Gender

I read the article Understanding sexual orientation. It was very interesting to read about homosexual vs heterosexuals. Sometimes our society tends to put homosexuals in this little box of how they are supposed to act, dress, talk, walk etc when in reality everyone is their own person and everyone may not want to be so open about what they do and who they do. As human beings we need a more broad mind about sexual orientation/preference. Kinsey suggested that anyone's sexual orientation may change over time, I believe this is true because I know some people who started out liking the opposite sex but then began dating someone of the same sex. Sometimes people want to explore and see their options, sometimes people get hurt and just cannot deal with the pain of that. In society we tend to put labels on those who have had a "homosexual experience" as homosexual because that's the way society tends to look at things, from this one view standpoint. There could be various reasons where we have these "homosexual experiences" such as a child being molested by the same sex does that make that young child homosexual when they don't even know what just happened to them. Some people don't have to agree with the lifestyle but everyone deserves respect and to be who they are in the world. It is said that homosexuals have characteristics that are obvious such as being flamboyant or dressing like a guy when in reality there are people we pass everyday that may be homosexual and we don't even know that they are because they hide it so well. For me personally homosexuality is a very sensitive topic for me because I have a brother that is gay and I love him with all of my heart but I never want people to judge him or hurt him in any way. I don't ever have to much to say about the topic since my brother loves this lifestyle and I don't want anyone to ever come at him the wrong way. I may not personally agree but I try not to have to much of an opinion about it because some of my friends are homosexual and my own blood is as well. In general I just believe that everyone has a life and what they do with their life is their business. We have to let everyone do them and stay out of it because we are all individuals and have the right to do what we want and to do who we want. The article stated that there are so many labels put on homosexual males such as they aren't athletic, when a basketball player just came out and said he was gay... ummm that label makes NO sense then! Sometimes people have these stupid traditions that everyone just believes but never thinks or takes the time to think maybe it doesn't make sense. It also said that homosexual males are supposed to be into the arts, decorating, hairstyling etc as I stated previously there is a homosexual BASKETBALL player and I am quite sure there are more that just don't want to come out. Homosexual males go to the army does that make them any less manly or inferior? A man is a man that won't change and everyone is free to do what they want. These stereotypes are beyond ridiculous and it just has to stop. I am so grateful that this basketball player decided to speak up and say that he was homosexual hopefully this opens people minds and makes them be more open minded about situations like this. The article also stated that there are men that participate in opposite sex engagement and its true because at a point in my brothers life he did like girls excuse me LOVED GIRLS but sometimes people try but they really have other desires but that's up to the person. I believe we should stay out of other peoples relationship and preferences and worry about our own. Once a man always a man regardless of what their preference is ...

Race and Ethnicity ... One in the same?

Chapter 10 mainly discussed race and ethnicity and the role it plays in society. Ethnicity is referred to as a shared cultural heritage, often deriving from a common ancestry and homeland. Race is referred to as a category of people widely perceived as sharing socially significant physical characteristics such as skin color. Race and ethnicity tend to be kind of blurry because people don't know one from the other they believe they are one in the same. The textbook brings out a point that race is a social construction meaning we see race based on skin color and not on anything else because that's how we are programmed to do so. Skin tone is used a mechanism for every little thing such as slavery and segregation. During segregation the phrase “brown paper bag test”was created to determine whether a one was too black or light enough to participate in certain events. If your skin was darker then the brown paper bag your would not be able to participate in certain groups or events. This is just one example of many in which is used to determine one's place in society. Alice Walker coined the term "colorism" a mechanism used to assign people to a certain race.

