Monday, November 30, 2015

Color of Fear


The documentary, The Color of Fear, was about a group of men on a weekend getaway. They take part in an outspoken dialouge on ethnicity and race. The documentary features two African Americans, two Latin Americans, two Asian Americans and two whites. Towards the beginning of it all, the groups did not communicate or get across to each other, until the topic of "privilege" came up. The white men, not understanding the advantages they had in society became ignorant, while the Africans Americans got infuriated at how oblivious they were on the subject matter. They told the white men that African Americans and white men start off in completely different locations. For an African American to get the respect that an average white man gets takes far more work. Another situation the African American rose was how the word "American" was used in societies. He mentioned that in order for someone to call themselves "American" they had to sacrifice their roots, their ethnicity and their identities. On the third day into the social experiment, the white man was found crying because he could not relate to the people around him. He noticed how hes on a higher social level and on that social level, there is a massive amount of privilege. In this documentary, I can relate to the angry black man the most because he was getting aggravated that his point was not getting across how he wanted it to. Everything being said, this film blames white privileged men for the nations problems. 

Heterosexism

The discussion involved many points of view, some that I didn't even know were there. The discussion did, at times, leave me speechless and lost in my own thoughts as to how a person could be so simple or even so complex in terms of sexuality and gender identity. There are categories that I have never even heard that were brought up, but that only made me learn so much more. The world is cruel, when you get the short end of the stick of course. For us, heterosexuals, our "taste" is the norm, we can kiss females in public, we can hold hands with a female in public, we can grab a girl in public, even show some public display of affection (PDA) without having people yelling "ew go somewhere else with that gay sh*t" (as I've heard before on the streets of Newark). Heterosexism privilege is very much alive just like the privilege a man has over a woman or like that of a white man over a black man. We never did anything to gain the privilege and they never did anything to lose it, yet it's so frequent in our lives but we're so blinded to it that it's scary! A simple word as "fag" for heterosexuals can be a simple joke while for a man who identifies as gay, it can bring back dark memories of their time when they were mocked, scared, or even lost in their personalities trying to fight to be "normal". The discussion allowed me to take a step  back and really see how scary it is to know you're not "normal" or that you're "ill" because you like people that don't fit what society thinks you should like. I also noticed that many of our speakers first dropped subtle comments before they were willing to completely expose themselves and that alone speaks greatly on fear of being ridiculed and feeling distant. 

Different Pathways

From what I understand of this passage is that women have it way harder then that of which men have.  But the biggest difference between Emma and Taylor was their class.  Both of them had good GPA's, went through college and the whole 9 yards.  But one of them started to work somewhere and didn't get paid enough to pay off her $10,000 in dept.  So therefore she had to move back with her parents and eventually she was in a relationship and she had to move.  I said she had to because the way things were going, she really didn't have a choice whether she wanted to move or not.  The other girl was in a better position because her parents were economically stable you might say.  So she didn't have to worry about anything she can do for an advantage.  Because she was the advantage.   

Sexuality

Before this class discussion I knew the basics about sexuality. I knew that people were either straight, gay, or bisexual. However I learned that people identify themselves as more than just these three sexualities. One of our guest speakers identified as queer. At first I thought queer was another derogatory word for gay people. Our guest speaker said the gay LGBTQ community is trying to take this word back for political use. Similarly to how some black people try to take the word nigga back. I learned that people who identify as queer can be attracted to both men and woman. At a glance queer seems the same as bisexual. The main difference between queer and bisexual is that queer is more of a political term. Queer is used to describe anything that is abnormal. Our guest speaker described his family as queer because they support their queer son and are not a normal family. Class that day informed me about the experirnces of various sexualities people identify themselves as.

Armstrong - Daqwan Moore

One argument I can immediately point out and relate to class is the taking of different paths. We discussed in class one day how some people are more privileged to better paths than others. For example, the richer white kids from better areas with nicer names that work hard. Opposed to the broke black boy with the ghetto name from a terrible area. They both work their behinds off but that white kid gets a head start, and doesn't have to work as hard as the black boy with the same credentials for the same job. The more wealthy folks are the favored by society. What I really think the author means to take different paths is simply that different people are forced to take different paths, which can be based off the persons past experiences etc. The author mentioned three different classes. Those classes being the achiever, the striver, and socialite. The socialite class being the highest, which makes them the most privileged of the three. This puts these college kids at an advantage of making more money coming out of college than the less privileged because they're parents can afford to pay they're tuition for college. Rather than the less privileged kids who have to take out loans to make their way through college. Therefore, these privileged kids start out at an higher salary, because they owe nothing. The author points out to us that sometimes it's just the path we are given and have to live with it until society decides to justify this. 

Sexuality Discussion

Throughout the class about gays in society i felt extremely uncomfortable. I personally accept the classification of me being a homophobic. Whenever i hear or am around a person who likes their same gender i feel very uncomfortable. I am straight and was raised straight by a straight family so i may have been conditioned to be like this. I don't have a problem with gays but when they are affiliating themselves with me or speaking to me i feel awkward like im being cluttered. Even though they may not be attracted to me in that way i still get that feeling like im being "checked out" much like how a lady would feel walking through the cafeteria at our school. On the other hand the discussion was decent. I went against my ways and tried my hardest to understand what they have been through or what they have to deal with on a daily. The man who classified himself as "Queer" seemed very passionate about how he is. It seemed as if he accepted it at a young age and has a non profit group to help people like him accept it. The reason i bring him up is because i can respect what he is doing. Even though im straight, from stories ive heard i can tell it may be a hard time to accept your sexuality at a young age and hes helping youth to do that. Another person i would like to speak about is the young looking white male who said he was gay. I dont have much to say but ive came to a realization that being gay isn't as drastic as it use to be. He is the vice president of a company. Seeing the way he was on a time crunch and how he wore a suit with a nice watch is telling me that he is in an important position and he makes a good amount of money. Noticing this made me understand that because you are gay you are not limited to certain things. May this be because he is white? Im not sure, but seeing a vice president of a company being openly gay is a eye opener in my book. To conclude like i said im not a big fan of discussions like these since i feel uncomfortable about gay people, but i gained a lot of knowledge by paying attention to the speakers.

The article blog#5

In the article, it talked about the differences between the lower class and the higher class when it comes to college. Class is the main factor in and before college. In college class is the difference between someone having to worry about food, money, or a social life. Upper-class student do not have to worry about their tuition is going to get paid therefore and giving them more of a chance to do better in school and be able to make more connections with people socially. In the article it stated how trajectories are basically the outcome of a person in a certain class after they leave college. Based on what their social class was when they entered College will affect their social class after they leave college. This meaning people of lower class families were able to send their children to college, in most cases the child from lower class families will have to take out student loans already putting that child at a disadvantage from people who are in higher class families.

     " student loans have existed in one form or another for the century... Not anymore. The states have pulled back, Grants have shriveled in value, and loans have become the way most student's handle most of the cost of college"( Garcia, Lardner, And Zeldin 174). This is basically saying that the student loan system has changed for the worst. While lower class students have to pay for it, upper-class students only have to focus on just going to school. Class background is another factor for people in college. For students from upper-class families you can see that they are the ones that usually don't try as hard in college because they know that they have their wealth or a job to fall back on after college. For wealthy families colleges for the experience and after is when they start to work. But for people from lower class families work starts when they enter college because their education most likely is the only way they can earn a living. College use to be thought of as a way to game the necessary tools to move up in society/ social class. But College is just a reflection of what are society is today.

