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Erica Williams

11/30/18

                                               Immigrant Interview

Over the thanksgiving break, I was invited to a thanksgiving dinner and I could not give up the free food so tagged along with my friend and their family. At first, I thought I would be considered as the girl barging in on the family’s dinner since they are not related to me but instead, I went along anyway thinking to myself this is a great opportunity to hang out more with my friend’s family and enjoy their company. I also figured I could take this chance to find someone to interview for my assignment and it only took a matter of time to meet and greet and I finally found someone there named Aleisha and she is cool to hang out with because she was shy around me at first. 

Aleisha is my friend’s cousin who is 17 years of age and is an immigrant, she and her immediate family originate from Chad the country in north central Africa and has lived there for about 7 years. After talking with Aleisha about off topic things, I finally asked her about her immediate family about what made them migrate to the U.S. out of all other countries and what was it like living in Chad and are there any similarities in the U.S. society and the Chad society.

Aleisha goes on with saying, “My parents were the ones who moved from Chad to here in the U.S. along with 2 of my siblings. I guess I would be considered as a second-generation immigrant and my parents were apart of the chain migration. I would say my parents’ lives differ from mines for starters because I am younger, so I can join a lot more activities and not always work like my parents and since they do have to pay bills to keep a stable house going that means me and my siblings have chores to do. Even sometimes my parents will have flashbacks of still being in Chad, so they might be set in their way a bit differently than I am by adjusting to the states”. 

I also had a chance to talk with Aleisha’s parents and I asked them what the big hurry was in leaving Chad. The parents go on with saying, “ We decided to leave Chad in a matter of time we were not I a rush to leave physically but mentally yes because our close friends decided to leave when they heard about different opportunities were at stake in the U.S. and we just had to get out of the mental state we were in to create a better life for our children”. Aleisha tells me that she did find something pulling her back and that was mainly her friends and some of the food like Okra and Cassava veggies because you cannot find too much of that here in the states.

Her biggest push was the better lifestyle she could have for herself and siblings, so they could see what an actual hotel room looks like or what the big apple looks like and even riding the subway for the first time. Aleshia’s parents were their friends who influenced them to move to the U.S., so they can seek better employment opportunities and if there was no where for them to stay, they went on ahead and stayed with their extended family until they jumped back on their feet again of course. 

Aleshia says she did not have a problem with gender roles in school all the students were treated like students no matter what gender they were because even the guys could join the dance team, the girls could join the basketball team, the guys could join the cheerleading team, or the girls could join the weight training classes. Aleisha was not expected any huge expectations but just finishing out high school strong and maintain a stable decent paying job. 

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Final Concept Map

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The KitKat Bar

Erica Williams

11/16/18

                                     The Travels of a Chocolate Bar

My top six favorite chocolate bars/candy would have to be: Snickers, Twix, Hershey’s, Reese’s, KitKat, and M&M’s. Out of all six number one is a KitKat bar which is another brand made by Hershey’s and I like this one more because to me they are the better version of Vanilla Wafers and they just melt in my mouth and I could eat them all day and I happened to mainly get them from places like Walmart, 7-Eleven, Target, and Dollar Tree. 

Now here in the United States, a KitKat bar contains: sugar, wheat flour, cocoa butter, nonfat milk, chocolate, refined palm kernel oil, lactose, flour, milk fat, containing 2% or less of soy lecithin and PGPR (emulsifier), vanillin, yeast, artificial flavor, salt, and sodium bicarbonate. KitKat is manufactured by H.B. Reese Candy Co. in Hershey Pennsylvania U.S. Farmers that are in the Global South and workers in the Ivory Coast have pretty crucial consequences market price world, yes they are increasing in production cost but it seems to be costing the farmers low in income because they are not making enough money anymore to afford their living costs. 

They now have to stop investing in farms which means no more employees that can work in a proper working conditions, this now turns into forced child labor just to meet the productions needs, farmers have to sell their beans just so they can go to sleep in a home at night and for storing purposes, and for the farmers that are getting paid they only get part of the world market price which is about 40-50% for cocoa beans. 

