Post Racial America

As for post-racial America, it's a theoretical environment where the United States is indifferent to racial preference, discrimination and prejudice. Some Americans still believe that the election of Barack Obama as President is a form of wider acceptance of inter-racial relations as well as marriages. This signified that the nation has entered this state of tolerance and equality, but as we can see that's not entirely true. Even though were in the year 2012 discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping is still present. In the past couple months there were couple cases that illustrated race or inequality being present in the conflicts. The fact that Barack Obama became the first multiracial president is a huge step towards America becoming post-racial, but Americans still have a long way to go during that process. 


I think that Barack Obama becoming president was a huge step and that this event should be exemplified for others and future generations. This is a important step because it represents equality among Americans. Maybe future generations could envision America as a unified and coherent society where everyone would have equal rights and opportunities. Our generation could certainly contribute and set an example, but I really doubt that we could make such a sudden change within the next couple years. Especially with places like New York City, where a good handful of people seem so coincided. I'm not trying to generalize or make assumptions, it's just from my own experience and meeting variety of people. It's a hard task in my opinion because people often reflect on history and assumptions to make generalizations. I'd say it will be a time consuming process before America can be fully post-racial.

For my reading this week I've read "Boyhood sports and masculinity". The article raised many questions for me about what it takes to be a man. Whether we are women or men is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex of mix beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a man? Are you masculine or not? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Sex is determined by how we carry ourselves and how we adapt to the society, therefore gender is biological and sex is learned.

How did Jews become White Folks?

"How Did Jews Become White Folks" is an article that talks about how Jewish population got to be associated with white's and what were the reasons behind it. As Jews migrated to America they were mistreated to and unjustified to the level that blacks were treated by the dominant group. Jews made a common background with African-Americans due to the fact that they were being treated so badly. Then they've sent off their kids to colleges and started holding important positions in the society as they were moving away from the urban areas and into suburban neighborhoods. As this advanced more they started being referred to white folks because simply they adapted the dominant cultures values.

This article got me thinking about the whole being "Americanized" and "fitting in" concepts where someone becomes adapted to the dominant culture. I can certainly see this in my neighborhood because many people are newly immigrated to this country or the first generations experiencing the adjustments to the American ways of life. I'm not just talking about Polish, but many other European ethnicity's and also Latinos in that area. I know and seen some people I grew up with become "Americanized" while other refuse to abandon their heritage and even speak English language. This brings me back to the whole "fitting in" concept and that not everyone wants to be abandoning their heritage and become "Americanized", but the real question is. . . Is it really necessary to strip away your culture to become fully American?

Race Matters

The topic of race relations is always a heated subject in American discussions. Race affects every person in this nation and no one is a racist for being aware of the fact. Whether the intent is positive or negative the differences of races are always present. The article "Race Matters" by Cornel West talks about the social injustice that occurred back in Los Angles, 1992. This was followed by many outbursts of rage among citizens due to the court verdict of Rodney King case. The video that involved Rodney King in it, showed a perfect example of inequality and injustice among racial groups. 

Chapter 8 discusses the importance of race and how Americans perceive it. Race is something we can all relate to, due to the fact that America was build upon by foreigners and immigrants. It also talks about the inequality and imbalance between the various racial groups. It also breaks down the key differences and terminology for concepts such as "race" and "ethnicity" and "nationality".

I've seen race being a decisive  factor in inequality and injustice before. I was seventeen at the time and me and couple of my friends were drinking beers in the park after dark. There was a bunch of us (3 Whites), (2 Latinos) , (4 Blacks) and we were charged with underage drinking and had to pay summons in the court. Meanwhile we knew about a group of Caucasian girls that were also drinking beers not too far from where we were. We've seen there was another police car that approached these girls and after certain amount of time, we saw the girls leaving. So basically, the officers made us go to court because we were all of different race hanging out together? That was my conclusion since those girls only got a warning, where our group of guys each had to pay a $50 fine for this incident. 

Social Classes and Structures

Many people hear the terms social status and rank in their earlier years, but don't really know the meaning behind it or what it represents. That was me as well, I always though social status had to do with how many materialistic objects you own and what job you have, but it's much more than that. It's where you live, whom you associate yourself with, what kind of education are you getting and much, much more... Social classes break down into many categories and many people variate in different statuses throughout their lifespan. There are opportunities for so called "ranking up" or "ranking down" as you become more prestigious or more deviant. Sadly there are only specific amount of people that are available to work themselves up the social classes and most people are stuck in the class that they were born in.