Sexuality - Daqwan Moore

In this discussion to be honest I wasn't really comfortable being surrounded by some of the guests that were there. I don't mean to be rude or disrespectful in any way but that's just the truth. I was never a person that was okay with being surrounded by people that are gay or act gay. In my opinion there wasn't much to take from this discussion in my eyes, nobody really talked about anything eye popping. Most thigs said and explained by the guests were common things that happen with gay people. Although, all the guests' family was supportive throughout their change in gender was pretty interesting because there are families out there who don't and won't accept their gay family members decision in being gay or might even start to reject them as family and treat them differently. Mr. Lowther seemed to be a little confused on the topic and that's fine because it just shows how hard it can be figuring out what you are yourself (gay, straight, bi etc). Cass raised a very good question towards the end that nobody could really answer, I don't remember what the question exactly was but I do remember my answer for it, and I also believe it was the right answer cass was looking for. I was thinking the non purposeful ignorance of straight people towards gay people is simply that we aren't conditioned to two people of the same sex is correct. We are told that a woman and a man go together. Mr. Lowther made it clear that he had no problem with gay people, he was fine with them because it wasn't him. Now, I have no personal problem with gay people either, don't dislike them because they're gay or anything, and I'm not sure why but it did make me put myself in a gay persons shoes. I thought to myself what if I was gay? How would I feel if I were neglected and humiliated by my society? How could I make a difference to this.. Me? Rather than just being okay with gay people myself I should stand up for gay people who feel like they have no place to speak or are too embarrassed of who they are to speak up for themselves, no longer allow my own friends or my own self to make fun of a gay person because they're regular people and have feelings and are no less important than we are. 

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Women's pov - Daqwan Moore

From what I heard from the three ladies, it made a huge impact on my thought of women and girls and how I looked at them to how I now look at women and girls. Leaving class that day, I promised to never ever watch a girl get disrespected by a man in front of me without saying anything to that person. Without a woman this world really is nothing. Men may think they are the supreme of the genders in this world, but in my eyes this is a woman's world. Our women do not revive the credit they deserve and in fact I am truly upset by this. The stories I heard were just a little stunning and I never really thought about things like the examples the ladies talked to us about. One example that really hit me the most was Ms. Sweenies, when she was basically robbed of a great oppurtunity and falsely accused of being a whore just because she was a woman with that great oppurtunity. I realize that not only other men/boys should really consider in being at least sexist as possible and showing the same amount of expecatation and thought of ability to women just as much as we have in men. Women rule the world, it's the things they're never recognized for the make it possible for the men to do what they do(if that's anything at all).

Class Discussion


Honestly, this class discussion was a little shocking for me. Since I like being early to class, when I had walked in I saw two guys sitting down. Now if it were not for the prior classes we had talking about gender roles and heterosexuality etc. I probably would've assumed that those males were heterosexual as well, coming to talk about discrimination against women in the workplace. I was still curious to see what they would identify themselves as, I was surprised when  he had said he identified as queer. Which brings me to when Mr. Cassidy introduced them, and he turned out to be an alumnus of the school and he identified as queer while in high school. My thoughts on how that word was used as a way to make fun of someone or that person's actions, kind of like faggot or dick head. I never knew it had a bad connotation, when he spoke of it it didn’t sound like a bad name to be identified as. Then he explained it as, he described it as basically as being bisexual, however, he said that’s not a term that really fits him as a person. This brings me to the guy who works at the bank, I thought that he would also be heterosexual just like Mr. Lowther and the other stranger. I was absolutely wrong, as he identified as a gay male. One thing that was interesting was that those who identified as something besides heterosexual, they were all embraced by their families when they came out and they didn't face to many hardships in the workplace as well. This discussion opened my eyes in a sense that people around me could be gay, etc. but I don’t see that because they might not possess more feminine characteristics. That I've been only to identify someone's sexual orientation because of how they look.

Sexuality Class Discussion

     Sexuality has so many variations to it that it makes it confusing. Many times I've mistaken the way a guy dresses for their sexuality, but now I realize that the only thing that determines someone's sexuality is what their mind has chosen for them. The discussion focused on how people identify themselves, how others have identified them as, and the consequences of it. There was a statement that really stood out to me in the discussion on how people chose their sexuality. The speaker was asked how he knew his sexuality, and his answer was a question. The question was whether people who are straight chose to be straight or thought about what they wanted to be and then just go out and do it? This question was something that I focused on because it unwrapped my mind around the fact that any other sexuality besides heterosexual was something that people chose. Being heterosexual, is not the default for everyone, and there are people who were born with their default as LGBTQ. I also realized that because you fall under the LGBTQ sexuality, does not mean that you are different mentally, physically, or spiritually. No matter how much gender lines cross, whether it is a male who dresses like a female and acts like female and is straight or vice versa  the only thing that determines your sexuality is what your mind makes it to be.

Male Privilege

            Many times I thought that male privilege was something so small that really did not have an impact in anyone. I thought it was just a phrase that people just threw out there. It was until, I heard about what male privilege truly was, that I started to take notice. There are so many ways that we speak or act towards females that classify as male privilege. It shocked me that male privilege was so often that it occurred right when the speaker was about to walk into our class. One of the examples that really stood out to me was the one where even as a government official, there is still male privilege. No one would have ever guessed that the government, who we rooted for to make things just and support the people, could commit such deplorable acts. If we can not even feel safe in the governments hands', then who or what hands' should we feel safe under?  Power differences are also another major issue when it comes to male privilege because many times, women are usually the ones that do the minor things. Even with degrees that could really make you prosperous in life, women still will not get the opportunity to do what they want to do due to male privilege. One of the speakers, gave the comparison of her Harvard degree to a secretary. Even after the job of secretary was over for her, she was still called a secretary. I realize that there are things that we as men do to women that should not be tolerated. The only reason nothing gets done about it is because we live in a male dominant world where everything revolves around men.

Class Discussion

The discussion was really powerful to me because we were actually able to sit down and actually speak to men that weren't straight and we were able to ask the questions that we probably have been wanting to ask for years. I know in my case I was able to ask questions that I always wondered in my mind. We were all more engaged in asking the questions than we were with the female panelist by far. This was a step forward because now we are starting to be able to talk and hear about what other people have been through in the case of them being gay, straight, or queer. This conversation was really good and everybody seemed engaged. Just like with our female panelists some of us had connections with some people on the panel so that just made the conversation even better and in a sense have more meaning because we have connections with that person already.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Blog post

In the last class discussion we had I learned about the struggles certain gay people go through. They are regular people who are treated like outsiders in society. It was very interesting to learn their point of view yet I'm sure everyone was uncomfortable with the topic. However, the men who were gay were comfortable being themselves which was all that mattered and to know that they were accepted into their families even with their sexuality shocked me the most. Most families would look at their family member differently and start treating them differently which is what I thought might have been the case with them as well. But, when I heard the man who said  he had a gay uncle and he's been around him since he was little, it made it easier for his family to accept him because his uncle is gay too. Although it's something I wouldn't be, I still have to respect people like this because they face more problems then I ever would and they still have the courage to speak on it and be what they are proudly and unashamed. Also, that as humans we tend to prejudge much too often and think too highly of ourselves. For example when people try to keep their distance away from people because they are gay and think that that person may like them, when in reality that person might not find the other person attractive at all.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Geoffrey Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Glenn Cassidy

Recently, my mates and I were privileged to be in the presence of five men who were willing to share  their thoughts and experiences on sexual orientation. During the discussion I realized something very     odd. The conversation was mainly focused on homosexualism and less of heterosexualism. We were amazed by the abnormality of homosexuals and curious in acquiring more information from them speakers since most of us are being conditioned by the environment.  It's kind of weird but I felt less interested in the discussion as compared to the discussion we had with the females. I don't know if  it's because the females were more open and willing to share more personal informations with us.
I also find it amazing how he made the word "queer" sound amazing. I always thought queer was an umbrella term for something abnormal. Ironically, queer plays a role as a motivation to the speaker.  The bisexual speaker defined queer as having a friendly or intimate relationship with  people of different sexuality.
Many among the speakers had an issue revealing their sexual orientation to their family and friends because they built cold feet and didn't want to lose the relationship they had with them. Therefore, they had to deny what their heart desired. Unlike the others, Dominique had little problem revealing his sexuality to his family for his uncle was gay and therefore created a pathway for Dominique. If many homosexuals decide to accept who they really are and share it with the world, this would make it more likely for others to also do so.

