Today I took my dog for his daily walk in fields near my home. Typically this walk is soothing. The trees are abundant and even the polluted lake helps create a serene landscape. Today was different due to the inclement weather that has collided harshly with this naturally beautiful landscape. I saw many majestic trees uprooted and laid fallen on the cold and wet ground. I felt a sincere sadness for these trees now dead, severed from the ground that once supported and nourished them. I caressed one carcass of a beautiful tree and communicated to it a deep regret that the harshness of its recent surroundings led to its early demise. This tree, naturally ingrained with strength and purpose, no longer generated enough energy to sustain life.
The severe weather and its disastrous impact on these trees moved me and appeared to perfectly symbolize the hazardous nature of society’s segregated social structure. Humans, like these magnificent trees, inevitably fall, immobilize, and decay when confronted by hostile environments. Segregation creates a hostile social climate that runs rampant in many forms, which manifests into unnecessary conflict for all members of the human race. People are then segregated by race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, culture, national origin, language, etc. This conflict creates advantages for some and disadvantages all. Conflict theory explores the function of conflict within society; it suggests that conflict is an interactive process of socialization (Coser, 1956). Through conflict group members orient towards a specific group consciousness to establish boundaries between groups (Coser, 1956). Conflict then institutes societal structure through the separation and organization of people into within-group sameness and between-group differences (Coser, 1956). Simmel (1955) states that “disassociating factors- hate, envy, need, desire- are the causes of conflict; it breaks out because of them. Conflict is thus designed to resolve divergent dualisms; it is a way of achieving some kind of unity, even if it be through the annihilation of one of the conflicting parties” (p.13). Like the trees I witnessed today, people are annihilated when in conflict with unrelenting hostile parties, motivated by greed and power. This has been evident throughout history and continues today to our detriment. The European Union, once a pinnacle for integration of people and hope for a better tomorrow, is now crumbling based upon notions of wealth and economy. In the United States, privatized prisons are over-crowded with people of color to the benefit of the entrepreneurs that own them. These are just two examples of segregation’s catastrophic aftermath. Segregation and its justification shocks me. The failure of society to learn from past mistakes, such as World War II, horrifies me. Like trees, humans are unique and similar simultaneously. The differentiation of people through segregation breeds hate, misery, misunderstanding, and at times homicide or even genocide. I felt an avalanche of pain and momentary doom when I gazed at this fallen tree that to me, represented the consequence of segregation so embedded in today’s social structure. I physically and emotionally existed within this foggy space most of the day. Then I remembered that progress is possible and that people certainly possess a capacity to change. I felt my profession, social work, for the billionth time ignite my soul. Integration, yet again, lamp-lighted my path. Today can be described as the day that some trees laid fallen. Today can also be described as the day that many more trees withstood hostility and remain firmly rooted, even stronger than before. Tomorrow there is hope that like trees, humans will emphasize what is similar and disregard what is different. References: Coser, L. (1956). The functions of social conflict. New York: The Free Press. Simmel, G. (1955). Conflict. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.
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