 Since race and ethnicity is something that was coined by culture it tends to vary constantly and it never stays the same. Can we honestly say there is a real definition for these words? Are we all one in the same? Diversity brought about a change in society, it sort of made everyone feel welcomed and made everyone feel as if their race would be included. Race and ethnic groups caused a lot of tension for sometime bringing about discrimination based on skin color NOT race, majority and minority based on skin color, stereotypes etc. Diversity brought about such a positive change and allowed things that weren't normal years ago to be acceptable now. Diversity in my opinion accepts everyone's skin color and accepts that people are who they are they weren't asked how light they want to be or how dark they want to be. Race and ethnicity seems to be a very heavy topic years later because of the old mindset and traditions of some individuals. Growing up I was taught that there would be some darker skinned black girls that wouldn't like me simply because I was a lighter skinned black individual sadly I did experience a lot of situations with this. I realized that for so many years that African American is the only race where people come in a VARIETY of shades but we always compare with who's light skin and who's dark skin and there is truly just a skin color difference. The color blind theory really has an effect on people today which means people are so caught up in what your outer appearance is we never realize we are all the same. I tend to see this with black people a lot another example is when I hear black guys say "I only want a light skin girl dark skin girls look dirty". I believe for years this way of thinking was instilled in the minds of black people since slavery, the darker skinned blacks worked on the plantation in the sun when the lighter skinned blacks worked inside of the house cleaning and doing what ever else. We sometimes are so caught up with the skin color of individuals that we look past that we are black. I myself am attracted to dark skinned males, it's funny because all of my friends think I'm crazy but I was raised around a lot of dark skin people so I guess that's what I grew to love.  Black is black and that won't change! Colorism is a fact and that needs to be changed. 

  The video "Race: The Power of Illusion" was basically about how humans tend to only look at external differences to be the main reason of one's race. People only look at body shape, hair shape, eye shape, eye color, skin color and other factors. In the video it was said that "race is NOT biology however it is an idea that is ascribed to biology". Race is just a myth we are all one, race was just created to make everyone dislike the next race and to put us against each other. Being one that ran track throughout my entire four years in high school I have NEVER been beat by someone who was white and since I'm Jamaican we always get labeled as "fast runners" and I know some very slow Jamaicans who would suck at track. I always believed that being black gave me an extra advantage over those who weren't. I'm best at sprinting and out of every track meet I have been to never once did I see a white girl running in a fast pace race. My thinking was so limited because that's how I was taught and my coach would never allow the black girls to run cross-country he only would allow us to run short races in a quick amount of time. Its so interesting how the world tends to put these labels on individuals and how our minds actually conform to believe these things. We make assumptions on what we see and we are looking at the outward appearances rather than other factors that can come into play such as whether the white person trained hard enough to win etc.

I read the article "Beyond Black and White: Remaking Race In America". The only two races acknowledged for a long time were black and white but there are many other people in the world that do exist. There seems to be more multiracial Americans which means people are marrying outside of their race which is a beautiful thing. It was interesting to see that the girl in third grade was trying to clarify her own identity. She did not know which one to circle so she circled both since she is multiracial. I believe that there isn't an option for those that are considered multiracial and there should be a choice that says just that. I believe race shouldn't exist and everyone just be who they want to be. Race limits you and who you really are because sometimes you may not be acknowledged for being more than one race. One of my good friends is Dominican and Black because her mother married a black man but when asked her ethnicity she will say that she is Latin American and black but people will in turn say well which one are you more of? I never understood that question but then I realized America limits you to who you want to be.

