Structural Violence
Raghma Elmagbari
Margaret Lambeth
Structural Violence in the 1960s
Structural violence is invisible in the fact that people will not realize that it is there, even though it could be happening right around them. “Structural violence refers to systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantage individuals” (winter). Direct violence differs from structural violence because it brings peoples attention toward its brutality in which cases they are more likely to respond. Structural violence is and can be horrific as well as brutal, but it will go unnoticed. Some structural inequities will last for a long time, and over that period of time the violence will start to become normal. They go on with their lives thinking that the way they are being treated is something that they have to get used to and that there is nothing they can do about it.
The reason that structural violence occurs is “whenever people are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic or cultural traditions” (winter). Structured inequities can have the same outcome as direct violence; the only difference is that it takes more time for the damage to set in, more likely to happen and repairing the damage will take longer. Structural violence is something that will most likely end up as direct violence and it will be from the ones who are being oppressed and unequally treated. This is exactly what happened in Watts, LA during the 1960’s, when African Americans were being treated unfairly.
Even though the civil rights movement changed a lot of things for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, inequality and racism was still very prominent. With the Civil Rights Act being passed in 1964, a lot of things changed for some states, but some other states tried to evade this new law and California was one of them. California passed its own law, proposition 14, where they tried to “block the fair housing portion of the Civil Rights Act”(staff). This is how structural violence was
Margaret Lambeth
Structural Violence in the 1960s
Structural violence is invisible in the fact that people will not realize that it is there, even though it could be happening right around them. “Structural violence refers to systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantage individuals” (winter). Direct violence differs from structural violence because it brings peoples attention toward its brutality in which cases they are more likely to respond. Structural violence is and can be horrific as well as brutal, but it will go unnoticed. Some structural inequities will last for a long time, and over that period of time the violence will start to become normal. They go on with their lives thinking that the way they are being treated is something that they have to get used to and that there is nothing they can do about it.
The reason that structural violence occurs is “whenever people are disadvantaged by political, legal, economic or cultural traditions” (winter). Structured inequities can have the same outcome as direct violence; the only difference is that it takes more time for the damage to set in, more likely to happen and repairing the damage will take longer. Structural violence is something that will most likely end up as direct violence and it will be from the ones who are being oppressed and unequally treated. This is exactly what happened in Watts, LA during the 1960’s, when African Americans were being treated unfairly.
Even though the civil rights movement changed a lot of things for African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, inequality and racism was still very prominent. With the Civil Rights Act being passed in 1964, a lot of things changed for some states, but some other states tried to evade this new law and California was one of them. California passed its own law, proposition 14, where they tried to “block the fair housing portion of the Civil Rights Act”(staff). This is how structural violence was
Cited: Film: Crips and Bloods: Made in America Staff, FindingDulcinea. "On This Day: Watts Riots Erupt in Los Angeles." FindingDulcinea. 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 1 Nov. 2012. <http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/July-August-08/On-this-Day---Watts-Riots--Erupt-in-Los-Angeles.html>. "Watts Riots." PBS. Ed. Luna Ray Films. PBS, 2002. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/times/times_watts.html>. Winter, D. D., & Leighton, D. C. (2001). Structural violence. In D. J. Christie, R. V. Wagner,& D. D. Winter (Eds.), Peace, conflict, and violence: Peace psychology in the 21st century. New York: Prentice-Hall.