With all these chapters I've talked about, it's hard not to notice that there are small things that can slowly effect the outcome of the statistics we see in our book. Whether it's giving food to a food bank, conserving energy, raising money for charities, supporting education and making sure people see the importance of school (especially in our own country), stepping up if you hear a rude comment about someone's race or ethnicity. Everything is supposed to get better with time, but it's never going to happen unless everyone comes together. I forgot what brand the commercial is advertising but the motto is "pass it on" and you see someone over seeing another person doing a good deed and then they themselves go and do a good deed, and so on. If you do something to make the future a little brighter for others, hopefully others will see the good you are doing and they will do the same for someone else.
I see racism in every form decreasing in "popularity" over time because when looking back at hour history you can't really ever see going back to that state of ignorance. Poverty on the other hand is hard to picture an outcome, since you have so many things to consider. Such as economics of not only that country but other countries buying or selling to that country. With a rise in poverty among children you find especially disturbing because there are only so many ways they can support themselves and eventually get out of poverty. The fact that we are loosing so many of our natural resources just adds to the diminishing hope that remains for our world. We will see that progression is only a good thing until it is taken advantage of, the things that are benefiting other countries are hurting the rest. We should support the people who are trying to make a living and support their families instead of supporting the few at the top who have control over the wealth, and monopolies.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity
What's the difference between Race and Ethnicity? An ethnic group is a social category of people who share a common culture, language, nationality, religion, and common norms, practices, customs, and history. While race is a group treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics, some of which are biological, that have been assigned social importance.
For this chapter I'm going to focus on the term color-blind racism. Something I honestly said I was, but now after understanding the term and reading articles about it I now see as a problem. In our book it states "color-blind racism-so named because the individual affected by this type of racism prefers to ignore legitimate racial-ethnic, cultural, and other differences and insists that the race problems in America will go away if only race is ignored all together." Did you ever consider yourself colorblind?
Behind the Color Blind
By Nordette Adams
You say you see no color.
I say you're full of it!
I hope when you look at me
you see black a little bit,
for when you say you see me
how can that really be
when part of who I am
is my ethnicity?
I like my hair, my skin tone,
I like my heritage;
It influences my art,
enriches how I live.
I like your hair and color
and even your eyes too,
one of my favorite hues is
that lovely shade of blue.
But I wouldn't want to be you,
I like myself just fine,
and don't want you to be me:
We'll both get there in time.
I know you like Scott Joplin,
and I love a Bernstein score,
I love good gumbo and pot pies,
one flavor'd be a bore.
When we escape these bodies,
and meet at heaven's gate,
then we can say "no color":
We'll have nothing to debate.
We'll be at peace in truth,
and understand all things,
but until then let's be real ...
Enjoy what difference brings!
And until that day in glory
when we are truly one,
let's love ourselves in color,
not pretend that we see none.
Consider what it means
to love without condition,
it means to see all sides of me,
yet love is your decision.
To be high but lay down low,
and love beyond yourself
is the best way to love others,
and have spiritual wealth.
But to claim you see no color,
and smile like all is fine
is to say you don't see wholely
and if so, we see you're blind.
Here is a link to a clip about redefining race and ethnicity. I like the end where the young girl says she choose between calling herself American or Chinese because her race is Chinese, but her ethnicity is American.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA7La5JgOUk
Personal opinion piece about how being color blind is not a solution.
http://uppitybrownwoman.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/being-colour-blind-is-not-a-solution/
Two sites/articles about color blind racism-
http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/0421online.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/361733/have_we_become_too_color_blind_a_look_pg2.html?cat=72
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Chapter 9: Global Stratification
In this chapter I'll be mostly talking about poverty since it interested me the most. The United States says relative poverty is with an income of $21,203 per household (starting wages for teachers). United Nations measures absolute poverty when a person lives on $1 a day, and Extreme Poverty is when someone lives with less then 75 cents a day. I could not live off live off $1 a day, I wouldn't have any of the things that are around me now. It would take you such a long time to save up simply for fabric to make a blanket to stay warm, for hospital care you know you need, and especially for food when you have a family. When they say ignorance is bliss, I feel selfish.
