Week 14 Post-Racism

Below are some interesting web sites, videos and articles about race in US history.  Please read and watch these resources.  Think about the different racial problems that have occurred. Write a blog that looks at the social structures, social institutions, and social context in which these race issues have occurred.

It seems that the human capacity for evil and ignorance is endless.   Especially when it comes to separating people into categories, and creating stratified hierarchies full of inequality and domination.  In fact, it's pretty depressing to see how much evil we can inflict on an "Other".  Society creates "Others" through socioeconomic inequality, persistent prejudice, and institutionalized discrimination.  In the following examples, we'll take a quick look into how society created the circumstances for racial problems, and that so-called "solutions" were actually an extension of the problem, and no help at all.

Racism in the Justice System

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/racetoexecution/film.htmlBeginning with racism in the justice system, there is a highly stratified population behind bars.  More Hispanics and Blacks are in jail with longer jail terms, than Whites.  There is a disproportionate number of minorities who are executed than those of the white majority.  Several reasons contribute to this: a lack of education and access to resources (for better defense lawyers, etc), and existing prejudices within the jury pool or the judge.  If the minorities have no access to better education, they have little chance of earning a living wage, and so can turn to drugs or illegal activities to increase their status and wages.  People who were born in the United States, or entered legally, may be prejudiced towards those who had to find another way in. 

Japanese Internment Camps

Explore the web site http://www.densho.org/densho.asp
The story of Japanese internment camps are a horrible example of how a perceived threat, when manipulated by the media and government officials, can turn us into the very thing we fear the most.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor, some people were afraid that those of Japanese descent were actually spies, rooted into American culture.  So, American citizens were forced to live under guard, in actual "concentration camps", and suffer because of a shared ancestry, and shared gene expression.  Fortunately, these citizens were not slaughtered, and so we can avoid the same stigma as the Nazi concentration camps.  However, it does not stop the fact that it happened, and yet it is glossed over and ignored as a part of American history.
 The website quotes FDR as saying, "The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."  Considering this country was organized and founded by immigrants, and children of immigrants, may we ever reject race as grounds for discrimination.

Native Americans Read : Native American Mascots (mySocLab) By Laurel R. Davis-Delano
Native Appropriations blog: http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.com/2010/05/newsletter-when-non-native.html
Speaking of immigrant rights, and wrongs done in the name of 'right', let's not forget one of the greatest examples of governmental hypocrisy. Native Americans settled the American continents centuries ago; and yet they are afforded even lower status than illegal immigrants.  They have been the victims of systematic genocide, assimilation efforts, exploitation, and land grabs.  Tribes were forced into slightly larger versions of concentration camps--"tribal reservations."  These lands were unwanted for settlers, often in arid, inhospitable areas that could not support agriculture or sustain crops.  Worst of all, water and mineral rights were taken away, so that almost 80,000 Navajo are without sufficient water and power.  Some of those in rural areas live in conditions similar to Third World Countries (excuse me, low income countries).  It is a poverty that a people who lived and worked the land, long before Europeans landed, have been corralled and separated from the rest of society.  It is not out of some "noble heritage" that they are separated, or live apart, but a deliberate action to remove the Native American. 

So, these are all very inflammatory and sensitive topics.  All came about because society removed an 'unwanted' element, and put it aside, so that it no longer had place or status.  For a long time, 'race' was held to be a biological fact, a quantifiable, measurable factor that could be placed with intelligence, talent, etc.  Science has proven that race does not, in fact, exist.  It is a cultural myth, created in response to visible differences between shared genetic ancestors, and often attributed to ethnicity, which is still a social construct itself.  Obviously, we need to change society, and how society has grouped everyone.  How can we do this?  I don't feel like starting a revolution to begin all over again.  I also don't think that legislating discrimination out of society is really going to work.  The changes have to be at the local, individual level for there to be any far-reaching actual change.  Good luck!

