#HACCSOCI201 race

[jtoybox]

The Dramaturgical Scripts of Slavery and Racism in Modern America

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When ex-Grand Wizard David Duke flipped his script, he began from a place of Holocaust denial.  This gained him traction, not because it was a ground-breaking revelation to his followers, but because they’d been buying it since the German Nazis began to whitewash their actions during World War II.  Lest you think it ends there, Kenneth Stern (2001) tells us, “Americans were prominent in early postwar denial circles. Austin J. App, a professor of English at the University of Scranton, had defended Germany during World War II, claiming that it didn't desire to ‘dominate’ Europe, but rather was legitimately attempting to get raw materials.”  Later, under the heading “Institutionalizing Anti-Semitism”, he discusses the Washington, D.C. Institute for Historical Review.  “It presented itself as a legitimate historical research group, devoted to ‘revisionism’... But in fact, it was made up of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and it would draw expertise from the like-minded from around the world (Stern, 2001).”

In her review of Starz’ American Gods, a tale that states emphatically that America consists of immigrants and slaves, Katie (2019) quotes a powerfully riveting speech from Anansi, the spider god of African slaves,

My worshipers know: freedom ain’t free. They know the most potent weapon of control for the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. They know slavery is not a condition. Slavery is a cult. Human trafficking is a cult. Slavery got a rebrand like motherfucking the alt-right. And snatched, another one gone. Every thirty seconds another chocolate, brown, caramel, yellow, high yellow, redbone refugee girl with melanin in her skin gets snatched. Every thirty seconds.

This was the second time the matter came up in this program with such fervor.  In the opening scene of the series, Anansi spoke directly to east Africans being transported across the Atlantic to the New World, and after revealing what they have to look forward to basically told them, “A hundred years later, you’re fucked. A hundred years after that? Fucked. A hundred years after you get free, you still getting fucked on the job and shot at by police (Leon, 2017).” In an article focused on that scene, Julia Alexander (2017) quotes Orlando Jones, the actor who plays Anansi in American Gods, “Black people don't know what white privilege is. We've never experienced it before and white people don't know what racism is. They've never experienced it before. It always feels like two sides are yelling at each other.”  Jones further says, “… you truly have to be in power to be a racist. A person who has no power really can't be racist (Alexander, 2017).”

Herein lies the dilemma in this country.   Just as Anti-Semitism has become an institution, so has slavery and racism.  The dramaturgical script may have changed, but slavery is conceptually still alive and well, for all intents and purposes. I may not hold the kind of power to be racist, as Orlando Jones describes it, and perhaps neither do you.  But if I turn a blind eye to white privilege, do I not empower those that do?  After all, cults don’t die, they simply become rebranded.  

While the Black Lives Matter movement and its detractors are screaming across a chasm, deep down inside that chasm a very real issue stemming from socialized race is transpiring.  Defending their actions with statistics of higher rates of crime on the part of the Black community, police tend to target African-Americans, at times quite literally with their sidearms.  Ignore what brings the Black community there.   Ignore the fact that residential segregation socializes African-American youth to that way of life.  Ignore all of the statistics that demonstrate a clear disadvantage for African-Americans when it comes to education and income.  Focus on the crime rate.  It’s a parlor trick.  

While statistics can be used to distort the overall picture, they’re still wonderful things that can clarify the world around us.  In this particular case, the picture is not so clean-cut as they would have you believe.  For example, according to The Sentencing Project (2017), “Since the official beginning of the War on Drugs in 1982, the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses in the U.S. skyrocketed from 40,900 in 1980 to 450,345 in 2016. Today, there are more people behind bars for a drug offense than the number of people who were in prison or jail for any crime in 1980.”  And how do Blacks fare in this matter?  “African-American drug users are almost three times more likely to be arrested for illegal drug use (Tsai, 2018).”  Is this because, as has been purported, that African-Americans have a genetic predisposition to addiction (Tsai, 2018)?  Absolutely not.  As Kane-Willis and Schmitz (2018) inform us, “The reality is that African Americans and whites use drugs at roughly the same rates. Yet the narrative that most Americans believe, and that the media perpetuates, is that African Americans are more likely to use drugs.” This, in essence, is the crux of the matter.  

