
How do people get out of poverty?
By finding meaningful work that they can actually do
Teach people skills, “Don’t give water, build a well”
If to actually teach people skills instead of just doing something for them or giving them money, they benefit by having a profitable skill that they can actually make money off of
What is “trickle-down” economics and has it been successful?
No not effective
When we give tax breaks to rich people
The idea is that rich people invest in the economy and rich companies can then invest in more people
“Everyone benefits because rich people do”
Does not work because wealthy people will always keep the extra money and not invest in the economy or companies which would theoretically give them money to hire new people and benefit society at large
Marxism
Founder of the ideology of communism, Karl Marx - a German philosopher
The rich people in society are always trying to milk the poor out of as much money as possible - Social Hierarchy
Rich people will do anything to help the poor except pay them fairly - poverty is necessary
Takeaway: Poverty is created from the social hierarchy and social class
Proletaire
working class people; those who sell their labour for wages
Bourgeoisie
not selling your time or labour - selling your assets for money
Why study Marxism today?
Incredibly influential work on poverty and equity
Adopted by nearly half of the world at one time
Had some good ideas and interesting perspectives
The idea is not to convert you but to help you understand and evaluate
Can illustrate the nature of relations that usually remain hidden
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Born to a wealthy Jewish family
Studied at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin
Wrote many works including: Capital, The German Ideology, The Communist Manifesto, etc.
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
Relatively Wealthy
Studied conditions of English working class
Wrote well
Combined his empirical view with Marx’s philosophical view
What do the terms Proletariat and Bourgeoisie mean?
Proletariat: workers.
Bourgeoisie: owners of means of production & most of the wealth
Define Economic Determinism.
Economics drives History
The means of production control how we for society
Those people that control the means of production, control society
SUPERSTRUCTURE - politics, religion, social customs, intellectual work - is built on the economic structure
Tribal - Feudal - Capitalism - Communism
History is one of class struggles - Bourgeoisie vs the proletariat, rich vs poor
What is the DIALECTIC?
Theory of How History Evolves
Any exploitative system creates contradictions = they will lead to inevitable change
Only a non-exploitive system can ultimately survive
Where’s the contradiction in capitalism?
How is alienation created and what are its effects?
How are workers alienated in capitalism?
Work is dehumanizing and repetitive - even work they enjoy is eventually alienating
Producing value for someone else alienates them from means of production
Religion/schooling and entertainment teach them to be obedient
Cannot develop their own humanity
Will develop Class Consciousness
What is Labour Value and Surplus Value?
Theory of Labour Value:
The concept is that value should be determined by the labour that goes into the item being produced. ie - a burger’s value should be determined by the value of the labour of the farmer that grew wheat, the farmer that raised the cows, the driver that shipped the products and the labour of those that sell it.
Surplus Value
Any money that is left at the end of the paying all the labour goes to the bourgeoisie in the form of “profit”. “Profit” is the difference between what it costs to produce, and what it sells for.
The hourly wage someone makes is LOWER than the value that person creates. They create more value than they are paid for. Therefore, “profit” is just the business term, for theft from the working class, who could have been paid more, but aren’t because the bourgeoisie takes money, without creating value.
Capital -
the money used to make more money → taking that made money to turn it into something else
Surplus value
any money that is left at the end of the paying all the labour goes to the owner
Labour value
the only value worth anything is the labour put into making something
Bourgeois nationalism
be patriotic to your country and do things that you would not normally do (ex. Propaganda posters - giving people a reason to do something)
Hegemony -
dominance by one group or country (creators of the “right” way of doing things) → the group defines how things function → we know our economy doesn’t work well but hegemony means we can’t think of other ways to do things → if you can not think of another better way to do something, you are in a hegemony (i.e. our economic system)
Ex. US has hegemony because Canada’s economic system needs to follow it
Commodity
anything that people find a worth in paying for and buying, which can be tangible or intangible (ex. Clothes, concert tickets, university, etc)
Commodity fetishism
connecting values to our commodities - ex. attaching a monetary value to a diamond ring
Purchasing something and being convinced that it will do what it is advertised to do
Historical materialism -
economics of a society comes first and then everything else is built on top of that (ex. Elections can not function without capitalism, religious can not function without money coming in)
The economy determines what is built and made in society
Ex. people marry for money instead of love in countries
Modes of production
the five modes of production refers to the theory in which human history is divided into the five progressive stages of primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, and socialist society.