Week 13 blog: Gender Stats comparison for Guatemala and Nicaragua

I'm comparing women's lives and stats for Guatemala and Nicaragua.  Both are in Central America.   Guatemala is considered a lower middle income country, with low debt; Nicaragua is considered a low income country, and "severely indebted."


 I explored the following websites for nonprofits who work in Central America:
www.wedo.org-Promotes women's rights worldwide, founded and run by women
www.womenforwoomen.org-nonprofit dedicated to helping war survivors.  Both Guatemala and Nicaragua have suffered decades of civil war and unrest.
www.internationalwomensday.com-collection of statistics and call to action all over the world
www.wingsguate.org-human rights org founded in and for Guatemala by women. Dedicated to family planning
www.icas.net-women's & children's rights org in Nicaragua.  Dedicated to family planning and education.
www.aprofam.org-local Guatemalan org that focuses on local outreach for family planning.


ICAS has this written on their home page:
"ICAS identified the need to inlude the community (teachers, community leaders, local authorities, parents etc.) as active partners, to address the problems of adolescents and young people in relation to sexual health. The aim is to change and confront existing community norms related to sexuality and gender and improve the response to the needs of adolescents and young people. This is done through the promotion of civil engagement, with emphasis on critical thinking skills and skills which encourage social action. "
Many of the nonprofits listed above hold similar missions, although some focus on family planning and women's reproductive rights.  The goals seem to be focused on lowering birth rates, and increasing access to education and resources.  Central America countries share a similar culture of male domination and machismo; one's manhood and virility are tied to how many children one has, especially sons.  


From the Blackboard module, the Gender Stats website (http://go.worldbank.org/4TO17TU5C0) has some terrific comparisons available for different countries.  Comparing Guatemala and Nicaragua, we'll see some interesting differences and similarities.  Let's hope I get my interpretation right!  Blanks show unavailable data.

			Guatemala			Nicaragua
(All stats for females)			2000	2004	2008	2000	2004	2008
Adolescent births (15-19)			118.3	112.9	106.4	126	117.4	112.1
Contraceptive presence (15-49)			43.3	43.3		68.6		72.4
Literacy rate (% age 15+)			63.3	63.3	68.7	76.6	77.9
Primary educ. Completion rate			52.4	65.1	76.9	69.7	74.5	78.4
Labor force participation			43.3	44.1	50	39.7	44.3	48.6
Unemployment of female labor (% force)			1.5	3.7	2.4	11.2	8	4.9

Some basic interpretations can be drawn:
For Guatemala and Nicaragua, adolescent births have gone down as literacy and primary education has gone up.  Female participation in the labor force has increased, but unemployment has decreased significantly for Nicaragua.  Contraceptive use has remained constant in Guatemala, and increased in Nicaragua.


The non-profits and local organizations share the same goals of increasing women's reproductive rights, and control over their bodies and the size and health of their families.  Education for men, women, and sexually active youth to help increase health and safety for all is another focus.  It seems that cultural ideals, especially in rural areas, focus on the men taking the largest share of nutrition, money, and resources, to the exclusion of the females in their families.  Women and girls seem to be treated as family servants, subservient to the men and their sons.  They must give up their food, their education, essentially their lives, to support their men.  


However, women's lives seem to be improving in these countries:  women are having less children in their teenage years, the literacy rates are increasing, and employment is also going up.  Education for men and women means there is a cultural shift for all to receive an understanding of basic human rights.  Women are not baby-making factories, built to stroke men's egos, but that's purely opinion.  As women gain empowerment, they teach their daughters these lessons, and hopefully the daughters can build upon and pass along those same lessons, the create a more equal and free world, regardless of the income they earn or the circumstances in which they live.

