A Necessary Reconditioning of Societal Views

An analysis of the following quotes referenced in the following three articles:

"Can You See the Rainbow?" The Roots of Denial by Sally French

"By denying the reality of my disability I protected myself from the anxiety, disapproval, frustration and disappointment of the adults in my life" (French, 318)

The Other Movement That Rosa Parks Inspired: By Sitting Down, She Made Room for the Disabled by Charles Wilson

[Referring to the mistreatment of disabled people in regards to available methods of transportation]

"None of this should be happening in America. 'Rosa Parks could get on the bus to protest', says Roger McCarville, a veteran in Detroit who once chained himself to a bus. 'We still can't get on the bus'. A true tribute to Parks would be to ensure that every American can" (Wilson, 492)

Disability and Representation by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

"Disability studies challenges our collective representation of disability, exposing it as an exclusionary and oppressive system rather than the natural and appropriate order of things...it recognizes the contributions of a group of people who have historically been dismissed because of deeply rooted cultural bias" (Garland-Thomson, 475, 476)

      Disability is a topic that is seldom explored when speaking about issues of Diversity. The colloquial understanding that disabilities are medical issues, not oppressive and stigmatizing concepts has become the societal norm. This naive conjecture couldn't be further from the truth. The three articles mentioned above delve into various topics within the paradigm of disability and display how important it is to alter this conditioned societal norm.

      The first article, written by a woman who is nearly-blind, offers an empathetic retelling of a life lived with a minor disability. The most salient point made in the article, (and seen in the quote above), is that as a person who didn't fit into the category of "normal", the author learned to deny the fact that she had a disability entirely, ultimately attempting to evade any admonishments from the external world. Throughout the article, the author describes a myriad of situations in which she felt that her best option was to deny that she had any problem in the first place. Whether she was at home with family, in school with "abled"children, or in a special school for the blind, there was never any accommodation given from the outside world. Instead, children were taught to alter their internal thought process from seeking external help to bolstering internal motivation to become "normal". In one instance, a headmaster at one of her schools insisted that these blind children not acknowledge that they are blind in any manner, but instead strive to achieve successes that seem impossible for those without sight. As she repeatedly exclaims in the reading, it was important to become superhuman and deny one's disability entirely, for that would be the only way to truly assimilate into society and achieve success.

      The second article draws a connection between Rosa Parks and those within the disabled population. The brief article quickly retells various stories of individuals who have struggled to find adequate public transportation, further justifying the need to offer more accommodations to those who are disabled. As seen in the quote above, and expressed at the end of the article, one of the author's main points is that everyone should be able to receive the accommodation that they need. The author describes how our inadequate transportation systems have hindered the lives of those with disabilities, thus disallowing them to live a life of normalcy. By not having sufficient transportation methods, we are eliminating their chance to succeed in both their professional and personal life. In addition, these inadequacies lead to embarrassment, anger, and isolation as we are truly singling-out those who are different from the rest. Just as Rosa Parks influenced change by refusing to give up her seat, disabled individuals are trying to increase the chance of simply having a seat to sit in. A request as simple as this should be easily resolved in today's adapting society, yet we are still struggling to provide efficient accommodations for everyone.

      The third article touches upon the evolution of societal views, describing how we have begun to embrace differences and disabilities rather than creating social stigmas. It is important to note that the article also discusses the pragmatic truth that we have not yet counter-conditioned oppressive beliefs entirely. As seen in the quote above, one of the author's main intentions is to display the impactful and salient nature of disability studies. The author describes the many ways in which we have redirected society's perspectives toward acceptance and even reverence of those who are different, further justifying the importance of empathy, awareness and understanding. Another important fact listed in the article is that those who are disabled are part of the largest minority in the country, further displaying the necessity and importance of assuaging this turmoil. The article gives many examples, from movies and magazine cover pages to artists and composers that represent the importance of understanding that these individuals were successful because of their disability, not in spite of it. It is this level of understanding that needs to be achieved in order to truly combat the conditioned biases of the general population. 