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

sexuality class discussion

The class discussion was very interesting. I was not expecting that talk and it caught me by surprise, the discussion was weird. I was able to see the problems they face everyday with being gay. I was surprise to hear that they had it easy when it came to their families accepting them. In most cases I hear with homosexual people is that they have a hard time getting their families to accept them for the choice they have made. Homosexual have to go through struggles straight people do not have to go through, like if there is a convocation and gays are mention in it someone who has not come out will have to hear people talk bad about them to their face. Homosexual have been working for equality for all and they are now speaking out for each other slowly get accepted in society.      

Class Disccusion Blog Post


The class discussion we had shocked me, I walked into class and saw two men sitting down, and I already knew that it would be another class with guests. However, I looked at the men and automatically made the assumption that they were heterosexual males. Not for a second did I think they were gay or queer. They looked to me like average straight males. They didn’t seem feminine at all and to me, that’s what leads me to believe someone is gay. So, as the class went on Mr. Cassidy introduced our guest speakers and they began to tell us about themselves. The first speaker was an alumni of St. Benedict’s Prep, what shocked me was when he said he identified himself as queer. Before we began this lesson in class, I did not even know that queer was used to identify people. I always thought of it as a way to make fun of somebody, similar to a word like faggot. I knew it had a negative connotation, but when the speaker said it, it confused me because I was not quite sure of what he meant. However, he went further to explain what a queer truly is. He told us that it basically means being bisexual, he has an attraction to males and females. It was shocking because when I first came in, I automatically assumed him to be straight. Next was the other man I saw, I also thought of him as straight, however, he turned out to be a gay male. This showed me a lot about what we discuss in class, just because someone looks to be straight and does not obtain feminine characteristics doesn’t mean they are automatically a heterosexual male. This whole discussion shocked me and made me think about the people around me, there could always be gay or queer males around me and I automatically assume them to be heterosexual because that’s what they look to be.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Gender Roles

Today's class discussion, was very interesting. When I first came in to class I saw the two men I never met and automatically thought they were not gay. They did not look the part of a stereotypical gay male. I was happy to be informed about the term queer. I have heard that term before while I was at Lead For Diversity but I was confused on what it meant. Thankfully I was informed; I was type mad because somebody asked the question before I could. What really stood out to me was the fact that Dominick, the most flamboyant gay male, was the one to mainly talking and very proud to talk about the subject. On the contrary, the straighten men did not know what to say or how to answer the questions (even though the questions weren't really toward them). Before the main discussion we had an exercise where we had to close our eyes and imagine your perfect partner and how you felt in the moment. This was crazy cause I didn't no what my person looked like, I only knew it was a she and had curves. That tells me I still need to find that perfect partner. When we talked about how we would feel in the moment it got me nervous because discussing my feelings with other guys is weird to me. I believe so because I don't have feelings for guys and I'm not ready to get judged by many people. It was very intriguing when Mr. Cassidy connected Attraction, Behavior, and Identity to Gender, Gender Roles, and Gender Identity. Many subcategories in these topics coincide with each other which makes gender and sexuality very similar.

In class discussion

I'm not gonna lie, the discussion in class yesterday in class was very awkward. But the discussion went somewhere really quick. I didn't think the conversation would be as interesting in the end. I didn't know that all gay people didn't act flamboyant because all the gay people I see act like that. I also was interested on the fact that man said he was queer. Before I thought queer meant gay but its basically like being bisexual. Also this discussion made me think and we started talking a lot about it outside of class. Its very confusing but I found it interesting and informative.

The Truth about Gender and Sexuality

This was a very good panel that we had yesterday. I felt like I learned a lot as a result of this. I always consider myself someone that supports equal rights but really did not know how gay and homosexuals react to certain things. This helped me better understand it. I got to have questions answered that I would usually not feel comfortable asking in a normal class setting or any setting for that matter. I did not ask any questions as the ones that I thought of. As I really did not even know what to ask other than the ones that they had. I am very positive that as I go through the rest of the semester and the rest of this year, even my whole life, more and more questions will keep popping into my head that I will need to find the answer for. But answering the question by getting one person's view or answer, is not necessarily the only right answer. Everyone has their own views and their own opinions on everything. Whether it’s sports, the economy or gay rights, there is going to be a a little bit of a difference with everyones opinion on something.

I realize that some thing I have said could be offensive to people. Even when I am not trying to offend anyone. I think that is a part of life though, you have to get better at that because no one is perfect, there is no such thing as the perfect human being. Not in the eyes of God, the people, the government might think that there is, the world might too, and the people living on it might as well. But the reality of the matter is that there is no such thing as the perfect person. We all have our flaws. We need to accept this about ourselves and have a mindset to change that or else our society will not go further and improve. We also need to accept that everyone else has their own issues and problems. So when we feel offended by something, we need to keep calm and realize, everyone has their own views.

This being said, I enjoyed the discussion that we had, it was very eye opening and it was interesting. I will take what I learned in this conversation with these individuals throughout my entire life as it was a very good experience for me. Whenever I get into a conversation on gay rights or anything for that matter, I will think back to the discussions that we had with these gentlemen and the women that we talked to about being a woman in the workplace anywhere.  

Men's blog

To my understanding of what happened today was that  attraction is this involuntary idea to subject. We are attracted to people and we have no control over  which gender or who this person we are attracted to. We have no control over whether we are attracted to men are females, the attraction just happens. Behavior is who we go out with, its who we let others think want gender we like.  Behavior  is unlike attraction, attraction you do. it have control over which gender or people you find attractive, but in behavior  you can make everyone think that you find a certain gender attractive. Being attracted to someone and behavior is totally different in that case, like if I am attracted to women that great, and if my behavior is that I am hanging out with women them people will think I'm straight. If I'm attracted to men but my heavier is that I am hanging out with women people will think I'm straight. Thats good but I will be living a lie and I will have to worry about my secret getting out, and I will be always watching what I say, and do so that my secret is safe. most people who live this life may have these same feeling and be scared to expose themselves  because of fear of what their family and friends may think of them, and fear of what they would do to them.  I have know this for a while but my thoughts got reinforced, that gay or straight  or even queen people are people with a story. Also I know from what I do that I have been in a spit where I have said something g Mena about gay people, or called someone a name, and now from today I have seen what happens, and how much courage and confidence it takes to do what they did today. Also I learned that their maybe a third term when we want to talk about sexual and gender. I think that the term queen is the third gender. We need a third gender for the people who do not fit in the standards we put into place the people who are a little feminine when they by society are not suppose to be. For the people who are a little masculine when society tells them is not allowed. If you were gay or queer would you come out in the open or hide? Why?

Monday, November 23, 2015

In class Discussion #2

Everytime we have an in class discussion with different types of people I seem to accept diversity even more then I have had already.  It felt kind of wierd to be talking to homosexual males who didn't appear to be homosexual at all.  I basically learned that It's not a matter of being confused, it's just a feeling or attraction you might say that one was born with. Before this discussion I would wonder how in the world are you born gay or just wake up and your all of sudden attracted to the same sex.  It just didn't make sense to me at all.  But when one of the speakers said that he asked his mother "well what made you wake up and say that you were attracted to males?" and it just dawned on me.  Homosexuality is not necessarily a chose.  It is for the most part something you're born with and can't really control that urge.  

