Critical Reflection #4 (Please give a title!)
What?
This semester, I am doing my service learning with Young Moms Marin. They are an organization dedicated to providing support to young families throughout their personal struggles while building community. They welcome moms ages 13 to 25 and their children as well. This environment is safe and flexible for everyone to speak in, although it can be challenging at times. Over the years, the group has grown into a family and they manage to lift each other up through each challenge they face. This current group consists of moms from the canal, a part of San Rafael with a heavy Hispanic population, Marin City which is very diverse, and moms from an alternative school. As of 2014, the percentage of teen mothers in Marin county is a very low 1.9% (California Department of Public Health).
So What?
Unlike most of Marin, most of these mothers are low income with a low education level, not to mention that they’re young parents. They are also minorities which could make them feel out of place. From the stories shared, a lot of them are taking on a lot of responsibility and challenges in their home life. All of them try to juggle work, school, siblings, and motherhood. The Canal has grown its population over time and is home to immigrants from various Latin-American countries as well as Vietnam and Cambodia. This was one of the few places that welcomed minorities back in the 50s (Crispell, 2015). However, the Canal is very overcrowded with mainly apartment building and high rent prices. The rent causes many people to live in one household and paying nearly a third of their income just to make the rent. There is also a lack of building code regulations and attention to many of the community’s main issues. There is a lack of urgency to tend to the rat and roach problem, unsafe pedestrian walkways, and neighborhood cleanliness (Crispell, 2015). The fact that this small community has to deal with such issues in an affluent county like Marin builds a lot of resentment and mistrust for authorities.
Marin City also deals with similar issues. They not only are battling gentrification, but they are also fighting to stay in the place they’ve called home for so many years. They call attention to their housing issues and also to the fact that when the other communities like San Rafael have similar issues, they don’t have to fight to get them fixed. Marin City was originally a place where housing was built for people that worked on the Marinship during world war II in 1942 (Harprer, n.d.). Unlike most places at that time, Marin City was very diverse. In 1945, about twenty thousand African Americans worked at the Marinship and by 1946, the Marinship closed leaving all of them out of work. Because of this, they were forced to take lower paying jobs for less pay and could not afford to leave (Harper, n.d.). The author described this as a case of last hired, first fired. With so many people out of work and a shortage of jobs, there were and still are many people in affordable low income housing. When people talk about Marin City, they usually describe it as a small place that people grow up in and don’t usually leave. After researching the history of Marin City, I now see why. Its frustrating to think of the reputation and stigma around places like Marin City when it started out as a place that welcomed everyone and had so much promise and its heartbreaking to think that for 20 years, people built their lives there and when it was all over segregation and discrimination left African American’s stuck and there was nothing they could really do about it. Often times when people stereotype and stigmatize black people they don’t look at the history of what happened and cast the blame on them for being “lazy” and “relying on the system.”
References
April Harper (n.d.). Marinship to Marin City: How a Shipyard Built a City. Retrieved from: http://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Marinship_to_Marin_City:_How_a_Shipyard_Built_a_City
California Department of Public Health (2014). MIHA Data Snapshot, Marin County, 2013–2014. Retrieved from: https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DMCAH/MIHA/CDPH%20Document%20Library/SnapshotCoMarin2013-2014.pdf
Mitchell Crispell (2015). Canal, Am Immigrant Gateway in San Rafael At Risk. Retrieved from: http://iurd.berkeley.edu/uploads/Canal_FINAL.pdf