The farmers have to sell their cocoa beans at the prices that are only set by the intermediaries which could be the buyers or the lenders and of course before a price is set, the farmers have to look into prices changing rapidly or not, the changing in supply which can be caused by crop disease, pest infestation, weather conditions that may cause a drought, and things from a political stand point. There is a wide variety of KitKat bars all over the world starting with Europe, Japan which supplies 34%, Bulgaria supplies 33%, the United Kingdom supplying 7%, and the United States supplies about 82%. According to a few researchers, KitKat was not that popular in the United States but in Japan they were the good luck charms for your everyday working people. 

Snickers happened to be the showstopper because it became a chocolate soothe for an intense hunger and if people could not have it the diva side of them would show just like you see on the Snickers commercials now actually happened in real life. Later on in the 2000s, once people in the United States started to get a whiff of a KitKat bar they feel in love and the famous “Gimme a Break” jingle back in 1986 is being used today for KitKat and it became the “100 Greatest Adverts of all time” in 1987 and from then on it has been a worldwide popular candy bar.

 I would say on an average, a store owner will probably make about up to 40% on a KitKat bar and even every chocolate bar in the store because the way how the world is now there is no way for just one person to keep eating junk food like this everyday because it is not essential it is just the type of candy for an every now and then just to serve the needs of your sweet tooth and considering the prices are $1.00-$3.00 depending on if it’s a regular size or a king size bar. 

The net worth of a KitKat bar its self is $45.7 million and that’s the brand alone so after seeing this huge number I am almost certain there are hidden costs that are not included in the price I pay at the store which reminds me of the top name brand clothing that is very expensive but in the places where the clothing is made is only worth about $3.00 if that high. 

The KitKat company and I am sure many of other candy companies try to hide the truth to the public because it is just another form of greed and KitKat especially clearly makes way more than enough money to help out the country with uneven developments and health care but they figure it is best to just keep things under wraps so they don’t get sued or worse and everything still works out in their favor. 

https://makechocolatefair.org/issues/cocoa-prices-and-income-farmers-0

https://www.globalimmersions.com/go-global-blog/why-the-kit-kat-is-the-most-influential-candy-bar-of-all-time

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-ingredients-in-a-Kit-Kat

https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/07/hershey_raises_wholesale_choco.html

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http://fairtradeamerica.org/Fairtrade-Products/Coffee/Starbucks https://www.triplepundit.com/2016/10/3p-weekend-10-food-companies-goin

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https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/06/arts/the-intellectual-class-struggle.html

In a New York Times article called, “The Intellectual Class Struggle” it mainly talks about Pierre Bourdieu’s point of view theory involving financial assets which is the economic capital, social capital which is networking, and cultural capital being a cultural bully in the human society. Each capital involves the high, middle, and low class about how people have the best education, the lower education, and whomever is able to obtain wealth the easiest. According to Mr. Bourdieu, “Everyone the comes into adult life with a predisposition to succeed or fail which is called, habitus which means a set of deeply ingrained experiences that in important ways limit one’s performance” (2001). Habitus in the social class describes how people are moving up the invisible latter by networking, getting yourself out of your comfort zone so you can have help so that you don’t fall down that latter. There happened to be one situation that involved the upper and lower classes in education, an Ivy League school in France called “Grande's Ecoles” and students of the upper class being able to take their exams way before the students of the lower class just to be in the judges favors and it should have been crystal clear that every student in this school gets the chance to take their exams and sign up for their classes all at the same time as the next student should. 

David Swartz which is the author of “Culture and Power: The Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu” believes that money has the ability to pay tuition or even purchase a house in a nice quiet neighborhood with a good public school describes the performance based in school (1997). In reality in my eyes I believe money has the ability to do much more than just two things, like paying bills, buying groceries, paying for a tutor for the kids even when the kids go to a public school that may not be a the top 20 schools list, buying a car so you have faster access to where you need to go, buying clothing whether its the name brand or off brand clothing, or even saving up money for a rainy day and a vacation. According to Douglas Holt, a professor at the Harvard Business School he says, “We’re not a class-based society and that status works is driven by money not culture. You cannot distinguish rich from poor on the basis of who shops at the Gap or listens to Eminem” (2001). Which in my opinion, I believe is true and as human beings that are living on this Earth in different populations or organizations we should focus on the bigger picture with culture and not class affiliations. 