Division of labour
dividing up labour amongst workers to make tasks more efficient
Alienation -
seeing people as an economic relationship, not a person → isolated individuals from the society as a whole
Proletariat -
workers of a company → people who need to sell their stuff (time) to earn money for a living
Bourgeiosie -
rich people that own the means of production (owner of Amazon)
Dictatorship of the proletariat -
forming a dictatorship over rich people → people do not want to spend their lives doing something just to have it taken away from them
Marxian Key takeaways
- Our economic system is built on exploitation. It isn’t the only system
- “Profit”= underpaying workers for what they do and taking the rest
a. $15= your pay | $100 what we sell it for = if workers were paid fully “profit” wouldn’t exist - Divide and conquer = racism, sexism, homophobia, etc… are used to divide working people and have them hating each other, but not hating the group, that’s manipulating and hurting them (the wealthy)
- Commodity fetishism keeps us buying things
- We are alienated from each other and the value of our labour
a. We like to rank (ranking people at school based on marks)
b. Because people who are ranked are in competition with each other and work harder
Guns, Germs and Steel
Takeaway: Poverty is not explained by race, culture or ethnicity
Close connecting continents Europe, Asia and Africa caused the Middle East to have so much conflict tons of people intersecting and sharing technology
Isolated continents like North and South America are isolated and lack in technological advancement they are behind geographically
An abundance of livestock (horses, ox, pigs, etc) provides a source of protein and is a source of labour
Diamond’s theory, if true, would thoroughly decimate any idea of cultural superiority based on race. Society does have dominant groups and marginalized groups, however. What would explain that dominance, in Diamond’s theory?
Diamond’s theory attributes societal dominance to environmental factors, geography, and access to resources rather than inherent racial superiority, challenging notions of cultural superiority based on race. The dominance is explained through environmental advantages rather than intrinsic qualities.
“Late Stage” Capitalism
Term used to describe the absurdities and injustices that surround our current capitalist system - and try to show that they cannot continue forever.
The 2008 Crisis
The term has seen a HUGE increase since the 2008 Financial Crisis in the USA.
In the simplest terms, the financial crisis was caused by wealthy banks and corporations lobbying the government to remove rules and regulations. Then the banks gave away mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, charging very low interest rates. Many banks then SOLD the debt to other banks, who didn’t know how bad the mortgages were.
When people couldn’t pay their mortgages (because they never should have been approved in the first place), they started defaulting on their loans, causing panic in the stock market. Panic = mass selling of stocks.
The Bailout
When the banks complained that they were at risk of going bankrupt and destroying the whole economy, the US government decided the banks were “too big to fail” and gave them bailout money, totalling around $500,000,000,000. (500 BILLION).
Most of the bailout money was unsecured and not tied to any larger goals = it was free money - and many companies did nothing productive with it.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Economic activity (the stock market, the GDP) has less and less relevance to the regular person’s life. GDP measures the value that a country produces, but not how wealth is distributed.
The stock market can be doing great, but more and more people can be living in poverty. The GDP measurements do not tell you anything about equity or the state of the environment.
In fact, GDP’s have been increasing around the world. We are more productive today, then at any other point in history.
The Gini Coefficient
This is complicated…but the Gini Coefficient IS an index that measures the distribution of wealth within a society. It doesn’t measure what is produced, like a GDP, it measures how well distributed that wealth is. It is almost never discussed in politics, or on the news.
The lower the number, the more equal the income distribution. 0 is perfect equality. 100 is perfect inequality - (one person owns everything)
Canada is at 33, which is roughly the same as the UK, Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal.
The US is at 41 - about the same as Haiti, Turkey and the Congo. Russia is at 37.
Scandinavian countries are all below 30.
