Grad School Taught Me Something.

In grad school to be a better social worker. I think a lot, now. I need somewhere to put all those thoughts.

[micavel-deactivated20210724]

id rather be vain than learn to hate myself again

[milikkashad]

This project ‘Can I Just Be?’ is a project I’ve been working hard on for the past few weeks. It’s 2015 and African-American youth are still being stereotyped and grouped together. So I went out, got out different reflections of African-American youth and asked them to describe their experience as a young African-American in an “I am” and “I am not” statement.

Thank You To Everyone Who Participated. 

Photography Done By: youdontnomii

This photo set is also accompanied by a video starring myself and directed by delafro check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu7aEvF5MpM

[brutereason]

For those living in the margins, empathy arrives—in crumbs—only when someone finds a way to attach a marginal issue to privileged people. To make feminism appeal to men, women call themselves “sisters, daughters, mothers, and aunts” of men, rather than people who are under attack by patriarchy. They are forced to ask “What if she was your mother?” rather than “Why can’t you see her as her own person and acknowledge her pain on her own terms?” The women, and their experiences, become an afterthought. Their voices are only heard when they can prove that feminism will help men too. They are displaced from the center of their own fight.

Rookie » Empathy Isn’t Everything (via brutereason)

[universalequalityisinevitable]

[laughing-treees-blog]

i couldnt agree more

[sciencetylia]

FYI, the speaker is David Suzuki; a well known Canadian Scientist and Environmentalist.

[scurt]

THISSSSSSSSSSSS

[hamletinparadise]

New favorite twitter - QuirkyMPDG, the ultimate Manic Pixie Dream Girl. 

[noitscool-deactivated20160319]

have you heard Chopin played on a melodica before?

[gradschooltaughtmesomething]

Almost makes me want to be on Twitter.

[pixelatedpixie]

“Money doesn’t buy happiness” ok and poverty buys what exactly

[drdadster]

where is the lie

[ratchetier]

Out of poverty creates strength and compassion. It’s weird how that works.

[pixelatedpixie]

i sure wasn’t feeling the strength when i was skipping class because i was too weak to walk there after going 2-3 days without food, and i definitely wasn’t compassionate when i was checking every time i walked home to see if there was an eviction notice on the door. stop trying to fucking make it seem like a good thing.

[gradschooltaughtmesomething]

Many people have strength and compassion without having been in poverty. Weird how that works.

[enattendantlesoleil-deact]

me during classes

“that’s racist”

“that’s sexist”

“there are more than two genders”

“ok but could we maybe not use that word”

“that’s ableist”

“there aren’t enough girls in here”

[bobbsayshi]

•"you’re assuming everyone in here is heterosexual"

[frozenlettuces-deactivated20240]

“you’re assuming no one in here has ever battled a mental illness”

[gradschooltaughtmesomething]

Even in social work school...

[pinkietoons-deactivated20190204]

Bitch called me ugly I said “Bitch where?” She said “underneath all that makeup”

I said “patriarchal ideals of feminine beauty are pinning us against each other how about you take my business card, I’m a makeup artist. I am so glad you appreciate my work.”

[nitro-nova-deactivated20180206]

I’m pretty sure you optimized the execution on that. Nicely done.

[thevelvetdevil]

LOVE THIS

[melanin-diary-deactivated201710]

[smoochesfromstacey]

☕

[black--lamb-blog]

I forgot about this one

[philyptian]

“PALESTINIAN GIRL, YOUNGEST DOCTOR IN THE WORLD”

“When someone enrols in the medicine school that one of the longest schooling required profession, by the time they finish school they will be around 30-or at least on their late 20s. But not for this girl; Eqbal Asa’d is a Palestinian Muslim woman that started the Medicine school when she was just 14 years old, ‘myhijab.info’ reports. Asa’d got her Bachelor degree in Medicine with Honors and was set by the Guinness World Records as the youngest doctor in the World, according to the report. She has been signed to go to Ohio, U.S to continue her education even further and become a Pediatrician.”  - Source

YOU GUYS SHE IS THE YOUNGEST DOCTOR IN THE WORLD. SHE IS A FEMALE, A MUSLIM AND A MINORITY. AND SHE IS THE YOUNGEST DOCTOR IN THE WORLD. 

