Week 5: Identities

Identity. Something you can’t get away from, no matter how much you just want to be human being or just a person. Identity start before an individual is even born. Now more then ever you are seeing people couple have gender reveal parties for their unborn children. These are events where neither parent knows what’s the sex of their child that’s in the womb. It is typical that you see dads that want the child to be a male so much that when that gender is revealed and it's a boy they jump with excitement, however when the gender is revealed for a female, it is hard for some mean to hide the disappointment. So it can be said that identity is already set for you even before you are born. As, Adams explained, “The concept of identity is a complex one, shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts.”. I interpreted this as identity being something that you can control and cannot control. We are born into certain things in society that is a part of our identity if we want it to be or not. Also so we make decisions that help contribute to our identity.

Personally my identity changes depending on the environments that I am in and the people that I am around. For example, I want to perceived as hard worker when I’m in class so I sit the front and always bring my book to class. I also like to be identified as a football player so I wear issued gear. However there are situations when I don’t have control over my identity or how I’m seeing by others. For example when I walk into a store that might be expensive I am usually asked if I need any help immediately. Then to create the identity that I can shopper there I would pull out a large amount of cash or ask for the most expensive thing in the store. This goes with the “ dominant and subordinate” groups that Adams spoke about in the first Chapter of the text. The dominant group is usually the group that creates these identities for us. They are reinforced so much by the things around us that we tend to start to believe in them. For instance, the male label or stereotype that has been placed on my groups is that we are criminals  or thieves, So every-time I go somewhere to shop I subconsciously think if the workers and employees think I'm stealing. Although I don’t commit the act, I still act according to an individual that is under the suspicion of being a thief. However, Identities are a complex concept as Adams said it determines how we are supposed to interact with other and how others choose to interact with us.

As we saw example in the film, 50 Shades of Gay , although Wright was born a female Wright was able to self identify, then she chose to embrace her own sex a few years later. It was interesting how that she never chose what her identity was so it was more expect when Wright chose to be one sex or the other she hardly ever got in backlash. The video of Lana Wachowski who is film director of popular movies and also is transgender that received a human rights awards, that most interesting part of that video was when Lana talked about the dinner with that her guest and how they avoid talking about Wachowski’s identity, much rather the accomplishments of the individuals. Which I personally find difficult to do when identifying a transgender individual, because I don’t want to offend or disrespect the individual. This just goes to show how much we rely on identity to help make a person.

Week 4: Structures and Institutions

This topic is very prevalent for every aspect of our daily lives as human being. Due to something that was created by society, we are placed into categories and groups. How these groups from and how forms then for us is very difficult to pinpoint. When dealing with Structure and Institution, one of the main factors is money and power. The individuals who possess those attributes are the one who set the structure or institutionalize, people, groups, schools, workforce, and society. After reading the material for this week I believe that we have a huge issue with our public school structure and institutions, which is a problem that derives from our political structure and institutions. After reading Can Schools Be Fixed?, it makes you think of the public school system in a different fashion. First, I would apologies for all the teachers that get a bad wrap, especially at the high school level. Majority of the students that make to high have been poorly brought up in the school system, so to say. Not because the teachers are bad and want them to fail. In fact as most of the teachers expressed in the article they would like to see more children succeed, but the public school are under funded, the teachers aren’t paid the value of their work. Another issue is the criminal justice system, it alarming to see the rates the minorities are at risk of getting arrested and convicted for crimes that white counterparts in society commit as well. The criminal stigma of the minorities is an example of an institution that is severely damaged as well as corrupted. This also allows white individuals to develop and possess the “unearned advantages” explained in Johnson’s book. I tend to ask myself how did these structural and institutionalized forms of discrimination derive from. This when and where as Americans we have to look back on the true history and see how unequal things started off for individuals that weren’t white. You also have to ask what is “the American motive”? That would be money and power. So if you take the groups that aren’t white and don’t have power and as well, you then now have someone to blame for all the problems in the world. It’s almost the prototype for people you don’t want to be like. Then once you have placed those people at the bottom it becomes easier to keep them there by not making the “ladder resources” available to them. Examples of “Ladder Resources” would be innovative learning environments, equal justice systems, and positive reinforcements  within the communities. However, the discrimination with the institutions that are supposed to serve these people is so negative, the individuals in the situation tend to fall victim to the system.  There are drastic changes that need to be made in many different institutions in American society, we need to get away from our past and they traditions that we had. The word is changing around us, and if we continue to pretend that we don’t see discrimination on an institutionalized level, we will continue to see things like dropout rates of minority student skyrocket, incarceration levels of minorities of minorities making up more than half of the people that are locked up.