While in middle school I attended a science/outdoor camp in Wyoming called Teton Science Schools, you typically stayed there for a week, and at the beginning of that week you would scrape off all the food you wasted on your plate into a bucket. We didn't know why we did this the first day till after dinner. When the day was done the staff would show us all the food we wasted, and like you know, how others have none. So the goal of the week was to never scrape food into that bucket. I've worked in the food service industry and every time I see food wasted in bulk amounts it makes me sick and I also think of the lesson I learned at Teton Science Schools. Like our book says, "Growing more food will not end hunger. If systems of distributing the world's food were more just, hunger could be reduced."
Please go to this website below, its fun, super quick, and easy to start out with! answer a question and they will donate 10 grains of rice for every question you get right! Someone just got 4855 questions in a row right, that's so much rice!
www.freerice.com
Below are some articles on global stratification.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=21626
https://globalsociology.pbworks.com/w/page/14711295/Theories-of-Global-Stratification
I personally suggest watching sometime ( available on netflix) Blue Gold: World Water Wars, and the movie The Age of Stupid. Both movies about the same thing in general but it also shows the effects on poverty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0
While in middle school I attended a science/outdoor camp in Wyoming called Teton Science Schools, you typically stayed there for a week, and at the beginning of that week you would scrape off all the food you wasted on your plate into a bucket. We didn't know why we did this the first day till after dinner. When the day was done the staff would show us all the food we wasted, and like you know, how others have none. So the goal of the week was to never scrape food into that bucket. I've worked in the food service industry and every time I see food wasted in bulk amounts it makes me sick and I also think of the lesson I learned at Teton Science Schools. Like our book says, "Growing more food will not end hunger. If systems of distributing the world's food were more just, hunger could be reduced."
Please go to this website below, its fun, super quick, and easy to start out with! answer a question and they will donate 10 grains of rice for every question you get right! Someone just got 4855 questions in a row right, that's so much rice!
www.freerice.com
Below are some articles on global stratification.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=21626
https://globalsociology.pbworks.com/w/page/14711295/Theories-of-Global-Stratification
"Mad World"
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
This is a link to a trailer for a documentary called The End of Poverty? I haven't seen the movie but thought it looked interesting and wanted to share. All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRZnEBFYNS0
Friday, April 1, 2011
Chapter 8: Social Class and Social Stratification
Social Stratification, is a system of structured social inequality.
Social Class, is the social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social , political, and cultural resources of society.
PBS social class article
http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/resources/essays6.html
I picked this chapter because most people don't get to see the effects of the decisions that we make on a daily basis and how something we think that is so little like buying a shirt has such an impact on another country and how we are sometimes willingly allowing that impact to take place, myself one of them. I know that most of my clothes aren't made in the U.S. I also know that the people sometimes kids making my clothes aren't in the best situation and are being taken advantage of for the sake of consumerism, that I partake in.
It's funny how and when we confront problems in America, only when it's directly effecting us or someone we know very well do we ever feel like questioning the problem and trying to fix and find a solution for it. If it's a problem we can't see, then how is it ever going to effect us, we never look into the future to see the long term problems of our spending but only focus on whats in front of us. And we don't see the people working 12+ hour shifts making the clothes we only wear for a season, of people living in slums because we take advantage of other countries in order to let ours profit. Why is there inequality? Why are people so greedy? It's sad when brands define a person and set them in a social class, and tell everyone the kind of income we are making, and the status we have.
Word Cross!!!
Please watch this movie Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices, I watched it a year ago (available on netflix also). A lot of the movie shows how it currupted America, but a portion of it shows the workers in the factories in China and the living condition they have and the "Rules" they have to follow just to survive! The high cost of low prices!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6548480812335235955#
Below is an article about outsourcing and to quote my favorite part of the article;“India can provide our software; China can provide our toys; Sri Lanka can make our clothes; Japan can make our cars. But at some point we have to ask, what will we export? At what will Americans work? And for what kind of wages?” We are destroying our own economy. Of course there's only going to be a high class and a low income class, we ourselves are destroying all the blue collar jobs that America has prided it's self in. Of course we are going to loose our middle class!
