blog 10: gender and sex

This article speaks of sexuality in the U.S. At first, the writers shows how many partners  we have comparing now from two decate ago, and young people to older one. The authors explains that a lot of people have more than one partner in the U.S. they expalins that marriage is liked to why people now many partners.people starts have sexual intercourse and get married late or even ont get married at all. The writers also talks about the understanding of sexul orientation explaining there are heterosexual, homosexual and a few of bisexual. They claim that we are born to be either heterosexual or homosexual and it is the chance to change it is very small. They point homosexual are physically, spiritually and psycologically distinct from heterosexual because of the fact that they like a partner with the same sex. Also believe gay men less strong, less like men than the heterosexual men. They also occupy specific type of job such as fashion, hair,…

This article is very important and help understand more about sexual orientation. In the conclusion, the writers make an importan by saying that “the living world is a continuum in each and everyone of its aspect. The sooner we learn this concerning himan sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex.”  It is important of us to know what really sex is before banning or judging anyone. Homosexual are not homosexual because they want to offend, to be deviant or other. I believe that homosexuality is not a choice that we make that just something we born with just as heterosexual. It is true that we just normalize heterosexual just to force others who are not to like us.

If we can accept people now get married just for interest causing a lot of divorse, kids pregnancy, the fact that  people have a lot of partners and many other facts because we try to unedrstand them, we should do the same to same sex partner

extra credit: power of illusion

This video speaks of how race was created by us and how we perceive it. In part I, the narrator claim that we classify individuals not depending on their gene but on eye color, skin, body shape... and these deference, race. We often think that our physic and look is linked to athletic ability or intelligence. However, Pilar Ossorio explains that genetic is what can tell us about it. A group of student compares their DNA and found that we can have the same skin color, eye... Don't have anything in common. However, two individuals can look difference and have lot similarities. In this part I, I understand that race was made to not discriminate some people, to make them feel that they are not human, to make them suffer from the wealthy power.

 American, especially white uses race to economically develop the country. Here in the U.S, We just defined people base on their skin color. Jefferson was the first who talked about race in this country saying that we are all created equally. However, he had slave and justified as something that is a norm. We accept that all men are created equal but then having slave just mean that they are not really human.  It is obvious that race is used to rationalize and justify U.S society. Genetically speaking we see that resemblance doesn't depend on race. Even though we have difference skin tone or don’t look the same, we are not different, we are human.

Comparing when white was ruling South Africa and today, we see that the gap of income between black and white have widely change. We also understand black unemployment are wider than white. If a white and a black present in a job interview, the white are most likely to get hired than the black. This means that skin color determine our destiny. Black people are disfranchised and in the mid 1990 the Belle Curve become the best seller in the U.S just by claiming that black people are less smarter than white. The Belle Curve was just used to cute black people benefit. It suggests that black are inferior so there are no need to help for scholarship or anything for their success. White supremacy has dehumanized, divided, and killed, the non-white. Racism continues to control everywhere.

 We also find that race is just something that is created to control minority, those we don't have any power. I've seen a lot people getting denied for job because of their skin color. We usually tend to as we see in the chapter that something like sport is attributed to black, or white as intelligence. This doesn’t have any relationship and we are all the same. We usually find a way to make it a norm just like Jefferson. How can we separate something that is so mix? Now, it is not easy to tell a black and Spanish or Spanish and white. However we are still using just to limit others. In this country black are so discriminated that everything is hard for them. I would say that they block everything to make them not succeed. Race is just created for economic and politic purpose. It helps people who are in power (white) to maintain their status so they control others.

 

 

 

blog # 9

Race and ethnicity are culturally created by the dominant (white in the U.S) group and it is not a biological facts. Race and ethnicity also change over time and the U.S can be an example. So the majority group which I not base on numbers but power determine and decide about race and ethnicity but not the minority group which is the a collection of people who suffer disadvantages and have less power because of identifiable physical or cultural characteristics. The minority is usually discriminated and criticize as lazy, criminal.

