Summary Of The Art Of Savage Discovery
The article I read is, “The Art of Savage Discovery: How to Blame the Victim”, by Ryan William (1976). His book dives into how society has shaped our views on lower classes and how we’ve become accustomed to blaming people for their struggles. According to William, “victim blaming is cloaked in kindness and concern, and bears all the trappings and statistical furbelows of scientism” (p. 6). In other words, William states that when one “victim-blames”, it isn’t because they’re being prejudice, they are actually very concerned about the person and strongly feel that the solution starts within the person. We can relate victim blaming to community psychology in terms of understanding human diversity. In a generalized definition, human diversity
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Victim blaming can be looked as generalizing people due to the dimensions listed in human diversity. An example of blaming the victim is on page 1, when he recalls a sketch about a Dixiecrat Senator saying, “what was Pearl harbor doing in the Pacific?” Another example of victim blaming is if person A victim-blames person B for coming from a low-income family, and then states that person B isn’t capable of moving up in life. We can understand that person A not only looked at person B’s dimensions of diversity, such as socioeconomic status, ability/disability, and locality. Another example of where we can relate victim-blaming and human diversity is when we discuss crime. If we look at crime rates in Baltimore we instantly distinguish the “good” and “bad” parts of the city. For example, Canton and Federal Hill are considered the “good” parts of Baltimore, however the harbor area and the Westside of Baltimore are considered “bad”. So when it comes to crime rates, we see it flourishing more in the distinguished “bad” parts due to human diversity. Within Baltimore City, there are very extreme socioeconomic statues as well as a variance of races, ethnicities, and abilities/disabilities. For instance, Baltimore City has parts of predominantly Hispanic communities, Italian communities, African American communities, Caucasian communities,
Victim blaming can be looked as generalizing people due to the dimensions listed in human diversity. An example of blaming the victim is on page 1, when he recalls a sketch about a Dixiecrat Senator saying, “what was Pearl harbor doing in the Pacific?” Another example of victim blaming is if person A victim-blames person B for coming from a low-income family, and then states that person B isn’t capable of moving up in life. We can understand that person A not only looked at person B’s dimensions of diversity, such as socioeconomic status, ability/disability, and locality. Another example of where we can relate victim-blaming and human diversity is when we discuss crime. If we look at crime rates in Baltimore we instantly distinguish the “good” and “bad” parts of the city. For example, Canton and Federal Hill are considered the “good” parts of Baltimore, however the harbor area and the Westside of Baltimore are considered “bad”. So when it comes to crime rates, we see it flourishing more in the distinguished “bad” parts due to human diversity. Within Baltimore City, there are very extreme socioeconomic statues as well as a variance of races, ethnicities, and abilities/disabilities. For instance, Baltimore City has parts of predominantly Hispanic communities, Italian communities, African American communities, Caucasian communities,