Violence in America – What it has shown me

Violence in America is growing and it surprisingly is more prevalent in families rather than with strangers. Many causes of this are environmental problems that are causing stress between family members and are causing

animosity. Violence seems to be an effect of some risk factors that put people in the line of having more of a chance of domestic violence in their homes. Although we are developed country we have just as much violence here as third world nations. Violence is causing so many homes to break up, people to get hurt, children to lose parents, and lives to be lost that there must be something that our society can do. Three articles from this class have also shown me how violence can change a family, person and society.

The first article is “The Christmas Present,” by Caridad Souza, this is a heartbreaking story about a family ripped apart by violence on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve these children are left with their drunk Uncle and he tries to take advantage of one of the younger girls and instead of just being bystanders her siblings fight for her to keep her innocence. So they embark on this bloody battle against a man much bigger, stronger, and at times smarter. But they succeed and their young sister is not robbed of her innocence but they all have now witnessed violence first hand and what the effects are on children especially. This story is so sad because when the father gets home he blames the whole thing on the mother instead of being happy that his children are a little beaten but ok. Violence is a tricky thing because it creeps into usually happy families that are just down on hard times or are having a rough year. It prays on those who have more risk factors and exploit them. Violence happens in any kind of family though no matter how much money, material goods, or kids they have. These kids have no witnessed first hand violence and it probably has had some major effect on them and unfortunately they probably will not get treated like they need to for psychological reasons. Violence like this happens frequently in high risk families.

The next article is, “Notes on Oppression and Violence,” by Aleticia Tyerina, which is about that because of her race she is full of hate and violence. This story was great in my opinion because in the end she has a resolution that she should not fill her life full of hate and violence because she is disadvantaged. Her life before this resolution was filled with hate and violence because she was treated differently because of her skin color and she felt oppressed and by being hateful and violent she was releasing her anger. Although, this seemed to help at first she later realized that nothing will change if she cannot see past her hate and anger and she is only oppressing herself as well. This was such a step forward for her because I know if I was in that situation I would have a hard time pushing away all my anger and not taking my anger out and being violent. Violence is an escape for many people that are poor, unemployed, unhappy, and oppressed because really to fight back there aren’t many options but giving up violence is one of those. She escaped the trap that violence can put a person in, it can make great people go bad even for just a few minutes. This story though is inspiring for anyone who feels that violence is their last resort, their only answer.

The last article is, “The Uses of Anger,” by Audre Lorde, this article is about how much anger that oppressed groups of people have to deal with daily. She takes a very different route in this article because she explains that anger for women of color can be very useful. It can help them keep going in life and propel them to never give up. She talks only of anger which is great because we know that she is not suggesting violence and when anger is used right it can change people, the world, or society. Anger is a way out for some women of color because their lives are so hard and by putting their anger out there they can identify it, see it, and maybe do something about it. Violence here is not even an answer because that does not lead to any change only hurt and terrible consequences.