The Divide

While watching Rosewood Courts: An Uncertain Future and A City Divided I was able to relate to so much of what was said and the emotions the people in the video was going through. I live with my aunt in the East side of Austin known as Montopolis. This side of town is not the side of town you would have found someone not of color at many years ago. However, now I am first hand starting to experience the gentrification and the way Austin is moving out those of lower income to build much bigger buildings and predominately for those who are white and have a very high social economic status. I see every day property builders try to come and buy my aunt’s house just to tear it down and make a newer and more modern house that will make them money. I have seen building pop up left and right in just the year that I have lived here. What they are doing is buying those who are vulnerable and majority of which are elder houses and buying them for very little of money. Then once they sell their house and receive the little amount of money they sold it for they are left to find another housing situation. However, Austin has made this pretty much impossible nowadays. Now the ones who sold their house are basically left with nothing and probably debt due to the high housing cost. Meanwhile, the ones who bought the house has made it into a condo and is making thousands and will continue to do it again and again all over East Austin taking advantage of those who are very vulnerable and of a lower social class. I find myself even having trouble to find affordable housing just to be in college. Austin has made what we call “West Campus” something so over priced and out of reach for some students we are left to live here in the East side where it is more affordable. This is another way of distinguishing those who are of means from those who cannot afford to live on West Campus. This is something very wrong and does not provide a great community for students with a lower social economic status. Living on the East side of Austin is not close to campus and most of the time events are held on campus so it is even more difficult to go to those events and interact with the UT community. This is just the way Austin made it for African Americans back then when they separated those of color from the whites just to get the necessary services such as school and housing. Austin is continuing down this route and has not made any changes even from many years ago. It is a city where those of lesser means continue to get put on the very bottom and not recognized. In twenty years I can only imagine what this city will look like then and just how much division there will be if Austin continues at this rate.

Reference

Zehr, D. (n.d.). Inheriting inequality: Austin's segregation and gentrification. Retrieved April 07,                  2018, from  http://projects.statesman.com/news/economic-mobility/

Zehr, D. (2015, January 18). Rosewood Courts: An Uncertain Future. Retrieved April 07, 2018, from          http://www.mystatesman.com/news/rosewood-courts-uncertain-              future/2AQ0caKscf0aYDDM5q4o3O/

Healthcare for All

After watching the video on Doctor Hotspot I was so shocked and very motivated to do something about this awful problem that America is facing. I had never seen or heard of anyone doing this so the fact that someone thought of this idea in order to benefit others and also work with social workers to understand and use a better approach to helping others was an amazing idea. This topic of health disparity is very near to my heart. My grandparents who are mostly Spanish speaking try to avoid the doctors office as much as possible. I always thought to myself “why are they so hard headed?” I had no idea the amount of trouble they went through just to even find a doctor without paying less than $100. Until this one time when they both got very sick and finally agreed they needed to go to the doctor’s office in order to get better. So I had to help them find a doctors office that took their insurance. I had no idea how hard and stressful it would be. I spent hours looking for a doctor and finally found one. That next day we went to the doctor’s office and we get there and they tell my grandma they do not take her insurance and she would have to pay out of pocket more than $300. I knew they were not right and I proceeded to go help my grandma and they finally took her into her office. It was something like that I had never experienced. I know every time I visit the doctor it is a quick visit with a $20 co pay. That is a privilege I failed to realize. So many people here in America are without healthcare, and it all stems from our social values here in America. As mentioned in our reading it is a “human right” to get the healthcare we all need(Braveman,2011). I personally dealt with this issue and it hurt me deeply that someone I loved could not get the adequate healthcare all because they did not make enough money to get the insurance needed. I even felt that the language barrier for my grandparents was a major problem that the health professionals did not care to address. I felt as if they almost wanted to take advantage of that fact that my grandparents could not fully comprehend what they were saying and could not accurately describe what they were trying to say to the doctors. Health disparity is very much happening here in America where you think is the place to be for opportunities but yet there are other countries out there providing better healthcare to their own citizens. This is a cycle that needs to be broken. No matter what race, gender, or social economic status you are your healthcare should not be determined by that. The treatment my grandparents and many other Americans are receiving is something I would never want someone to go through. Having to constantly worry about how much it is to get a basic medical treatment is a problem America should not be facing.  

References

Braveman, P. A., Kumanyika, S., Fielding, J., Laveist, T., Borrell, L. N., Manderscheid,    

    R., & Troutman, A. (2011). Health Disparities and Health Equity: The Issue Is Justice. American        Journal of Public Health, 101(S1).

Doctor Hotspot. (2011, May 13). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from 

    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/doctor-hotspot/

Sick Around The World. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from

  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/sickaroundtheworld/