Extra Post: "Family's Fall from Affluence Is Swift and Hard"

Article about a family that rises from working- to upper- back to working-class in the span of a decade.  I don't know that I could handle such a meteoric rise and fall. What strikes me most is the regret they harbor most: it's for their children's lost opportunities.

by Geraldine Fabrikant

Monday, November 29, 2010

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/111434/familys-fall-from-affluence-is-swift-and-hard

Grateful to have found work in this tough economy, Nick Martin teaches grape growing and winemaking each Saturday to a class of seven students in a simple metal building here at a satellite campus of Highland Community College.

Then he drives 14 miles in an 11-year-old Ford Explorer to a sparsely furnished tract house that he rents for $900 a month on a dead-end street in McFarland, a smaller town. Just across the backyard is a shed that a neighbor uses to make cartridges for shooting the prairie dogs that infest the adjacent fields.

It is a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y. Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the "21" Club and a $7,000 mink coat.

That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million.

But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins' fingers faster than they ever imagined.

They faced temptations to indulge, with the complexities and pressures of new wealth. And a pounding recession pummeled the value of their real estate and new financial investments, rendering their properties unaffordable.

The fortune evaporated in little more than a decade.

While many millions of Americans have suffered through this recession with only unemployment benefits to sustain them, Mr. Martin has reason to give thanks — he has landed a job at 59, however far away. He also had assets to sell to help tide his family over.

Still, Mr. Martin, a strapping man with a disarming bluntness, seemed dazed by it all. "We are basically broke," he said.

Though he faulted the conventional wisdom of investing in stocks and real estate for some of his woes, along with poor financial advice, he accepted much of the blame himself.

"We spent too much," he conceded. "I have a fourth grader, an eighth grader and a girl who just finished high school. I should have kept working and put the money in bonds."

Mrs. Martin recalled the summer night in 1998 when the family was having a spaghetti dinner at home in Paso Robles, in central California, and a bank representative called to ask where to wire the money. "It seemed like an unbelievable amount," she said regretfully.

Soon after the money arrived, the family decided to leave Paso Robles, amid some lingering tensions that Mr. Martin felt with his brother and brother-in law, who had run the business. Mr. Martin had never been in management at the billboard company, though he had been on the board and worked at Martin Brothers Winery, another family business.

First, the Martins bought a house in Somerset, England, near the home of Mrs. Martin's parents, and he decided to write a novel. At about the same time, they spent $250,000 on the 3.5-acre camp with four structures on Tupper Lake, deep in the Adirondacks, as a summer home. They began extensive renovations at the lake, adding a stunning three-story boathouse and two other buildings.

Clouds gathered quickly. Life in England turned sour when Mr. Martin's novel, "Anthony: Conniver's Lament," did not sell, and the family's living costs — school fees, taxes and even advice for filing tax returns — swelled. In 2002, fed up with England, the Martins chose a new base, Vermont, and plunked down about $650,000 for a home there, as renovations continued on the Tupper Lake property.

By March 2007, the Martins were determined to move to the lake full time.

They managed their expenses for a while, but the costs mounted and mounted some more as they worked at refurbishing the Adirondack property — eventually totaling a staggering $5.3 million, Mr. Martin said. He poured another $600,000 into the Vermont property, he said.

He vacillates between blaming the builders and blaming himself for letting costs get out of hand. "We should have built something quite modest," he conceded.

Tensions rose in 2007 as summer came without any offers for the Vermont home.

"I thought that housing was going into a tailspin," he said. "I had the feeling that something bad was happening."

So "we started selling cars, shotguns, antique furniture, whatever," Mr. Martin said. The Aston Martin fetched $395,000. With a big gap in his employment history, he found a job teaching English at Paul Smith's College near his home in Tupper Lake for $14,000 a year. For an additional $7,000, he coached the school's cross-country runners.

Then came the financial crisis. The markets plunged, as did the value of the Martins' trust. By fall 2008, with much of the family's net worth tied up in housing, Mr. Martin faced a series of margin calls. He needed more cash in his brokerage accounts because he had been tapping into a credit line with his investments as collateral. In January 2009, he cashed in a retirement account worth roughly $91,000.

