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Chapter 13 Fieldwork

Over the break, I got permission from a close friend of mine to interview his parents and hear their immigration story. Mr. and Mrs. Smith both emigrated from Nigeria, with Mrs. Smith originally being from Imo State, and Mr. Smith being from Anambra State. They began their immigration journey in 1996 and brought along their 2 kids while Mrs. Smith was also pregnant at the time. Mr. and Mrs. Smith were pushed away from Nigeria because of the job opportunities declining, and because both of their hometowns were struck with poverty, which increased ransoms, deaths and other acts of violence. In a pursuit to put her family in a better position, Mrs. Smith decided that they should migrate to the states. Mr. and Mrs. Smith had to first obtain their green cards, which what they described to me was the hardest part about migration because they had to do it the right way. The Nigerian Immigration service lost Mr. Smith's paperwork several times before he was finally able to get his green card almost a year and a half later. About a month before they were set to move to the states, Mr. Smith's father passed away at his home, with this and the delay on his green card he felt like moving to the states might be a waste of time, in his words he felt discouraged, but he decided to go through with the process instead because he thought of his children. Mrs. Smith also had a small dilemma; she wasn't able to get her green card, so Mr. and Mrs. Smith did not tell me how they got to the states with their 2 kids. Once they arrived in the states they settled in DC, later on moving to Edgewood, Maryland in Harford County. Once in Harford County, Mrs. Smith had enrolled into nursing school while also working full time at a Walmart, while Mr. Smith had been working as a receptionist at a car dealership.

Although the journey sounded like a breeze Mr. and Mrs. Smith still faced significant barriers in the process. The main barrier for them was Mrs. Smith and her children not being legal citizens, this made things harder on her and the kids, unlike Mr. Smith. After living in the states for a while Mrs. Smith had 3 more kids, who were all now U.S. citizens since they were born here. Mr. and Mrs. Smith both now speak fluent English but also speak Yoruba which comes from Nigeria. Coming to the states they had to adapt a new way of living and a whole new life, such as what they did, what they were eating etc. They now consider their family to be multicultural as they take part in both Nigerian and American customs.

While The Smiths were able to adjust to the American way of living, doing it wasn't easy. For Mrs. Smith it started with her being an illegal immigrant, which from what she explained to me, was as hard as it sounds. It took her almost a year and a half to get her green card and once she got it, she would enroll into nursing school while working full-time because Mr. Smith's salary wasn't enough to support their family, but always hoping things would turn around, and they did. In 2005, after nursing school, Mrs. Smith was finally a Registered Nurse, and Mr. Smith after years of moving up in the car dealership business, inherited a whole lot from a close friend of his after he passed. The Smith's still live in Edgewood, Maryland till this day and from what they described to me it's everything they wanted since they've arrived here, with all of their children going off to college, 3 of which already graduated, and them owning their own home, they would much rather be here than living in fear in their hometowns in Nigeria.

PS. I used the names Mr. and Mrs. Smith to protect their identities

[2300nick]

Chapter 10 Fieldwork

Karl Marx theory on social class examines the inequality between the high elites, or the bourgeoisie, and the lower class, or also known as the proletariat. I chose this article to represent Marx's theory because it describes the fight for the proletariat in the workplace in today's society. In this article, Sabah Zdanowski is the proletariat class, and most of her coworkers are the bourgeoisie. While working with her coworkers she came to believe that some of her coworkers had a jumpstart in their career due to their social class. A company named PwC revealed a class pay gap among its UK employees, and PwC said 14 percent of its UK staff from a lower socio-economic background and were paid less than their peers.

Max Weber's Theory on class is based around how prestige and property can influence or produce certain outcomes. Weber also believed that social class is a result of power, which is merely the ability of an individual to get his or her way. It is proven that wealthy people are way more powerful than poor people, and power can come from an individual's prestige. I chose this article because it shows how Donald Trump used his high social status and his power to influence his supporters to storm the capital building. Thus, proves that power has a hold for anyone who possess it.