When slavery was abolished in the latter half of the 19th Century, the southern states rebutted with the invocation of Jim Crow legislation to keep the Black community separate.  When the passage of the Civil Rights Act abolished their Jim Crow laws, they turned to propaganda to ensure the same effect.  Years ago, an uncle said to me that, from his own personal experience, Black men are inherently lazy.  This was ultimately the end-result of his being fed that narrative in the 70s.  When authoritative violence against African-Americans became mainstream in recent years, the same sort of rhetoric that originated all the way back to the days when they were used for slave labor were heard once again from white voices.  The defense of this imbalanced violence is due to socialized race in the absence of scientific evidence.  It’s a story that whites have told and retold time and time again, across generations, while ignoring what’s staring us right in the face.

In the realm of institutional racism we don’t need to be racist in order for racism to thrive, and this is the key to any institution. Economists speak of an “invisible hand” guiding market forces. What they actually mean is that what we each choose on an individual level doesn’t matter, but what we all choose on an individual basis does.  It’s the aggregate effects that make the world go round.  It only takes one story to induce a bank run, incentivizing most of us run to the banks in mass hysteria to grab our money before it’s gone, thus triggering a lengthy recession.  We may not harbor the power to be racist, but the story invariably holds all the cards. Our power lies in our choice to refuse to bow down to that false god. But as long as we continue to do so in the aggregate, African-Americans can continue to look forward to unintended oppression from their fellow citizens.

References

Alexander, J. (2017, May 8). American Gods’ Mr. Nancy debut scene

was born out of a desire to challenge social injustice. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from https://www.polygon.com/2017/5/8/15583418/american-gods-mr-nancy-racism

Kane-Willis, K., & Schmitz, S. (2018, January 22). Opioid crisis

‘whitewashed’ to ignore rising black death rate. Chicago Reporter. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from https://www.chicagoreporter.com/opioid-crisis-whitewashed-to-ignore-rising-black-death-rate/

Katie. (2019, April 1). REVIEW: ‘American Gods’ Season Two,

Episode Four “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Retrieved April 9, 2019, from http://www.wesonerdy.com/2019/03/31/review-american-gods-season-two-episode-four-the-greatest-story-ever-told/

Leon, M. (2017, May 8). ‘American Gods’ Delivers a Powerful Black

Lives Matter Message. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/05/08/american-gods-delivers-a-powerful-black-lives-matter-message

Stern, K. (2001, August 29). Lying About the Holocaust: Inside the

Denial Movement. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2001/lying-about-holocaust-inside-denial-movement

The Sentencing Project. (2017). Criminal Justice Facts. Retrieved

April 9, 2019, from https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/

Tsai, J. (2018, January 30). Racial Differences in Addiction and

Other Disorders Aren’t Mostly Genetic. [web log post]. Retrieved April 9, 2019, from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/racial-differences-in-addiction-and-other-disorders-arent-mostly-genetic/

[ayohposts-blog]

The issues surrounding race are very disheartening to me, much like the issues with social class.  Everyone is should be treated equal, in a perfect world, but our world is anything but perfect.  Racism, which is defined as “the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits” (Conley, 2017, p. 325), is clearly an issue in our society.  This idea is present in the artifact I have chosen.  This article, with a short video, describes how a bill was approved to allow black women to wear their natural hair, without the risk of consequences.  Before this bill was passed, their natural hair was considered unprofessional, and they had to do something with it, like put it in braids.  

A sociologist would pay attention to what was going on in society before the bill was passed, which was discrimination against black women and their hair.  Discrimination is defined in our textbooks as “harmful and negative acts (not mere thoughts) against people deemed inferior on the basis of their racial category, without regard to their individual merit” (Conley, 2017, p. 359).  The article describes that children were sent home from school because of their hair, which is definitely a negative act.

I think this article is an excellent example of how race has an impact on society and how we view other people.  By looking at this through the sociological lens, we can determine that what these people are going through is discrimination and prejudice against their race, which is unacceptable morally.  It is really hard to think, that just for wearing your natural, beautiful hair, you could get sent home for looking “unprofessional.”  It is really something that we, as a society, should try to fix.

Word Count: 288

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

[jangstadt-blog]

Racism is continuously an ongoing issue in the world. Many people simply believe racism is treating whites as superior to any other race, most commonly African Americans. However, that is not all. There is so much more to racism than many people see. Whites likely have absolutely no idea how much people of other races are affected both emotionally and physically. Imagine not being treated fairly or constantly being turned away from everything you try to do. Just as the video discusses, I feel as if there are so many people who are not racially literate.

