Blog Post #2

This past Monday in class we did two exercises. The first was an exercise where the class had to stand in the middle of the room. Our teacher would then read out instructions for us such as: “place your hand on someone you are close to” or “place your hand on someone who has more power than you” or even “place your hand on someone you feel shy around”. This exercise was really interesting because it required you to tear down any barriers you had about power or class or race or your emotions down. Sometimes the game made you feel uncomfortable. It was hard to admit that you felt someone near you held more power than you not only because of your own vulnerability but because in the real world we are taught not to admit these things. The next exercise was a play on power. Our teacher pulled 5 identical chairs into the middle of the room and we were to construct the chairs in such a way that one chair appeared to have “more power” than the other 4 chairs. The game had an ominous feel to it. The sound of the chairs dragging on the floor was loud and dramatic. Then one of the chairs would really appear to “be in charge” of the other chairs. More than anything it was interesting to see people come up with arrangements I had not thought of myself. The most memorable to me was one of the first arrangements. Our teacher had placed four chairs in a row and one chair “sitting” in front of them facing them. I had thought of turning the “power chair” around to face away from them so it appeared as if that chair was leading the others. Next, another boy in my class took the “power chair” and placed it behind the row so that it appeared that it was watching the other four chairs. It was something that I hadn’t thought of at all and seemed even more powerful. After the class I was talking to one of my classmates, Kaleigh, about the exercises. Both Kaleigh and I live in cooperative housing. We began talking about the way that power is divided in our own homes, whether it is through proper election, or in some cases through the overpowering of someone’s personality. It really made me think about how there is this notion of cooperation and equality in our houses, we all pay rent, we all make decisions, but there is a power dynamic. The person in charge of the kitchen and the meals that we eat has a lot of power that I’d never considered before. It’s interesting to see how I could overlook power dynamics in my own home so easily. It almost frightens me to think about what power dynamics I am overlooking in "real" life.

Observation: When you shop at buffalo exchange you can either take a bag for your purchased clothes or choose to donate the cost of the bag to a charity.

Blog Post #1

This week we watched Dan Pallotta's Ted Talk on non-profits titled "The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong". I found the talk to be very powerful and enlightening. As someone who is very passionate and supportive of the non-profit sector, I was almost ashamed that I'd never thought of some of his main points of view. The premise of his argument is that society’s view on the world of charity and non-profits is so warped that it is almost impossible for any non-profit to grow, profit, and ultimately succeed at a global or even national scale.  There were five main points in his discussion and as he would review them I would think to myself, "Wow, how obvious, why have I never come to that conclusion myself". I found especially interesting his point about salary. In a nutshell, he is talking about the way society views non-profits. His belief is that people are confusing immorality with making money. He goes onto say that society is more than happy to put a man on the cover of a magazine for selling violent video games to children, but God forbid we congratulate someone with a decent salary for raising a lot of money for cancer research. “We have a visceral reaction to the idea that anyone would make very much money helping other people. Interesting that we don't have a visceral reaction to the notion that people would make a lot of money NOT helping other people.” When it comes down to it, the fact of the matter is that no one with the talent or drive to help a non-profit succeed is going to want to work for a non-profit because their salary will not match the work that they put into the company. Thus, people with talent and drive will end up working for “for-prof” companies that will pay them what they deserve. Then, at the end of the day they can just donate money to the non-profs, if they feel compelled to do so. The reason this is important can be summed up in one of my favorite quotes from the talk. Pallotta says, “Philanthropy is the market for love. It is the market for all those people for whom there is no other market coming.” This really helped shed some more light on my place in social work. The field is so important to so many people. Not to sound cliché, even on a really small scale you are making a difference. And it seems so obvious to me that punishing non-profit organizations for paying their employees a reasonable amount is counterproductive. Yet, here we are having a discussion on the subject. When it’s all said and done the road is long and arduous but it is a fight that must be fought. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html?quote=2084

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Observation: I saw a homeless man sitting outside of Plucker's watching the football games on the flat screen TV's inside. No one inside payed attention to the man.