As I was watching the video "People Like Us", I came to realize many things that I've never thought about before. I never realized that people can be so observatory and make assumptions based on the products you buy or the clothing you wear. I've seen it happen before, but not to such a degrading level as it was shown in the video. American society is primary ruled by money and it troubles me seeing people labeling other based on how much money they own. It bothered me especially when the video portrayed this woman who worked at burger king and had to walk miles just to get to work and make the little money she could to support her family, yet she was not being respected for it and her kids were ashamed of her. This women was making money by any means she could to keep her family secure yet it was still not enough and her kids were not satisfied. Now, what does that tell about our society nowadays?

"Positive Functions of the Underserving Poor" by Herbert Gans

Herbert J. Gans underlines the importance of people who live in poverty and their roles in society. He mentions that while most people associate negative factors with the poor, there are also some positive attributes that the people in poverty bring to the society. Herbert Gans details the functions of the undeserving poor in the society and  he breaks them down into five categories. These five categories are: Microsocial, Economic, Normative, Political and Macrosocial. These category have thirteen sup-parts that detail the negative or positive effect. He names a category and then goes more into detail on the concern or cause effect that the undeserving poor contribute to the society. As an example in no.4 "Supplying illegal goods" Gans argues that immigrants and people in poverty are more likely to distribute illegal goods such as supplies or drugs. With less job opportunities, these people are being subjected to make extra money by illegal means.

I find Herbert J. Gans argument to be valid because he explains not only the negative effects of the undeserving poor, but also presented the ways in which the poor can be stigmatized. Mr. Gans provides opportunities and reason why the poor community should be given a opportunity to work and become stigmatized. He also discusses the importance of stereotyping the ones in poverty and talks about change of norms that we should adjust towards these people. I agree with the fact that by stereotyping we encourage and provoke these behaviors and attitudes rather than changing or improving them. I also agree with the fact that the poor are not driven to commit deviant acts, rather then making these decisions because of need for survival. Poverty is a serious problem which can never go away, but at least we can lower it and accept it without stereotyping.

Deviance

People have always tried to find their belonging in the society. For some people being deviant or rebellious is their own belief in "fitting into society". They want to break apart from the dominant culture and not follow the rules. Being deviant means differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society. They shape themselves to obtain different from of norms, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.

I considered myself to be deviant all throughout my high school years. I would only scan for attendance or sometimes not even go at all. My and my so called "friends" would stay over someones home and just try to "party" all the time. This almost resulted in me not graduating on time, but I managed to talk to my teachers and councilors and come up with a solution for me, so I could graduate with my peers.Almost not graduating with my peers scared me because I didn't want to get left behind. This kind of fast paced life style and all the things that came with it fascinated us. We wanted to live the lifestyle that many celebrities live and pride themselves for. Since I am very outgoing I still try to attend as many events and parties as I can, but with moderation. I take school as my priority and my deviant acts and weekend pleasures are secondary to that. I think it all comes down to realizing the consequences and deliberating on your own personal decision and actions.

Gender Socialization Chapter

1.      Killing us Softly is a documentary presented by guest speaker Mrs. Kilbourne about advertising the image of woman. Kilbourne discussed how women are portrayed by being advertised as objects rather than a subject. Their bodies had to be perfected as to what the advertisers portrayed as “sexy”. The models had to have flat stomachs with round butts and silicone implanted cleavage. This put a lot of pressure on the young girls who were growing up and wanted to fit in that category of being “sexy”.

Kilbourne also mentioned that the models were posing as weak and easy targeted while male models were portrayed as strong and dominant. This is one way that posed the stereotype of women having nothing to say and being dependent on the man. This also applies to what I mentioned earlier about your girls who now not only are being pressured into looking “sexy”, but also are being taught not to have any opinion.

2.      A Call to Man was also a documentary by a guest speaker Tony Porter who spoke on the totally opposite matter that Kilbourne pointed out. Porter spoke about his teenager years growing up and living up to being a man. He presented a so called “man-box” that included all the attributed that every man should possess. He stressed that we raise teenage boys to feel no emotion, be brutal and minuscular and that it’s not entirely correct. He wanted to promote those values in the “man-box”, but also modify them and improve them so that future generation males can be less violent and show more emotion.

3.      Both of these videos discuss cross cultural differences between how society views and promotes both males and females. These topics relate to chapter on Socialization because these factors are being pushed and promoted for newer generations to be influenced on. By socializing and getting together young adults start portraying what is promoted to them and act that way. Socialization also led to developing these stereotypes about perfect bodies and behavior. Large amount of people must have felt that way and agreed upon pushing this agenda if they felt that way.