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/articles/private-school-vs-public-school#:~:text=The%20most%20recent%20NAEP%20data,peers%20in%20all%20subject%20areas.

Pierre Bourdieu's Theory on social class examines how education factors into deciding or maintaining one's class position. I chose this article to represent his theory because it illustrates how the school system works when its private school vs public school, and how private school students are set up for success due to their class. For example, the public-school students are given teachers with less credentials and less financial help from their parents to get them into extracurricular activities. While private school students are given teachers with the highest of credentials and receive more financial resources from their parents to set them up for extracurricular activities. Furthermore, this article apprises us how education is a factor in social class and through education the rich still thrive and remain rich, and the poor will still be poor due to the lack of opportunities given.

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CHAPTER 9 Fieldwork

Although I had a lot more family on both sides of my family I couldn’t include them all due to the size of my family in both sides. But I can say that my family on both sides my family are diverse and we don’t come from just one ethnic background. Even though I did not include them, my great-grandfather on my dad’s side is 100% of Dominican decent and my great-grandmother Is Puerto Rican and African American, with her mom being Puerto Rican and her dad being African American. On my moms side of the family both of my great-grandparents were of Cherokee Indian decent and African American, they both were also descendants of slaves, on an old plantation in South Carolina. It makes me dwell on how people will live hundreds of years from now and what life will look like then. And when the generations of the future look back on all of us, I wonder what they’ll discover.

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CHAPTER 5 FIELDWORK

Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. This image depicts racism because it is telling black people that they are not welcome in the establishment, it is clear whoever made this sign wants blacks & whites to be separated because the two races "aren’t equal".

White Supremacy is the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to the exclusion or detriment of other racial and ethnic groups, in particular black or Jewish people. Pictured above is the KKK or the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacy group that promotes the belief that white people are superior to other races, they are the largest white supremacist group in the world and hate group who primarily target African Americans, Jews, Latinos etc.

Miscegenation is the settling of two partners from two different races. The woman and man pictured above are African American & White, which was jot accepted in the 20th century. Even if people don’t agree with Miscegenation, it still happens in todays time.

Jim Crow was the former practice of segregating black people in the US. Jim Crow laws throughout the South legally enforced the boundaries between whites and blacks in just about every aspect. Above there is a help wanted sign for a job but the position is only opened for whites, due to the Jim Crow law’s & segregation.

Microaggression is a comment or action that negatively targets a marginalized person or group. A microaggression can be intentional or accidental. It is a form of discrimination. This image is someone asking this woman where she’s “really from” based off of the way she looks and or talks.

Racialization is the process of categorizing, differentiating, and attributing a particular racial character to a person or a group of people. For example, African American women may often be stereotyped as uneducated, loud, or improper. Through racialization, if a woman of African descent immigrated to the U.S people will attribute those same stereotypes to her because through a racial standpoint, she fits the African American woman category.

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CH2 Fieldwork

Going through this assignment it made me realize that i’m not really a materialistic person. And people who know me can probably see the irony in this because almost everyone around me says that I’m selfish and I like expensive things. My least needed item on my list I would say is my groceries, mainly because I rarely eat any of them, most of the time if I eat its in the Cafe or off campus. My most needed item out of my list I would probably say my computer or my phone, mainly because i use both to communicate with all my teachers/friends. I also use it to submit most of my assignments.

[2300nick]

iPhone 13 Product Analysis

The first ever iPhone was released to the public in June of 2007. At the time, Steve Jobs described it as a revolutionary and magical product that was five years ahead of any other mobile phone. The iPhone is manufactured in China, but, while several Asian countries assemble the iPhone, the phone is mostly assembled in China. My phone has impacted my life in a number of different ways. With my phone i can read books, listen to music, take pictures, watch videos, play games, create and edit documents, get a medical opinion etc. The iPhones components are manufactured by companies all around the world but are ultimately sent to just two companies to assemble into iPods, iPhones, and iPads. The two companies are Foxconn and Pegatron, both of which are based in Taiwan.