Here in this video, the two individuals took it upon themselves to learn more about racism after seeing all of the hate and mistreatment that was happening. They want to help to create a world where everyone is accepted for who they are and where everyone is comfortable in their own shoes. They do not want the world to be so divided by race. They decided to take it upon themselves to talk to people from all fifty states who are mistreated due to their race. Research methods are “approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to questions” (Conley, 2017, p. 47). Priya and Winona, the two girls, are looking to find answers as to why our society is so racist, just like the great majority of us are. What makes people of other races so different? White individuals think they matter more than everyone else. We as a society are so quick to judge others and most times we have no idea what others are going through. Ethnocentrism is “the belief that one’s own culture or group is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one’s own” (Conley, 2017, p. 328). When it comes to culture, there are so many different beliefs, rituals, etc...  So, why do we judge people from other cultures? For example, there are cultures that have certain pieces of clothing that they wear because it is part of the culture which they are from. Knowing that every culture is different, why do we judge? There are a great number of people who see that race is an ongoing issue that are stepping up and trying to make their mark by attempting to put an end to it. If more people band together, change can be made.

[word count: 397]

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. (5th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton.

[brennaadewalt-blog]

This image represents the unfortunate dealing with the police and people of color in today’s society. It represents racism. A lot of people today would say most of the police force are prejudice and discriminating against African Americans. Prejudice is thoughts and feelings about an ethnic or racial group, which lead to preconceived notions and judgements about the group (Conley, 2017, p. 359). You only ever hear about a white police officer shooting, killing African Americans. Which does not help the issue at hand either. There needs to be a universal coverage on all races of both police and people being shot and killed. The media is also showing signs of racism by displaying only the black being shot by the white. 

Word Count: 122

References

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

[michelinaplantz-blog]

Treyvon Martin

https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/trayvon-martin

           When I think about race and racism and equality between race, I think about the Trayvon Benjamin Martin case. A case that no only shocked everyone but a case that started a movement. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012 (Treyvon Martin biography, 2019). Due to a string of burglaries in the area, they created a neighborhood watch system in order to protect the neighborhood. Treyvon Martin was a 17-year-old boy walking to a 7/11 in the night to purchase iced tea and skittles. When Zimmerman called the police to report a suspicious person walking through their gated community. After police instructions to not follow the boy, he did so anyway.

           Later on, residence reported hearing gun shots, when police showed up Treyvon martin was shot and killed. Zimmerman reported self-defense. He stated that the boy tried to attack him and showed signs of suspicious behavior. Zimmerman felt that it was one of the people coming to rob the people of this community and showed aggression when approached so she shot them. However, the uproar came because he was a man of color and felt that is the real reason behind his shooting.

           The article goes into more details, however I am trying to show a ontological equality point of view. Ontological equality is defined as, “The philosophical and religious ntion that all people are created equal” (Conley, 2017, pg. 329). This case alone shows where that type of equality wasn’t shown. That this is why issues like this are important to show due to the fact that people are and should be treated equal.

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself:. New York: Norton.

Trayvon Martin. (2019, April 16). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/trayvon-martin

[megadeepdreamer-blog]

TED TALKS LIVE Short - Unconscious Bias

Are you racist? Most would answer no to that question. Meaning that they make every effort to see all races in the same light and apply the same rules no matter the case. But, over time and through social conditioning people can develop what is called implicit bias. This happens when someone subconsciously applies a stereotype to a person and it affects the actions taken when dealing with the victim. In this video, we are shown a young black male child in school. He faces a vicious cycle. When he is in class he claims the teacher is always focused on him and he constantly gets in trouble and is sent to the principals' office. He says that his classmates also do bad things but he is always blamed for the things they do or picked out of the group. As a result, his mother constantly scolds him at home. 

This is a perfect example of unconscious bias on the teachers, principals, and even the mothers part. Since the child is black and male he is considered a problem. When the teacher applies this bias unconsciously she is always looking towards the problem and sees problematic behavior. The teacher could even see the problematic behavior of other students stemming from this black male child. The principal sees this child as a threat to the safety and learning abilities of other students, he does not bother investigating the ongoing issue and reports to the child's mother. The mother assumes that she has a problem child on her hands because of her own bias and scolds the boy needlessly. The child proclaims that since everyone thinks he is bad, he might as well really be bad. So he fulfills and validates the stereotype that society has placed upon him.

