Issues People Living in Low-Income and Poor Communities Face
Discrimination, corruption, police brutality, and racism are the major issues faced by people living in low-income and poor communities. According to Victor, H.O.L.L.A healing justice organizer, their community is discriminative against African Americans (H.O.L.L.A!Tv, 2020). The discrimination is manifested through denial of opportunities and police brutality. Therefore, African American youths are more likely to go to jail than any other race in the U.S. According to Keron, in the video, states that many youths end up in prison through trumped-up charges (H.O.L.L.A!Tv, 2020, 33:24-33:40). The majority of them suffer from physical and psychological torture. Additionally, denial of job opportunities has led to bad choices by them. For instance, the discriminated youth sell drugs and engage in other criminal activities.
Racism and Sexism
Racism and sexism are the major issues faced by the youths featured in the film. Racism involves discrimination against a person’s ethnic background (Haeny et al., 2021). Meanwhile, sexism involves discrimination and stereotyping based on one’s gender (Cortina et al., 2021). The two issues created a negative environment for the youths featured in the documentary. For instance, the rest of the community perceived the Black youths as criminals. Consequently, the police would be brutal on them, and they ended up in jail for crimes they never committed. Women such as those of Asian origin were believed to be weak and incapable of doing things that other Americans could do (H.O.L.L.A!Tv, 2020, 22:50-23:20). Therefore, the affected individual developed a negative attitude toward themselves and their culture. The negative environment exacerbated indulgence in drugs and other forms of crime.
Oppression, Trauma, and Inaccessibility to Opportunities
Oppression, trauma, and unequal access to opportunities can be detrimental to personal success and social growth. Oppression caused stigmatization amongst the youths affected, making them hate their history and culture. Some of the youths thought of committing suicide, while others did not want to be called Africans. The trauma led to drug abuse by the affected youths and increased hatred against other races in the U.S (H.O.L.L.A!Tv, 2020, 29:00-35:56). Meanwhile, the denial of accessibility to job opportunities increased the involvement in selling illegal drugs to the youths. Some of the youths resorted to crimes as a means of meeting their daily basic needs. Therefore, trauma, oppression, and lack of opportunities affected the victims and society at large.
The Community Organizing Goal
“We Came to Heal” was produced as part of the H.O.L.L.A’s Healing Justice Movement. The organization started the movement to bring the youth of color and American communities together to heal and resist oppression (H.O.L.L.A., n.d.). The organization adopted personal story narrations by those who have been affected as an example of the problems associated with oppression. Additionally, the organization promoted self-awareness among the youths to help them accept their cultural backgrounds. Consequently, the youths accepted themselves and promoted socially cohesive activities such as a showcase of individual talents in overcoming oppression.
The powerfulness of the Community Organizing Movement
Healing Justice Movement is powerful because of the strategies adopted to achieve its goal. The organization has used real-life stories as an explanation of the negative influences of oppression and other social issues such as racism. “We Came to Heal” documentary features youths who have been discriminated against in one way or another. The youths featured tell their oppressive stories and how they overcame the influence of their experiences (H.O.L.L.A!Tv, 2020). Additionally, the organization has chosen popular media to send its message to the world. Social media platforms such as YouTube are significant in attracting youths who are obsessed with social change. Furthermore, the Healing Justice Movement is powerful and effective since it uses victims as solution-finders. Therefore, the movement is effective in achieving its goal because of the social change strategies adopted.
References
Cortina, C., RodrĂguez, J., & González, M. J. (2021). Mind the Job: The role of occupational characteristics in explaining gender discrimination.Social Indicators Research, 156, 91–110.
H.O.L.L.A. (n.d.). Push play: We came to heal, a documentary.
Haeny, A. M., Holmes, S. C., & Williams, M. T. (2021). The need for shared nomenclature on racism and related terminology in psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(5), 886–892.
H.O.L.L.A!Tv (2020). We came to heal documentary (new & update version full video) [Video]. YouTube.