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-21-3-c.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/oct2007/usa-o16.shtml
The Worker And The Tramp
Jack London
Heaven bless you, my friend -
You, the man who won’t sweat;
Here’s a quarter to spend.
If you did but mend,
My job you would get; -
Heaven bless you, my friend. -
On you I depend
For my work, don’t forget; -
Here’s a quarter to spend.
My hand I extend,
For I love you, you bet: -
Here’s a quarter to spend.
Ah! you comprehend
That I owe a debt;
Heaven bless you, my friend,
Here’s a quarter to spend.
Social Class, is the social structural position groups hold relative to the economic, social , political, and cultural resources of society.
PBS social class article
http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/resources/essays6.html
I picked this chapter because most people don't get to see the effects of the decisions that we make on a daily basis and how something we think that is so little like buying a shirt has such an impact on another country and how we are sometimes willingly allowing that impact to take place, myself one of them. I know that most of my clothes aren't made in the U.S. I also know that the people sometimes kids making my clothes aren't in the best situation and are being taken advantage of for the sake of consumerism, that I partake in.
It's funny how and when we confront problems in America, only when it's directly effecting us or someone we know very well do we ever feel like questioning the problem and trying to fix and find a solution for it. If it's a problem we can't see, then how is it ever going to effect us, we never look into the future to see the long term problems of our spending but only focus on whats in front of us. And we don't see the people working 12+ hour shifts making the clothes we only wear for a season, of people living in slums because we take advantage of other countries in order to let ours profit. Why is there inequality? Why are people so greedy? It's sad when brands define a person and set them in a social class, and tell everyone the kind of income we are making, and the status we have.
Word Cross!!!
Please watch this movie Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices, I watched it a year ago (available on netflix also). A lot of the movie shows how it currupted America, but a portion of it shows the workers in the factories in China and the living condition they have and the "Rules" they have to follow just to survive! The high cost of low prices!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6548480812335235955#
Below is an article about outsourcing and to quote my favorite part of the article;“India can provide our software; China can provide our toys; Sri Lanka can make our clothes; Japan can make our cars. But at some point we have to ask, what will we export? At what will Americans work? And for what kind of wages?” We are destroying our own economy. Of course there's only going to be a high class and a low income class, we ourselves are destroying all the blue collar jobs that America has prided it's self in. Of course we are going to loose our middle class!
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-21-3-c.html
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/oct2007/usa-o16.shtml
The Worker And The Tramp
Jack London
Heaven bless you, my friend -
You, the man who won’t sweat;
Here’s a quarter to spend.
If you did but mend,
My job you would get; -
Heaven bless you, my friend. -
On you I depend
For my work, don’t forget; -
Here’s a quarter to spend.
My hand I extend,
For I love you, you bet: -
Here’s a quarter to spend.
Ah! you comprehend
That I owe a debt;
Heaven bless you, my friend,
Here’s a quarter to spend.
Chapter 2: Culture and the Media
I want to start this chapter out with the link below. I see it as a sad picture because we take the innocence away from our children so easily.
http://www.thankgodiamfresh.com/documentary-how-the-media-influences-children-and-adults-alike/
While at my computer I look around and question how many brands can I find just looking around in my office. Just within the small space around my computer not including the whole room I can easily see more than 30 brands imprinting their images into my brain. I think that America's culture is shaped by our media, since most Americans have about 3 TVs per household, and that's not even including the computers that we have access to or the magazines we read the billboards we see on our way to work and the dozens of adds aired over the radio. You can find media and any type of brand advertising in any kind of media format. It's defacing America.
I chose this chapter about culture and the media, because I see media effecting our culture in a bad way and not in a positive light. I do however know that media has produced good things as far as getting information quicker, having new media formats to use our freedom of speech to get the word out quicker. Watch the video below, you'll see that you never really get the full story and that the news can shape the outcome of an election by simply not giving other running mates enough air time. The news these days seems to be giving out their own personal feelings on a situation instead of just covering a story and being biased. The news used to be a place where you can go and watch a story and be able to make you're own opinions about it, but now it seems like we are being influenced by what they want us to see and hear. Do you agree with how the media aired the elections in the video below? Do you believe this is still happening in today's television, radio, magazines, ect?