WHY ARE WE NOT HEARING MORE ABOUT HER?

[brwnqueen]

YES GURL GET IT

[salon]

[salon]

John Oliver perfectly sums up everything that’s wrong with standardized testing

[oreides-blog]

the funny thing abt being homeless is that you can have an income, score temp jobs, make money and still be stuck as fuck in homelessness. its hard to rent an apartment or get consistent income (or a job with health benefits) when you have spotty, erratic work history and big gaping holes in your renter history. they can figure out churches you use for addresses, like. its not that hard to tell on an application that something’s up.

basically, ive found, the whole “work real hard!!!” mindset is too emphasized by people who arent homeless and have no idea how things work. BEING HOMELESS IS YOUR JOB. being homeless is work, yall, i swear to you. finding resources is work and after a couple years you could sell sweatbands to a shoe salesman. its a trauma of powerlessness, you have to read people, you have to lie and you have to know who to be genuine to at the right time when you want to spit back at the world thats shitting and pissing all over you.

it doesnt matter how hard you work- it matters how kind your friends are, the luck you stumble into, and honestly? if you have kids. plenty of homeless people trying to get off the streets and away from the drugs and violence will let themselves get pregnant/start a family with someone even if they dont want to just because there are WAY more options for homeless people with kids, free housing, decent shelter rooms, food, etc. single ppl esp young people in their 20s & 30s are shit out of luck and shelters for us are dangerous, more dangerous than spots you can scout out on your own. 

if you don’t even have a car like. it’s terrifying. it’s literally like fight or die trying? and a lot of fucking people die trying. a lot of people die yall you dont understand. they cant handle it, its really fucking difficult to stay even valuing your own soul when this is your life, theyll sink into some addiction to feel okay. or they get hurt, or they push the wrong buttons, or the cops get to them, or whatever. 

like feeds at churches and shelters and that shit is just like. push the line through, go home and sleep soundly at night because you Fed Some Hungry Folks. but like listen none of that helps. it helps but like in a superficial way, the same way punching someone and then handing them an ice pack and some pills is helping. youre still playing into a system that keeps people there.  all im saying is like. if youre not worried about your bills and life is good, give that bum a fucking dollar okay. who cares if he’s gonna drink it away, maybe he’s trying to get a bus to another spot, or maybe he’s craving a cheeseburger that will make him feel normal for five seconds and remind him of better times. WHO FUCKING CARES ITS A DOLLAR. if you see someone hitching with their thumb out and they dont look threatening to you (you can tell a stable homeless person by how well-put-together their backpack is, hitchhikers especially since theyre trying to get a ride), pick their ass up, even if they have a dog- that dog is their only protection and true comfort in a cruel world and its probably well behaved and been in a lot of cars very quietly. 

like but please just keep homeless people a topic. keep talking about it. because yes like its a huge privilege i have a laptop and internet and a roof over my head another week, but i have met hundreds and hundreds of homeless people who have nothing or maybe a cheap phone w minute cards. like i cant express, even to my friends, all the people ive met who are totally cut off from society and just trying to die happy? even in pain from chronic illnesses, even suffering, they take care of each other, and no one fucking knows. 

like when i see people talk about homelessness and it wasnt prompted by me i want to cry because its this invisible world of so much suffering and society does everything in its power to keep it off your mind. 