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Privilege

Today's talk about male privilege shocked me, I never seen it from a woman's point of view. Our world is based on productive and reproductive functions and that's what discriminates and lowers the woman values. Due to this system it creates privilege. Productive is based on works like business, construction, etc. These are mostly all male jobs. The Reproductive is seen as caring for life, staying home, cleaning, cooking, caring for the family. This is seen as a woman's lifestyle. Based on the discussion the woman who worked or currently works for S.B.P shows that society is living off these stereotypes.

Three woman stood up and had the courage to talk about how they are being discriminated everyday either if it's in the workplace or outside in the streets. The stories they told us left me with regret as a male. Each of these woman grew up thinking the world was equal until they stepped outside into the real world. Even though each one graduated out of college with bachelor and master degrees, they all are still seen as the minority's. But what shocked me the most was to hear that this privilege is carried within my second home... S.B.P

St.Benedicts Prep has led many of the woman to leave the school because the disrespect they dealt with coming from the men. At the teachers conferences, they would assume that the woman are supposed to take care of the notes being written or to bring in food to serve everyone like that's their job to do so. Also they left due to being called assistants because of their sex. After the woman showing me the privilege I have, I will have to change myself and try to convince others too because someone's privilege is never noticed until someone addresses it.

Male Privilege

Today's class was a great learning experience. I got to hear experiences from actual women on how they have been oppressed just because of their gender. We have talked about main male privilege in class, such as more pay and leading jobs, but actually hearing this from the oppressed group opens my eyes to my own privilege. Just like in the documentary Color of Fear, the racially blind white man had to actually listen to a black man talk about how he has been oppressed because of his privilege. What story really touched me was Mrs. Baker's story. Although she had worked at St. Benedict's for many years and was very close to many of the administrators, because she was a women she could not get her request granted; even though her request was heavily beneficial to the school. Tuesday's conversation about the productive and reproductive function in society showed the institutional bias toward men. The productive functions are loved in this society. In this they love having things getting built and trying to make money. While the reproductive functions are to give life and nurture the baby. This is bias because if a women is pregnant then she is thought of as less than and incapable to work which messes up the productive functions because it slows things down. The bias is when a boss might look for a replacement after a women has to leave to give birth and take care of the baby. Society thinks that having a baby is disability and they hinder and prejudge that they can't work. It is funny how women are thought as the cooker of the family, but when you go to a restaurant the staff is mainly males. America has a system in place where the don't want to give women power. Like what Ms. Sweeney said, what is so threatening of a women that the people running the system has to consistently keep them down. We also discussed how women are paid 77% of what men get paid, for the same job. It is so cruel to blatantly give women less pay, only cause their women. That should not be a reason to cut pay like that, it is good that women are speaking up about this horrible standard. In conclusion, I really enjoyed our talks this whole week which discussed a lot on gender privilege. Privilege given to the males, not females. I especially liked, Mrs. Baker and her assertiveness in the class. Last but not least, this blog helped my reflect on the week we have had and the talks we have discussed on.

Class Discussion

Something that I can take away from the conversation we had yesterday is that male privilege is definitely alive and still in power. Our three guest speakers each had their own experiences of how male privilege was used against them or how being a female came with its disadvantages. I learned that being a female makes life 100x harder because females have to worry about sexual assault, sexism, sexual expectations, etc. The system is dominated by men and wants to be dominated by men. Our three female guests were lucky enough to have some nice opportunities in life and given the ability to succeed in their fields. It's hard being a female in a male dominated system because it's natural to want to keep people like you on top. Male Privilege is present everywhere from the U.S. Government down to a fast food restaurant chain.

Male Privilege In Society

When Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Tuorto, and Ms. Sweeney expressed their experiences of gender discrimination, I felt embarrassed. The fact that the male gender could be so cruel and heartless, made me really think about how ignorant I myself was towards women. The woman that I respected the most was Ms. Sweeney at the end of the whole presentation. First off, she was able to tell us how she was a United States Diplomat. When I heard this, my first thought was, "that must be a cool job trying to encourage democracy in other countries ". However, she explained how her experience went and my initial instinct went  from "it being a cool job", to it being a complete chaotic world for women. Ms. Sweeney was promoted, and her first interaction with her boss was him questioning the fact that he was given a woman as his "inferior". When I heard this it sort of surprised me because I always believed that people in the government should be setting the example. Furthermore, Ms. Sweeney demonstrated to me that no matter what the situation, there are limits to the things that I person says, and can do. 
Also hearing about Mrs. Baker having to leave, I felt dumbfounded. I just couldn't understand how a PERSON could be exploited for their minds. She was given the opportunity to speak her mind, but her ideas were taken and then GIVEN under the leadership of a man. After today, I have realized that I should give more respect to any woman who has been able to persevere and achieve a higher postion in their respected jobs. Especially, Mrs. Tuorto because she was able to climb an uphill battle with the worst weather conditions ever afflicted upon someone. She was able to achieve her goal of becoming the Dean of Faculty. Even though they expect her to bring donuts or make coffee for the teacher's meeting, she is not intimidated by the men whatsoever. All of these have taught me to be persevere, fight for what you believe in, and that hard work only leads to great opportunities in the future.
Geoffrey Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Glenn Cassidy

Recently, my mates and I had the opportunity to witness three hardworking and successful ladies share the experiences they encountered with male supremacy. Their experiences were quite surprising and interesting because I had no idea females were going through this struggle. Among the experiences they shared, I was most astonished about how females were indirectly denied their freedom of speech. What is the use of being able to speak freely and knowing, that no one is willing to hear you out just because you are a female. In two of the speakers' experiences, she hesitated to speak out because she knew her words were not going to be taken seriously and it wasn't going to make a change. This led her to quitting her job. If we keep refusing to listen to the ideas and suggestions females are willing to offer in order to benefit all of us, our nation would be a static one. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one". We need to be dynamic in order to progress as a nation.

Women in society

I never knew women had it this hard in today's world. Having them come to the class and talk about the struggle of being a woman was a great experience. It really open my eyes to prejudice, fear, and struggle women face every day living in a male dominant world. Ms. Baker experiences help me to think back to many times in my life where I saw women injustices with out thinking about. Throughout their experiences you can see the connection between them and see that most of the injustices against women are behind scenes.

Male Privilege By the Deckshow

I am going to be completely honest and say that I knew of this happening, but I did not know that it was this bad. The stories that everyone had to tell were really eye opening and I felt ashamed for my gender and race on this earth for doing this to women. Ms. Baker was one of my group moderators last year and she was always very nice and could talk to you about anything from grades to personal problems. I did not even know her that well so this amazed me as not very many people like that are around today. When I heard her tell her story about how she left Benedict’s, I was shocked that male privilege could even happen here, in such a friendly working environment for everyone. I thought that in a place like this it would be a little more even as to pay, job opportunities, social status and other areas men and women would be made more equal, but it turned out that I was wrong and that it is not the case at all.
Then I heard Ms. Sweeney's story. This story was incredibly shocking to me and it was so disgusting that I almost had a hard time listening to it. The other government official in Bolivia really had the nerve to say that to her. Then, on top of that spread all that around about her sleeping with people to get stuff done. It got to the point where they even turned a female boss against her through threats on her career. I thought it would have stopped before that, but it did not and I was really really shocked when I heard it. What also really bothered me, was that even when she had a high up position she was still being referred to as Fr. Ed’s secretary as though to say that’s all the women that work here do at all while they work here.
Now, I do not know Ms. Tuorto very well, but what from what I do know of her and what I have seen, she seems like a very nice person. Also, I thought it was awesome that she loved to play ice hockey before her injury as I play ice hockey and also a huge New Jersey Devils fan. The story she told me about the guy flirting with her even in these walls, was disgusting, that the guy really expected to get that from her and that Duffy had to step in to make him stop. Also, the story that happened at the talk was really disturbing as well. People were thinking that she was just a secretary to some professor who could not make it. I do not know her very well but I know that she is a very good scientist and that she is apparently the best with physics in the entire school. Yes, I know we are all guilty of stuff like this, and I am not excluding myself. I am just as guilty as everyone else with this. Sometimes I do this without even realizing it. But, yet I continue to fight for those in need. I will always fight on anyone's side that is being persecuted. Especially those who have autism as I have a strong connection with it, my sister has it and I would do anything for her.