Now Mr. Bourdieu grew up with a family that was poor in a village in rural southwestern France and spoke a few different languages but never finished high school, but he was a master thinker and his father would enroll him in the best of the best high schools so he can use his master thinking knowledge to succeed. Now many people believe that he is a hypocrite who denies his own story and contradicts his own theory. The later in 1981 talks about how he did not want to join the College he was supposed to go to because it was a horrible trail run for him but was able to go right back for a second try and made it through. For me it mainly shows how children born into the lower class can make it out in to the higher class just like other children in the middle and higher class and yes down the road they may be ashamed of their childhood but they are able to look at the world differently and they can at least express their memories in a way for other people to understand to help tell their truth. 

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Kinship Family Tree

I know this family tree may look a bit confusing because I there are so many family members that I have but this is just the start of it and if I were to put down every single thing I would never be finished because there are so many cousins, aunts, uncles, and anyone else you name it. As you can see there are more family members on my mothers side then there is on my father’s side because some members my dad is unsure of because he never really knew who his father was and that side is missing. Now even though on my mother’s side there are a few deceased members but there are a lot of new born members to make up for the spots to fill in.

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My friend in this post is sharing the fact that she is in “Questioning” mode about either her own sexuality or gender preference. It is more of a win or loose situation because she does not mind females in the dating pool but would rather be with a male.

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https://youtu.be/r9zwXuMdRh4

Since I am having difficulty trying to upload a video of myself along with my friends that had videos I decided to use a clip from a show that I like to watch here and there called Star. Now in this clip it talks about a mother and daughter being at the hospital having a conversation about the daughter being a Transgender as a Trans Woman because she feels as though the person that her mother named her is not the person she was destined to be for the rest of her life. She use to be called Arnold named after her grandfather but she figured Cotton as a female suits her much better. Cotton sets her mind on getting the breasts, longer hair, makeup, and now is determined to get everything surgically removed and everything surgically added in the downtown area. Cotton wants her mother to accept her for who she is and lover her unconditionally as she is now and not for the person she was as a younger age. 

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Concept Mapping: Sexuality & Pleasure in Corporate Japan

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Erica Williams

Anthropology 101

Ethnicity in action  

Hans Hauck lived in West Germany and became a member of the Hitler Youth Program so that he could fulfil his apprenticeship. Around Hauck’s neighborhood and around family was a situational negotiation of identity because Hauck knew his identity later on around the First World War so joining the Hitler Youth Program was not a problem. While Hauck’s was a part of this program, a call for assimilation occurred with the so called “occupation children” which were the other children of the program were like any other child but they did not have to deal with occupying anything or having any difficulties. Other children in the program were an imagined community was formed by others that looked like more like Hauck’s color and were treated like they were on a on a pseudo trials were it involves children being condemned in complete secrecy. Once Hauck’s grandmother and himself were summoned by the Gestapo, I'm am almost certain that Hauck’s would never see that coming because he was able to join the program with no questions or problems. Instead, origin myths that were created within this program had other plans for Hauck and his grandmother. Hauck was later sent to Russia to become a prisoner in the war for an ethnic cleansing and treated more like a human than he was back in Germany. 

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Concept Mapping Group 13

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Introductory Post

I am Erica Williams, I am a Sophomore, I am majoring in Sociology, and one fun fact is that I have never used Tumblr before until now which is the only social media I have never used before. 

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Race and Racism

To me this picture represents how society has divided each and one of these individuals into certain groups based on what people that may look like them have done before and so everyone just assumes the worst out them. This can involve racism because they will never have the same amount of equal opportunities as the  more sophisticated individuals and they can’t even get help in trying to be who they want to be. For example the young lady holding up the sign of “I don’t like math” which I do not blame her because I am the same way but, a teacher at school may not be willing to give as much attention to help her in her studies because they are already thinking in their mind, why would she need help when she clearly looks like she knows what to do because of her so called race. Another example could be with the other young lady holding up the sign, “I am not a terrorist” other people will think she is so they might discriminate her for that where she may not get the job she wanted because employers don’ t want a person like her nor could she get into her dream school when she has clearly not been in the news or media for bombing a mall or something. 

This here is another issue involving race because of the physical characteristics that these two individuals show alone. For example a Black man may walk into a store with a hood on, other customers start the whispering game or the employees start to keep a close eye on them all because of the color of their skin and a hoodie. The young lady up top may walk in a mall with her friends and she may start speaking another language and the whispers start to go around wondering what she is saying and when this lady goes to make a purchase and her accent may be to think for an employee to understand so they don’t talk to each other as much as they would with another customer because of their English and just overall how no one respects them as a normal human being for the young man and young lady as human beings learning to be better individuals just like the rest of us.

