There is a
common saying that’s been resonating with me over the last week and half, that
‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone’.
In this case, I didn’t know how lucky I was to have what I have until I
saw it cruelly taken from someone else.
Since the accident on Parade Day that unfortunately resulted in Meghan
Madden losing one of her legs due to the negligent act of a drunk driver I have
definitely changed my outlook on life. I
think of the times we act carelessly, especially as teens because there is a
belief that were all invisible. But last
weekend proved to me that we aren’t invincible, even when we are completely
innocent and doing nothing wrong.
I’d always
wondered what it would be like to win the tweet of the week competition and
where I’d donate the money. However, there was no need for decision making last
week, for the cause that helped me win was directly where it was going. After
winning the tweet of the week competition last week my perspective on this class
has changed as well. It’s nice to sit
around and talk about all the good we can do for the community and the world,
however until the grants are finalized we haven’t done anything except talk. Last week I was overwhelmed with joy seeing
that we truly are a community that supports each other within our classroom and
that anyone can really make a difference.
As I told
Meg the good news in that $83 dollars would be supporting her from our class I
began to wonder if the money really should have gone to her. I’m not the best
tweeter and there definitely were better ones than mine, so I wonder why I won.
Was it that I had a personal connection to Meg? Was it that this event occurred
in our community? Is this idea of an
identifiable victim the reason that persuaded the class onto my behalf?
With these questions
circling my mind I began to do some research on the concept of identifiable
victims. This phenomenon has been proven
that people will be more inclined to donate money to an identifiable person
rather than unnamed victims or charities. This way of giving is tied close to
the heart rather than the head, but is there something wrong with this? Are we
missing out on bigger causes due to the bias we create?
While
exploring this topic I came across an interesting article that really changed
my view on this idea of the identifiable victim. This heart based donating is
due to a provoking of our emotions. I thought this concept was concrete,
however in India a study was conducted that represents that this stereotypical
idea of the identifiable victim does not add up and instead show something very
different. In India there is a belief in
caste systems and often low-ranking groups are not seen sympathetically like
they are here. In the study the higher castes represented the effects of
identifiable victims in the same way we view this concept, however the effect
was reversed for the low caste levels. Participants in this study were less
likely to donate to low caste members rather than high members even when the
identifiable victim was represented.
Furthermore we see that identity plays a huge part in our emotions, at
least in India where they still take caste systems seriously. This really got me thinking, did Meg win
because I truly deserved to win the tweet of the week or did her middle class
title and similarity to us give her the upper hand? Perhaps it is because we
know where the money is going rather than donating to groups, but I remain
skeptical.
Jen,
ReplyDeleteI think it was great that you won! I think the questions you raise are extremely important questions, not only in this class but in our future in philanthropy as well. I believe that all of these reasons had something to do with our vote for your donation/tweet. Although most of us did not know her we know you because of this class. You seemed deeply connected with her and the incident which in turn, connected us to the topic. This incident occurred on parade day which is a day to celebrate Irish heritage, Police, Firefighters, and many different events. When a tragedy occurs during a celebration it hurts all of us, especially an event that we look forward to all year. Lastly, the fact that this could have been prevented by safe drinking and safe driving practices. Drunk driving is a horrible problem in our nation and I see much of it first hand in the Fire Department. I connected to this personally because I have seen many people injured and die in front of me while I am extricating them from a vehicle. Seeing empty beer cans throughout the flipped car's and the stench of alcohol. This is a tough site to see and it is even harder when you have a connection to the person. Whether the person gets killed or injured or if the person simply gets arrested for drinking and driving, it is a sad occurrence.
Great post!
-Pat LaBuff
Jen, great post! I'm happy to see that even the tweet of the week donations are going making a difference in people's lives and inspiring others, instead of just the large donations that we will be handing out at the end of class. With that being said, I do agree with you that the idea of the "identifiable victim effect" raises some interesting moral questions that every philanthropic person comes into contact with. Your post actually reminded me a lot of Peter Singer's hypothetical situation in 'The Life You Can Save'. He proposes that most of us would not hesitate to save the child, even if we are a little inconvenienced. He then questions that, if this is indeed the case, why do we idly spend our money on things that we take for granted instead of donating it to the thousands of children who die everyday overseas. In relation to the identifiable victim, we have the drowning boy right in front of our faces; he is someone that we know we can help immediately, in that moment, and we know that our efforts won't be wasted. By donating money to charities that address international needs, even though they help many many people at once, we don't fully understand the scope of their troubles. They are not in front of us and their problems will most likely be something that we will never have to face. We don't know if our money will actually make a real difference in their lives or be used effectively. One of the most important concepts I drew from this scenario is that people feed off of the humanization of the victim because it creates a closer sense of emotion and fosters an unspoken bond between the donator and the needy. If there was a homeless child on the street begging you for money, you would be more likely to give him money than go donate that same amount to a charity helping homeless children in another country. With all that being said, I do think that the fact that the person and cause for the winning tweet of the week hit close to home was a large draw for most people in the class. It was something that happened in our community, to one of our peers, to one of our classmate's friends. Furthermore, I think that people also could identify in the sense that the unfortunate incident happened so randomly and during an event that most students were at; it could honestly have happened to any one of us. The idea of the identifiable victim is just another moral hurdle that all philanthropists must grapple with and decide for themselves if they truly care about the effectiveness of their money, or if there are more emotional ties linked to philanthropy that effect our decision-making.
