Final Essay

Connecting Justice

“Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both”. Former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had said this simple yet powerful statement. What Mrs. Roosevelt is saying is that everyone deserves justice and it should not be rewarded to a particular group. To expand upon her saying, justice is defined as being treated with fairness. In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by author Sherman Alexie, Native Americans are given the stereotype of being drunken fools who are uncivilized. Not only that, they are also considered to be lesser than most because of how they isolate themselves from the general public. Alexie goes on to show us how uninformed most are about the situation around Native Americans, how their lands were unwillingly taken from them and then only small portions of it were awarded back to them. Alexie highlights how the government is not helping Native Americans due to their current problem of alcoholism, which is slowly killing off the Native American population. Similarly, according to the book The Rich and the Rest of Us, by authors and social activists Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, the way the American government is set up today makes it very hard for the lower class to sustain themselves and escape poverty. Not only that, with the poor only getting poorer, there is a surge of violence and illegal activities that occur because America has given up on these individuals. For instance, in the story Tattoos on the Heart, by father Gregory Boyles, there are many troubled individuals who are willing to leave the so called thug life in order to achieve success but do not get the proper chance to due to their troubled past. In America, if you’re charged with a crime it is virtually impossible to get it off of your record and it sticks with you for the rest of your life, which results in you being labeled as a “goon” or a “criminal”. The nation that says you can have unlimited dreams truly limits you by your rank in it’s social economic structure. Instead of helping the people in need, it ostracizes them leading those in distress towards a destructive path.

Many groups in the United States who faced a lot of problems with the law are ostracized and perceived as being abnormal due to their position in society. In the story Tattoos on the Heart we are told about a teen named Chico, who is quitting the gang life in order to start a new life without being tied to crime. Chico ended up getting a job, through Father G and his company Homeboy Industries, which had revolved around computers, something Chico was passionate about. Chico ends up getting shot due to gang members creeping by his house. During Chico’s funeral, Father G takes a moment to collect himself as he is saddened by the death of Chico. The Mortician approaches Father G to conclude the funeral and Father G says; “Now that…was a terrific kid.’ And the mortician…says, ‘HE WAS?’ My heart sinks…there is come larger disconnect for him…how could it be possible that sixteen-year-old cholo, gunned down, not far from his home, be a terrific kid?” (Boyle, 211). Father G recounts a time where he was burying a teen and felt disrespected that someone had thought the kid was a delinquent even though he was changing his life around before his unfortunate death. The mortician is a good example of how ignorant some are, including the government, about those who have had a criminal past. They still affiliate the past with the present and do not consider the efforts one makes in detaching themselves from their past. The mortician failed to realize that it was still a young person who was killed in a senseless shooting and that that specific young person was trying to get his life in order so that he could become something. Similarly, in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, we learn about the main character, Arnold Spirit, who leaves his high school in an Indian reservation to a regular city, that’s inhabited predominantly by Caucasians, in order to attain a better education due to the reservation being underfunded and not having many resources. Upon starting his first day, Arnold says that everyone at the school “stared at [him]…like [he] was Bigfoot or a UFO” (Alexie, 56). He then questions, “What was [he] doing in racist Reardan…[where] all of those kids knew…he did not deserve to be there…[because]…Indians don’t deserve shit” (Alexie, 56). Arnold knows that everyone is looking at him in disgust and disbelief due to the fact that a Native American would dare come into their town to use their public facilities. Arnold went through the faced the same ignorance Chico had faced because people are judging him even though he wants to better himself as a person and prosper in life. Both Chico and Arnold wanted to achieve the American Dream of being successful but are unable to because the government doesn’t care about them. The government would rather spend a billion a day in war costs rather than help the youth with a better educational program or even help cities clean up their act by providing more job opportunities to cities who are currently in poverty so that gangs don’t evolve. Also, majority of Americans look at these people as if they are foreign creatures that cannot coexist with the rest of the population. It is through this ignorance and alienation of particular people and groups that causes most to resort to live alternative lifestyles such as gangbanging or abusing alcohol in order to feel better about themselves.