Word count: 297

Reference:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

[lynleesheeler]

           The institution of the British Royal Family can be traced back over 1,000 years, and within those 1,000 plus years never has the issue of race been a topic of discussion until recently.  With Prince Harry marriage to Meghan Markle, an American. . .an Afro-American actress in May 2018, the Royal Family is finally evolving with the times.  While Meghan Markle is not one hundred percent African-American, according to the one-drop rule, which is the belief that “one drop” of black blood makes a person black, a concept that evolved from U.S. laws forbidding miscegenation (Conley, 2017, p. 333) classifies her as black.  This is groundbreaking for the Royal Family.  Prince Harry who has never entirely followed the rest of the royal fold and marches to his own drum, with his marriage has begun breaking down racial and social barriers in the name of love.  This union in the eyes of sociology is termed miscegenation, this is the technical term for interracial marriage, literally meaning “a mixing of kinds”; it is politically and historically charged.  (Conley, 2017, p. 333)

           Even more important than the marriage of Harry and Meghan is the upcoming birth of their first child.  This is extremely historically important, “the baby will be seventh-in-line to the throne” and “will be the first Afro-American baby to be born into the royal family," according to Claudia Joseph- a royal biographer.  (Reuters, 2019)  There will be struggles for both the parents and the child along the way, I’m sure- but now that the wall has been broken down it is one less obstacle.  For a family seeped in tradition, maybe the Royals will be able to create new traditions for themselves personally, for the monarchy, and for their country.

Word Count: 289

Conley, D. (2017). You May Ask Yourself. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Reuters. (2019, April 23). What Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Baby Says About Race. Retrieved from NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/what-harry-meghan-s-baby-says-about-race-n997461

[jtoybox]

Racial Hegemony in the Modern United States

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I am Lenape.  I have absolutely no genetic justification for saying that, so why do I get to make that claim?  Because, back in 2005, I was “brought in under the blanket” by a Lenape Grandmother.  During those times, I attended several pow-wows to which I brought food to contribute, had many a conversation with Doris Turtlefeather, and I hung out with a guy named Two-Foxes, who had a lot in common with me, and his wife, Shoshana.   My young daughter even joined in with the drum circle once or twice.  And, honestly, everyone there couldn’t wait to see that kid.  She was passed around more than the brownies I’d bring for their children. 

When people ask me, though, I generally tell them that I’m German-Scots-Irish, which is actually oversimplifying the matter.  I have never taken a DNA test to confirm that, so why do I get to make that claim?  Because I’ve traced my lineage far back enough to ensure that it’s true.  I even once found my great-great-great-great-grandmother’s gravestone online.  But why do I really get to make these claims?  Because, being Caucasian in the United States entitles me to engage in symbolic ethnicity.  I get to openly show allegiance to my ancestral roots.  Not every alleged race here has that choice.  

Case in point, when my aunt told my grandmother that she was engaged to marry “a colored guy”, which was the politically correct term at the time,my grandmother had a fit.  My aunt married him anyway.  Both me and my grandmother were at the wedding, and the reception afterward was a very good time.   While her husband would go out of the way for any of us, all we had to do was ask, he never really felt like he was part of the family.  And, as far as I know, the man never looked into his own ethnic roots.  At least it never came up in the myriad conversations he and I had over the years.   Being white in this country has its advantages, whether I ever asked for them or not. 

In a previous blog, I discussed the matter of economic class, and how even the Hollywood elite are beginning to feel the sting of the wealth gap (Brill, 2019).   If you were to ask me if I feel sorry for them, my answer would be no, for one simple reason: white privilege.  Let me give you an idea of what that looks like in the criminal justice system.

Tanasia Kenney (2018) tells us, “A North Carolina woman cast a vote for President Donald Trump on behalf of her mother, who had recently died. The grieving woman claimed she had no idea she couldn’t vote on behalf of a dead person. No charges were ever filed in that case.”  It gets better, because Kenney (2018) further states that, “Over in Iowa, a woman named Terri Lynn Rote tried to vote for Trump twice… Rote was let off with probation and a $750 fine.”  And what happened when a Black woman committed practically the same crime in the same election?   “Texas woman Crystal Mason... was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for unknowingly committing voter fraud by voting in the 2016 election (Kenney, 2018).”  

