Section A01
Week 1
Professor Valverde's "Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia" discusses interesting topics about the treatment of women in Academia that I never really thought about. Within my life, I have never experienced discrimination due to my gender or race so reading about Professor Valverde's experience was very enlightening. Her near death experience really hit close to home as someone who has also been through an extended hospital stay. It is absolutely deplorable that the culture of academia can lead to such personal suffering and the suffering of those around them. Especially to university faculty, who stated in the article that many have travel to many different universities to "eke out a living"(Valverde, 375) due to the corporatization of universities. The fact that someone can be so punished for trying to obtain a higher standing at life is saddening. Whether the discrimination is rooted through personal feelings, or that of a larger influence from the political culture of academia, these kinds of actions should not be condoned. The fact though that this discrimination is deeply rooted in society means that many people may not see the danger in it or the harm they are causing to others as it seems normal to them. It can be seen as just normal competitive drive in office politics, or as a normal corporate decision from higher administration. A big step in improving this situation is for people to be more empathetic to others in general.
Question:
Is there a way for those within academia and other jobs to be empathetic with those around them without having to put there own goals on the line for others?
References:
Valverde, K. (2013). "Fight the Tower": A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia, 12(2). 367-419. Retrieved October 1, 2017
V. B. (2013, December 3). 'Great. Just what we need: another quality-improvement campaign!' [Digital image]. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/death-quality_improvement-motivational_campaign-suicide-suicides-employees-bven935_low.jpg
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