Midterm Reflection Essay ~ Brendan Spencer

Coming into this class, I had a clearly defined idea of what citizenship meant to me.

Citizenship was the concept of being a legal citizen of a country, keeping track of your personal

rights and responsibilities as a citizen, and doing what you can to improve the community around

you. But through the active discussions and material presented in class, I am within a process

that is challenging me on my perspectives of the divisions of citizenship, primarily my social

location as a citizen, the concept of bettering communities through research and identifying

paradigms, and challenging the concepts of social issues.

I believe my social location was something that was solidified long before this class,

something that defined me in some ways, and helped to form my concept of what it means to be

a citizen. It was a part of me that I made a choice to except, but while never really understanding

the concept of social location. I am probably what is considered a stereotypical white, middle-

class, Christian male, so I was aware of how a majority of society viewed me, especially being

from the rural South; its assumed that I am ignorant, hypocritical, racist or a plethora of other

names used by the main-stream media to describe people just like me. Before, I had just decided

to go with the flow as far as that issue was concerned. Ive never really cared about other

peoples opinions of me in regards to my social standing. I was raised in a family and community

that put faith in God first, so Ive lived under the impression that its best to treat everyone as

your equal and to live out a Christ-like humanity, which doesnt always fit with societys

interpretation of a good person. My more traditional views are often categorized as hate-

mongering or intolerant, but I will stand firm by my beliefs that man is inherently flawed, and

our social constructs such as race, gender and sexuality spectrums, and wealth disparity will

always divide us until they are viewed through a spiritual context, or more Godly perspective.
This class experience has helped me to better understand the concept of social location, and how

mine can appear to other people, but it has not influenced me into a desire to alter or adjust it.

While my personal ideas on being a citizen remain solidified, I am beginning to gain a

larger perspective on the concepts of serving a community as a citizen, actually exhibiting the

qualities of citizenship. Because of my Christian upbringing, I have always considered

community service a significant issue, because I feel that we as not just citizens, but as

Christians, are called upon to help our neighbors and those in need, and to do so with the purpose

of spreading the hope and love of Jesus. But more generally speaking, in the terms of this class,

its important because its our duty to our fellow man. However, I had never considered the

possible inadequacies of basic community service, primarily in that while in good intent, it often

simply looks to resolve the symptoms of an issue without working to fix the issue itself; putting a

Band-Aid on things rather than going to the root of the problem. This is where community-

engaged research comes into play, with which I was very enlightened on by this course. Not only

does it take a seemingly more scientific route to the problem by looking for statistics, local

patterns and individual backgrounds related to said issue, but it also works to include community

members in the actual research and social issue-resolving. I find community engaged research to

be an interesting contrast to traditional community service, such that it goes beyond a quick fix

to attempt resolving social issues, but it also takes great risk in relying on individually based

information and nontraditional application. And while this is certainly a concept Id be willing to

dive into more, and look forward to using with our community partners, the secondary concept

of the effects of individuals bias on research and the development of factual evidence, or general

truths, I find more exasperating to grasp. I can understand how, when so many people from

diverse groups and backgrounds are involved in research, that there can be differences in end
results based on their personal styles or implicit biases, but the idea that this concept can be

carried over to the mere process of establishing basic truth and knowledge seemed very foreign

to me. I understand the machinations of paradigm shifts and individual perspectives, even how

this relates to ones conceptualization of facts within the human condition, but believing that

differing paradigms can actually create a hold-out on what truth really is seems pointless to

assert, in my opinion. I believe truth to be much more than man-made concepts and theories, but

universal absolutes that dont sway as the tides to human thought or recognition. Like the stars,

they were there long before human interaction, and theyll remain long after, something I dont

care to complicatedly reiterate from a previous reflection. Overall, I think its an interesting topic

of discussion when relating to the diversity of those involved in community-based research, but I

dont find it nearly as applicable to our current tasks.

As for social issues, perhaps it is the staunch conservative in me, but I believe that most

ideas defined as social issues, whether the concepts of white privilege, gender fluidity and

equality, or wealth disparities by race, are simply social constructs developed to level the playing

field of a traditional society in favor of minorities, such that these ills of society may have

someone to blame their hardships on, all being relative to their initial environments at best. This

is not to say that these issues dont exist in some part, as people of color, differing sexual

orientations, and other minority groups are often discriminated against, but to the extent that

these social concepts are generally applicable to all people remains to be seen; although being a

relative issue it is difficult to argue from either side. For example, African-Americans definitely

go through different kinds of hardships than someone like me throughout their lives, but the idea

that I am personally privileged because society has statistically favored me by comparison, or

because my hardship is familial poverty while theirs is the possibility of being killed in the
streets, seems drastic. To this point, I am a firm believer that life isnt what you make of it, but

what you choose to do with it. We all face adversities, some much more than others, but just as

heat and pressure refines precious metals, so too will hardships define your person. No one

should face persecution for the lot they were dealt, whether it can be viewed as privilege or

disadvantage. Not every social disparity should be made into a race issue, but that doesnt get us

out of our responsibility as citizens to lend a helping hand when we recognize that we may have

the more stable footing.

In conclusion, so far I have experienced a melting pot, as it were, of thoughts and

reactions to our covered material, and these are concepts that I looking forward to continue in

discussion, and listening and watching as others opinions may change or stay the same on some

issues or ideas. I myself service a very solid personal foundation of beliefs and a perhaps undue

mistrust of social constructs deemed to be liberal in application or origin. Regardless, I will

always seek out ways to advance my grasp on the concept of citizenship, and ask not what my

community can do for me, but what I can do for my community.