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Immigration

I interview a student at Morgan State who was first born in DC but then moved with their parents to Kenya as a baby and having the dual experience of being raised Kenyan but with an American passport then coming to America with a Kenyan childhood. I listen to the interviewee’s story them telling me their father wanted them to grow up away from the conforming views of American Culture pushing them out of the US. They grew up in Kenya mostly around their mother’s side of the family going to school with kids from other countries as well. Then they decided to move to the US for school their pull being having already being born in the US and having family in the area. There were very much pushes they said but their father had gone to an HBCU so that could be considered as one. In Kenya the bridges were them being so young and easily able to adapt to Kenyan culture and language. Barriers included leaving their parents and friends behind even. 

The interviewee also saw American as their opportunity to succeed,“I felt like American was the place to have different opportunities”. They also acknowledged that their story is very different from other immigrants who weren't born in America, “I feel like because I was an American from the start and I had a passport and everything it was easier coming back and I know that other people had difficulties coming in because of where their from”. 

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last concept map

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A Hershey Bar

The Hershey bar, an American classic. First, we will talk about the additives in a Hershey bar. Soy lecithin which is made from soybean oil is added to Hershey's chocolate to keep the cocoa and cocoa butter from separating. Hershey exports from Brazil, Argentina or the U.S. Brazil is the worlds largest soybean exporter but in 2017 soybean prices took a record low forcing soybean workers to hoard their produces in hopes for a price rise in the near future. PGPR, or polyglycerol polyricinoleate, is made from castor bean oil and added to chocolate to keep it thick and soft its used as a cheaper option than using cocoa butter.

Hershey gets its Vanilla bean extract from Madagascar, the largest producer of vanilla beans in the world(followed by Indonesia). Together, Madagascar and Indonesia produce 90 percent of the world’s vanilla. In Madagascar Farmers have been protecting their farms from thieves the crime wave has been going strong for two years(just after the luxury bean shot up to a record $635 per kilo from just $100 two years earlier). For many farmers, this is their only source of income and they have started taking dangerous risks in protecting their crops, making homemade pistols, spears, and traps.

Hershey gets its milk from farmers in Pennsylvania, they pride themselves on only using farmers that work 100 miles away from the Hershey factory in Hershey, PA. The factory consumes 300,000-350,000 gallons of milk per day. The American farmers aren’t dealing with the same problems as their Brazilian and Madagascan counterparts.

Hershey imports their cocoa beans and butter from West Africa(Ghana and the Ivory Coast). As of 2015 Hershey came under controversy due to the plantation like conditions in the West African cocoa bean fields and for child labor allegations. Hershey has refused to realize information on their cocoa sources to labor rights organizations and Hershey has yet to acquire fair-trade certification. The top producer of sugar cane is Brazil with the US as second and Mexico as third. Hershey has moved its sugar plants to Mexico to outsource production prices. Mexican sugarcane sectors employ about two million people.

Basically the only thing “American made” in a Hershey bar is milk and the workers in America fair better than the workers in other countries and with their shady refusal to use a fair trade organization as consumers we can only assume that their cocoa source uses unethical labor.

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Fair Trade coffee

Peace Coffee- https://www.peacecoffee.com/about-us/mission

Their mission statement is, “Peace Coffee's mission is to make exceptional-tasting, organic fair-trade coffee that sustains the livelihoods of the people who grow, roast, and sell it; preserves and protects the environment that produces it; and delights the taste buds of those who drink it.” Their headquarter is in Minneapolis MN  

Free Trade- https://www.fairtradecertified.org/who-we-are

their mission statement is, “Fair Trade USA enables sustainable development and community empowerment by cultivating a more equitable global trade model that benefits farmers, workers, fishermen, consumers, industry, and the earth. We achieve our mission by certifying and promoting Fair Trade products.” their headquarters is in  Oakland, CA

Equal Exchange- https://shop.equalexchange.coop/pages/about

their mission statement is, “Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the contribution of worker co-operatives and Fair Trade to a more equitable, democratic and sustainable world.” their headquarters is in Massachusetts

Fair Trade is the equal exchange of profit from the growers to the sellers, most fair trade orgs focus on making sure the growers are treated fairly

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class theory

Google employees are walking out to protest a culture of sexual misconduct - Mic. https://apple.news/Ax55UhjHBQayW2ALvwHr0nQ

This article is an example of Karl Marx’s theory of the bourgeoisie and proletariat and for his call of the proletariat(working class) to unite in order to change the relations between the proletariat (Google headquarters/HR) and the bourgeoisie. The workers at Google are protesting the companies gross mishandling of sexual misconduct and pay inequality.In Karl’s theory he would argue the Google HR would still be in the proletariat class just with higher “prestige and life chances” as class theorist Max Weber would analyze, but this article clearly separates the Google employees, regular customer service worker from corporate and or HR workers as the article states, “The Times report also tells the story of David C. Drummond, who is now the chief legal officer of Google parent company Alphabet. Drummond had an extramarital relationship starting in 2004 with another Google employee, Jennifer Blakely. The two had a son together in 2007. When the two disclosed their relationship to Google, the company’s human resources department discouraged the idea that a higher-up would be involved with a subordinate”(Harding 1). In this company where all workers probably make more than the average fast food employee, there's a culture of ranked society where the workers in the more prestigious and corporate jobs have more power and leverage.

