SRC on Resilience

Summary: In her article, "The Profound Emptiness of Resilience," Parul Sehgal ascertains that people tend to blame real social problems on lack of resilience and character. She discussed how nowadays government agencies and universities include in their mission goals the idea of resilience. However, people tend to think that college students are weak and need parents, which is pretty much saying that they lack resilience. Sehgal said that the use of guidance counselors at schools has almost doubled. Students are simply more emotional and let things get to them. However, we can't let this fact cloud our judgement regarding racial issues in school settings. Just because the students are more emotionally weak, does not mean that racial harassment isn't occurring as often. There is now a new form of resilience were these students have started to speak up against racial discrimination. They are being resilient by continually making a stand and growing as a result of their grit.

Response: Many of Parul Sehgal's points resounded with me because after all, this city of Memphis has been built on grit and grind. We strive to get better each day and go through trials and tribulations to reach success. However, Memphis still faces issues of racism as well. There is a large amount of division between different classes and races. Therefore, I think that we shouldn't look at college student's stands for racism as emotional weakness, but rather as resilience to push for a better and equal country. In Facing History and Ourselves, we strive to speak out, break down barriers, and remain resilient in these dark times. There have been countless police shootings against black civilians, which shows how out of touch two races can be. The powers of grit and grind have to be put to work to ensure an end of discrimination.

Citation:
Sehgal, Parul. "The Profound Emptiness of ‘Resilience’." The New York Times. The New York Times        Company, 1 Dec. 2015. Web. 7 Dec. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/magazine/the-        profound-emptiness-of-resilience.html?_r=1>.