What does this all mean? - Late Stage Capitalism
Human beings have been producing more value every year. But how that value is given out in a society, isn’t even close to being equitable in most countries.
As we are producing more and more, the Gini Coefficient in the US is at its highest point EVER. So we are creating more value, and more and more is going to the wealthiest members of society.
The spending power of wages, compared to inflation, has also BARELY grown since the 1970s.
This isn’t the “rich get rich” cliche. It’s measurable data. It’s real. Not just a feeling.
Karl Marx and the Contradictions in Capitalism
Marx initially predicted that Capitalism would destroy itself due to its internal contradictions. By that he means that capitalism is a logically flawed system.
THE FLAW: As capitalism gets more efficient at making things, it’s profits will fall (too much stuff on the market decreases the value). So factories will have to pay workers less, or take more and more from the environment in order to make money. We saw this happen in the 1990s, as North American factories moved overseas - to a cheaper labour market, in places with no environmental laws.
But this will hurt the finances of the workers (fewer jobs), and further reduce the market for the products = lowering the profits even more.
Capitalism Overproduces - then underpays
Capitalism’s strength is that is can produce goods efficiently and quickly. But that causes OVERPRODUCTION. Goods sit in warehouses, NOT being sold, but lowering the prices. Lower prices are good, right? Not if all the jobs exist elsewhere, and people here are buying on credit.
The Way People Keep Buying is to go more into Debt
But literally EVERYONE knows that this isn’t a sustainable economic model. So news agencies and public officials tend to blame the public for going into debt, to buy things that were much easier to buy decades ago.
Owners produce their enemies
Marx also discusses how the Bourgeoisie will create the working Proletariat, the class of people taken advantage of, that will be determined to destroy the Bourgeoisie when they realize that they are being oppressed.
“Well, people should just get a better job if they want more $!”
This is a profoundly illogical and immoral response to the problem.
1. To get a better job usually requires more education. More education costs time and money. To get more money, you require free time without work and more money to get an education that will get you more money. How do the working poor have the time and money, to get the job that gives them more money?
2. It’s like saying “I know your job is relevant and necessary to our economy because literally every job is, but even though it’s necessary, we’re going to pay you poverty wages, and shame you for doing something that we need done.”
3. This isn’t an individual problem. It is systemic (a problem within the system itself).
Back to the contradictions - Without restraints, capitalism destroys capitalism:
Capitalism requires a free market, with competition. A monopoly is when ONE business interest controls a sector of the economy, or the entire production/sale of an item.
Use shoes as an example. Let’s say we have a company that makes shoes. If people like them more than others, they will buy them. It is a direct competition, that in theory, brings out the best products and most efficient manufacturing.
Monopolies destroy the market, because they work to set prices and take over the entire industry, which makes fair competition impossible. If only one company controls the shoe market, competition doesn’t exist, and capitalism reason for existing doesn’t exist either.
Externalities
An ‘externality’ is something that a business/corporation can make someone else pay for.
Example - the roads to and from a factory are necessary to the factory, but aren’t paid for by the business.
Example - a factory causes pollution, but the larger society must pay for the costs
Businesses and politicians no longer feel that problems are real, or that they are their responsibility. Their job is to make money or get re-elected.
The Contradictions Destroy the System
The more efficient we get, the less the system can provide $ for workers.
The more that is produced, the more the environment is destroyed.
The more capitalism creates, the more it destroys.
We can have more stuff and look wealthy, but we go into debt to do it.
The more vapid and vacuous ‘entertainment’ exists, the more likely it is that we will not be intelligent enough to discern fact from fiction - leading to political leaders that appeal to our emotions (not to facts) leading to some sort of destruction.
The more absurd it all gets, the ‘leadership’ has to become more strict - and the more people push back against it = and the system falls apart.
Sweatshops
Sweatshops are cheap ways to make money and therefore pay people unfairly
Deliberately not treating workers fairly
No minimum wage laws, or health and safety laws in some countries
Takeaway: only exist because the rich are exploiting the working class
What conditions typically exist in sweatshops?
a factory that violates 2 or more labour laws.