The houses could not be sold quickly. Though if they had been, some of the pressure would have lifted. "To maintain those things, you have to have a pretty good cash flow," Mr. Martin said.

The family ultimately put the Adirondacks property on the market for $4.9 million, then quickly slashed the price by half. Last month, the Martins got an offer for just half of the latest $2.5 million asking price.

They have stopped making payments on their $1.1 million mortgage and their $53,000 in annual property taxes in the Adirondacks as well as the mortgage and taxes on their Vermont home. They cannot afford those obligations on Mr. Martin's current salary of $51,000. Their household income is down from $250,000 four years ago.

At the moment, they are working with a loan modification unit at their bank. The lender proposed a new payment of $3,550 a month, reduced from $7,400. Given his current status, Mr. Martin argued, that it does not make much sense. He predicts that the house will ultimately be sold or taken over by the bank. Meanwhile, for the Christmas holidays and some of next summer, the family has found renters for the main house to help cover some of the costs.

Over lunch recently at Barleycorn's Downtown Bar and Deli in Wamego, Mr. Martin said he believed "the worst is behind us."

Perhaps. But a forced restructuring can be difficult for children and spouses even in longstanding marriages.

Sometimes he and his wife took it out on each other, he said. "She bought a bunch of horses. I blamed her for the horses. I bought cars. She blamed me for the cars — and the house being too big. We had a rough time," he acknowledged. "But I think we have gotten over that."

Until Christmas, when she plans to join him, Mrs. Martin continues to work as a substitute teacher with autistic children at an Adirondacks elementary school: a $12,000-a-year job she loves in a place she says she is hesitant to leave. With their younger daughter, she has moved into a smaller building on their big property.

A lively woman who loves bike riding and horses, she has built a close network of friends. "What is the place in Kansas like?" she asked a reporter with some trepidation before her first visit at Thanksgiving.

Mr. Martin, who moved to Kansas last April, brought the couple's 13-year-old son, Edward, to join him in the fall. He has been counting the days until his wife and Sophia, 9, come permanently. The older daughter, Mrs. Martin's from a previous marriage, has found work in Florida after finishing high school.

In the meantime, Mr. Martin is also overseeing a one-acre vineyard beside the Oregon Trail Road, drawing on his knowledge of the wine industry from his California days.

He does what he can to lessen the family strains.

"I have a temper. I have to control my temper," he said. "I could drink like a fish, but if you have problems in your life, drinking does not help."

And he recites a quotation he holds dear : "The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again." Still, Mr. Martin is prone to ruminate over the loss of so much money. He is furious at the banks and the bankers, who he thinks gave him bad advice, and he still sounds angry at his brother and others who decided to sell the company and who he says gave him little voice. Some of them got more than $100 million each, he said, while he got $14 million, as did his father and his sister Ann, because they were all minority shareholders.

His brother-in-law David Weyrich said that if Mr. Martin had objections to the sale, he did not voice them.

Mrs. Martin says she believes the move from California was motivated in part because he resented his brother and brother-in-law's bigger role in the community.

She also speculates that the Adirondacks estate was alluring partly as a way of keeping up. "I think he wanted to show his brother and brother-in-law that he had a big home, too," she said over dinner recently in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Mr. Martin disagreed. "We are Irish Catholics, and we thought it would be a compound for our family over generations," he said. After the cramped rooms at their house in England, he liked the big rooms, he said. "Sometimes, things don't work out."

___ 

Extra Post: "India district bans cell phones for unmarried women"

Article about a traditional caste social system that places heavy controls on the behaviors of females.  Males are not controlled or sanctioned as harshly.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101124/tc_afp/lifestyleindiatelecommarriage

– Wed Nov 24, 1:21 am ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – A local council in northern India has banned unmarried women from carrying mobile telephones to halt a series of illicit romances between partners from different castes, media reports said Wednesday.