This here is effecting the economy because of the discrimination in the working world where employees don't even want to work around someone like this guy in the picture and it involves race where even companies do not want to hire anyone bellow the first two groups in this picture. The economy part comes in because no one else gets to have power or the wealth they dream to have and even the privilege to work as a team.

I would even say that food involves race for instance, White people may assume that Black people are the only groups of people that eat fried chicken and watermelon when I have seen form myself Asians eat watermelon and say they love it and I know for myself I don’t even lime watermelon. There is also a time when other racial groups thought Chinese people ate the Chinese and Japanese food that they serve at a restaurant and for the ones I have seen they do not eat that because it is not solely made from their countries and they would mot eat it. Another scenario could be for White people being the only ones to eat organic food and shop at stores like Whole Foods when I have clearly seen plenty of healthy Black people eat a lot of organic foods and they love it. 

This here shows a clear representation of how individuals view hard working people that are trying to make a living in this day and age in society. Now I can say for myself that I have seen plenty of Black men and women and even a few White women doing yard work I can say I have also seen Mexican men doing the yard work as well but, apparently they are the ones being laughed at for working an honest living job that most home owners that are saying things like this in the picture can do their own selves. 

This last picture shows how overtime in the fashion world, if were a Black model you would have to be lighter just so that makeup artist could dress you up to almost look white and not showing true beauty in a Black woman. Its almost a way of saying to not believe in yourself but to become the person that is accepted in this industry.

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Globalization Characteristics

This picture represents time-space compression in globalization. Back when there use to be pagers, home telephones, and pay phones most people were not always on their phone because younger children would be outside playing double Dutch or tick-tack-toe. While the older crowd would be out and about just creating a conversation with one another. Now in this day and age, even children use iPad’s and cellphones starting at the ag of 6 not  being outside enough to enjoy the natural sunlight or warm weather and more accidents on the road happen simply because of the newer technology with touch screen phones. People will start to bump into another person while on the phone, people will hold up traffic just to be on the phone, people will even loose their jobs from being on the phone. At the end of the day, I feel as though these cell phones are a drug that individuals just cannot stay away from and if they  are away from it they get agitated and it's almost like a withdrawal process with them whether that's in in school, work, etc.

This picture represents local grass cutters and garners that will mow our lawns and the neighborhood overall so that we all can have a nice wonderful looking neighborhood which I know its something every house hold wants. Sometimes I know I will take some time out of my day just to sit and watch the Gardner's work and I think to myself, when I see people in my neighborhood leave and have their house on the market, I wonder where these Gardner's go then because they have no way of working without customers which means less income and more debt. When I go out, I notice the same type of people that may be Gardner's looking for work on the side walk in front of stores because they have no where else to work thanks to the home owners leaving their homes and not much else to do for the workers and I have seen them work extremely hard out in the hot sun and they now majority of them have migrated to other neighborhoods with home owners willing to pay Gardner's for doing the job they do best so I believe this would involve a flexible accumulation and increase migration because the Gardner's are migrating throughout the neighborhood, city, state, and nation overall.

This symbolizes an uneven development which may turn out to be a great project but in the middle of it is another story. This can cause economic disparity meaning that the individuals in poverty have no where to go when they are right in the core of a development project in the making and they can’t just up and move with no money nor transportation they are just stuck. Another issue is with the Government telling construction companies they need to tear down and build a new building or new pavement on the streets which can be an issue in the city part of a state because traffic is much worse and people that reside in the city cannot sleep because of all the ruckus and they have no power over that which can make those home owners late or drowsy at work or school. Even though there can be some good in this because this can lead to a higher employment rate and more goods serviced to individuals because new buildings are created which keeps consumers inside. It can also be an increase for a higher income rate for people right at the core of these buildings. I would also say this can be apart of rapid changes because of new technology designs that come along with the new and improved buildings in this day and age to keep the consumers wanting to see newer, bigger, and better things and these construction companies have a way of making it happen. 