      I enjoyed delving deeper into the oppressive issue of disability through these three articles. Each provided important information and necessary experiences that truly opened my eyes. When reading the first two articles, I couldn't help but find myself disgusted with the way society was treating these disabled individuals. Simply explaining that "they'll figure it out", or that they should adapt and change in order to fit within the realm of normal is immensely naive and extremely indolent. Rather than adjusting society and its views, (concepts that are surely malleable), we are sitting back and expecting these people to do the impossible, and alter their inexorable difference. This is surely not the way to overcome the exclusionary system that we have created over the years. The third article revitalized my hopes through its wonderful success stories and revolutionary methods of thinking. If we cannot alter the inevitable fact that someone is disabled, the only way to assuage this stigma is to eliminate the negative associations revolving around disabilities. If we can change our own perspective on what is acceptable, we can wash away the stark boundaries of "normalcy", and instead value everyone as individual and unique. 

      When developing this analysis, I thought about two videos that can relate to the concepts discussed in these articles. Although they aren't about disabilities per se, they dovetail quite nicely with the idea of restructuring societal norms. The following two videos truly challenge society's view of beauty, and show how simple it can be to accept differences or imperfections as ideal and desirable.

"Flawz" by Caitlin Crosby & "Try" by Colbie Caillat

Nature vs. Nurture
(or rather)
 Nature via Nurture in regards to Preconceived Notions and Racial Stereotypes

An analysis of the quotes referenced in the following articles:

Blink in Black and White by Malcolm Gladwell

"The giant computer that is our unconscious silently crunches all the data it can from the experiences we've had, the people we've met, the lessons we've learned, the books we've read, the movies we've seen, and so on, and it forms an opinion. That's what is coming out in the IAT. The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows that our unconscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values" (Gladwell, 354)

and

See Baby Discriminate by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

"Children naturally try to categorize everything, and the attribute they rely on is that which is the most clearly visible. We might imagine that we're creating color-blind environments for children, but differences in skin color or hair or weight are like differences in gender - they're plainly visible (Bronson & Merryman, 358)

     One of the most obvious and deleterious behaviors that every human being takes part in is racial stereotyping. Whether they believe it or not, there are different aspects in one's life where categories play a major part, and these two articles accurately address and bolster this argument. The perpetual debate regarding Nature vs. Nurture with regards to this topic is also a heavily studied concept, as it attempts to bolster the contention that humans aren't inherent bigots...

      

      With regards to the "Nurture" side of the debate, the first article looks at this topic from an interesting psychological standpoint, addressing the influence of the unconscious on one's conscious choices. The article delves into the details of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the fascinating results that it yields. One of Gladwell's main points, as seen in the quote above, is that our biases are largely based on the associations that we make in our lives based on our various life experiences, and whether we claim to be unbiased, our unconscious conditioned responses will show our true colors. The second article takes a look at both sides of the Nature and Nurture debate. This article describes many different observations and studies that have been conducted in an attempt to understand the point at which children develop their racial stereotypes. The article discusses the fact that even from a young age, (6 months old), children are more likely to react differently to things that seem unfamiliar to them, (i.e. a baby is more likely to be caught staring intently and curiously at another baby of a different racial background). One of the most salient points made, as shown in the quote above, that certainly relates to children's future stereotypes, is that children inherently categorize things that are noticeably different. They often do this as a learning process for themselves, being that it allows them to identify and group things together. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because there are no negative connotations or associations that are made with any of these categorizations, but it is in the nurture side of the debate, where we find the true birthing of one's stereotypes. There are studies described in the article that touch upon the fact that parental involvement regarding conversations about race have a strong influence on the child's upbringing. In one experiment, parents who actively conversed about race, and how there shouldn't be any negative associations made with it, had major impacts on their children's racial beliefs in the future. On the other hand, other parents who felt uncomfortable speaking with their children about issues of race, and felt that ambiguous comments such as "Everybody is equal" should suffice, had children that had more negative associations regarding race. Even though humans have a natural tendency to categorize, it is our environment that has a major influence on how we think of those categories...

