Geographies of Social Justice

(A poster from See Red Women's Workshop) “A woman’s place is in the home,” is a common phrase used to remind women of their lack of autonomy. It was not always this way, as work within the home and work outside of the home were both deemed necessary and important. It was not until the industrial and capitalist revolution in Europe that this sentiment started to change. There began the difference between the “home-owner” and “home-maker.” The work that women did within the home seemed less important compared to the new and shiny jobs in the city, where men would work to earn money (something women did not receive from their work). Money is a large deciding factor of something’s worth. Where men make money for their work, women do not. This deems women’s work within the home invaluable because it does not grant women the opportunity to participate in the capitalist economy. Because a woman’s work does not have monetary value, it has moral value. Gill Valentine (2001) in Social Geogr...

Empty Spaces

Last week I had a chance to float the Green River through the Gates of Lodore and Split Mountain Canyons in Dinosaur National Monument. It’s a trip that has been on my list for a long time but only a small number of permits are issued to boaters via a lottery system and competition is fierce. When a company I work for offered me a spot on a trip, I jumped at the opportunity. I value my experiences in the wilderness above almost everything else in my life, but my perception of national parks as untouched, unpeopled spaces is based on a socially constructed idea of wilderness that is reinforced by the displacement of native peoples. In his book Wilderness in the American Mind, Roderic Nash discusses how American ideas of wilderness have shifted. Early European settlers failed to recognize that the American wilderness was land ...

East Jackson, Ohio: Racism, Race, and Identity in Appalachian Ohio - Ian Simonton

(I'm just posting this for Ian, who was having trouble with Blogger! - Risa) I grew up in Waverly, a small town in south-central Ohio. Waverly is overwhelmingly White, and not by accident. The village was a “Sundown Town” for much of its history, well into the twentieth century. This meant that Black people were not allowed to be in public past dark and certainly could not live within town limits. This racist legacy lingers on today in the form of a lack of diversity (over 96% White) and an uneasy feeling for many people of color. As people of color weren’t permitted to live in Waverly (or even be on the street past dark), a community with a Black majority was founded about five miles east. This community, East Jackson, lies on the other side of the Scioto River, among the steep Appalachian foothills of eastern Pike County. It has a unique history, founded by individuals unwanted in other communities, not because of their deeds but bec...

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created by students in Geographies of Social Justice, Ohio University