Male Privilege

Over the course of the past two days I have come to realize my male privilege. I knew woman dealt with different troubles than men but I never imagined it was this bad. Mrs. Baker, Mrs. Torto, and Ms. Sweeny shared their experiences of institutional bias. I was shocked to hear the Ms. Sweeny was only Fr. Ed's secretary for 6 weeks. I remember everybody calling her his secretary for the remainder of her time here at St. Benedict's. I didn't even know she had a degree from Harvard. I felt ashamed calling somebody of her credentials a secretary when in actuality she was something greater. Not only did she deal with prejudice at the workplace but she was also sexually assaulted. This is something most men don't have to worry about but some women do. I also learned that Mrs. Baker left because of inequalities here at the school. For as long as she was here she could not move up to a higher position. Even when she was qualified to fufil a position, the job was always given to a man. Mrs. Torto spoke about her experiences as a Meteorologist. The men at the meteorologist event assumed she was there to take notes for her professor. A female scientists was an odd concept to them. After hearing these three women talk, it has made me more conscious to the issues that women face everyday. Now that I am aware I can do something to help prevent these negative experiences.

In Class Discussion

When we had our discussion in class with three ladies, they told us their struggles due to gender in the profession world and in their personal lives.  Now at first I had a few questions but as the conversation grew deeper I found myself outside of myself.  That may sound strange but it felt as if i was an actual spectator of the whole class.  I was dumbfounded by certain situations that they have gone through.  On top of that it hit close to home because some of those  situations happened within the school itself.  I don't necessarily blame it for happening because we were basically conditioned to think this way in society.  But what I took from the discussion is that I need to change and respect women more and don't just assume their position on things because of how the ideal woman is supposed to be.  I also realized that we can use the fight against gender to amplify the fight against race.  It's all the same principles. 

Class Discussion

Today's class was very enjoyable and filled me with knowledge that I never even thought of. As the women were speaking I was kept intone because it was extremely interesting seeing the point of view of multiple "victims". When listening I felt many different emotions. Feelings of sadness, confusion, and shock kept running rapidly in my mind. When the first speaker Mrs. Baker went up I noticed how  "excited" she was to tel her experience. I don't know if I'm miss judging her expressions maybe she was enthusiastic about the topic, but she said what she said with great pride, which she should because she took what she felt was wrong and constructively made it to push her to work harder. Mrs.Baker said she wasn't being allowed to show her full potential because she was a female. Her superiors (bosses) were limiting her due to gender. She didn't get offended but she used the frustration to better herself and move on to become a Dean of a college. I have great respect for Mrs.Baker for being so mature about the situation. If I was in her shoes I probably would've flipped out because I hate being treated unfairly. Mrs.Baker, through experiencing, is an extremely happy person, ofcourse when she gets discriminated against because of gender, she may get angry, but now I feel all she needs to do is smile and laugh because she beat the oppressors.

To conclude I want to ask, why didn't any of the speakers "speak up" when they were getting discriminated against? If they feel so strongly about the situation, why didn't they say anything when it was happening to them?

Blog on Woman

Well in the class discussion we had yesterday I didn't think of some of the points they were making. All women do not like to cook and clean. They like doing their own things. I knew my own mom didn't like doing these things I just thought it was her. I also didn't know that men and women have different fears and quite frankly they have more. Men we are afraid of being robbed, and or killed. Women worry about that and also being raped. No woman deserves to be raped. So this class discussion opened my eyes to the problems woman have about everyday life like we as men have.

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Male Privilege

First off, today’s discussion was one of the most interesting discussions we’ve had since the cycle of prejudice. What I got from today’s discussion was that Mrs. Baker, Ms. Sweeney, and Mrs. Tuorto have added to the evidence that we live in a patriarchal society. We still live in a society where there are still prejudices against women today, this might be male privileged, but I always thought that women complained about discrimination in the workplace. However contrary to my beliefs, my mind has been blown and it opened many minds as what women go through on a daily basis. I believe this also due to our male privilege, where because we don't have to think about those types of things, which is why we don't believe that it exists. In other words we just ignore it because that it isn't relevant to us, kind of similar to how a white person might say we live in a “post racial society” because they don't have any clue to how the person discriminated against feels, those who are affected.
This brings me to a discussion that we had yesterday in class about Reproductive and Productive factors of discrimination. Basically, if a woman's reproductive and they aren’t doing anything for their respective jobs they are seen as a nuisance and are pushed away. However, if they are productive and help out, you'll want to keep them around because they produce for you, that's what people care about the most. I’ll use one the examples given to us in class, if a woman becomes pregnant there is a cycle of prejudice that starts from a person in a high position. Such as questions like “Are you sure you can handle it,” or “I’ll give this to someone else because this too much for you.” There are also many cases in which the woman might go on maternity leave and is “replaced” by someone for the time being. This leads to them might not being able to return to the same position as before because that person might do it better, this in turn lowers their pay which isn't fair at all. This is most likely because they cannot perform as well as they have before, they are not able to produce, therefore keeping them would be un-beneficial and not necessary for them to stay.
What else surprised me were the experiences that Ms. Sweeney had while working for the government in Bolivia. How she elaborated on how just in this instance, because she was doing her job better than one of the men, getting interviews with clients with people from Britain etc, it automatically meant that she had to be sleeping with them to make things happen. Instead of acknowledging her as an asset to her firm, she was discredited because there couldn’t be any other reason that she would do her job better than a man.
What came to me as a surprise to me was that someone with as credentials as Mrs. Tuorto while in college and even at St. Benedict’s is treated as a secretary. Being asked questions such as “Are you taking notes” because she’s the only women and being the Dean of Faculty must be insulting at times. Especially when she said “Is that honestly all you see in me?"

Class and its Influence

When we talk about class we mostly are referring to money and power at the hands of people. People such as Donald Trump, who in fact is a incredibly successful and powerful in our nation pretty much rule the system and have all the "dibs" on the income of the nation. Class brings privilege. That privilege includes better colleges due to connections (with other people close to the colleges/universities or by simply donating money and automatically being a "VIP" customer). Class brings advantages over the hard working poorer class, not taking away any credited hard work from the rich, but it in fact is a "cheat code" to success. Family name says so much about wealth and acceptance in this nation that seeks to exploit the poor while the rich pile in a sh*t load of wealth and connections. As we know this is America-- money brings many many attractions and friends and easy routes to more mone.