As far as the college admission scam goes, “all of the parents in the college cheating scandal have been offered plea deals, but prosecutors will only accept pleas with prison time attached (TMZ, 2019).” Apparently not much, though.  “Felicity's plea would enable her to serve as little as 4 months in prison (TMZ, 2019).” Now, it may hit Loughlin and Giannuli harder since they turned down the initial plea bargain, but if they “now want to plea bargain their cases, instead of a minimum range of 2 to 2 and a half years in prison... prosecutors would recommend to the judge a minimum range of 4 years and 9 months up to 5 years and 11 months (TMZ, 2019).”  To put this into perspective, “The money laundering charge alone carries a maximum of 20 years in prison (TMZ, 2019).”

It is incredibly likely that by the time Loughlin and Giannuli have their sentences handed to them, they will both serve less jail time than Crystal Mason will.  Felicity Huffman definitely will.  All three of them committed fraud, and only one of them did it unknowingly, and she is the one that will suffer the most.  I stand by my statement that even in the higher tiers they are beginning to experience the desperation to maintain the status quo that the majority of us have gone through for years.  I stand by my assessment that this demonstrates how wide the wealth gap has grown. But at the end of the day, only the rich Caucasians will benefit from a legal system that has been established in their favor since time immemorial.

References

Brill, J. (2019, April 6). A Symbolic Interactionist Take on the College

Admissions Scandal [web log post]. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://jtoybox.tumblr.com/post/183999003317/a-symbolic-interactionist-take-on-the-college

Kenney, T. (2018, March 31). Here’s What Happened When 3 White

People Committed Voter Fraud Vs. A Black Texas Woman. Atlanta Blackstar. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/31/heres-happened-3-white-people-committed-voter-fraud-vs-black-texas-woman/

TMZ. (2019, April 9). Lori Loughlin Just Indicted for

Additional Charge of Money Laundering. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.tmz.com/2019/04/09/lori-loughlin-plea-bargain-prison-sentence-college-bribery-money/

[michellesiejak-world-blog]

Race

The topic of racism, or the “belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits” (Conley, 2017) is discussed in this Ted talk as it applies to the health of those who are experiencing discrimination. David Williams presents information stating that while disparity in income and education are recognized as primary results of discrimination, he believes there are more effects to be researched. This resulted in a study identifying the effect discrimination has on the health of members of the black community. This speaker identified a variety of diseases like cancer, high blood pressure, and heart disease with higher rates of incidences in the black community as a result of the stress of discrimination. Mortality rates were also considered in the study highlighting the occurrence of black men dying prematurely, regardless of education spanning form high school drop-out through college educated. Implicit bias, or unintentional stereotyping if individuals from specific minority groups by healthcare professionals is a factor resulting in members of a minority community receiving sun-standard healthcare. Even the most well-intentioned professional is susceptible to this discrimination.

 Institutional racism is also highlighted in this talk. This type of racism is defined as “institutional and social system that may seem race-neutral but actually disadvantage minority groups” (Conley, 2017).  Mr. Williams discusses residential segregation as a primary source of institutional racism. By segregating members of minority communities, opportunities and access to quality medical care and other opportunities are limited for those minority groups. Property values in minority neighborhoods, prison sentences, educational standards, and hiring practices are other examples of institutional racism (Conley, 2017).

 Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

#race

#HACCSOCI201

(264 word count)

[scm1062-blog]

                This is an image from an article posted by the Indianapolis Recorder. The article references code-switching at work for African Americans. Observed from the image is an African American male holding a white mask. It Depicts that this man as an African American male or minority, has to change his personality or normal way of life, by being someone else or as shown wear a different mask to fit into the group he is around at his work place.

               Sociologist would see that a minority group or subaltern is attempting to assimilate into a white dominated work force by code-switching. This image shows a person from the African American minority group having two sides to himself. His true image versus the role he utilizes to fit into his work place. As most know he has chosen rather than resist the normal of society and defend his culture, he has accepted his role as a minority and assimilated to the dominant culture and race of his work force.  

              Code-switching is a term used to describe when other subaltern groups have to assimilate by changing their actions to fit in with their environment. This is done through language, appearance or even personality. A subaltern is an oppressed group of individuals that become subordinate to their oppression and use a different role to assimilate, while their true self is seen only by the other oppressed groups. A theory developed by Elijah Anderson that refers to code-switching as a way African Americans fit into a White dominated society.

