injustice in the workplace

Most of the injustices I have personally experienced have had to do with sexism. I have worked in many sexist environments. I have also experienced sexism growing up as an athlete, often times playing with or against male athletes.

While working at a Liquor Store for three years I experienced being treated differently because I am a female. Not only was I treated differently by the other staff, but the customers as well. The store only hires men to be managers and “stock boys”. Females are only hired there to be a cashier. As a cashier I was also responsible for stocking the shelves, and organizing the floor of the store. More times than not I was told not to lift heavy boxes, or someone offered to help me when I would be carrying a case to a customer. This made me so angry. The assumption that I wasn’t strong enough because I am female was so insulting.

One of my most prominent memories is when I was assisting a customer, and she actually asked for the male manager to bring the case to her car. She said it was too heavy for me to carry. I told her that I was more than capable, and it was actually part of my job. She insisted, and didn’t trust me carrying the case to her car. This happened all the time. Many times customers didn’t like seeing females lifting or carrying heavy boxes.

Now I am less polite when situations like this arise. I might even ask the customer why they feel like I am not able to carry of lift the box. Depending on their response I will either call them out on being sexist, or explain to them why I am more than capable of assisting them. Also, I would be a bit more outspoken with my boss and talk to him about why he only hires men for certain positions. Starting a dialogue is the first step to making someone aware of an injustice they might have inflicted upon you.

teaching work is caring work

There are several different ways of teachers showing care that are discussed in this article. The first is modeling care through presentation and dress. This is something I would not even think about, but can be an extremely effective way of showing care for LGBTQ students. This can say so much to the students in the community who looks to this “out” lesbian teacher as a role model.

Another way a teacher shows care to their students is by providing snacks. Especially, in an inner-city community snacks can make a whole of a difference to students moods and energy. Also, understanding that students need food to learn, and that not every student is getting enough food at home to quench their hunger.

The last example I am going to talk about is keeping the classroom clean. This is another effective way to show care that I wouldn’t necessarily think about. When students walk into a clean classroom they should feel like it is because they deserve it to be clean. A teacher can control the environment in which they bring their students into, they cannot control the environment outside of school. Creating a safe and clean space is so important, and makes the classroom feel more like home.

At the nonprofit I work for we provide snacks for the students after school. I work for an after school wrestling program. We realize that after school students need an energy boost, especially before they are about to engage in a sport. We also provide them with activities on the weekend which is not outside of the program hours. We take them to tournaments all over New England allowing them to experience an array of opportunities outside the state. The program provides great support for the students, but needs to work on more academic support. We are implementing development fridays which to address homework and personal development.