[questionall]

[maddybowman]

[goobus-deactivated20171001]

HOLY SHIT THIS PUN

[kh2rac-deactivated20181224]

OMG

[sw-or-gtfo-deactivated20211219]

annekewrites:

get-yr-social-work-rage-on:

youfuckingloveitt:

get-yr-social-work-rage-on:

Just saw a social work job for being a counselor in a residential treatment facility for children. Required a bachelor’s degree, CPR certification, a driver’s license and auto insurance. Must be able to put children in holds and teach them therapeutic lessons about socialization and emotions. $11.55 an hour The same organization then listed another job opportunity. Custodian, GED required, $12.55 an hour. Catholic Charities is the employer, by the way. And next year minimum wage in this state will be $9.50, which is just about minimum wage if you have no dependents. Just for reference points. Their carpets are getting better care than their children.

This is what I’m struggling with right now. The average pay post grad for bachelors level work is $10-13 an hour.

Well, spending another two years in school and 40k on an additional degree will transport you to the magical land of MSW, where you make $15-$20!

Once you spend another 2-4 years and 5-10k more to get licensure, you enter the mysterious world of $30 an hour. What is it like there, do you think? Do they… do they own houses?

That’s about where I am (full-time, top of NYS civil service salary grade 18).  I “own” a house that is a piece of crap of a fixer-upper, but was at least able to get the mortgage, a car that has 200,000 miles on it but is at least paid off and MINE, and I am trying to deal with All Of The Debt (consumer credit and student loans, because that was the only way to keep things pasted together WHILE I was doing field, because of fun situations like “the utility company has condemned your piece of crap house until you scrape together the funds to have ALL OF IT re-wired, so if you want to stop crashing on couches you’d better find a way”).  Right now my spouse has very sporadic part-time work, and couldn’t work before because medical stuff (mostly to do with severe and incompletely treated sleep apnea, now under control after a change in CPAP *and* surgery).

And I can’t afford to take the pay cut to get license-qualifying experience.  Maybe I can do that at some future point when/if my spouse is able to work a full-time schedule without passing out midway through it on a consistent basis and when/if an employer will hire him full-time despite spotty part-time work history through all the time I was chasing academic credentials.

I wanted to go the academic route, but I can’t afford to take the paycut to do that or to get the two years of post-MSW experience that would let me do that.  Again, maybe someday.

It’s all one big level treadmill where it seems like you have to push just as hard and wreck yourself just as much to get anywhere.  (Of course, I have to also remind myself that my salary *is* supporting a family of four…)

Ugh, social work, the professional field where people are like “gosh I’d love to get the intensive training/education to enter this professional highly credentialed sphere but I really can’t afford to make less than I do right now, so…”

Like what other fields do you get to be like “man I want a masters but I can’t afford how that would lower my lifelong earning potential”

[notcisjustwoman]

Does the $11.55/hour job include insurance and other benefits? Does the janitor get benefits? Shit, I’d be the janitor at $11.55/hour if I could get some god damn health care.

[gothzalez]

Really irks me that in this post, being a custodian is being glamorized. I believe that in this weird is an unusual job opportunity and generally the people occupying custodial jobs are undocumented, without a degree, and are robbed of their money. I’m not discrediting the fact that it’s bullshit that we pay all this money to get better degrees and are still paid shit but honestly the comparison makes it seem like custodians should be paid less because it’s a job that doesn’t require skill and it bothers me.

[notcisjustwoman]

Yeah. It’s complicated. As a working/poverty class woman, I have no hate for people who go through a lot of schooling because they want to help others and capitalism doesn’t really let you do that very easily. But there are possibly some implications here that are bothersome.

[sw-or-gtfo-deactivated20211219]

I had hesitated about making this comparison because custodial services often gets lumped in as some generic stand in for shitty worthless labor, and the comparison here for me wasn’t the jobs themselves but the job requirements as compared to the wages, and that both were coming from the same agency (so they know this is their set up). This was meant to be a post about the exploitation of social worker labor, and the exploitation of our clients (because you know those kids generate more billing than 11.55 an hour, and that money is going somewhere, whereas clean carpets generate no billing hours but are worth putting more resources into). It was also meant to focus on the lie of agency employers, because this is a field that tries to emotionally manipulate workers via mission statements and lip service to shared values of service and helping others, but when you lay down the budgets and see the revenue clients are generating and the lowest wages in the building, you see how little agencies actually care about serving clients well, but they will surely manipulate workers by shaming them for not tolerating this set up.