ReplyDeleteJen,
ReplyDeleteCongrats on winning the tweet of the week. Personally, I think it's quite interesting that you are having this internal conflict, though definitely not pleasant and I am sorry you are feeling this way. I think you did the right thing. You found a cause that you could do something about and immediately acted. Yes, maybe the fact that the person is within our own community might have created a sort of bias, but why is that wrong? If your instinct was to help this girl out and you found a way to do so, it should not matter that the community's personal connection played a part in you winning the tweet of the week. In fact, I think it reflects well on us. We are standing together for one of our own.
The whole India bit, well, they have a lot more problems than what you described. I think it's good that you are reflecting on your involvement as a philanthropist in this case, but do not take away from the good deed you did. Simply because she is middle class, does not mean she does not deserve our charity or help. Yes, perhaps many other causes and people out there might have needed it more, but that does not make your philanthropic action any less right. There are so many causes and people that need our attention and if we are going to begin questioning ourselves about the good we do, then how are we ever going to move forward? No cause supersedes another cause, sure maybe there are causes that are more imminent, but your friend's terrible injury was no less important. Maybe you did pull at our heart strings, but as well learned early on in the class; philanthropy is about story telling. Your story or I guess in this case tweet, captivated us and it moved us to act.
There is no upper hand in this case, there is merely a terrible situation that happened and a friend that attempted to find a remedy. You're a good person for trying to find a way to help someone going through a tough time and I admire your internal conflict, but just know you did a good thing.
-Stephanie
Hey, Jen. I'm quite sorry you are facing this dilemma. It's definitely a situation we can all feel for, especially after learning all we have from this class. I believe that after this class, each and every one of us will ask ourselves, "Did I do the right thing?" after giving to any cause.
ReplyDeleteI am of the opinion that people cannot truly sympathize or even understand a cause, problem, or another person unless he/she can tie it back and relate it to his/her own life. We simply don't care to answer the question, "Why does it matter in my life?" if we can't relate to it. That's why foreign donations are always less supported. American people understand American people, but Americans don't really understand Ugandans, for example. It's really not our fault; it's just our human nature.
The example of the Indian caste system is definitely hard for us to relate to, because we have very little exposure to any similar system. For people of different castes in India, I'd imagine that someone from the highest caste is as distantly related to a lower caste member as someone from anywhere else in the world.
My opinions is that if philanthropy makes you feel good, then you are doing philanthropy right. Your philanthropy should feel natural, but you obviously need some constraints. We all feel the same way about donating to Meg: sure, it's not the best use of our money, but we feel positively about donating to someone who we know needs the money more than we do. We also have the added benefit of giving the money to someone who we can identify with very easily, which gives us the access to being able to see how that money can improve someone's life. I'm not saying that we gave to this cause to feel better about ourselves, but it helps us sways our decision. I don't think that's so wrong. I think each one of us could imagine a scenario in which it was us in her position. It sounds absolutely terrifying. I don't think anyone would disagree that if he/she were in that situation, we'd want people to do to they same thing as we did for her. And in the end, that's what a lot of philanthropy is: giving to causes that we understand and we want to prevent from happening to anyone else; and in a selfish way, we want to help prevent it from happening to ourselves.
My heart goes out to Meg and her family during her recovery. I'm glad that we were able to help out in any way possible, and even if it's just a gesture of sympathy, we definitely were able to show her that there are people who care for her.
Jen,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of an identifiable victim being used to garner donations is not a new one. As far as I know its been used to fight everything from Malaria in Africa to poverty in the US. I understand why you're having this internal conflict, but I don't think its warranted. We as a class did something great last Thursday. We were able to donate money to a girl in our community who really needed it.
She might have been an identifiable victim, but what drew me to your tweet of the week was how I could identify with her. I think you're right in saying we believe we are invincible as teenagers, when in fact we are far from it. To see a girl who had this belief ripped from her is terrifying because it could have been any of us.
When I see a picture of a girl on TV who is suffering from Malaria, I can't identify with her. I feel bad. And as much as I do feel bad for Megan, I'm also scared that something like this could happen to me.
As a class we were able to help her, even if it was only $83. That is something you, and the entire class, should be proud of.
I really enjoyed your post this week, Jen. I think the concept of the identifiable victim is an interesting one, especially since we now have the example of your friend Meghan Madden. We often see commercials where they show small African children who are starving or injured animals in order to get us to donate our money to their cause. However, we don’t often have a tragedy occur such as the one that happened on Parade Day that hits so close to home. I think Meghan is as relatable as a victim can be to us. She was at Parade Day which many of us attended, she is a college student and around the same age that we are. It hits especially close to home for me because you said that she was from Wantagh, and I only live two towns away from her in Massapequa. I am glad that you won the tweet of the week this week because I believe that she deserved to get our donations the most.
ReplyDeleteThis brings up the question of why do we feel more inclined to donate to an identifiable victim? What is so interesting to me is the fact that drunk drivers affect people every day. And often times, the victims are killed. Yet, we don’t feel more inclined to give money to those people. As I said above, all of us have so much in common with Meghan Madden. Many of us were downtown that day and it could have just as easily happened to one of us. We give because we can relate to the victims. I think that when we give, we should try to help people we know and people in our community. I am glad that we as a class helped make a difference in her life. I wish her a speedy recovery!