Two workshops that I attended during the Social Justice day were gun violence and Get out. I personally don’t have much opinion about the gun control issue in the U.S., partly because growing up in China, I was never being exposed to debates about guns. After participating in this workshop, I can get some idea about why this is so important for American: it’s a matter of they don’t want to give away their right. I think it’s reasonable to think this way, especially America is a land for freedom. I also used to think about the argument for banning guns due to suicide is ridiculous: without using gun there’s probably a million ways to kill yourself. But noted that the survival rate of gun suicide is significantly lower than other means, and hearing some people mentioned that their friends who have depression mention something like “if I have a gun at home I would be dead already”, I think it is reasonable for some people to consider the issue this way. I also learned a lot of factual information about guns in America, which I also find really helpful.
For the workshop about Get Out, I learned about Liberal Racism, which basically means people are claiming not to be racist and their performance indicating the contrary. Here are some quotes in the movie illustrating Liberal Racism: “I would’ve voted for Obama for a third term if I could. Best president in my lifetime, hands down.” “I get it. White family, black servants: it’s a total cliche.” I can get the idea that people are trying to be nice, but what they are expressing doesn’t make people feel comfortable. This also relates to cultural appropriation, which is also something we mentioned in the workshop. It means its appropriate for some certain group of people to say something, but not necessarily appropriate for other people to say so.