BUT beyond all that social work is definitely a field that has thumbed its snooty middle class aspiring nose at others, for a wealth of historical reasons about the birth and gate keeping of our field, but also (in my opinion) because it’s one more way to keep the clients separate from and lower than us – our clients are poor, our clients are manual laborers, our clients are financially exploited, but not us! We are the know-better educated helpers! And to some degree, that shittiness running through the heart of social work is also responsible for these low wages, because the perception of being better/different than our clients is part of the unstated compensation for many low paying social work roles.

[vulvapeople]

Are we going to talk about how it’s mostly women doing social work?

I don’t know what the actual breakdown is among custodians, how many are male or female.  It seems like most are male, but, regardless, custodial work is coded as men’s work, while housekeeping is coded as women’s work.  Wages for housekeeping can vary, but I’ve seen some that pay as little as minimum wage, certainly nowhere near $12.55/hour.

[stardustcrusader]

american sex education be like

[stoickgotrunoverbyanightfur-blog]

UI JUST SPIT OUT MY JUICE

[gradschooltaughtmesomething]

omg

[sw-or-gtfo-deactivated20211219]

annekewrites:

get-yr-social-work-rage-on:

youfuckingloveitt:

get-yr-social-work-rage-on:

Just saw a social work job for being a counselor in a residential treatment facility for children. Required a bachelor’s degree, CPR certification, a driver’s license and auto insurance. Must be able to put children in holds and teach them therapeutic lessons about socialization and emotions. $11.55 an hour The same organization then listed another job opportunity. Custodian, GED required, $12.55 an hour. Catholic Charities is the employer, by the way. And next year minimum wage in this state will be $9.50, which is just about minimum wage if you have no dependents. Just for reference points. Their carpets are getting better care than their children.

This is what I’m struggling with right now. The average pay post grad for bachelors level work is $10-13 an hour.

Well, spending another two years in school and 40k on an additional degree will transport you to the magical land of MSW, where you make $15-$20!

Once you spend another 2-4 years and 5-10k more to get licensure, you enter the mysterious world of $30 an hour. What is it like there, do you think? Do they… do they own houses?

That’s about where I am (full-time, top of NYS civil service salary grade 18).  I “own” a house that is a piece of crap of a fixer-upper, but was at least able to get the mortgage, a car that has 200,000 miles on it but is at least paid off and MINE, and I am trying to deal with All Of The Debt (consumer credit and student loans, because that was the only way to keep things pasted together WHILE I was doing field, because of fun situations like “the utility company has condemned your piece of crap house until you scrape together the funds to have ALL OF IT re-wired, so if you want to stop crashing on couches you’d better find a way”).  Right now my spouse has very sporadic part-time work, and couldn’t work before because medical stuff (mostly to do with severe and incompletely treated sleep apnea, now under control after a change in CPAP *and* surgery).

And I can’t afford to take the pay cut to get license-qualifying experience.  Maybe I can do that at some future point when/if my spouse is able to work a full-time schedule without passing out midway through it on a consistent basis and when/if an employer will hire him full-time despite spotty part-time work history through all the time I was chasing academic credentials.

I wanted to go the academic route, but I can’t afford to take the paycut to do that or to get the two years of post-MSW experience that would let me do that.  Again, maybe someday.

It’s all one big level treadmill where it seems like you have to push just as hard and wreck yourself just as much to get anywhere.  (Of course, I have to also remind myself that my salary *is* supporting a family of four…)

Ugh, social work, the professional field where people are like “gosh I’d love to get the intensive training/education to enter this professional highly credentialed sphere but I really can’t afford to make less than I do right now, so…”

Like what other fields do you get to be like “man I want a masters but I can’t afford how that would lower my lifelong earning potential”