[Word Count: 254]

References:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

[momof3girlsworld]

Racism as defined is “the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits”. (Conley, 2017, p. 325-325).  It is not something that you are born into thinking, feeling or knowing but something that is learned. This picture of 2 babies hugging is an example of ontological equality, that is by definition the “philosophical and religious notion that all people are created equal”. (Conley, 2017, p. 329-330). No one person or race is better than another. No one serves a greater purpose or has a right to belittle or treat anyone else as though they are below them. It is sad to think that at one time miscegenation or “interracial marriage” (Conley, 2017, p. 333). was not allowed and that people had to hide their feelings or relationships. It is also hard to understand that someone could ever hate a baby that was not the same color as them or interracial. When X-rays are taken or blood drawn, when the lights are off and you can’t see the color of their skin, we are all made the same way. We all need the same air to breathe and live. Our blood flows the same, we bleed the same. Why does our ethnicity matter?  Why can’t we learn to cherish everyone’s talents and abilities?

Growing up with a father from Sri Lanka, I can’t imagine not accepting everyone. I grew up with many different family customs that to some may have seemed odd or strange. My mailbox was the target of eggs and red oil paint poured on it and in it. It is sad to think that we were a target of racism just because people didn’t want to understand our culture and instead wanted to share hate. If they would have only gotten the chance to know us, they would have seen that we were no different than them and could have possible enjoyed some of our customs.

 Word count: 321

 Reference:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & 

     Company, Inc.

[staceykc1989-blog]

In the cartoon pictured above, it shows how black America is being portrayed and treated and this is not in a good way. It is basically showing one of the most common sights we see the black community and on the news every week in this country. It shows a black man on the ground being beaten and handcuffed by white cops and each one of these cops is defined by something. Sub-prime lending, meaning the African American community doesn’t get the financial benefits like a white American would. Segregation, showing that they aren’t being treated fairly and being cut off from other parts of different communities. Deindustrialization, showing that the job loss in their communities is most common among the black and the poor. And finally it shows institutional racism. This means that companies only stick to qualities they know and are making huge disadvantages for minority groups (Conley 2017, p.363). A sociologist would see this picture as a whole and think that is defines what is going on in and around black communities all over the united states. We had abolished slavery and segregation years ago but today there is a whole new set of racial disadvantages. Just like in one of my previous blogs about Flint Michigan and the water problem that is not being fixed because they are a poor black community. Even though most people say they are not prejudice, that simply is not the case and they may not even know it. Prejudice is the thoughts and feelings about a particular race or ethnic group. (Conley 2017, p.359)

Word Count: 262

Conley, D. (2017). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist (Core 5th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

[itsdprowell-blog]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sff2N8rez_8) 

           People are unfortunately labeled by their skin color of either being “white” or “black.” According to Conley, “when the term race comes up in America today, we usually think in two colors: black or white” (Conley, 2017, p. 325). Of course, racism has come a long way since slavery was occurring, but it still continues to happen throughout the world. Some white people go as far as ethnocentrism which is “the belief that one’s own culture or group is superior to others, and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one’s own” (Conley, 2017, p. 80).

           In the video I shared, it provides the thoughts of young children and what segregation or racism means to them. It allows them to express their thoughts and feelings and what they typically see throughout the day in a school setting when it comes to blacks and whites. As America begins to grow you are starting to see this country transform into a pluralism society which is “the presence and engaged coexistence of numerous distinct groups in one society” (Conley, 2017, p. 352). There are a vast majority of races throughout the country and to be exact, Conley added that, “At the turn of the twentieth century, Americans categorized themselves into anywhere from 36 to 75 different races” (Conley, 2017, p. 325).

           Of course there will always be racism throughout America as a long time ago this was perfectly acceptable. We will not be able to get rid of it entirely, but as whole, we can put our foot down and start treating everyone equal no matter their skin color. As a surprise, Conley noted that whites “did not mind so much if blacks had equal chance of earning a living” (Conley, 2017, p. 361). This leads into equality of opportunity that “everyone has an equal chance to achieve wealth, social prestige, and power..” (Conley, 2017, p. 245).

           We all need to come together and stop separating Americans because of their skin color. Everybody has the same heart and desire in life, whether they are considered “black” or “white”. 

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Reference: 

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York: W.W. Norton.