Extra Credit

TED Talks Education focused on the high school dropout crisis. This is a major issue in our society today but no one seems to have a solution to the problem. The first speaker Rita Pierson discussed how vitally important relationships are when it pertains to learning. She said she made her class feel as if they were chosen to be her students not that she was chosen to be their teacher. She seems to encourage them more than degrade them. I believe if you make a child feel good about themselves then they will do better in school. As someone that just graduated from high school many of my friends dropped out within that four year period because they were discouraged. If the teachers make you feel as if your nothing then your work will reflect as such. We spent more time in the school then at home, 8 hours for five days a week and some of us had Saturday school. Within that time span we should have walked out feeling better about ourselves but in most cases we felt worse. The next speaker Ramsey Musallam is a chemistry teacher who sparks the minds of his students to question "why"? If you get the mind of a child going with curiosity then he/she will be motivated to learn more about that topic but if teachers don't get the mind going then they will never really leave trying to learn on their own. The next speaker Angela Duckworth spoke about the mind and said the smartest person could actually be the dumbest well at least that's how I interpreted it. Schools focus so much on testing when in my opinion grades hinder the ability to learn. Students become focused on the grade they will receive and not focus on really understanding the work itself. Sometimes high school can be so discouraging and especially when you go to a school an urban school. The environment has an effect on you the fights, the metal detectors, the students around you basically it can all make you feel like giving up. Bill Gates really made me think about how poorly my high school teachers were. If they aren't getting feedback on how they can improve then how will they ever know? Only a few teachers would ask if they were boring, or going to fast and some didn't really care. Most of my high school teachers had the approach that whether we learn or not doesn't matter because they are still getting paid. Now that statement is very true but why a be a teacher if you don't care whether all of your students walk out of your classroom knowing more than they did when they walked in? Just a question for thought. Geoffrey Canada is such an inspiration and all my life my parents have taught me that America finds money for wars, to go into space and other useless things but no one invests money in our schools. They are quick to take away art programs when that's what really sparks the mind of our children. If it costs 5 billion dollars America has it but its not being used on the FUTURE OF THE CHILDREN! Pearl Arredando discussed how students have to travel far just to be in a decent school. I myself was one of those kids that traveled all the way to Bayside to get a good education. I live in Jamaica and it took me an hour to and from school just to learn, I loved bayside but there are three schools in my neighborhood all three are on the list to be closed? Why should a child have to take a bus to school to learn? I was taking public transportation since 8th grade to learn better. The United States has to do better for our children. Sir Ken Robinson was the last speaker and he believes you can be called a teacher but that doesn't mean you are fulfilling that role. Testing is a controversial issue, my English professor doesn't give tests because he said what's the point of making students memorize a bunch of things and testing them. Tests don't show how smart or how dumb you are it shows how some can memorize and some can't. My English professor has never had to fail a student because of his teaching methods now if every educator could follow a trend like this I believe there would be less high school and college dropouts.

Social Class In America

In watching all nine parts of the video "People Like Us" what I thought throughout my life is true, America tries to give this impression that all are equal, no one is less than or we are all one. When the truth is that we have never and are not and may never be one. Growing up I was often intimidated by white people I was scared to be in the city I was scared to go into Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, Macy's and other high fashion stores because I always felt like I didn't belong. It was very interesting when the woman said that they know when they intimidate you but I eel Ike hats heir plan from the very beginning and their intent is to not have you come back into the store and to tell all your friends not to either, Everything is divided by class, what you wear, your income, your race, what you do. Nothing is ever equality, as Kanye West said "they make us hate our self and love their wealth". A man said in the video that it may be impossible to change your class and it may take an entire lifetime and the class you grew up in is the class your in for life. In a way it's true and in a way its not there are countless famous people that grew up dirt poor but later became in a higher class than they imagined. Some examples might be Jay-Z, Rihanna, Oprah, Tyler Perry and many others yet it took them forever to get their name out there and for people to believe in them. It was very interesting to know that there are people that don't mind being in a low income neighborhood and actually hanging out with people opposite from them. The boy said "you actually find more genuine people here" some people don't mind mixing in with other people and coming down from their high pedestal and not following the norms of society. I believe that everything relates to racism and classism in America and that's what the article "Media Magic: Making Class Invisible" really highlighted to me. We only focus on what the media wants to show us. I believe it brainwashes us as a society and we are then blinded by a false perception of what reality is. The media shows only a little bit of the poor as this bad image being on welfare, living in the projects, being on crack. The media has a way of changing views on everything in society. We look to the media for the news and what they show is what we internalize. Professor Applewhite brought up an interesting idea in class he said we think we belong o certain classes but we don't. The media shows what they want to show and the rest they ignore. So many of us including myself have grown accustomed to saying "I'm middle class" because no one wants to be considered poor when in fact more of us are poor than we think. Everyone would rather be neutral then to be considered poor, because when you think of poor you think of homeless or broke. As for myself I though I was middle class because I never had to much or to little I had enough to get by in life and I was satisfied with that. I believe sometimes the media wants us to think its a mind thing and whatever class we believe we are is what we are. Class is defined by INCOME, nothing more and nothing less. The whole class thing has been very blurry to me because you don't really know where exactly you fit in. The media is used to change our way of thinking and conform our minds. Its a mechanism that is used to control us and prey on those that know little to nothing. The article brought out a good point "those that are in the media are upper class. So of course they feed us lies they themselves are upper class. This awkward separation makes each class, each race hate each other and once they get all of us to be at odds with one another then they got us to be there puppets so we have no awareness of what's going on. Classism is unjust!