Below is a link I found about how the media influences us, and not always in a good way. An article by PBS on how mass media most of the time targets the easily influenced, vulnerable audience that are the kids of today.
http://www.pbs.org/perfectillusions/eatingdisorders/preventing_media.html
This is an hour long documentary about the media and the news/politics in the early 90's. How things are edited to benefit themselves and not the viewers. It's very good and insightful i recommend watching the whole thing.
http://www.thankgodiamfresh.com/documentary-how-the-media-influences-children-and-adults-alike/
Here are two links that I found interesting about culture and our media. The second link really interests me she asks a lot of good questions like, does being on facebook/twitter make you feel more connected to your friends or less? For me the initial wanting to be on facebook to talk with friends that lived else where all the time was nice and to keep up to date with everyone was a good thing, but when I look at the situation I feel less connected in some way, there's no face to face interaction which I feel people need, nothing seems personal anymore.
http://brandingbrand.com/blog/the-age-of-online-advertisements-what-we-want-to-see/
http://mashable.com/2011/02/23/social-media-culture/
A poem I found on culture.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cool-culture/
And here for fun is a word search...
http://www.thankgodiamfresh.com/documentary-how-the-media-influences-children-and-adults-alike/
While at my computer I look around and question how many brands can I find just looking around in my office. Just within the small space around my computer not including the whole room I can easily see more than 30 brands imprinting their images into my brain. I think that America's culture is shaped by our media, since most Americans have about 3 TVs per household, and that's not even including the computers that we have access to or the magazines we read the billboards we see on our way to work and the dozens of adds aired over the radio. You can find media and any type of brand advertising in any kind of media format. It's defacing America.
I chose this chapter about culture and the media, because I see media effecting our culture in a bad way and not in a positive light. I do however know that media has produced good things as far as getting information quicker, having new media formats to use our freedom of speech to get the word out quicker. Watch the video below, you'll see that you never really get the full story and that the news can shape the outcome of an election by simply not giving other running mates enough air time. The news these days seems to be giving out their own personal feelings on a situation instead of just covering a story and being biased. The news used to be a place where you can go and watch a story and be able to make you're own opinions about it, but now it seems like we are being influenced by what they want us to see and hear. Do you agree with how the media aired the elections in the video below? Do you believe this is still happening in today's television, radio, magazines, ect?
Below is a link I found about how the media influences us, and not always in a good way. An article by PBS on how mass media most of the time targets the easily influenced, vulnerable audience that are the kids of today.
http://www.pbs.org/perfectillusions/eatingdisorders/preventing_media.html
This is an hour long documentary about the media and the news/politics in the early 90's. How things are edited to benefit themselves and not the viewers. It's very good and insightful i recommend watching the whole thing.
http://www.thankgodiamfresh.com/documentary-how-the-media-influences-children-and-adults-alike/
Here are two links that I found interesting about culture and our media. The second link really interests me she asks a lot of good questions like, does being on facebook/twitter make you feel more connected to your friends or less? For me the initial wanting to be on facebook to talk with friends that lived else where all the time was nice and to keep up to date with everyone was a good thing, but when I look at the situation I feel less connected in some way, there's no face to face interaction which I feel people need, nothing seems personal anymore.
http://brandingbrand.com/blog/the-age-of-online-advertisements-what-we-want-to-see/
http://mashable.com/2011/02/23/social-media-culture/
A poem I found on culture.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cool-culture/
And here for fun is a word search...
Welcom to my Critical Insight Blog
"We were making the future, he said, and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!"- H.G. Wells
Studying sociology allows me reflect on the things that made me as a person from early development, and how it differs from other people in different cultures around the world. Sociology also explains human behavior and the patterns that they form and how we view others and ourselves and how our behaviors effect others around the world and how in the long term it's effecting us.
The four chapters that I chose to talk about are; Chapter 2: Culture and the Media, Chapter 8: Social Class and Social Stratification, Chapter 9: Global Stratification, and Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity.
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