The Impact from Structural Violence

What?: I think the quote from Sen defines agency as the personal ability to act or do something in order to change the living situation. I think my own personal agency that bring me to be a college student are my self-confident, effort, self-motivation, and many other things. However, there are many other factors that make me become a college student, including my family economic background, the education I received, and the social environment I grew up. I think without those social factors, I may not be able to go to a college in a foreign country. Although personal agency is very important for individual success, the life stories provided by both Farmer and Stevenson tell us that we need look deeper on the relationship between the social structure and individual agency. In Farmer’s article, he asks “How might we discern the nature of structural violence and explore its contribution to human suffering?” (42). I think this question is very important, because many people may think the social inequality can be achieved by individual efforts, but they ignore considering the impact from our social structure on individual agency. The life story of Acephie tells us that many poor women in Haiti cannot really give out of their horrible life situation because of the social structure. Acephie’s family was living in a nice and fertile land, and they make good income from selling their home-grown agricultural products. However, the government decided to build a dam on their land, so they have to move to another place. Because of the governmental policy, Acephie’s life has changed completely. After moving to another place, Acephie’s family couldn’t grow the agricultural products any more, so they didn’t have enough money to survive. Acephie started to have sexual relationship with other males, because she though by doing this can get her out of poverty. However, during the sexual relationship, Acephie was effected with HIV and her life was totally ruined by the disease. Some people think because Acephie made a bad choice to have sexual relationship to earn more money, she ended up with effecting with HIV. Some people think it is Acephie’s personal agency causes her suffering in her life, but they forget to think about what cause her to make the choice. A comment from Acephie from Farmer’s article, “What would you have me do? It was a way out, that’s how I saw it” (34). I think in Acephie’s situation, she doesn’t have any choices to get out of the poverty except having the sexual relationship with men. If the government provides financial aid or other kinds of support to Acephie’s family, they will have enough income for their family and Acephie will not make the choice to have sexual relationship with other men. The government policy is a part of social structure, so I think it is the structural violence that cause Acephie’s tragedy. In the article, Farmer also says “Our cursory examination of AIDS and political violence in Haiti suggests that analysis must, first, be geographically broad” (42). I think it means that we have to look on the larger scale of the causes of those extreme suffering in order to have a broad idea of the root causes. And example of this is Acephie’s case, because of the government policy and the coup cause the terrible situation in Acephie’s life. Farmer also says “The analysis must also be historically deep” (42). The history of political instability in Haiti is also an important cause of Acephie’s sufferings. And also the descendants of Haitians are people kidnapped from Africa and became slave for many plantations. The history factor plays an important role that causes the poverty and social unfairness in Haiti. The slavery also existed in American history, and the racism problem has passed down from the history to modern time. The south part of the U.S. used to have many slaves work in the plantations, and all the slaves were not treated as human beings. Accordingly the racial inequality is from the past, and it still exists in many parts of the South States in the United States. From Stevenson’s Just Mercy, Stevenson says “I grew in poor, rural, racially segregated settlement on the eastern shore of Delmarva Peninsula, in Delaware, where the racial history of this country casts a long shadow” (13). Because of the racially segregation, people live in those segregated settlements don’t have equal access to better schools, government subsidy, healthcare, job opportunities, and many other things. And the geographic factor also causes people live in those areas become more disadvantage in the society. In Just Mercy, Stevenson says “African Americans lived in racially segregated ghettos isolated by railroad tracks within small towns or in ‘colored sections’ in the country” (13). The places where African Americans live are not very attractive for most people, the neighborhoods are not safe and lack of resources for healthcare, education and other services that people can easily get in other neighborhoods. Accordingly, I think both the history and geography are essential for having a deep understanding about the racial inequality.

So What?: I think many people are conflating the structural violence and the cultural difference in the global society now, however, structural violence and cultural difference are two completely different things. Some people start to use cultural difference to explain everything, for example, people may think the headhunting in Philippines is a culture thing and develop a stereotype thought that Philippines have violent culture. In the article, Farmer asks “Is every culture a law unto itself and answerable to nothing other than itself?” (47). Farmer questions that culture may not be the answer to everything, and the society is more complex and has many different components other than culture. The social inequality in our complex societies cannot be be explained just by culture, and we need go deeper into the social structure to find the answer. Using cultural difference to explain everything can also cause people think that many things cannot be changed because they are cultural. In Pathologies of Power, Farmer says “Many found themselves unwilling to condone social inequality merely because it was buttressed by cultural beliefs, no matter how ancient or picturesque” (47&48). Farmer points out that people who are unwilling to change social inequality because they think it is cultural belief and cannot be changed easily. However, I think most of the social inequality is caused by structural violence, and we need have a deeper understand on the structural violence in order to better address the social inequality issue. When people think it is the culture that causes the social inequality, it can create a gap between those different cultures, because people start separating based on culture. The abuse of culture can lead to cultural determinism and essentialism, and make people ignore the individual sufferings and attacks on dignity. In Pathologies of Power, Farmer says “The abuse of the concept of cultural specificity is particularly insidious in discussion of suffering in general and of human rights abuse specifically: cultural difference, verging on a cultural determinism, is one of several forms essentialism used to explain away assaults on dignity and suffering” (48). From the case of ChouChou, if people use culture to explain this tragedy, people will say something like “it is the culture in Haiti.” and “Haitians have violent culture”. However, the real reason causes ChouChou’s death is the structural violence, the lack of laws that can protect the poor people and the absolute authority given to the military cause the soldiers can easily kill those powerless people and don’t hold any responsibilities. Many African Americans also are suffering from the social inequality that caused by the structural violence particularly the unfair justice system. We can see a lot of news about many unarmed African Americans shot by police, because the stereotype thought that African Americans are violent and cause some police think they are dangerous, but the truth is not like that. In Just Mercy, Stevenson says “The black people around me were strong and determined but marginalized and excluded” (13). Most of the black people are not violent and they are all good people, but because of the discourses in our society some people think all black people are violent and dangerous. InJust Mercy, Stevenson asks “The more I reflected on the experience, the more I recognized that I had struggling my whole life with the question of how and why people are judged unfairly” (13). I think the reason why people especially African Americans are judged unfairly is that the minority people are marginalized and separated by the society, the minority people don’t have the equal opportunities as the majority people have, so they have to work harder to gain a better life. It is true that many African Americans are very successful, but the unfair social structure have added extra burden on many minority groups. Accordingly, I think the abuse of cultural difference to explain everything can led us to a more segregated society and we need have a deeper understanding on how the social structure cause the social inequality in the world.

Now What?: I think the social justice system is one of the social structure cause the inequality in the American society. And the social inequality doesn’t only exist in the U.S., it is a global issue. In China, I think one of the reasons that cause the social inequality between the rural and urban area is the lack of infrastructure in the rural area. In rural areas in China, people don’t have access to health clinic and schools, so even those people want to get out of the poverty, they don’t have the opportunity to do it. I think the lack of infrastructure, which is also part of the social structure, has caused the great gap on the living standard between the urban and the rural areas.