     Both of these articles were really eye-opening for me, due to the fact that I had never heard of the IAT before, and I truly never thought about racial stereotyping occurring at a young age, until now. While reading the first article, I thoroughly enjoyed taking the sample tests, as I found it immensely intriguing to see the difficulty level keep increasing with each test. Due to the preconceived notions that I have that were conditioned from societal beliefs, it was in fact interesting to see how I would answer the associations on the test slower when trying to combat my unconscious impulse with moral reasoning. I am a person that remembers many things in my life with the help of associations, and I've always thought of it as a talent and a good thing. It certainly can be at times, but when it comes to associations involving race - based on the movies, shows, and advertisements I've seen, and the conversations I've overheard - it is truly difficult to differentiate between that almost seemingly inherent impulse and how I really (morally) feel about someone or something. The second article was very interesting to me as well, for many reasons. Firstly, I was astounded with the fact that many parents refused to take the time to speak to their children about something as important as race - because they were uncomfortable - that's utterly ridiculous! As the article shows, parents have a major influence on their child's behavior and beliefs, and not taking the time to ensure that their child is aware of racial differences and the moral obligation they have as a human to ensure that all people are treated equally is a major injustice to their child and society as a whole...Secondly, due to the fact that as a child, I never saw anyone as less than me due to their skin color, (I was the "rare" caucasian child that had friends that were Indian and "Black"), I guess I didn't have biases at the time. Growing up in a rather diverse area of the country, I had the privilege of being part of the cliche "melting pot" - or rather "salad bowl", as they like to call it now (more of an amalgamation of different people with different aspects rather than a coalescence of all people into one kind of being). Looking back in retrospect now, I do believe that I was in fact part of the culture of students that (due to the increased diversity, observed more division among my friends), as the article discussed. There were many different ethnicities in my high school, but there was one instance that I recall that really blows my mind now thinking about it...

      My friends and I were walking into the cafeteria for lunch one day, and it dawned on me, every table in the entire room was categorized in some way, not by routine, but by association and familiarity. There were of course, class divisions that took place - some freshman sitting in the corner trying to "find their place", and some seniors by the door eager to get to their cars and escape, but there were often further subcategories as well. The only time that class would be irrelevant was when the students found others of similar racial categories. But I digress...as my friends and I walked in (all being caucasian), we went to sit at the table near the food line, that (unbeknownst to us freshman at the time) was typically occupied by the "Black" students that would cut class and sit there most of the day. When we went to sit at the empty table, one of the caucasian lunch monitors mentioned something to us discreetly as she walked by..."I would get up and move if I were you" - We all replied with a quick "Why?" And her response was simple - "Firstly, that group of kids doesn't let anybody sit here, especially white freshman, and second, if you sit here, and the administrators come through, they may think you're part of their group, and you'll get on the administrations' bad side"... At the time we simply thought, no problem, and got up. When doing so however, we never thought "oh, we definitely don't want to be associated with "them"". But at the same time, we did move because we didn't want to be associated with them - we had impulsively responded to the understanding that "black" delinquent students could spell trouble for us...We never even realized all of the associations that took place during that quick encounter, most of which did nothing but place a specific minority group in a place lower than ourselves, and we were only freshman...

      As I said before, these articles show the important role that our environment plays in our societal views of race. With regards to the Nature vs. Nurture debate, there is one aspect that we do have some control over...our environment. In my opinion, we definitely need to alter the way we think as a society and be more comfortable to have conversations revolving around issues of race, otherwise we are going to be living in a world that is filled with bigots holding many negative preconceived notions, not because humans are inherently bad, but because they've been conditioned based on our negative views within society.