Deviance

Deviance is defined as behavior that does not conform to basic cultural norms and expectations, therefore what would you say is deviant behavior? Would it be smoking, drinking alcohol, fighting? We all have our own definition of deviant behavior whether it be based on our religious practices, our family values or the law. There are many acts of deviance seen day to day in our neighborhoods, our schools and maybe some things we have done on our own. I would like to share some things I have seen recently that I consider to believe deviant acts.


1. Abortion
The ability for women to choose whether a child will or will not be able to have life is an extremely powerful ability. There are millions of cases of abortion each year, many can and should be considered deviant. If a mother to be decided not to be, than that should be her decision, but unless the reasoning behind her choice is not selfish it is murder. There are many non-selfish reasons for an abortion such rape victims and the inability to develop babies properly. These are acceptable and not deviant behavior, but there are millions of deviant situations regarding abortions every year. Some may say a teenage mother is too young to raise a child, says who? However, if you can conceive it, than you have the ability to raise it. If a person takes the responsibility of sex lightly that does not give them the right to be a murderer. Many women waste lives each year to make their lives easier, and should be punished for this behavior.

2. Pedophilia
The American Heritage Dictionary defines pedophilia as: “The act or fantasy on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual activity with a child or children." We probably all have your own definition of this sexually deviant behavior, but no matter what anyone's opinion may be, one thing is true pedophilia is truly real and it definitely impacts the lives of not just the perpetrators and their victims, but also the families, friends and almost everyone else associated with them.  There are numerous examples in media of child sexual abuse. Pedophilia is a deviant act because its morally wrong to touch a child in a sexual way. There was a case last year about a man having sex with a newborn baby and the baby died instantly because her organs were damaged. The textbook says "a behavior is defined as deviant when it is marked publicly as deviant by those with enough power to enforce that designation." Sexually based offenses are considered deviant according to the law because under the age of 18 you are considered a child.

3. Underage Drinking
Underage drinking can be considered deviant because its breaking the law. Underage drinkers are more than likely be arrested, drive while under the influence, use illicit drugs, and have a sexually transmitted disease. It can lead to violence, crimes, mental health problems and may fatal and non-fatal injuries. Underage drinking can have many long term effects such as death and addictions later on in life. Alcohol is involved in nearly one-half of all murders, accidental deaths, suicides, crimes, and tragic car  accidents. The effects of underage drinking has on society are absolutely ridiculous . Studies show that, the younger a person begins drinking alcohol, there is a greater chance of them developing dependence on alcohol or abuse later on in their life.

4. Rape
Rape is defined as the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force to have sexual intercourse. Rape is considered sexual deviant behavior and should NEVER go unpunished. There are numerous stories everyday of a woman, teenager or child being raped and some stories don't even make it to the news. There can never and I mean never be two opinions about the criminal and immoral nature of rape. In my community a lot of girls and women are raped and its classified deviant behavior because its violating an individual and their say so in sexual intercourse. Rape cases happen everyday especially and poorer neighborhoods. There was a rape case that happened last year a 15 year old boy in queens was raping young girls and almost got away with it but he was later caught. The law classifies this as a crime therefore I believe it is deviant.

5. Selling Drugs/Narcotics
Selling drugs is very popular in my community. This act is deviant because it impacts the community in such a terrible way. When people are commuting to and from where they are going they see drug dealers selling drugs. They not only to sell to addicts but they get young children and teenagers involved in selling as well. They sell to women that are pregnant therefore the child that is born has drugs in their body or may be born with a defect. Selling drugs does a true disservice to the community and those that live in it. Addicts are everywhere begging for money, it makes the appearance of the community look awful. g use has been deemed by our society, or a significant part of it, as illegal, unhealthy and not acceptable. Society has deemed drug use and the selling of drugs as outside of the norms of acceptable behavior. It is illegal, an offence under law. Society has labeled it unacceptable therefore it is deviant.

6. Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting or imitating objects, statistics or documents with the intent to deceive. Forgery is very common today. In elementary school I always use to sign my mothers' signature on tests, forms and letters. I never realized it was deviant until I got caught and got in serious trouble in school. Forgery is deviant because your deceiving someone to make them believe its the real thing. Its closely linked to counterfeiting which more so involves with money.

