SWCA communication conference PDF

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Samantha Wallace 4-8-17 SWCA Conference Speech/Outline Panel Chair Beginning Speech for Jim Crow The feeling of invalidation results from accomplishing something but not receiving the benefits of the accomplishment. It is also the result of feeling deprived of existence, which leads to a sense of inferiority among others who exist peacefully and are appreciated for their Being. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander chronicles the struggles of African American people in United States society and the underlying meanings behind the actions of police and the criminal justice system. Alexander makes the claim that African Americans are second class citizens and part of a “caste” of individuals that don’t have the same rights as society’s dominant majoritywhite individuals. The civil rights gained by African Americans from the time of slavery have been undermined by a covert underlying racist white agenda. Additionally, the rights minorities have gained, especially African Americans, are recognized among society, and they are treated as a victory. However, underneath the surface, the criminal justice system has developed a system of incarcerating many African Americans through historical orders and agendas meant to undermine African American civil victories and rights. One of the ways this caste system was established was through the War on Drugs. Everyone remember the bad image of crack? Well, that was the War on Drugs- but the image painted was mostly tied to the existence of African American individuals. Hence, the image of crack was associated with poor African American individuals in ghettos. Therefore, police raids and police resources were used to target these black ghettos which only a fraction of the time contained crack or cocaine. Additionally, the CIA planted crack in these specific neighborhoods at times to support this demented racial image of crack. Also, the charges for possession of crack were a lot more severe than the possession of cocaine, and it remains so to this day, albeit to a lesser extent. Since African American individuals were granted more access to crack through CIA manipulation, the image of the crack epidemic was blamed on African Americans, and police used this image to arrest unequal numbers of African Americans in comparison to white individuals, which have been found to have higher drug use rates and higher crime rates than African American populations. But, the case is still that most our prison population is African American, and there is a problem with racial profiling and racist stereotypes and viewpoints to this day due to the discriminatory targeting of African Americans in the War on Drugs. Hence, Alexander claims that the War on Drugs was a way to make African Americans second class citizens- since drug possession results in a felony conviction and as a felon, the individual rights of the felon are stripped and limited. At the extended campus Communication program headed by Dr. Baker, we worked on a panel presentation focusing on how communicative metaphors apply to the story of Jim Crow. We focused on Dr. Barnett Pearce’s book Com and The Human Condition; Pearce argues that we live and breathe in communication and discusses various communication metaphors that apply to everyday life. We also focused on Dr. Robert Arnett and Pat Arneson and their book Dialogic

Civility in a cynical age. Their main argument was that we are all communicatively dependent on each other, and that we can offer a common space for diverse viewpoints in a dialogic manner. Essentially, their argument is that it is possible to have dialogic communication in a post-modern society that is made up of many diverse viewpoints and beliefs. We took these two books and their metaphors- in other words, communicative concepts- and applied it to the New Jim Crow. Everyone here chose one metaphor from Dr. Pearce’s cook and Dr. Arnett and Arneson’s book, defined them, and determined their application to the New Jim Crow. I know would like to introduce to you the panel and our concepts…. Mindlessness and Dialogic Limits pertaining to Social Construction of Reality in The New Jim Crow Defining the Metaphors: 1. Dialogic Limits: Ontologically, limits are simply part of being human, and the concept of historicality seriously addresses the implications of this realization" (Arnett & Arneson, 38-39). We follow healthy lifestyles and workout to maintain longevity and be healthy, but in the end, we are all going to die. There is simply nothing we can do to avoid the realization that we can’t accomplish everything. Arnett and Arneson explain that we can never learn everything about anything because despite technological advances and more information sharing through various media forms, there is always a limit because dialogically, we cannot tell others about everything that applies to a subject in a reasonable time frame; it would take forever. We are limited by the self, others, and the coordination or non-coordination in each dialogic exchange (Arnett & Arneson, 39). Also, the timing of a dialogic exchange and the current historical moment affects what kind of information we can share and learn (Arnett & Arneson, 39). Knowledge is endless and continues before and after death, thus learning is a process limited by life’s barriers itself. Hence, on an individual and collective note, we can’t learn or communicate everything and others are presented with this limit as well. What counts is how we frame that time to emphasize the main points of what we learn for our own benefit as well as for the benefit of others; perspective changing but keeping true to our identities. 2. Mindlessness: Mindlessness is not the result of an empty mind (Pearce, 96). Rather, people are just stuck in a monocultural mind frame because the resources that are expressed, constructed, and reconstructed center around one societal culture and its practices (Pearce, 97). These individuals don’t even realize they are practicing mindlessness; what they say and do is all they know! Also, mindlessness is the result of not being exposed to different societies and culture, hence its monocultural significance (Pearce, 97). Resources are not at risk with mindless individuals, their lives have never been challenged by different perspectives and ways of doing things (Pearce, 112). Lastly, mindless individuals treat newcomers into their societies as natives because they assume the newcomer already knows their ways (Pearce, 113). Hence, mindlessness promotes a monocultural perspective that limits an individual’s perspective of the world and others because they are stuck and ingrained into practicing things and forming societal meaning through one way of life. Connecting the metaphors to the theme and their application to the book:

1. Dialogic limits to social construction of reality: Dialogic limits are a social construction of reality in the sense that all societies are not fully advanced as to foster dialogue that covers the subject matter that all want to bring to the table in an interaction. Everybody, in every society, is limited by time, place, coordination, and the historical moment’s important messages and visions. Thus, all social constructions of reality have a covert ontological message that most humans don’t like to accept. We use hope to think we can solve everything, but we are always limited by what we don’t know. And knowledge continues growing outside of death, so one individual can never dialogically accomplish all their goals. Hence, dialogic limits will exist in all social constructions of reality, from the past, present, and future. Not even a computer can communicate the human experience and every possible meaning. Dialogic Limits to Jim Crow: The white individuals in Jim Crow have a limited sense of knowledge about the War on Drugs. They assume the police are fighting crime in the right way, but they are not aware of the real statistics. Dialogically, both blacks and whites were robbed of knowing the covert implicit and explicit norms involved in the War on Drugs in a good knowledgeable form. As with any tragedy, a lack of communication causes oppression in hidden forms. Therefore, Blacks continued to be persecuted and whites were left to believe one idea when other things were happening. People didn’t talk enough, or voices were drowned out. Dialogically, the police were trying to limit the voices of the oppressed to keep Whites in the dark about their discriminatory practices. And, Blacks were limited dialogically in all forms. They were attacked from the Supreme Court through its orders on the acceptance of discriminatory practices, misled about their legal rights, and Blacks’ voices were drowned out through society naturally because of racist ideologies and inferior humanity principles. Dialogic Limits to Mindlessness: A mindless society is a monocultural society usually. This whole book is about the mindlessness of the White community and how they were unaware of the truth behind the War on Drugs and crime statistics. White people were mindless due to the lack of dialogue between communities of black and white people. Plus, Whites who knew kept the secrets in the dark. Hence, those who kept it in the dark were enforcing dialogic limits- no one can learn about discrimination without the dialogue of another person if one is unaware of such practices. Hence, dialogic limits were forced upon whites and blacks in the form of mindlessness by the way resources were constructed, which were aimed around enforcing a second-class caste in society through the excessive criminal pursuit of Blacks. 2. Mindlessness to social construction of reality: Mindlessness is a social construction of reality; monocultural. A monocultural construction of reality promotes mindlessness through treating others like natives and by expressing resources in certain ways. Hence, mindlessness is a social construction of reality in the fact that it is a standard of living that is followed by others, in an ignorant fashion. Mindlessness to Jim Crow: Mindlessness is tied once again to the treatment of Blacks and Whites in society. Whites are not oppressed people, Blacks are. Hence, whites will never truly be able to see the perspective of an oppressed Black individual- because they are not on the margins of society. In the book, Whites often held power and they constructed the resources to make Blacks second class citizens in society. Whites were privileged and only understood one way of