Male dominance

 Having our three guest speakers really opened my eyes to so much privilege that is hidden in front of our faces due to our roles as men. As men, we don't notice the pay discrepancy, fair work practices and power difference IN GENDERS. As men we usually tend to see the difference of those issues among other men which can usually be pin pointed back to racism. However, rarely will men ever stop and notice how cruel the world (society) can be to women and their ideas, work ethic, and experience. Women are restricted far beyond any man could be. Not only in salary pay but in the "allowed" contributions to our advancement as humanity. Women are made less and usually expected to take care of the "tedious" and reproductive work while the male is the face of power, superiority, and plain out privilege. The privilege has been instilled in our society  since our history has begun but we have believed to be beyond that point just how we live in a "post-racial society". However, that is not the case, sexism is very much alive and an illness that stops/limits our economic and social growth. Women are held to standards that are so low that they cannot intertwine in the "male" fields of studies (which happen to be the majority of the higher paying jobs). Also, since I am a senior I have been researching a ton of colleges and it all comes to the same thing-- women are limited and even restricted from the same knowledge as men. The numbers of men in colleges and universities is (in most cases) greatly superior to those of women in the same institutions. But today what shocked me the most www how our own GOVERNMENT can be so corrupt and sexist. It only strengthened my previous idea that our system is the root of all evil. As young men how can we begin to stir change in the lives of women who face severe oppression which our communities have become blind to? How can we stir a nation to finally walk the earth as brothers and sisters? As of right now I can only think of changing the views of my peers on young women, they are not to be objectified but treated as righteous competitors and contributors to society and not just "baby factors" as I've heard before. Our society will only change when the privileged (in this case men) begin to accept that we are in fact privileged and can cause change as long as we are willing to sacrifice and share for the sake of equality among all. 
Once again I would like to point out that having three ladies who have experienced these atrocities caused by society, communities, and the government, really cleared up my mind and made me realize how strongly dominant men are in our daily lives. Even to the point where we feel as if rape is even okay to think about, let alone act upon, but sadly the statistics of rape seem to be increasing as men "gain" power and control over more and more parts of the system when in reality the  system has always belonged to men, but times are changing and our society needs to as well. 

Women struggles

Today was very informal I did learn a lot that I did not know at all. I learned things that I never could happen, I learned things that I did not know we're going on, and I guess that's why it's a privilege. I first learned about the power struggle and the vulnerability that women go through from day to day. Like Ms Sweeney talk about how she was followed and how she always has to keep an open eye and an open ear toward these things. I once was walking by myself down the street, I was alone and it never occurred to me that someone could have killed or kidnapped me. Women as Ms Tourto, Sweeney and Baker said they all are aware and alert. They always try to prepare  themselves  for what might happen, Even if it doesn't they prepare and act like something may happen to them. Power and for me men want to feel stronger, or feel as though they have more power that's why in my eyes they rape, or they steal, they so these things in my eyes just to just power. To let themselves believe that they have power over people, and most of the time, it's women who catch this bullet. Women have some privileges that men especially black men will never have. Like they can get pulled over and the cop will never think there are even a threat, the cop will never think they have drugs or be willing to hurt them. Black people could be walking and cops will think they are dangerous and up to no good and arrest us. Women do have advantages but also have to put up with the comments and the stares that men give to them everyday. Also white men hols and have the domainate privilege that group of people hold most of the countries power and privilege. White women have some privileges and so do men of all races, but white women have more privilege than minority men because they are white and the world listens to white people. This country is for white people, if a white women and a black women were to go againsted each other the white women would win. In eyes only because she is white.  All of the women today talk about feeling uncomfortable at and in the work place. Anyone who is in and all opposite sex setting will really fell uncomfortable, and the other sex will say rude things. Men who are in an all women work place would feel uncomfortable and will hear ride things, this does happen though. Men never have to dea km with this because this never happens to them. Why do you thing men never feel uncomfortable or never feel the urge to protect themselves in a certain setting?  Why do men feel they can abuse and treat women badly?
Geoffery Ofori-Dwomfuo
Diversity and Social Justice
Glenn Cassidy

In the article Armstrong, the author makes it known to the reader about how college differs among people depending on the class they are found in. Class can be defined as a division made by the society and is strongly based on the wealth of one. It is believed that education is the most powerful tool in becoming a successful person in future. It is true that education is a powerful tool but it currently isn't the only means of gaining riches for everyone. College is operated with a system which is most often made to favor people of higher class. Although, blacks and Hispanics are supposed to be benefiting from affirmative actions, white kids with cash and connections elbows the worthier applicants aside (Peter Schmidt). Colleges come with an enormous about of fees to be paid. Due to this, many colleges are critical in the students they admit. A student from a wealthy home is more likely to be picked over a student from a poor background. Colleges need capital in order to build their school.
It is very easy to differentiate  students from wealthy families to students from poor backgrounds. There are the achievers in college who are higher class students who take advantage of the privilege they receive from their families' wealth. Secondly, there are the strivers who are lower class students who go through all means in order to succeed in college. Some strivers even take part time jobs which meddles in their time for studying. Higher class students wouldn't have to face this because they have got their parents to handle their financial problems. Lastly, there are the socialite who are mainly focused on having fun(likes to party a lot). This group is mainly made up of higher class students but has a couple of lower class students who indulge themselves in such act. Many lower class students who are in search of scholarships and schools grants are not likely to be found in this group.
There are many poor families who believe sending their kids to college will bring an end to their struggles, for their child may one day become prosperous. Unfortunately, the percentage of lower class student who get good jobs, as compared to higher class students, is very little. Unlike lower class students, high class students are able to settle and find good jobs by the help of their parents. They could even inherit their parents wealth. College to a person of higher class may either be a means for entertainment or to acquire a degree which will enable them to take after their parents job. College for a lower class student is a privilege which he or she hopes to obtain greatness from.

Blog Post - Male Privilege

Today was one of the best and most interesting classes I have ever been apart of. To think that in the year 2015 there still exists tragedies that are pushing the women down in our society is beyond my belief. I always thought when a women complained about being discriminated, or not giving an equal opportunity as men are, that they were just not performing at the level the men were. I have always ignored issues like these because I never saw them as major as issues concerning racism. However, today really opened my eyes, and it showed me how little I knew what women go through on a daily basis. I learned that male privilege is extraordinary, and something we don’t even realize. We pay no mind to it because it is something that we do not experience, therefore we do not comprehend what the women of our society go through. Meaning that we just ignore it, similar to the way white people in our society ignore racism and say racism doesn’t exist anymore because they do not live the lives of the people who are being affected by this discrimination.
Productive and Reproductive are big factors in the discrimination of women in our society. It shows how when a woman's reproductive and is not as much of a help to you, they are pushed down. However, productive, when a woman is of some sort of assistance for you, you keep them around because they produce for you. For example, when a woman is on maternity leave from work, they are automatically replaced with a new worker and sometimes, on their return are not guaranteed the same spot or same pay that they were given before. Why is that? Because once a woman is not able to perform at her normal level she is reproductive and is not necessary to keep around.
What really shocked me was the personal experience of Ms. Sweeney and how the U.S. Government showed how even they push down the women in their environment. For example, when males see women succeed more than they do, it automatically means that they are sleeping with someone in the company to get that spot, because god forbid, they actually work hard for it and earn the spot that they deserve. They MUST be sleeping with someone to get that spot.
What else shocked me was how all this plays out in the community that I am apart of. Like Ms. Sweeney also said, she heard the inappropriate comments students at St. Benedicts have to say about her. Or how when Mrs. Tuorto told us about the things that goes on even at Benedicts that gets to her. Considering her some sort of secretary just because she is a woman. She must be at the meeting, getting coffee for everyone, or taking notes for her boss. This discussion opened my eyes and made me more aware of the situation woman go through in my community. A question I had for Mrs. Tuorto is that she was talking to us about how every man is a threat to her, and how when she is walking on the street she has to consider every man a threat because there is only so much she can do to defend herself, I related that to the racist discussion we had in class a few weeks ago, when a white male crosses the street every time he sees a black or latino man walking towards them, the white man would be considered wrong and discriminating all people of color. Isn’t what Mrs. Tuorto said, have some sort of correlation to this situation? So is she wrong for performing these actions?  