All the acts listed above are deviant things in my opinion because it doesn't benefit people at all. I believe deviance is determined by the general population not one person or another. I strongly believe that deviant behavior is based upon ones cultural, religious and family beliefs. What you may think is deviant, I may believe is just fine. A lot of my belief of what deviant behavior stems from my religious views and what I believe to be immoral vs. moral.

The article - "Positive Functions of the Underserving Poor" by Herbert Gans was really about how the poor can tend to be placed in certain categories. They have many stigmas placed on them because they are poor and that they actually do a service to those that aren't poor. The five main points that stood out to me were 1) the criminal and deviant behavior among the poor is more poverty related rather than their own choices to do deviant acts based on values, (2) the label of the poor that classifies them to be undeserving is this old stereotype, and like all stereotypes, it definitely  exaggerates the actual dangers that stem from the poor; (3) poverty-related deviance is not necessarily harmful just because it does not accord with mainstream norms; (4) the idea of undeservingness survives in part because of the positive functions it has for the better population and (5) the only certain way to get rid of both this idea and the functions is to remove poverty. The article brings about a new way of looking at those in poverty, I myself realized that I have placed stereotypes on those that may be less fortunate because of what I see on the news or gossip that I overheard. Sometimes you don't know about something until you really investigate or find out about it.

Socialization

Socialization is defined as the process through which people learn their culture's basic norms, values, beliefs, and behaviors. In watching the two videos "A Call for Men" and "Killing Us Softly" and then reading the articles and reading chapter six I have come to the conclusion that the way we are raised truly does affect the way we behave outside of the four walls of our home.

In the video "A Call for Men" Tony Porter basically reveals that there is no real definition of a man or how a man should be. He says there's a certain label placed on a man called a man box and in this box includes the things that society says a man should be such as athletic, non emotional, view woman as a sexual object, be a protector, provide and all these other attributes that a man should have. When in reality no one can live up to these outrageous standards. We are who we are and no one is perfect. When little boys are raised they are often taught to be tough and not fear and to not show any emotion because then they are acting like a female. In my life I have never seen my dad cry because he puts on this whole façade of being manly and not having "female traits" when that's superficial because we are all human and we all have feelings and emotions without it we wouldn't be human. In watching this video I have now altered my persona of men and how they ought to be. I see that its ok for a man to cry and not be these labels in this man box. The norms are to teach little boys how to be a "real man" when in actuality parents are teaching their boys to fake it until they make it. It starts from the home and everything else they gain from their friends or from the streets.



We then put labels on young girls that make them feel as if they are just objects for boys to pick up and put down whenever they please. In watching the video "Killing Us Softly" young woman like myself and many others have such a difficult time in living in todays society. We have been dehumanized to be skinny, to have a certain look and to live up to these things that are virtually impossible. As a female when I was younger I was given dolls to play with and was told to take care of them as if they were my child. Growing up with brothers I often use to play video games, play basketball, play fight, play with trucks and be rough but when women in my family saw this they would say Nasia come play inside with your dolls or come help me cook don't be out there acting like a little boy. When in my eyes it was no harm being done but they were teaching me my "role" as a female should be cooking and taking care of the kids. In the video I learned that with all these stereotypes being placed on females we aren't being our natural self. We try to be everything we aren't to prove what? In our natural form we are beautiful who cares what celebrities say or what people do being you is the best beauty there is. Who is killing us softly? Men and media, the two M's that hold so much weight in the world and over females. From a young age girls are taught how to be or who to be in this world and they are expected to do this in order to be a real woman. I believe in the famous quote that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is what YOU say it is. You set the standards not Kim Kardashian or Beyoncé but YOU as an individual, YOU as a woman!

In Chapter 6, I learned that in some way we were all socialized into our society's culture nether we know it or not. Our smiley is he ore foundation for shaping us into the people we are today those same beliefs that were taught are placed on us and we have for our everyday lives. In the chapter it stated that family is the primary agent of early socialization, in both videos "A Call for Men" and "Killing Us Softly" both videos at some point talk about how young boys and girls are taught at young ages about their function and role in society and what they ought to do and what they ought not to do. They are stamped of the expectations of their gender and that they have to live up to these things and not doing so makes them less of a woman or less of a man. In conclusion everything we are today started from the basics which is FAMILY. After we leave the home we are then shaped and pressured by not only our family but our school, media and friends. Everything around us makes us who we are, we take a little piece of each of these agents as we go along in life. 