The Baliyan council in Uttar Pradesh state decided to act after at least 23 young couples ran away and got married over the last year against their parents' wishes.

"The panchayat (assembly) was convinced that the couples planned their elopement over their cell phones," village elder Jatin Raghuvanshi told the Calcutta Telegraph.

The rules of inter-caste marriages are complicated and extremely rigid in many rural communities in India, with some lovers even murdered in "honour killings" by relatives trying to protect their family's reputation.

"All parents were told to ensure their unmarried daughters do not use cell phones. The boys can do so, but only under their parents' monitoring," said Satish Tyagi, a spokesman for the village assembly.

Caste discrimination is banned in India but still pervades many aspects of daily life, especially outside the cities.

Traditional Hindu society breaks down into brahmins (priests and scholars), kshatriya (soldiers), vaishya (merchants) and shudra (labourers). Below the caste system are the Dalits, formerly known as "Untouchables".

Caste categories often determine Indians' life prospects, and conservative families will only marry within their own caste sub-division.

Extra Post: "Flirting can be more than fun, researchers say"

Very interesting article about our social construction of reality.  I took the quiz at the end of the article--very interesting perspective.  I'd like to know more about how they defined each of the categories, and the info/sources they used to write their questions.

"Flirting can be more than fun, researchers say"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101115/od_nm/us_usa_flirting_odd

By Carey Gillam – Mon Nov 15, 1:34 pm ET

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) – There is a lot more to flirting than fun, according to a new research study that says finding success in romance depends in part on understanding your own personal "flirting style."

Whether or not you prefer sidling up to a stranger in a bar or you'd rather sit back and wait for an object of attraction to approach are distinctions that once recognized can help people navigate the rocky seas of relationships, according to Jeffrey Hall, assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas.

Hall recently completed a study into styles of flirting among dating adults, surveying more than 5,100 people regarding their methods of communicating romantic interest.

"Knowing something about the way you communicate attraction says something about challenges you might have had in your past dating life," Hall said. "Hopefully, this awareness can help people avoid those mistakes and succeed in courtship."

Hall said there are essentially five styles of flirting: physical, traditional, polite, sincere and playful.

In physical flirting, people express their sexual interest in a potential partner and, he says, often quickly can develop the relationships, have more sexual chemistry and have a greater emotional connection to their partners.

Traditional flirts tend to believe that men should make the first moves, with women assuming more passive roles. Both sexes comfortable with this style seem to prefer more "intimate" dating scenes,, he said.

There are many people whose flirting styles fall into the category of "playful" and are aimed largely at enhancing their own self-esteem, Hall said. These people are less likely to have lasting and meaningful relationships, he added.

"In some ways, the very early part of developing relationships is important to the success of long-term relationships, including marriages," he said.

Hall co-authored the article with Steve Carter, senior director of research and product development at online dating site eHarmony.com; and other researchers.

Take the quiz: http://connect.ku.edu/tests/flirt/. (Reporting by Carey Gillam)

Week 12 Post: Human Trafficking in Southeast United States

In Tucson, there is a road called “Miracle Mile” that connects to I-10, running at a diagonal to the major roads on the South East side of town.  30 years ago, that strip of road was full of hotels and motels, lodges and tourists traps.  Now, most of it lies vacant and boarded up, crouching behind locked chain-link fences and littered parking lots.  Close to the intersection of Oracle Road and Miracle Mile is the “No-Tel Mo-Tel”, that advertises “Rooms by the Hour” and “Wa-Wa Beds”.  I passed this intersection every day going to work, and began to recognize the walks, if not the faces, of women who were “getting off shift,” going to the bus stops.  This time of day, I never saw young girls, only older-looking women.  At the time, I never thought about if I could help those women change those circumstances, as I was so caught up in my own life. 