Week 3: Privilege

It seems that this is a topic that will never be fully understood, due to how it is compartmentalized depending on the the privileges you qualify for. However if you look at the definition for privilege you'll probably get something close to this. Privilege: a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people,and which this definition is correct for the group that is receiving the privilege. However McIntosh was stressing the fact that just because the privilege group acknowledges that there are some disadvantages they should also try to acknowledge that they are also “over-privileged”, and are receiving sanction that allow them to have an advantage over another group based on certain things. I believe this would be a hard task for some individuals to do because they just can’t see how, for example, their skin color allows them to have an advantage at somethings. This may be the case, because most of society's standards are set by the white male dominate prospective. That would make it difficult for someone of those in that particular group to understand the disadvantages of individuals not in those group. Another reading that I found very interesting this week was the, From New Orleans to Ferguson, a Decade of Asserting Black Lives Matter article, it was shocking to see the connection between a natural disaster and human on human killings. It frightened me to know, as a citizen that you can be in you community and have to fear for your well being, on a nation wide spectrum. This article described how black citizens have been fighting for the equality of “life appreciation”, so to say since 2005. When individuals were put at risk due to inadequate infrastructure, all the way to the slaying of an innocent unarmed teenager. We can also still see the continuation of Black Lives “NOT” Mattering, with the water situation in Flint, Michigan. A predominantly black community that has been drinking and using poisonous water since 2014. This would probably not be the case if that community were full on white people in a suburban area, there would be many relief resources available to this community. However the strongest sentence of this article is, “The moment we stop reminding the world that black lives matter, black lives will not matter.”. This sentence stuck out to me, not only because it is a true statement, but it goes to show the privilege that other individuals outside of the black community have, in the sense that the don’t have to fight for the protection of their lives and well being. Secondly, it a true statement, if the black community don’t continue to battle back against the oppression that is presented within society, we’ll be accepting the consequences that follow, which will result in these things and events becoming the norm. This is not something that we can let happen as a society, if those that are privileged acknowledge the fact that they are, and can they choose to lessen the privilege. We will then see equality, which will result in communities being protected from harm.

Week 2: Socialization

What is socialization? How do we do it? How did it come about? How does affect us? These are all good questions, and they can all be answered if you look at yourself, the people around you and think about the things that you have been taught since you were a baby.  First, I would look at myself and list off my physically attributes, economic status, and class status (which is mostly depends on how much money you have, “sometimes”). So, then I would look around the environment that I live in and then I would see the individuals that I choose to communicate and operate within society. Lastly, I would reflect on what have I been taught by my parents, school teacher, pastors, coaches and other influential authoritative figures. However, with socialization comes oppression, it seems that these concepts go hand in hand. For the simple, fact that when we are socialized there are status and groups that we are put based on the different attributes that we posses physical and nonphysical. In the reading Adams explains in depth with, “The Cycle of Socialization”, how the repetitive cycle allows socialization to be continuous. Adams starts by letting us know that we are born into certain situation that we didn't/ Don’t have control over, this is the beginning of both our socialization as well as oppression. Then after birth we are then taught certain things in our immediate environment and family members, which causes an even stronger belief because these are the people that care about us so they will never teach us anything wrong or that isn’t true. However, in some cases we find out that they were wrong, and that can because that’s what they were taught and that’s what has always been taught. Adams, also goes on to speak on how the institutions and other environments outside of the individual’s home usually sends the same socialized messages taught in the immediate environment. Which leads to the results, the individuals then began to believe what it being taught is truth. However, something that is was interesting to me was when Adams expressed, “Something makes us began to think, to challenge, to question the system... We begin to see that something is wrong with this picture.”. Meaning that some people decide to know something different, this begins the start of Liberation from socialization as well oppression. This is also referred to as, “The Cycle of Liberation”, at the first stage of waking up and realizing that something is wrong. This cycle involves empathizing with people, and trying to get to understand their differences. However, the core of The Cycle of Liberation, is self love, joy, hope, and authentic love of others, these are the positive reinforcements that are needed get us out of the repetitive cycle of Socialization, which will ultimately deliver us from oppression. I would like to reference the film, when one of the ladies was describing the conditions of one the neighborhoods in New York, and she stated that “none of the people asked to be born here”. That’s why I believe that it is so important to understand socialization, and just because that’s all one has known and has been taught, is all the world has to offer. That misconception can be dismissed by liberation of the oppression that  individual faces.