 

Power

In my reading of chapter 5 I have a new perspective and outlook on power and how it is distributed, who holds the power and the manipulative ways of those with the power. In  my reading I discovered the word power is derived from a Latin word potere which literally is defined as "to be able". Power is considered to be the ability to bring about an intended outcome, even when opposed by others. I was enlightened as to how much power can affect our daily lives and how much our society is controlled. Power affects all levels of society no matter how rich you may be or how poor you are. There are many different forms, groups and types of power used to control individuals. Five things that stood out to me in chapter five would have to be power in small groups and organization. The first is reward power, it is the control that makes someone do something because they know in the end they will be rewarded for their behavior such as giving a child an allowance after they have done their chores. Secondly coercive power, which is the ability to punish, for example if a child does terrible in school the parent has the ability to take away their allowance for a few weeks. Thirdly, legitimate power is used to make you feel obligated as if you "ought to obey", children are told they have to be obey their parents because its a norm of what children are expected to do. Fourth, expert power comes from the notion that an individual has more knowledge than others such as parents they usually tend to portray as if they are "know it alls" because they are so much older than their children. Lastly, referent power which is based upon feelings of identification, affection and respect for an individual such as a child looking up to a parent or another adult role model.  In watching the video "The Milgram Experiment" I concluded that in certain settings we allow others to have power over us and we don't even realize it. Such as the example used in the video, when we are at the dentist we allow them to put sharp objects and drills into our mouths in another setting in life we would never allow such a thing to happen to us. We blindly allow people to have power over us and tell us what will and will not happen sometimes without even realizing it. The five main points in the video that stood out to me was that people in authority have more power than we realize and they can torture us and make us suffer from things and they find humor in it. For example what Hitler did to the Jews was cruel and usual but many followed him and did as he told them to do although it wasn't just and right. Another example would be slavery and how much power whites had over blacks at the time and how people stood around and watched blacks be oppressed although subconsciously they knew it wasn't right they just went along with who held the power. Another point that was made in the video was that people that are controlled by those with power need someone to put the blame on so they are not held responsible for the acts they commit. In the video the man that was told to increase the shock voltage was afraid of killing the man so he said he doesn't want the responsibility of this and the voice in the background responded and said "I am responsible for it" after he said that the man may have felt alright with continuing although he still showed a bit of hesitation he still went along with the authority figure. The third point made in the video was that people will go as far as authority tells them to go and sometimes we are just inherently obedient we do what we are told to do without asking why or insisting that someone else do it. The fourth point made in the video was there are times when we naturally obey someone even if they are telling us to do something that is blatantly wrong. We tend to go with whoever is in charge. Lastly a point that stood out to me was that the man continuously shocked the guy because someone told him to do it and when he was asked why he immediately responded and said "he told me to do it". There are many times in our lives where we shift the blame for things we do and we don't necessarily realize it until after the the situation is over. The article "The Five Faces Of Oppression"  revealed that there are many different types of oppression such as violence, exploitation, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and marginalization which can also be referred to as power tactics as stated in chapter 5. The five main points brought out in the article was that violence is used to oppress people because scare tactics are used to intimidate people to do things that they do not want to do a perfect example of this is slavery, blacks were forced to be in the hot sun picking cotton, they were beaten, and abused, raped and sometimes even killed. They knew if they didn't do what they were supposed to do or if they talked back they were going to pay the consequences for their actions. The second point is that exploitation is the act of using something in an unjust and cruel manner, such as child labor. Children were used to do adult jobs in factories as a result many children lost limbs and many lost lives. Thirdly, cultural imperialism is the unequal relationships created in society and making this out to be appropriate. Fourth, marginalization is also considered social exclusion of individuals for example those with disabilities may be excluded from certain jobs or activities. Lastly, powerlessness is used to make societies individuals feel as if they have no say in the world and what happens within their community it beings about low self worth. These three things, "The Milgram Experiment", Chapter 5 "Power" and the article "The Five Faces Of Oppression" are all related because each piece has one main and relevant topic to society which is power. Power can sometimes be abused and mishandled based on the authority figures in charge.I believe that power lies within us and we have the ability to stand up and say no even if we are alone.