Blog Prompt 1: If, and only if, you did the in-class justice exercise on the first day, you may write it up as a blog. Just put your argument in standard form, with your conclusion saying something about justice. Then tell your own story and explain how it connects to the argument.

1. Belittling someone creates an unjust environment.
2. Lack of acknowledgement leads to unfair situations.
3. Belittling or lack of acknowledgement towards others can lead to unjust environments, and situations.

I think it is fair to say that based on ones socioeconomic standing, and social class, a lot of times determines how others view or treat them. Of course this is completely unjust and everyone should be treated with the same kind of respect, regardless of social status or class. As Edwin Rolfe and Lester Fuller once said, “you can never tell a book by its cover.”

I got my very first job out of high school, eighteen years old, as a housekeeper at a beautiful facility home for the elderly. At the time I remember not wanting to have anything to do with retail, and only wanting a job with consistent hours. I can’t exactly recall why I picked housekeeping as my first job but, I’m assuming it felt right at the time and so I followed my heart. And it was during that time in which I experienced my first encounter with injustice.

All of the housekeepers working at the facility were far from my years, and none of them went to college. So what could one only possibly think of me who was just eighteen years old at the time, fresh out of high school, doing a tedious job like that? Of course they doubted me, and wondered why I wasn’t pursuing my college career, as if I didn’t get started right off the bats I would become a nobody in life. I got dirty looks from older nurses, assistants, and visitors.

There were three particular instances where I recall feeling belittled, and unacknowledged as another human being just trying to make a living like everyone else. One being, getting responsibilities pushed on me that weren’t even mine to begin with. As a housekeeper I had very specific duties which included cleaning a lot of things, however, my duties did not consist of picking up slack from the nurses. Being young and seemingly easy to push around, one of the nursing assistants took advantage of me by leaving her patients garments behind for me constantly to pick up after. Two, as a housekeeper it was my duty to take out the trash if full, but if the nurse or assistant changed a patients diaper they were responsible to take out the trash right away after disposing the diaper in the bin, themselves. Another nursing assistant decided that she wanted to test my patience and asked me to take out her trash, as I was busy with a different task. When she saw that I did not take out her trash, a few moments later, I overheard her talking to another employee about me not performing my job well. This just went to show how low housekeepers are treated. And lastly, as a housekeeper I was not acknowledged by name or any form of proper greeting. When being asked to clean something up I would simply be referred to as “hey you there.”

My experience as a housekeeper made it clear to me that belittling someone based on their job, and not acknowledging them as a person with feelings creates an environment that is not only unjust but very uncomfortable to be apart of.

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