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Globalization Can Of Coke

This here is an older version of a China Cabinet which to me in my home is familiar because I know it's right in the dining room where it has always been with pictures and old antiques inside. I sometimes will just sit in the dining room just looking at this China Cabinet wondering what the difference is between this and a regular closet or drawer, is it because of the design, the clear doors, the mirror on the far back, or because it holds some type of special value in the family that’s where the unfamiliar part comes into play. Now I know it may seem ironic that they are from China and now they have spread all throughout the world and they are made for glassware dish sets like plates, silverware, and glass cups. This is a way for the glassware to be safe from cracker and it falling apart, it also great for if you have a family where children that are running around the house and glasses won’t break because of this cabinet. Some people even have a preference on which one they want the most, it seems as if you have a dark china cabinet which is also made in Mahogany can have a more expensive sort of look about it. If you have a lighter closet then it will just probably blend in with your wallpapers around the house. For people that have made these closets all around the world wanted their consumers to use for special occasions where mostly in China its called “Good China” and you would use it for birthdays, anniversaries, and even family dinner nights. Now in the modern age with newer China Cabinets the industrial approach that is now used is a “mental frame” which will still be made of glass but in a cube form and as wood furniture that is built to last for many years. 

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Erica Williams

Anthropology 101

Dr. Howell

9/30/18

                                         The Human Family Tree

How does the information presented in the film challenge our system of racial classification? In your opinion, does the film challenge or reinforce stereotypes of Africa and Africans?

After watching the Human Family Tree film, I had witnessed so many fascinating things about every single person on Earth. It just amazes me of how each person comes from one scientific Eve and one scientific Adam and they happened to be living in Africa and African-American and every one that came from them is a part of so many different religions, ethnicity, etc. while watching the film I had so many questions on how we could all just as well be distant cousins but strangers to one another all at the same time.

I feel as though this film can challenge our system of racial classification by how we have all migrated into different areas of the Earth and the sun also takes on a huge part of this because of the instant climate changes and how in one part of the planet is excessively hot and one part being excessively cold. This can involve people’s skin color changing from being really dark to being pale which is why I could never really understand the true meaning of Slavery when we are all the same and created from the same people way down the line because in fact we are descendants of Africa maybe some of us just don’t know it yet. So far, the racial categories as of now that I know of are African-American, Black, Asian, White American, Native Hawaiian, or even Pacific Islander and within these categories the United States has been challenging and sorting people into categories based on those 6 racial categories into groups where a certain society and culture accepts them. So, in a way, I feel that the film gives a description of what the U.S. is doing to America. I believe that the film reinforces stereotyped of Africa and Africans, for instance: one of the common stereotypes are poverty, corruption, or always being at war.

Which are not true in fact, the people here are very welcoming and peaceful human beings. Now I can say on some parts of the film where they talk about the climate changing where it is excessively hot is true, but the Africans find a way to make it through 24 hours where other parts in the continent have rain forests and even lands for farming use with bodies of water.

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Hand & Gesture Languages

Each one of these pictures represents what people use their gestures by using their hands. Sometimes it can just mean they like to use their hands while talking while others could mean fighting hand gestures. While I am around my friends sometimes, I noticed that they use certain words that I take literal and I usually don’ t understand the words for example: my female friends will say “sis”, “the N word”, “the B word”, or “lol”. I take it as well I am not your sister and I surely am not a four-legged female dog. My male friends may say something like: “yo”, “sweetheart”, “baby girl”, “the N word” or “dummy”. I will take things like this as if I am not a yo nor am I anyone’s sweetheart and a dummy. 

I see now that I have to understand where their coming from as if they just want to say other names that they have picked up from their friends instead of calling me Erica all the time which it may sound boring sometimes. Even my own gestures sound funny for example: “hustling”, “alrighty then”, “oh well”, or “absolutely”. My words are kid of old and outdated and I guess that is why they may seem funny to some people because it doesn’t sound like something a young girl like myself would say. I will even hear when I go to the store an older woman say to a customer like me, “what can I do for you sweetie” or “your welcome baby” when I hear this I actually do not get offended or anything it almost sounds as if my own grandmother that I never had or my aunt talking to me and I feel safe or okay about it. It usually happens to be the older black women that say it more often than an older white woman would say, which is still fine with me. 

Once I hear a man say it that is another customer or is the person working behind the counter I automatically get offended by it and I would be ready to call the Police or a manager over because they are men and I do not feel comfortable with a man calling me “sweetie pie” or “baby” because I hear on the news too many things about men and name calling and thoughts start running through my head thinking that he is this or that in a negative way.