living, that of having the advantage when committing crimes and that of not being targeted by law enforcement. This was enhanced through the practices of law enforcement. The resources for whites were not at risk, hence why they continued living in a world of ignorance. Blacks, on the other hand, experienced a risk in their social and physical resources and were hence an oppressed group, but expected to act like they were part of a White society. Just the fact Blacks were living in a “white society” shows the mindlessness of society, since everyone is treated like natives and expected to already know the norms. Blacks were expected to surrender to law enforcement, and this construction of practices and resources is monocultural. Capstone Panel Paper Title: Depression: Battling Two Identities Topic purpose: The purpose of my Capstone project is to explore the communicative life of those with Major Depressive Disorder. I will be looking at the intrapersonal and interpersonal struggles of the depressed individual. Intrapersonally, the depressed individual suffers from poor thought formation because of low self-esteem, and this leads to poor self-identity formation. This later down the road leads to suicidal ideations, which is the most concerning depression symptom. Interpersonally, the depressed person suffers in their relationships due to the individual’s isolation during depressive episodes and irritability, mood swings, and emotional instability. The depressed individual may want to be left alone due to their disturbing suicidal thoughts or they may feel their negative thoughts will spread negative energy. Goal: My goal is to use my own story and personal experience to help more people come forward to get help for underlying depression and to relate to someone who has gone through depression. I want to provide a personal dwelling place through my story. I want readers to find comfort in reading my story and to learn about Depression and what it looks like in real life and the events that follow Depressive episodes/diagnosis. Overall, I want readers to understand the importance of good mental health and how to get help for problematic mental health symptoms as well as understand the application of mental health instability. Why I am interested: I was diagnosed with depression at the beginning of October 2016, but I have suffered from depression since the age of 14. I am interested in this subject to learn more about what prevents people from getting help for their depression and to explain my own battles with depression. I want to understand my own illness and be able to find an explanation for the causes of my depression and what hindered me from receiving help sooner. I also am interested in investigating depression as the cause of two separate identities in those who suffer from the illness. I am arguing that depression causes two separate identities- the normal person underneath the depression, and the depression itself, which isn’t the true person’s identity. The Direction: I am going to apply communicative metaphors to depression and where they fit in my own story. One of these metaphors is based off the work of Dr. Barnett Pearce, and it is called “Stories Told.” This is basically the narratives we use in life or everyday communication. This aspect of my project will be my own narrative with depression. Second, I will also be using Pearce’s concept of speech acts. These are essentially the important talks we have with others. I am arguing the depressed individual engages in speech acts when they are in therapy and when

they discuss their condition with family members and friends. I am also going to be talking about Pearce’s concept of episodes, which are the important events that shape our lives. I am arguing the depressed individual goes through episodes- that is, as depressed individuals, we go through periods of time when we are more depressed tor suicidal than usual and this can lead to hospitalization, which was my case. So, I’m arguing that personally, I have gone through three episodes so far with my depression- and these episodes were hospitalizations for suicidal thoughts and attempts. Next, there is a metaphor from Dr. Michael J Hyde in his book The LifeGiving Gift of Acknowledgment. That metaphor is called dwelling places. This is when we are comfortable in environments other than our homes. I am arguing that therapy is a dwelling place for the depressed individual. Lastly, I am going to be looking at the concept of thrownness from Hyde. Thrownness is the reality we are born into without choice. We are born either boy/girl, poor/rich, etc. Essentially, thrownness is our background which we didn’t pick and that has shaped our everyday lives. I am arguing that the depressed individual is thrown into their condition- they didn’t pick to have their condition, and it’s something out of their control, as a diagnosis at least. The management of symptoms though, is something the depressed individual has a little control over....