CR 2

What?

In regards to “Participant Observation,” I found that what I conceived to be more difficult for me to do might not be the case. What Greg Guest and the other collaborators considered to be a key element of participant observation study is that you need to “build rapport with the participants.” At first glance at my work at Ritter Center’s food pantry, I thought this would be difficult, because many people are just there to get their resources and go on their way. In stark contrast to my initial thought, it is a deeply meaningful connection I make with the people who come in, because this is a place where they are vulnerable and must be open to me letting me know what they need or what they can carry. The next key element concerning timing was another big concept for me, because I always worry that with my busy schedule I am not able to meet and connect with the same people and build relationships with them. So far, however, I have become more hopeful that I will see familiar faces and get to know the people who come in every Monday for their groceries. One of the things I have noticed and connected to “Participant Observation” is that there is a set routine that regulars who come into the food pantry understand and practice more than I do. In the pantry, we usually have people walk over to the other door so they are better able to see what canned goods we have to offer, and someone who is very comfortable will walk in and point to the things they want rather than me asking them first. While this is minor, it speaks a lot to the environment I am relatively new to, and could be important when recalling the norms in the food pantry later. In the future, I plan to try to ask more questions to build my relationships with grocery recipients, especially those who I have had numerous warm interactions with in the past: this will hopefully give me more qualitative data to work with later in my research.

So What?

My understanding of Othering has helped me solidify my views and consciousness towards the people who come into the Ritter Center. It is so easy as someone who is comfortable in their living situation and food availability to draw conclusions about who could possibly need the resource, yet there is so much value in what the money spent on food could be to someone else: it could be rent, it could be toiletries, it could be medication- the truth is you don’t know until you practice participant observation and get involved in the community. Like I have expressed in class, Shaun opened my mind on day one of my service learning at Ritter Center, because I had no clue how many Veterans or people living on fixed income used the food pantry as a resource to feed themselves for the week or even half the week. The people who use the resource can be completely homeless, but they don’t have to be dirty or unintelligent or any other common stereotype of those who need extra assistance. Othering is harmful and drives groups farther apart from each other, and in my experience in service learning I hope to become closer to those around me by offering them mutual respect and understanding.

Now What?

I think I want to take a moment to talk about john powell’s quote “subconscious is quick” (not even the second half). This was extremely powerful to me, because I have taken a communications course, multiple child development courses, and multiple sociology courses that reiterate the same idea in different ways. The prevalence from Othering and powell’s idea of a quick subconscious comes to a peak when people have been conditioned to look at people who look like them in textbooks, in politics, on television, and more. There is a learned prototype that stems from our childhood development which influences the mind for the rest of a person’s life, and I think that is so important to consider when speaking about this topic. I liked powell’s indication of political and economic root causes such as the War on Drugs and housing issues that are neglectful for minorities or lower income families, which are true all across the nation and have been true for many years in this country. Unothering, mainly stemming from the James Baldwin quote he expressed admiration for looks to represent unity and a relationship between all humans. I think that this is a really positive way at looking at resolving the issue and I would agree most with this solution.