Tucson is only a few hours away from the Mexican border and high numbers of illegal immigrants provide an unending supply for local domestic, labor, and sex markets.  Undocumented workers are cheap, don’t require paperwork, and disappear easily.   Human coyotes make enormous profits from smuggling people across the Mexican border into the United States.  Those people are almost always poor, and have left behind their entire family or support system.  It is relatively easy to keep these people in a prison of social isolation, sometimes in conditions akin to slavery.

Society has a hard time differentiating between “illegal aliens” and victims of human slavery.  There are programs and resources available for victims of slavery, if only they can learn about them, and if only society can reach out to help them.  I don’t think the solution is to deport everyone who entered illegally, especially those who are victims of abuse or kidnapping, and I don’t think it’s fair to send people back to the same situations that drove them to leave their country in the first place.

Solutions:

1) I would educate and empower men, women, and children, to rise above abusive cultural norms. 

2) People would take responsibility to reach out to those who might be vulnerable or in distress, and help them find the resources they need.  Raising public awareness and social responsibility through public outreach, the media, and grassroots organizations.

3) I would rid economies and governments of economic exploitation.  I’m not sure how to do this, and I’m not interested in fighting over logistics, and the merits of capitalism vs socialism and communism.

4) I’m not sure what to do with those who abuse and traffic in human lives.  At the moment, it’s not pleasant, and highly unprofessional. 

5) Find ways to recognize and reach out to victims, through advocacy groups, using funds raised and allocated for counseling, rehabilitation, and retraining.

Where is the respect of life, if you abuse your children?  I would really like to understand better the mentality and culture that lives in slavery like that, and perpetuates it.  And then, how to change and eradicate it.

I found the following sites useful:

http://nomorslaveryct.com

http://www.examiner.com/child-prostitution-in-tucson

www.humantrafficking.org  (this one has a big index of articles, sites, and posts)

http://www.groundreport.com/Politics/Human-Trafficking-Modern-Day-Slavery_6/2900029 (local VA stories on trafficking)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5201813 “Tracking the Child Sex Trade in Southeast Asia” NPR’s interview with Nicholas Khristof)

Week 9: Crime and Deviance-Does the punishment fit the crime?

The icon of Justice is a blindfolded woman carrying a double-edged sword and scales: the blindfold is show objectivity, the sword represents the power of justice, and the scales represent the balanced arguments of each side.  Who decides what is and is not crime?  Who decides who is and is not a criminal?  How can the community ensure that the legal and judicial systems are not punitively targeting a specific demographic? In " Study Settles It: Shocking Black & Latino Imprisonment Rates the Result of Racist, Punitive Impulse", the criminalization of minorities in the American penal system is appalling.  The numbers show a systemic targeting of specific racial classes, that helps perpetuate cultural stereotypes.  One researcher calls it “similar to the Jim Crow [segregation] laws.” 

Normally we leave trials, sentencing and punishment of criminals to the judicial system, and most of us assume that one is “innocent until proven guilty”, and that “justice always prevails.”  Thanks largely to popular crime and legal drama television, most of us assume the judicial system is inherently fair and impersonal, imposing punishment on those convicted, and releasing the innocent.  However, many who enter the judicial system understand that one’s social, economic, and racial classes are as important as one’s attorney and PR team. 

What happens when a judge is inconsistent with his sentencing for two individuals, where the defendants’ social and racial classes appear to influence the punishments?  How can we hold judges accountable for these discrepancies within our society?

How do we address this problem of criminalization of targeted racial groups?  Some suggestions from "Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes in America 2009", and “The Study Settles It”  include greater community activism for civil rights, supporting education programs and training initiatives, and more funding for law enforcement to raise awareness of prejudice within their organizations, and to better respond to these types of crimes.

Professor Felton Earls of the Harvard School of Public Health talks about the “cohesion” of communities in his talk with Susan Stamberg on NPR, “Crime Study Challenges Past Assumptions.”  According to Earls, cohesion is created by communities being invested in each other’s lives, especially the lives of children and teenagers.  My main concern is this: how to fund these programs, and implement them in communities.