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Social Class & Inequality

Find a news story that illustrates either Marx, Weber, or Bourdieu’s theory of social class. Post a link to the story and do a brief write up (multiple paragraphs) that explains how the story illustrates social class using the selected theorist’s concepts.

***Be sure to focus on social class, not race! Race may play a role, but I want you to focus on social class primarily.

Due Sun 11/11 @ 11:59 pm

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So for my kinship map I tired to make my layered family more simple which proved to be a challenge. I feel like for this map I had to think very structured, like for instance I don’t consider my siblings on my mothers side “step-sisters” they weren’t raised by their fathers and neither was I, we all lived with our mother. I know them better then I do my siblings on my fathers side. To me this map tells me I have no siblings at all, though I do. It’s also hard making distinctions between family members and new wives or partners like on my fathers side his married so I had to but his wife next to him and also find a why to add his brother without making it look like the three where married, though I suppose that what the commons around the brackets are for. 

I also tried adding my sisters fathers but there wasn't an easy way of doing that without also making it seems like all 2 of the fathers and our mother were still together or that the two fathers were together. I decided to us lines to try to make the connections more singular.    

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I can’t find the original tumblr thread that has all the comments but you can just go to the shade room I guess.

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Fieldwork journal: Gender 

The gender I chose to review was Intergender its described to be someone who falls in between female and male this could include genitals that do not allow an individual to be directly identified as male or female or chromosomes. Since we know gender is a performance that is enhanced by the way we culturally construct gender through norms and stereotypes. My performance shows how one might perform masculinity to femininity through intergender identity. Even people who fall into the “grey” area still use a set of gender ideology to navigate their way through their gender.

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Mati concept map

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5. origin myth

a common story about the origins and history of a certain group. 

As Americans we are all taught about the mayflower and the glossed over version of the first thanksgiving. This is “our” origin story as Americans. 

the image below is from A Charlie Brown thanksgiving a popular TV movie that revisits the origin story of the pilgrims its a widespread program many American kids have probably seen this movie hundreds of times revitalizing the American origin myth. 

This expert of a timeline of the validity of black germans and the relationships with Germany and African countries can highlight a origin story for some Black-Germans. 

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4.ETHNICITY

a sense of historical and cultural connection to a group of people who are imagined to be different from those outside the group. 

Like all of the people in the exhibit Peggy Identifies as a Black-German as she was born in Germany. Her bio doesn't talk about where her parents or grandparents might have came from. 

In the song “Carnaval del barrio” written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for his play “In the heights” one of the Characters sings:

highlighting not only situational negotiation of identity(choosing your own ethnicity in your own terms) but also the complexity of ethnicity itself. 

https://youtu.be/Uftb_PrOsOg (the song)

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3.GENOCIDE

is the deliberate and systematic destruction, usually murder or massacre, of religious or ethnic groups.

Fasia Jones grew up during the Nazi regime when she was older she worked in concentration camps and saw all the horrible things done to the jewish germans  there.

The video link below explains a fictional genocide from the tv show “Avatar the last Airbender”. Basically the fire nation a fictionalized authoritarian nation massacred the air nomads in hopes to stop the next avatar, meant to be born in the air nation, from being born. The show has a long history with drawing inspiration from actual East and central Asian ethic groups. 

https://youtu.be/mliZ1hezOYE

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2. MULTICULTURALISM

when an immigrant moves to a new country and kind of mix into the dominate culture there but still retain their home country’s ethnic culture.

Onejiru moved to Germany well after living and growing with the culture in Kenya. She retains her ethnic culture by singing in German, English, Kikuyu and Swahili 

Another example is American Cartoon show, “American Dragon Jake Long” a late 2000s show about a 3rd generation Chinese-american boy named Jake who inherits magical powers passed down from his Chinese grandfather. Many episodes in the show highlight jake’s grandfather and mother’s ethnicity. 

*also marrying someone from a different ethnic group isn't a form of multiculturalism, the gif is just funny.

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1. Imagined community

Imagined community is a sense of connection and shared tradition and recognition with a distinct ethnic group or nation whose members likely will never all meet. Basically it’s a fake sense of group connection with individuals we you likely never really know you just feel connected because you have a shared tradition and ethic group. 

In Gabriela Willbold’s short bio she talks about seeing the wall come down and her excited to meet more black germans from the west. The wall being a physical separation of the community but the identification of all of them as “Black Germans” is a imagined community. 

Tumblr is also an example of imagined community. Though Tumblr like many other social media sites has hundreds of community user who self-identity with certain groups like; fandom Tumblr, black Tumblr, and meme Tumblr. They are all have a sense of connection.  

The video below highlight another imagined community that actually has become quite prevalent in recent times. Black twitter many believe to be a part of it having a twitter and being black.

https://youtu.be/CcSh2F8e__8

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African Americans in Germany

Following your visit to the exhibit in BSSC, you will use your notes to compose a response. Your response will include at least 5 concepts from the chapter, and it should be multi-media. For example, you may:

upload photos of certain exhibit panels and comment on them

do audio or video interviews with classmates about their reactions to the exhibit

find related songs, GIFs, photos, videos, websites online and explain how it relates to the exhibit and the description of ethnicity according to the chapter

Remember, multi-media means using several forms of expression (not just pictures).

Due Sun 10/21 @ 11:59 pm