In this article “Racial Stratification and Education in the United States: Why Inequality Persists”, JOHN U. OGBU points out that “underclass” structure or phenomenon is the cause many problems that blacks community encounter such as education, housing, lack of job… The author explains that before, they used race (slavery a way to make money) to build the economics of this country. Now, they switch it to class to just make those who make through to blame the one who doesn’t. He claims that “. For middle-class blacks it gives a sense of achievement and reinforces their eagerness to distance themselves from those who have not made it or cannot make it. In the past the problem was “racism” and was blamed on whites; today the problem is “poverty” and is blamed on the underclass.” We understand that in correlational (Marx) analysis, socioeconomic status determines social class and our academic success depends on our family background. However study shows that black people on every class level do less well than white.

Going to the chapter, we understand that the problem is the enduring gap between black and white, the prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes that have persisted on black people since slavery. Black people are seen to be gangster, selling drugs and they tend to make them believe them that they won’t make. Most of them are desperate and don’t know which way to go. Race stratification still exists and a both black and Spanish are the one who suffer from it.      

 

ectra credit: Ted Talk Education

In this video Ted talk education they were questioning and discussion why kids drop out school before they graduate from high school and solution they can provide. John Legend who was hosting the show claims that every kid has a chance to a better life.

Rita Pierson, whose parent’s grand mothers are educators, claims that we know why kids drop out. She explains that teachers need to build relationship with the kids because "kids don't learn from people they don't like." She explains "teaching and learning should bring joy". Dr Ramsey a chemistry teacher claims the teachers need to have method to confuse students and make them question, they will be more interesting on they are doing. For instance he states that a boring lecture in a projector can make students lazy and not curious to want to more and better of the educator's message even though it can make life easier to the teacher. Bring curiosity and inquire can bring more meaning tool to learning. A student mentions that the texting system is also a serious problem to students and can be a cause to why kids drop out school. He also sees that education is dysfunctional. Dr Angela, a psychologist, urges that what we need is a much better understanding of students' learning from a psychological perspective. Her studies show her that those who greet, which can mean sticking with our future, passion and perseverance long term goal, are the one who graduate and continue school than the others who don't. She explains that "we need to be greedy about getting our kids greedier." A students who after having a child at a young decides to go back to school and gets and diploma because she doesn't want more than working minimum wage all her life. Bill Gates explains who invests a lot on education explains that we all need people who give us feedback. He claims that teacher's deserve better and all the places where kids do well, there are a system of helping teachers. He gives the example that weekly study group where teachers can observe and see progress and make changes. He affirms that we need to them the tool they need to act on their duty and also revise their salary so our children will have a better change to succeed. He believes that we much provide support they deserve. The founder of the Harlem children zone Geoffrey Canada asserts that the business, the approach they take didn't change even though they know it is not working. He says that we didn't do anything about it and that a lot of school should be close because they are working. He explains that we need to think about these kids the same way we consider science and safety of America because the real safety is to prepare kids to the future so they can take care of our nation. "The American dream has failed us all" says Malcolm London. A teacher from Los Angeles Pearl Arredondo discuss the fact that why kids don't focus in class. Giving her owns example on how she couldn't do her homework because of the way her dad was, she claims she needed a teacher who are there to make her wants to do more. She understands we all need some short of help to go far, we need support. She claims that teachers need freedom to teach how they feel without following (lesson 2...) like we all understand. Teachers should be able to choose to teach what really the kids need t know and need. Lately, author and educator ken Robinson discuss that we are naturally difference and diverse. We need to reduce the curriculum so kids can perform better. Children are natural learners and they progress better with a broad and   diverse curriculum. He claims that teachers need to understand that. They also must understand learning because there is no teaching if there is no learning. Standard texting is not a bad thing but it should help unlike what we have now.  

 
 

blog# 8

In “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible”, Gregory Mantsios points what the media show us about social class explaining how they hide the reality or truth of these social classes. He explains that the media is lacking quality and tend to falsify or deform poor people and poverty in the U.S. He claims that the media doesn’t talk about how faster poverty grows and only one in a thousand articles in the Reader’s Guide to Periodic literature or one in five hundred articles in the New York Times talks about poverty. He points out that the poor are undeserved and are considered deviant because they are not part of the “norms” defined by the rich. He also says that the poor have to blame themselves only because they have chosen it. The media also denies the existence of the wealthy as a class even though all they talk about is mostly about their occupations. However they create middle class “we are all middle class” explains Time magazine. The media separates however, working class and middle class. He concludes “that the mass media is neither, objective, balanced, independent, nor neutral.”  

