Critical Reflection #4 Prompt: Center vs. Periphery

What?: Edward Shils’ model of Center vs. Periphery explains how society has a Center based on symbols, values, beliefs, and actions. Typically, individuals who possess authority endorse and support the Center. Also, organizations and institutions tend to protect the Center. Meanwhile, if you don’t have those sets of values or beliefs that make up the Center, then you would fall in the Periphery. The Periphery is the complete denial of the Center or rejection by the Center.
An example of Center value in mainstream American culture is the value of the American Dream. The center is that if you have legal status and work hard, you can reach the American Dream. Its periphery would be undocumented immigrants who are working the hardest, but their legality excludes them.

So What?: In the last couple years, I noticed how education has become a privilege rather than a right. A Center of values that I am affected by is that everyone should have equal access to education. In the United States, you have to pay a very high price to access higher education, leaving college out of reach for many hard-working individuals. Currently, to strive for higher education, you would have to be born into a white, educated, and wealthy family; otherwise, you will undergo a variety of sacrifices to attend at least a community college. Therefore the Periphery would be the majority of first-generation students, who like me have to work to pay for their education. Regarding legal status, the U.S government has played a game where the legality of DACA students consistently threatens their access to education.

Now What?: The community I work with has an alternate Center which strives on the belief that everyone should have access to adequate and healthy food regardless of their legal status. You would imagine that this Center would only attract minority groups, but this Center includes a variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures. Canal Alliance, is inclusive of all cultures and race. “I felt so happy and fulfilled to see a group of American volunteers embracing my Latino culture. I was filled with energy, motivation and especially hope. Hope that there is a lot of Americans who do love us, who want to help us, who don’t see us as criminals but as friends” (January 23, 2018). The center value of helping everyone obtain food is very dominate in Canal Alliance. Since most of the volunteers are white, they only speak English. “Many of the volunteers have expressed their interest in learning Spanish. They have asked us to only speak in Spanish so that they could understand and practice the language. I thought it was beautiful how he was making such effort, so he could better serve his community” (February 13, 2018). But just like there is a Center that values equal access to food. There are also others who believe that services or equal access to food should only be available to “members” of this country. “After researching my topic about food insecurity, it made me cautious of what it means to be food insecure, and I genuinely believe that Canal Alliance does everything in their hands to alleviate the burden of suffering from food insecurity. When the food trucks came almost empty, the volunteers would try to increase the food by dividing it into smaller portions. Some might see this as receiving a minimal amount of food, but to those excluded from federal food programs, it might mean their only access to food” (February 20, 2018). The minimal amount of food shows how for some providing food to undocumented immigrants is the least of their concern. Moreover, according to Race Counts, it shows how Marin Country presents both high performance and high disparity. This fact means that there are a variety of resources and facilities, but there is still a wide gap between races. What this shows is that food banks are not addressing the root causes that placed millions of undocumented immigrants in food insecurity. Marin County is relying on one organization, Canal Alliance, to cover the needs of an entire minority group. They are putting a bandage on something that requires critical attention. Access to food should not be something that can be determined based on a social security number but rather on need. The Center where access to food should only be given if you have legal status is what heightened food insecurity in undocumented immigrants in the first place. These two centers have strengthened people to resist marginalization. While one group values their oppression, people of all colors consistently resist the oppression by putting in action their beliefs and providing services for all.