Moral Muteness

At first, when asked to write on the topic of moral muteness, I was kind of at a loss for what to type. I like to think of myself as morally strong, and resolute in my virtues. But, then again, why would I want to think otherwise of myself? Everybody always likes to think that they would step in and help if they saw something the felt to be morally unjust. So after thinking about it all week, I still wasn't sure about how to approach the subject. I couldn't think of a time where I saw something I deemed wrong, and let it slip by. Then, I finally remembered an event from three years ago where I stood by and did nothing. My best friend and I had bought cheap tickets to a Chicago Fire friendly against the Mexican soccer team, Santos Laguna. Our seats just happened to be right in the middle between a large contingent of Mexican-American Fire fans, and Mexican-American Laguna fans.

I vividly remember seeing a Laguna fan aggressively approach the side that the Fire fans were on, and next thing I know, there is a huge fight happening between each side. Since I used to do mixed martial arts, I didn't really have an aversion to fighting or getting hit, so I've never really been afraid to step in and break up a fight when it needs to be done. However, this time, I stood and watched it all unfold. The worst thing I remember seeing that night was a Laguna fan laying on the ground while three Fire fans simultaneously kicked him. I just kind of stood there and watched as security slowly broke up the different fights that had branched off from the larger one. Normally, if I see a fight happening I try to step in and stop it, as most of the fights that happen here at OSU are between two drunk people, but I'm still surprised at myself that I saw it and didn't do anything to step in. I also find it incredibly interesting that I had put the incident completely out of my mind until this assignment brought up moral muteness. It makes me wonder what other incidents of moral muteness that I have tried to forget. Now that I have remembered it, its been weighing on me lately, and I wonder if I would have done the same thing. I do feel shame over it, despite how long ago it happened, as my mother raised me to act if I see moral injustice.

Implicit Biases

For my test on implicit biases, I took the age test, sexuality test, and race test. I wasn't really surprised about the results on the age test, as I scored "little to no automatic preference". I grew up in an area with a healthy mix of young and old people, and would spend a lot of time in senior assisted living home, so I was well exposed to elderly people. For the sexuality test, I scored "Strong automatic preference for straight people to gay people".  This test was the most surprising to me, as I was a theatre kid in high school, and as a result spent lots of time around gay men and women. I thought I was going to score a little to no preference, due to high school experiences. As far as the race test, I scored a "moderate automatic preference to European Americans to African Americans". I'm a little surprised about this one, but not nearly as surprised as the results of the sexuality tests. The community I grew up in too wasn't too diverse, so I was only slightly exposed to African American's until I went to high school.

Overall, I found these tests incredibly interesting, as I had thought I wouldn't have any preferences, but I can't exactly be an unbiased judge.

Blog #2

For my blog post demonstrating the Relational Leadership model, I picked a clip from Miracle, which is about the USA men's ice hockey team facing off against the USSR in the 1980 Olympic games. The scene above depicts a moment after a tie against Norway in a friendly. As far as the Relational Leadership model, we'll start with purpose. Coach Brooks is instilling a purpose in his players, enforcing how difficult it will be the beat the Russians. He stresses that the significance that being a representative of USA hockey brings, and how impactful a win would be. He is empowering the boys, by the same method. When the players start to realize that representing America is more important than their own personal accolades, they immediately start to play better. This clip also demonstrates inclusion very well, as he is pushing every single player just as hard, while building a family in the process. By putting the players through suicides long after the rink has closed down, he is building a bond amongst them and effectively turning them into a team. The ethics of what Coach Brooks does could be left up to discussion, but what he is doing is instilling national pride. This pride is something that some would call ethical.