            Not only are groups in the lower part of the social ladder ostracized due to the neglect they face from our nation, but also these groups are slowly killing themselves. Aaron Huey, a famous photojournalist and documentary photographer, had spoke on the controversy surrounding Native Americans today. During his televised presentation, America’s Native Prisoners of War, Huey says, “They’re killing each other. They’re killing themselves…this is how we come to own these United States”. Huey goes on to say the causes of the slow extinction of the Native Americans is due to the fact that “more than 90 percent of the population is below the poverty line…[untreated diseases]…[and] alcoholism” (Aaron Huey, “America’s Native Prisoners of War”). Huey is describing how Native Americans are killing themselves off slowly through the use of alcohol and how many are dying of untreated diseases due to the fact majority of Native Americans are in poverty and unable to care for themselves due to the costs of medicine. The United States government does not provide aid to the Native Americans because they gave them pieces of land through treaties and let them have their own authority. Even with the crisis of poverty, America feels like they do not have to help out the dying population of Native Americans but they can interfere and intervene in affairs outside of U.S. soil. Not only is the U.S. ignoring the Native Americans but also it’s own citizens, specifically those who are struggling financially. In the story The Rich and the Rest of Us, we learn about a man named Joe, a single father who lives paycheck to paycheck. Joe says, “I do not eat lunch. I drink from the hose at work…you got to sacrifice for your child” (Smiley and West, 122). Joe is saying that he sacrifices food everyday for his son to ensure he is well nourished while he does his best to “live”. Due to low minimum wage laws, many people in the United States are unable to provide for themselves let alone for their family. Though Joe, and many others in his position, is not literally killing himself, he is dying from the sacrifices he makes for his son because of the way the country is set up. Joe is given a limited life where he cannot grow, is stuck in poverty, and cannot crawl out of it. Besides the unjust laws that make it virtually impossible for those in poverty to climb the social ladder, there are those who lean towards violence because they are not taught any better due to the country turning its back on them. In the story Tattoos on the Heart, we learn about many “homeboys” and “home girls” that resort to the gang life because, simply put, they do not know any better. Public education, especially in the poverty stricken cities, has failed these people causing many to drop out and join gangs. By joining gangs, these people are given new morals and values and that’s rep your gang and take out whoever disrespects you and your gang. Lots of gang violence is documented in the novel and many of the youth are suffering from this but the government does nothing but throw these people into jail. It is through Father G that these kids are given hope to succeed in life through his company, Homeboy Industries, which provides jobs and a new perspective to life. All of these novels share the common theme of the United States government and citizens ignoring those who need the most help to succeed in life.

            In conclusion, the nation that welcomes those in search for a better life with unlimited possibilities truly is a fabricated belief due to the fact of how it truly ostracizes its citizens who are on the bottom of the “totem pole”. Through the alienation of it these citizens, these citizens go down a destructive path. The result of the latter is either death or imprisonment, which is considered to be a form of “rehabilitation”. No one is truly born evil rather they are influenced by it through their surroundings. Confucian philosopher Mencius himself says that human’s nature is innately good upon entering the world. Just like how it is a major motif in the book The Rich and the Rest of Us, the United States favors greed over compassion for its citizens. Through the slashing of financial aid programs, also known as safety nets, that aided the poor and tax breaks to the rich, our nation is indeed corrupted and swings in favor of the infamous 1%. Not everyone is born into a middle class family and most have to work their way up. Those who are in poverty are given this stigma of being lazy or worthless instead of being thought of as someone who is going through a very rough time to make ends meet due to the circumstances they’re in. Even though this is a controversial subject to bring up, the recent shootings at University of California, Santa Barbara are good example of what I am arguing where a young male student felt frustrated because no one gave him attention, mainly females. Do I agree with the way he handled the situation? Heavens no but because of being alienated and feeling left out, he went down a destructive path. Without corruption and greed, this nation could’ve been a leading example to bring the Earth’s number one goal into fruition, world peace. With the internal conflicts this country possesses, it has spread and contaminated all of its citizens by causing negative stereotypes and racism to continue living. I believe Boots Riley, an American poet, said it best where “If they really loved you, they’d tear this motherfucker up”.