Sweatshops often have poor working conditions, unfair wages, unreasonable hours, child labour, and a lack of benefits for workers.
children ages 5 to 14 are forced to work
Workers are subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse in factories by their managers and supervisors.
They are sometimes trapped in the factory and forced to work overnight or across multiple shifts.
violate the minimum wage and overtime laws,
and have broken health and safety laws.
people who are forced to work must spend the majority of their paycheck on food for their families to survive
Women sewing NBA jerseys make 24 cents per garment that will eventually sell for $140
Workers are paid wages insufficient to meet their basic needs, are not allowed to organize independent unions, and often face health and safety hazards.
Workplace injuries and exposure to toxic chemicals also pose a daily risk to clothing workers.
To prevent workers from stealing the items they are producing, factories sometimes lock the plant’s doors and windows, creating a fire hazard.
What products are most commonly manufactured in sweatshops?
Products that commonly come from sweatshops are shoes, clothing, rugs, toys, electronics, and household textiles.
It is virtually impossible to NOT purchase items made in sweatshops.
If companies doubled the salary of workers, what would be the cost increase to the consumer?
One study showed that doubling the salary of sweatshop workers would only increase the consumer cost of an item by 1.8%, while consumers would be willing to pay 15% more to know a product did not come from a sweatshop.
Why do you think women would make up the majority of sweatshop workers?
Traditional Gender Roles: Women are assigned certain types of work.
Limited Education Access: Women with fewer opportunities for formal education.
Global Supply Chains: Industries prioritize cost-effective female labour.
Weak Labor Rights: Limited enforcement contributes to gender inequality.
women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers, employers force them to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing appropriate health benefits.
In the maquiladoras along the US-Mexico border, factory managers have in the past forced women workers to prove they are menstruating.
What happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory?
One of the deadliest factory fires in US history.
Just under 150 workers, mostly young women, died as a result of the exits being locked to prevent unauthorized breaks by employees.
Some sources have stated that fire exits were actually fake - some were fake doors, and others were painted on.
Many died of asphyxiation or of burn wounds. However some died by jumping from the 10th floor factory windows because of the locked exit doors.
What happened at the Rana Building in Bangladesh?
Considered the dangerous garment factory accident in history.
The building contained numerous workhouses, and a few banks and offices.
Cracks were discovered in the upper floors, and everyone was sent home – except for all the factory workers.
The factories were warned about thee condition, and refused to close.
The building collapsed during rush hour – killing 1,100, and injuring 2,500.
Manufacturers included Benetton, Walmart, Joe Fresh, The Children’s Place and many others.
Give 5 reasons things don’t change (I gave it to you as a list)
1) Laws are much more difficult to pass in many of these countries
2) Private security firms do much of the policing & legal police forces are much corrupt and/or violent
3) The offending corporations will simply leave if the laws are changed.
4) Many international trade agreements will not permit unionizing or environmental laws.
5) The consumers of most of these goods, simply don’t care enough, or don’t want to know about.
Why does the pro-sweatshop argument not work?
Some will argue that sweatshops are a stepping stone in development, and many of these countries will be better off in the future.
This has worked in a few locations, but not often.
It ignores the dignity of human life and human labour.
It ignores that the workers have little legal ability to change their circumstances.
It ignores that the companies using sweatshops can benefit hundreds of thousands of people by raising wages slightly, while not affecting the bottom line - and they don’t.
Land Grabbing
People on the land are pushed off and not allowed to live on it - lives are disrupted
The wealthy people land grab to extract resources and then leave
The rich trying to get richer
Negatively affects developing countries
Does not have access to resources - do not have land to grow crops
The term ‘land grabbing’ is used to describe
the purchase or lease of large tracts of fertile land by public or private entities.
Transferring large parcels of agricultural land away from local communities threatens
food sovereignty and their very existence
It also jeopardizes the environment and biodiversity by
favouring intensive monoculture farming reliant on fertilizers and pesticides.