Blog Post about today

Something I took away from today's conversation in class was that we live in a male dominated society. Especially when I've heard that word "secretary" often being brought up in where a woman is generally thought of to work as. I learned to consider woman's feelings because all woman are different and most want more out of life than to just be known as a secretary. It's very wrong to just classify them as that and I feel that our perceptions as a male should change. Woman work as hard and for some even harder than other men, so why should they be lower than the men? I also made a very ignorant comment on how I felt that woman shouldn't have too much power, but little did I know that woman have little to no power. We don't understand how hard it must be for women to be comfortable in their own skin without people's influence in their life nor do we see the challenges that they may face on a daily basis. My whole perspective changed and I started looking at how things really are in society. Men hold all the power. The society we live in is male based. Women have little say in things and are often brushed off.  I connected what we learned in class today to Intent vs Impact. For example, when we expect women to nurture children it's because we think it's something they love doing( cooking, cleaning,etc..) and we intend it to be a positive thing as well a natural thing. However, what we intend may be the opposite because all women aren't like that and we all fail to realize that as a male. The impact is when women feel like they are always supposed to be at home looking after the children, cooking, cleaning,etc.. 

Male privilege/ class discussion

Today in class we had the opportunity to sit and listen too different females who were able to tell us the problems they have to live with that some males might not have to face everyday. Well the reason for having brought our old good female friends in to talk to us about problems they have was because us as males wouldn't be able to have a conversation about their problems because we are the privileged group here and we don't really notice the problems. That's the reason for Cass him self not teaching us about feminism. Day to day we just go throughout our day not really worrying about our gender just passing by our daily life. When we walk down the street were more worried about being stopped by the cops then being feared of men walking towards or behind us having the fear of being raped or sexually harassed. On the other hand females are always pressured to dress and look in a certain way because people tend to judge a women by there presence.
So I'll begin with Ms.Sweeney the first female to talk. She was able to tell us the problems SHE had as a female and not saying that all females had the same problems because that would be considered a stereotype. Well she was able to tell us how she had a job that had to deal with the government. When I heard this my first thought was "wow that's crazy must be a great job" but then she explained and my feeling from "being a great job went straight wow we really do live a corrupt/cruel time. Ms.Sweeney was able to move up to a high position and when she had to stay in another area for work as soon as she landed she was greeted with "oh I thought they were going to send a male to work here." When I heard this it kinda hurt me because the way I was raised was to never look as a anyone to have lesser power than me that we are all equal and should have the chance to do any thing we want to me no matter what race,gender,sexual orientation, ect. Also hearing about Ms.Baker having to leave because things that weren't working out at SBP I was kinda confused and felt dumb because I'm part of the privileged group that I wasn't even able to realize that there are mostly males in our teaching staff. After today I have realized that I should give more respect to Ms.Tourto because she was able to fight through this and now is actually the dean of faculty. Even though they expect her to bring donuts or make coffee for the teachers meeting she has a lot more meaning than many of the other male privileged teachers who don't realize it's not her job to do all those wanted things by male teachers.
Females and Males to me are and will always be equal. Females play a huge role in our life and to be honest if they didn't exist most of us wouldn't exist so we should come together and realize we are all one and we need have each others back because that's the only we can survive in our society.

Armstrong blog

From interpreting what the Author said relating to class and connecting it to what we learned in class, there are similar things discussed. There's a higher and lower class and both are treated differently. The author mentions something about different pathways which is basically different experiences and different routes that people have to take in society. The different classes specifically mentioned are the Achiever, the striver, and the Socialelite. The Socialelite being otherwise known as the Privileged class and the others as lower classes. The privileged people for example in a college setting are the ones who don't have to worry about their tuition or the way they are going to live. The people who do worry are mostly people who come from lower classes are the people who are eating small amounts of food for every meal. All the privileged people have to worry about when they go to college is to just go to school meanwhile lower classes struggle paying student loans off. This just puts them at an even more disadvantage. The disadvantage occurs financially more than anything and it has a big impact on which classes will succeed more in life;which will most likely be the Privileged class. College just represents the kind of society that we all live in. It's pathways determine what we'll be in life and in order to know what you'll be in life college officials must know your class background information. Our future is being determined on what class we were born into,which is unfair.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Armstrong Blog

In the article we read about how social class can determine how a student acts in college and the effects on their after life it has. Higher class students and lower class students approach college completely different than one another. Children from higher class families tend to go to college just for the experience and party out all night and not take their classes seriously. Children from lower class families tend not to party out as much and tend to focus on academics first because of many reasons. A lot of students from lower class families are the first in their generation to go to college, they can barely afford college, and their lives aren't written out for them. After they graduate college they actually have to get that first job, they don't automatically have a job. Since people of lower class had to work for their scholarships if they have one they don't want to risk anything. Higher class students have everything written out for them basically and can live stress free lives.
Lower class students have to take out loans to pay for college if they don't get a scholarship. Which puts them back in debt after college and their social status doesn't change and possibly gets worse over time. So the social status of these people doesn't change and it only makes their college experience harder and more troubling than what it needs to be. While on the other hand these higher class families don't have to take out student loans and can pay for school without loans, so they remain on top in terms of financial status.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Timeline by Who?

While looking through everyone's timelines, i have come to learn a lot about the past of many different social groups. I feel as though it piqued my interest and made me question a lot about our society as a whole and what we aren’t truly learning about everyone's past. Like we stated in class, we AREN'T learning about all of the history like we are meant to believe. Even though we learn a lot about how the United States of America has became such a great country and all, we fail to see people's struggles to get here. Specifically, the people outside the privileged white men that could call themselves. This is our first problem. Who’s the one biasing the history that we tell? There's a simple answer: those with privilege. Many privileged people have been the ones over time that has been preventing people from gaining citizenship in America, yet they make it seem like we’re still the great nation. Let's talk about Asian Americans, for example. We don't really hear about asians in the modern time because it probably not seen as important facts that we need to know. However, the asians has been pushed away from the american dream a large amount of times in the 1700’s-1800’s. For example, The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricted all Chinese immigration to the United States for a period of ten years. Facts like these I haven't seen in my textbooks, at least not yet. or we can think about how in 1913 California  passed laws to prevent aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land. If that sounds like America trying to be a united country, you must be crazy. This shows citizens preventing other people outside of those ideal white, american men to get anywhere in the United States. People get stripped of their right and have it thought of as being right and just. This is where the idea of hearing one side of the story comes into play again. “We’re a great country”, people say. “We have been through struggle”, those ‘ideal’ citizens say. In my opinion, there are struggles way worse out there that we just can't only find in textbooks. The Mexicans used to own part of west United States. We took that from them and made a sketchy promise to give them citizenship. After those negotiations, America made acts that prohibited them from becoming full-fledged citizens. We just gave the enough of a citizenship to keep them satisfied and prevent retaliation or bad blood. It's the fake sense of freedom and the imaginary style of rights that we have grown so accustomed to to the point that we might be getting tricked. I start to wonder: are we really as free as we’ve been made to think?

