In reading Gaventa’s work on how power works, what other groups can you think of in the United States that do not challenge obvious and egregious inequalities?
In reading Gaventa’s work on how power works, what other groups can you think of in the United States that do not challenge obvious and egregious inequalities?
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Kelly Quinn
Across the United States, low income families and students are isolated in severely underperforming school districts. These children are unable to benefit from many of the opportunities that more affluent students are privileged to, such as experienced teachers, decent facilities, adequate material resources, a variety of after school activities, and access to high achieving, highly resourced peer groups and social networks. As a result, students face tremendous inequalities in both educational and life outcomes. Despite these obvious and egregious inequalities, I am not aware of any large scale grassroots social movement from these affected people. Although educational reform has not been completely ignored in politics, very little has been accomplished. Especially with the new administration taking office, advocacy from this underprivileged group will be crucial for social change.
Harry Hoke
One group that seems to remain quiescent despite obvious inequalities is the prison population in the United States. The rise of private prisons and the use of prison labor create a need for populations to fill prisons in order to produce goods. Furthermore, the Prison Industrial Complex requires an array of prisoners in order to profit off of their care, transport, and exploitation. Prison populations can be forced into labor under a mythology of “punishment,” which may draw a parallel to Gaventa’s third dimension of power, and are unable to stand up for their rights because at some point they may have committed a crime of any range of severity. Despite the inequality and exploitative nature of the prison system, it remains relatively unknown and the population quiescent, due to the power exercised by the non-prison population in keeping the system working for their interests. The prison population may not organize due to many of Gaventa’s power dimensions. The legal system is biased against former criminals both directly and through the perpetuation of ideology that lawbreakers will remain criminals forever, making appeals to the system seem fruitless.
ProfSi
If they organized, what strategies might they use to effect change?
Robert Morelli
While reading Gaventa’s work on how power works, the obvious and egregious inequalities that are examined in central Appalachia parallel the persistent inequalities seen in American Indigenous groups. The ancestors of those members still a part of these community today were forcibly moved from their lands after the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by a government and voting process that they did not understand or were even allowed to take part in. Not only were these people’s unjustly relocated, but they were placed on lands that were deemed undesirable by “Americans”, with uncultivable soil, little resources and therefor, little chance of becoming financially wealthy. Although financial wealth may not have been the “end all be all” for Native Americans, they were now a part of the capitalist U.S. power structure where money is closely intertwined with power. The destruction of the Native American culture as it once was, was gone and the need for jobs and income by Native People’s prompted many whites to take advantage of the inequality. The loss of culture due to relocation, the loss of capital due to lack of resources, and the general apathy of whites has led to the large disparagement between the quality of education, healthcare, and violence, among others, between reservations and the rest of the nation has allowed for yet another group to remain quiescent.
ProfSi
What about casinos and the furniture manufacturing businesses run by some First Nations people? Are they benefitting from these endeavors? Why or why not?
Samuel Blakley
One group that comes to mind when reading about Appalachian people in Gaventa’s book is the Muslim population in the United States. In the years since the nine-eleven attacks, Islamophobia has been on the rise in the United States. Many Americans have stereotyped Muslims as terrorists and a danger to society. Every so often we will here individual members of the community speak out, yet it is often to little avail. Although racism against Muslims has been addressed recently during the presidential election, it was lumped into a larger movement against white nationalism and may be overlooked. Popular media is partially to blame for the ongoing racism against Muslims. The third dimension of power refers to shaping of understandings about inequalities based through tools such as myths and information control. Although there are attacks by Muslim extremists made against civilians, often times it is assumed that a Muslim’s religion is the reason he commits a crime. It is this religious based motive that is often reported, even if there may be other circumstances surrounding the incident. In this way the news primes society to believe Islamic violence is more prevalent than it may be. Furthermore it fuels a fear and hatred of Muslims by non-Muslims.
Connor Warren
While the United States has made significant changes to past social policies within the last 60 years, in certain cases an inequitable system still marginalizes a variety of sectors of our nation’s population. One group that comes to mind is the United State’s illegal immigrant population, an essentially powerless group that is completely subjected to the wills of a political and social system with which they have no control over. The common misconception is that these illegal immigrants are draining the nation’s welfare programs, receiving these benefits without their just payments. However, in all reality this illegal population helps to maintain the liquidity of programs such as social security. Stephen Goss, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, estimates that in 2010 alone illegal immigrants payed upwards of 13 billion dollars into this program (1). On top of this, it is estimated that an additional 10 billion dollars is payed to various states by way of income and payroll taxes (2). However, regardless of these illegal immigrant’s contributions to the United State’s entitlement programs, they are still subjected to the stigma of only draining the system. This has resulted in an unprecedented lack of support for their group nationally, and has further marginalized them. Without public support for positive immigration reform, it is almost impossible for legislation to be pushed through congress. The end result, unfortunately, leaves many of these men and women feeling powerless and unable to change their situation.
1) http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/09/undocumented-immigrants-and-taxes/499604/
2) https://news.vice.com/article/undocumented-immigrants-pay-billions-in-taxes-to-fund-programs-theyre-banned-from-using