The rapid spread of land grabbing has been assisted by the ambiguous role of the
World Bank
Hedge Funds:
A hedge fund is an investment fund aimed at generating very high returns through aggressive management and high-risk investments
Pension Funds:
Generally, a pension fund is an asset pool run by an employer or a government to provide retirement income for employees.
Sovereign Wealth Funds:
This is a “state-owned investment fund(s) composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or other financial instruments”.
People may be invested in companies that regularly ‘land-grab’ - but
they have no idea.
Social/Economic Consequences of Land Grabbing
- Foreign investors will often promise development, but leave before it happens, with no penalty.
- Deals are sometimes negotiated with individuals, not groups. This leads to corruption, and displacement of people.
- Farmers will be removed from the area, often violently – without compensation.
- Some of these lands were pristine environment areas.
- The resources are no longer the property of the country – they are owned by the investing agency.
- Large-scale industrial farms often move in, and use large amounts of fertilizers, and machinery – with the resulting pollution.
- Governments lose potential money from their natural resources, and lose the ability to better the lives of their citizens.
- Foreign-owned real estate can be purchased by the rich from ANYWHERE, and made off-limits to the local real estate market.
Diseases of Poverty
Hurts the economy and loss of money
Developed countries do not have to worry about these diseases, but developing countries do
Devastating adults in developing countries and their children need to live alone
No education, no access to nutrients/healthy food, lack of water
diseases
Diseases of Poverty
Listed
HIV/AIDS, MALARIA, TUBERCULOSIS, SCHISTOSOMIASIS, CHAGAS
HIV/AIDS
is most commonly spread through sexual contact with an infected partner and infected blood contamination
HIV impacts the patient’s mental health and increases the risk of developing mood, cognitive and anxiety disorders (ex. depression) (“NIMH » HIV and AIDS and Mental Health”).
Untreated HIV leads to job loss, decreased family income due to medical treatment, strained relationships, and increased spending for care (“Socioeconomic consequences of HIV/AIDS in the family system”).
Malaria
Malaria is spread when one gets bitten by an infected Anopheles mosquito.
It may also be spread through contamination of blood from a person who has been infected, or through contaminated needles or syringes.
Getting infected by malaria reduces school attendance for children and adults’ productivity at work (“Malaria | WHO | Regional Office for Africa”).
The impacts of Malaria on a country’s economy reaches around 1.1% of their GDP, which makes the country increase their public health spending by 39% (Andrade et al.).
Tuberculosis
This disease is spread through close contact with someone who has untreated tuberculosis through coughing, sneezing and laughing.
Tuberculosis often affects the poor, who live in poverty and unequal societies, those who are homeless, people who were imprisoned and people with weakened bodies due to prior illnesses (“TB and poverty”).
People lose their productivity as they are not able to attend work or school for months, have piling costs when seeking treatment for their disease, and the stigma associated with the fears of tuberculosis (“TB and poverty”).
Schistosomiasis
Transmission of schistosomiasis occurs when those who are infected contaminate freshwater with their feces or urine. The parasite eggs that are contained in the excretion results in the eggs hatching into the water
This disease affects people’s ability to work, as those who are infected become disabled and in some cases can lead to death (“Schistosomiasis”).
Schistosomiasis also leads to loss of agricultural production, which averages 6.6% for most countries with infected citizens (“The economic impact of schistosomiasis…”).
Chagas
Chagas is transmitted through the triatomine bug either orally, food-borne, through blood/blood products, congenital transmission, organ transplantation or laboratory mishaps
This disease affects the cycle of poverty as it reduces people’s learning ability, productivity rate, and earning capacity (“PAHO/WHO…”).
If the disease is untreated, 30% of those who are infected can have chronic and irreversible effects on the inner body systems (“PAHO/WHO…”).
Diseases of poverty hurt
Hurts the economy and loss of money
Developed countries do not have to worry about these diseases, but developing countries do
Devastating adults in developing countries and their children need to live alone
No education, no access to nutrients/healthy food, lack of water
Odious Debt
Banks, other countries and governments give dictators money, which is spent with corruption
Incurs debt and the country has to repay that debt back
Dictators flee or die