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Race

As many of you may already know, race has been a controversial issue for centuries and it still is today. In case you don’t know the true definition of race, it is “a group of people who share a set of characteristics–typically, but not always, physical ones–and are said to share a common bloodline” (Conley, 2017, p. 324). In the image above there is are two little boys hugging, one white and one black, and the caption says “There’s only one race, the human race”. According to Conley, in the ancient worlds of Greece, Rome, and early Christendom, race didn’t exist as we know it today (as a biological package of traits carried in the bloodlines of distinct groups, each with a separate culture, behavior, intelligence, and appearance). They simply believed that physical markers such as skin color were the result of different environmental factors. The true test of a person was to be found in their civic actions. In fact the Roman’s maintained a brutal slavery system just like Americans did in their first couple centuries here. The difference is that both the Roman slaves and citizens represented various skin colors and geographic origins whereas our freemen were mostly white and slaves were black. Ancients didn’t discriminate in the sense of making judgements about people on the basis of their racial category without regard to their individual merit. The picture relates to this idea because instead of acting like we are all different because of our race, it acts like we are all the same because we are all humans.

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Reference:

Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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     This article addresses the issue African Americans face when it comes to getting the quality healthcare they deserve. Sherry Alvarez was a very concerned mother when she took her nine-month-old baby to the pediatrician. Her son was not communicating with her, but the doctor brushed it off and told her to wait until his second birthday (Rentz, 2018.) By his second birthday, he still was not communicating so Alvarez was referred to a children’s hospital only to receive a twenty page report of where her son was at on the autism spectrum (Rentz, 2018.) This is just one example of how the medical industry over-looks minorities concerns. According to the article, African American children are five times more likely to be misdiagnosed with behavioral disorders before instead of autism (Rentz, 2018.) It discusses how minorities are much more likely to be diagnosed at a later age than white children, which puts minorities at a disadvantage when getting the proper therapy and treatments for autism (Rentz, 2018) Alvarez’s son is now in high school and can only communicate through technology, she says things could have been much different if her son was diagnosed earlier on (Rentz, 2018.)

     This is just the tip of the ice berg though. Racism is deeply rooted in our society. I believe that this is an example of institutional racism. Institutional racism is institution and social dynamics that may seem race-neutral but are really disadvantages for minority groups (Conley, 2017.) The medical industry has long been racist to minorities. The reason I believe it to be institutional racism is because Alvarez was not taken seriously at her initial visit and was brushed off. If the doctor would have ran the normal testing for Alvarez’s concerns, her son may have been in a much better place today. According to the article, a lot of minorities are diagnosed with behavioral disorders instead of their actual mental illness (Rentz, 2018.)

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Conley, D. (2017). You may ask yourself: An introduction to thinking like a sociologist (5th ed.). New York, NY: Norton & Company.

Rentz, C. (2018, March 19). Black and latino children are often overlooked when it comes to autism. Retrieved April 21, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/19/587249339/black-and-latino-children-are-often-overlooked-when-it-comes-to-autism

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Source: 1. Collins, C. (2018). What is white privilege, really?. Teaching Tolerance, 60. Retrieved from https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really 

2. Conley, D. (2017). You May Ask Yourself (5th ed.). New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. 

The term white privilege is not a new idea in our society. In fact, in 1988, a revolutionary essay written by Peggy McIntosh called “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” helps readers understand white privilege by “making its effects personal and tangible” (Collins, 2018). Unfortunately, white privilege has largely gone unrecognized throughout time and even now. And if you’re wondering “what is white privilege?” then you, most likely, are unconsciously accountable for having this privilege. It could be found in day-to-day activities and in white people’s ability to move through the professional and personal sectors with general ease.

White privilege is the ability to walk into a store and having your shade of nude stockings available or your several shades of foundation to choose from. White privilege is having the ability to walk down the street with your friends without another person crossing the street to avoid you out of fear.

This idea of white privilege is seeded in the long history of racism and bias in our country. Racism is defined as “the belief that members of separate races possess different and unequal traits” (Conley, 2017). Racism differs slightly from bias, which is “a conscious or unconscious prejudice against an individual or group based on their identity” (Collins, 2018). Bias is the thought process and racism is the action taken because of one’s bias. These both have a basis in the term racialization, which is “the formation of a new racial identity by drawing ideological boundaries of difference around a formerly unnoticed group of people.”

It is important as a white person to take accountability and recognize this privilege, to engage in conversations with people of color and educate yourself about oppressive tactics still used in our society and take advantage of your privilege to take action when necessary.

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