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social justice event ~ father daughter dance in prison



For my social justice event, I chose a TedTalk by Angela Patton, titled, "Father Daughter Dance in Prison".  While hearing Patton speak and seeing pictures during her presentation, I got very emotional.  Not often do I realize the hardships for families separated by bars.  Especially young girls who look up to their fathers and long for a special connection to them.  A comment made by Patton that really stuck out to me was her closing statement, "because a father is locked in does not mean he should be locked out of his daughter's life".  It is easy to take for granted the simple things such as being able to go to events with a family member.  It warmed my heart to watch these young girls and fathers get excited over the opportunity to spend time together and get dressed up.  Yes, those fathers were behind bars for a reason but that does not mean that their children should have to miss out as well.  By doing things as such, both parties gain happiness, something they probably do not often feel, and thats what truly matters.  I can connect this scenario to Christensen's thoughts on stereotypes and oppression.  It is a stereotype that fathers in prison are bad or that their daughters are not interested in seeing them or even that they do not even deserve the chance.  This then leads into Delpit's codes of power.  Those in power in this scenario are the ones who are privileged enough to "obviously" attend a dance with their father.  A third piece I can connect "Father Daughter Dance in Prison" to is SCWAAMP.  Within the pictures during the film, I noticed few, if any, white daughters/white fathers.  And for some reason I am not believing that it is coincidence.  The attendees of the father daughter dance in prison do not fall under some of the SCWAAMP categories.  These men were not part of the white race which sticks out the most to me.  I feel terrible for these families that get separated and miss out on memories with each other.  It is educational to see how a small act of generosity can bring so much joy and emotion to people, that is the main point  that I grasped from this TedTalk.  Below I attached some relevant and interesting links.  

 More on this story.

The "why" and some videos.

Families relationship with prison. 

Comments

  1. Dr. McKameyApril 5, 2019 at 8:33 AM

    Hey Jolie, Thanks for the social justice event update! I'm looking for your more recent blogs. Could you please post?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JolieApril 5, 2019 at 12:10 PM

      Hi Dr. McKamey, I post all of my blogs every week.. can you not see them? Please let me know!

      Delete

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