Crash With a Bang

Crash was a very interesting movie with lots of concepts that made you think about the ideas of race and stereotypes in this world. And it is not just about one stereotype from one social group. It is a bigger picture than that. This video showed more along the scenes about a story of stereotypical perspective. I think this video shows roots of racism and people's ideas of pride and privilege.
There were a vast example of stereotypes and racism in this movie. One example was with the scene that included the white wife of the district attorney (Sandra Bullock) and the Mexican-American locksmith (Michael Pena). Jean was going crazy while talking about her uncomfort with David. It was interesting how she, despite police and other people being at her apartment, makes a scene. She starts saying things about her concern with David because she is scared that if he changes the lock that he will probably give the new lock key to one of his gang buddies and take all of her stuff. This was mainly thought of because of the fact that he was a little browned skinned and that he was a mexican. It was astonishing to me how she completely embarrassed David even though he had little to do with the situation before this.
There were many areas where the stereotypes were proven as well. For example, when Peter and Anthony were walking down the street in the very beginning of the movie, they were walking down the street and talking about how black people are not treated right in society. It is a bit funny how they had a full convo about the idea that black people are being stereotyped. Then, they prove that same stereotype that they were debating against by stealing a car from a white couple. This isn't the only time you see them proving the stereotype. Before almost all of their car jackings, they have a deep conversation about race and racism.
Another major scene in my opinion that tackles this idea of stereotypes was the scene in the car with Hansen and Peter. In this scene, Peter was in the car and seen the idol on his dashboard. He giggled a bit, and Hansen suddenly became defensive. When the tension rose between the two, Peter thought it would be a good idea to show Hansen the idol in his pocket. When he tried to pull it out, Hansen thought it was a gun and shot Peter. This is a clear sign of racism towards a certain social group. In Hansen’s mind, he had a angry black man in his vehicle without knowing much about him. It seemed as though Peter would have a gun. Hansen subconscious mind was already scared of dying. Just like many people, he related a black man with guns and pulled the trigger based on his life being in danger. Later we find out that this was the worst thing to ever happened to him after calling Ryan a racist
This movie has taught me that everyone has stereotypes of one another. We might not seem open with it, like with racist jokes and other things. However these thoughts  flow through our mind more than we think of it. In fact, it might be a subconscious idea that we have and possibly never think of unless we’re angry, frustrated, or iis focused on the option. So we all have to ask: how can we change the negativity into something positive?

Timelines

Looking through the timelines I noticed that my group and others shared many of the same events. We probably shared these events because it was probably seen as one of the important ideas towards this one race. Some differences I notice were that people were unorganized and they arranged their events not in the order as a whole, but as  in order of the one race they are talking about. The reasons for these similarities because mostly every group had a similar topic. The reasons for why they were different was probably because of the miscommunication or the laziness of a group. I noticed that some of the themes only involve a small part of the presentation. But the timelines was a wake up call about the history I am taught in my class. These timelines filled in some of the empty spaces that the history textbooks do not tell. The textbooks Do not tell us about what happened to the minority's in our nation. We as a nation are condition to believe history in a different way.

Armstrong: Introduction

This author argues that class is determined by the way, you live your life in college and past it. Remarkable factors are class background, class projects, college pathways, college experiences, and class trajectory. Each factor also plays a part in your experience during college. For example, a lower class student might have more on their plate than a person of higher class. This student might have to work a part time job which chops off their social life and stay up even later to do their school work. However, the higher class student would have all the time to party and enjoy college life. To support the author's argument they made a table to categorize each factor. Talking about class projects, class projects help form bonds with people in the same situations. 
Obviously, the people who are always studying and working would be together. While on the other hand everyone who always used their time to party doesn't worry about class as much would be together too. This social cessation forces people to make connections with their selves. Furthermore, it causes the same people to stay in the same class. Like Karen Pittelman and Resource Generation, people in the upper-class might have a higher GPA because they might not have to worry about supporting their family or self (Pittelman, 221-222). Once in college there are many ways it can be approached. One way is the party way, for upper-class people, where the student has other priorities over academics because the college education is not necessary for their success. They would most likely live off their parents wealth and just come to college for the experiences. The Mobility and Professional pathways are usually taken by working to middle-class citizens. Unfortunately, a lot of working and lower class students do not finish down this pathway because of outside problems usually with family and money. Not all struggling students are focused on work when they get to college, most of them go to party and socialize. 
These are called the socialites or wannabes. People try that way of living a lot but then realize that grades are more important so they switch over to strivers or achievers which are academic oriented. People in the professional college life were not in the party life and had difficult economic circumstances. Just as you would guess the strivers were working long and hard for good health and to hopefully get a good financially stable job. Overall, I have noticed that there are predetermined classes in college. If there is a student coming from an upper to the middle-class home he/she could become a party socialite or a professional achiever, while anything at or below middle class is usually mobility striver. In these classes, the people in the upper class or middle class stay the same or get higher while the lower class stays the same or usually falls because of economic problems. In conclusion, college is a major business. Furthermore, the people that have the most money, are the ones that have the easiest experiences in college. 

Introduction to Article Response



This article was very interesting to me as it talked about how people in the upper middle class can have an advantage over other upper middle class people. The example that the author gives is a great example with Taylor and Emma. Both come from very affluent families in the upper middle class. But, Taylor’s family had more “connections” so to speak. Therefore she finished with a higher GPA than Emma and was able to get into medical school to become a dentist where Emma had to settle as being a dental assistant getting forced into a marriage early.

Taylor had more help from her family while she was in medical school than Emma had ever gotten from her parents. Due to Taylor’s social status she had a lot more help through college where she was able to have a lot of options when she got out. Emma had to move into a military base and marry her boyfriend to get all the benefits from him. This shows how two different people can be just as successful through high school, end up at the same college and even have the same major. Then end up taking two completely different paths due to how high up each one of them was in society. Both came from well off families, one was just more affluent. This article also states that parental resources have a huge way of helping out students that are affluent and come from affluent families.

The author mentions three different paths that students take during college. They are professional, mobility, and party. The one that parties, is not very successful in college and will typically not do very well in life after college. The professional, tends to focus very well on what he needs to get done and gets his work done, but he does not know how to relax whereas the mobility one knows how to do both work hard and be able to relax and have fun at times. An achiever, is someone that goes out there and gets everything done and does very well with very hard work. A striver, is someone that is striving to be something and complete something. It does not mean he actually does it, he is just striving to do it. A socialite is someone that is not achieving or striving to do anything, he is just kind of there taking up space and having fun at the same time.

If you are in the upper middle class or higher class in society, you can expect to get a lot of financial help from your parents and not have to worry about your money. You can also expect to get into better schools as being in higher up more affluent families makes you more likely to have parents that are willing to make sacrifice that will put you in a better school than most can. If you are in a lower class family, you might have to work to get financial aid, a job and worry more about money where other people in the upper middle class do not have to worry about it as much. This could cause you to have less than stellar grades and ones that you are not very proud of due to this.

Timeline blog

I have learned a lot through every ones presentation. There were plenty of great information in each timeline. I was able to learn about different races and key dates and events. In my project I was to focus on key dates and event which there were so many to chose from. On one of the key dates that I put in my presentation that really stuck out to me was that in 1808 Importation of slaves into the United States is officially banned, though it continues illegally long after the ban (my timeline). This to me is a huge problem because us the less dominant people believe that we something finally good came out of all this bad. That the torture would finally stop, but then it stills happens after they banned it. It doesn't make that much sense to me because why do they make a rule if it's going to happen either way and no one will do anything to stop it.
I have found a particular date that stood out to me that I've seen in most of the timelines. "1913: California passes law to prevent aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land."(Rameses timeline) This event first of all made me sit and think about how cruel it is for them to call immigrants, people not born in the U.S. aliens. It shows the lack of respect we have for one another in this world and represents that if your not from America the "land of the free" then basically your not part of the world your just an alien that we don't allow or associate with. Also in 1913 these so called aliens are not able to even own any land. The U.S. prevent them from owning any land so they are either living on the streets or working for someone as a slave. This is just not right for the people who were not born here because some of them came by force not even by choice and they don't at least have the the right to anything they are just aliens who basically are not allowed to live life.
This date is able to compare with the Immigrants not being able to own land and being called aliens. Also this around our generation so this date also shows that some of this stuff that happens in our world we are able to live it. "2013: Hispanics make up about one-sixth of the U.S. population. By the middle of the century, the Latino population is expected to reach 127 million." (Rameses timeline) this to me means the lower group of dominance is able to rise up into the U.S. and have a part in the world. These so called aliens are 1/6 of the U.S. so they make up a lot of the population and actually play a big role in our world. But we all neglect Hispanics by referring them as immigrants which is a huge stereotype dealing with Hispanics.
These timelines are able to connect with each other and have some type of effect on our world. I am able to point out some of the problems but there are many more that our world and our country faces today.