This is related to the video People Like Us on YouTube which discuss social class, poverty…, The first video explains that people who belong in the same social hang out together meaning that we separate ourselves from the one we doesn’t fit in our social class. There are a like of classes in the U.S such as what kind of neighborhood we live, what type of food we eat… We usually send our kids to private school because we don’t want to associate with the poor. We can understand by the reading that the media has done something about it. It almost makes us understand why most of thinks that we were middle class. Most of us are refusing to be poor.  One of the video points out that a little middle class family struggle and their beliefs of moving up has collapse because everything is more expensive and earnings aren’t ( college, car, house…).  In another video we understand that a lot of America doesn’t believe in “the American dream” anymore because cost of living is higher than our income (capitalism) and all their focus to get their children to college.

Going back to the book, we see that working class in Columbia, Ohio…, has been affected by the budget cuts in the past. That explains the mobility of class social and I understand that these days there are a lot of people from middle class who move to working class just as show in these video: “I used to be your neighbor.”

I believe that the media should care more about people especially on the poor since they are can change or even motivate other we can help to lift up a little the poor. People are getting poorer and they are trying a lot different ways such as girl who are trying to get married (video) with the rich guy, violence... however the wealthy are getting wealthier and they are the one who are shape our beliefs, norms…

blog #7

Deviance is behavior that does not confirm to basic cultural norms and expectations. An act is defined as deviant when it is marked publicly as deviant by those with enough power to enforce that designation. So we are talking about deviance when we break the norms and act different than the norms required. These are some examples of deviant acts of our everyday life.

The first example is about my first job in New York. Even though I used to work in my country, I never deal with people who insult me and saying disrespectful things to me. The supermarket I worked is located in a bad neighborhood it we usually have some case like that. One day, I wasn’t in a good mood and I almost fought a customer. I knew I was wrong (norms) to talk back to customer but I was just mad. I didn’t get fire but I got a warning and didn’t work for a week.

Another example is about one of my cousin. In my country especially in my family, we do not accept pregnancy without married. That’s the mistake my cousin did and everyone in the family was criticizing her and her father and mother. The worst thing is when child do something wrong, it is the mother’s false and men never get criticized. She almost killed herself and stops everything that she used to do (school...) because she got too much pressure. Also her mother couldn’t go anywhere without getting point out. This is an example of strain theory which emphasizes that strain or pressure on those who lack the means to achieve culturally defined goals leads them to pursue deviant routes to success.

This example is also linked to strain theory because he commits suicide just because he beaks. He was a student in the university and was found cheating during a national exam. The information was publish everywhere in the country. He went to the white house and burned himself.

One day, while my brother was going back to school at Sullivan (upstate New York), there was a young men who was smoking inside the bus. My brother explains that at first they thought it was from the outside because it couldn’t believe something like that. But when the smell fills out the bus, they call the cup and the young men got arrested. This is like a crime because it is again the law, it is a felony to smoke inside a bus especially marijuana in a public bus.

Before in my country when a young men were tight jeans, shirt, bright color… they used got criticized and everywhere they pass, people called them gay even though most of them aren’t. It wasn’t accepted at all. Anyone didn’t want a son, a brother or a sister to dress that way. However, it has because a fashion now and people accepted. This is an example of normalization which is previously deviant behaviors become accepted as conventional.

My last example is about a friend, she is Fulani a very conservative ethnic group. Their marriage is arranged and they married to each other. My friend was going to be forced to marry someone in her family she didn’t like. She was scared but because of me, she got involved and faced her family. She presents them her boyfriend who belongs to another ethnic. They were but didn’t have any choice because she lied that she got pregnant. My friend learns how to be deviant because of me. This is an example of differential association theory.

In “The positive functions of the Undeserving Poor” Gans points out the connection or relation because the undeserving poor and the wealthy. He explains that poverty can be both positive and negative to the poor and wealthy. He describes thirteen of the important functions of the undeserving poor. He can understand throughout this article that poverty is related to crime. When poverty persists and there are more and more poor, crime augments. We can also understand that poor people are stigmatize (which refers to the shame attached to a behavior or status that is considered socially unacceptable or discrediting). Because of stigma we see the inequality undeserving poor are isolated and decimated. They don’t have any type of consideration which leads them to harm others and themselves (strain theory).

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