Night To His day: The Social Construction Of Gender Blog #10

         Although gender is often assumed to be natural, it is an all-encompassing social institution that has power over people. Gender is a process that humans create; a stratification system that ranks people and a structure that organize life. 

         

       In Judith Lorber's, "The Social Construction Of Gender," the role and significance of gender is compared to fish talking about water. the roles we've created within our genders are something so natives and routine to us in a cycle that goes almost entirely unnoticed. Lorber states, "Most people find it hard to believe gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and it the texture and order of social of that social life. 

Yet gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly "Doing Gender". Because of what Lorber calls "Doing Gender," we, over time create social norms that passed down from action to action, person to person, family to family, and anything less or opposed to these created social norms, is either questioned or consider out right wrong.

       Throughout the reading, i felt it important to keep an open mind.  I do feel it's very unfair that women are given the lower hand simply because they are born with vaginas, I have to ask myself, does every women believe that roles associated with their gender is necessarily less important than men's? This reading reminds me of a book i read in high school called "The left hand of darkness" This book is set in the future where a man from earth is sent into space to go to another planet. on this planet the population of intelligents being is no longer male or female and have the ablity to change their "Gender" whenever they like. The main character of this is strictly hetrosexual male and goes on a journey with an alien that presents himself as male majority of the time. while on his journey with this "Male" alien, the main character falls in love and disregards the "Gender" of the alien. 

I believe this is the concept that Lorber is trying to raise in her article. That gender is really a human creation and in reality is an illusion. I'm left asking what really defines "Gender" can there be any specific criterion that needs to be met to be a man or women? 

Color-Blind Privilege Blog #9

The dominant view in the United States s that we are now a color-blind

Nation. Rap and hip-hop are thoroughly mainstream commodities available

For sale in every mall across the country. Celebrities, CEOs, high-Level politicians,

and opinion makers are drawn from every racial and ethnic group, as

If race no longer mattered. Charles A. Gallagher argues that the story of

color-blindness promoted in the mass media disguises a more troubling reality:

Continued racial inequality.

              Although Barack Obama’s election was a landmark accomplishment for African Americans in the U.S., his election also raised the question about the roles of race in America. It lead many to believe race no longer mattered in the U.S. thus, emerged the post-racial concept, which held the belief that race was not a factor in deciding your quality of life or opportunities in America. In the article “Color Blind Privilege” by Charles A. Gallagher, he expressed concern about belief that racial equality has been achieved in the U.S. but, with some minor caveats, what has moved to center stage in our national dialogue on race is the idea that the goals of civil rights movements have been achieved, with Exhibit A being the elections of the first black man as president.

 White Americans can point to president “Obama as proof of this new racial Egalitarianism, Gallagher counters the idea that America has become a color-blind nation by explaining that every quality of life indicator (on health, employment, incarceration, longevity, etc.) Varies by race, “with racial minorities being at the bottom of barrel” Yet, intersely enough Americans viewing color-blind as an accepted social fact, race-conscious policies and action may be construed as reverse racism against whites. 

Honestly it’s next to impossible to change the mind of people who don’t want their minds changed. There’s indisputable facts that “In every Quality of life indicator (health, employment, etc.) Varies by race. Countless advertisement, television shows, movies and other images of race in the media seem to suggest that racism is done and over, or at least “America is on the verge, or has already become, a truly color-blind nation” This belief system is the basis for white outrage over affirmative action and claims of jobs discrimination. Whites who believes the social economics is fair and balanced find satisfaction and comfort in their position of privilege, believing them to have been earned legitimately. This ideology that America has to go if we ever expect to really move forward, we must first deal with the pass and the truth that is standing bare naked in front of our eyes..

Extra Credit - Race The Power Of Illusion

Race is one of those topics that we choose not to speak about, but we all like to think that some how we are experts. The film “Race The Power Of Illusion” is a three-part segment that really questions the thing we call “Race” and how our assumptions is absolutely wrong. The series help clear away the biological underbrush and shows the underlying social, economic, and political conditions that define our society.  

           

             Episode 1 – “The difference Between Us” examines recent scientific discoveries have topple the notion’s of biological race. The film follows a dozen diverse students “Black, White, Asian, and Hispanic” who sequence and compare their own DNA.  They discover, suprisely  that their closet genetic matches are as likely to be with people from other “Races” (Shocking) as their own. Throughout episode 1 the students felt that because they were from different races; they would differ from one another unless they were of the same race. The video clearly states in so many words that it why it doesn’t make scientific or genetic sense to sort people into biological races.

            Episode II – “The Story We Tell” uncovers the roots of the race concept, including the 19^th- century science that legitimated it and the hold it has gained over our minds. It’s an eye-opening tale of how America’s need to defend slavery in the face of radical new belief in freedom and equality led to a full-blown ideology of white supremacy.  Noting the experience of Cherokee Indians, America war against Mexico and annexation of the Philippines, to me the film shows how definitions of race excluded from humanity not only Black people, but anyone who stood in the way of American Dream.

            Episode III – “The house we live in” focuses not only on individual behaviors and attitudes but on how our institutions shape and create race, giving different groups vastly unequal “life chances” really who define race? In the 20^th century, the courts were called upon to determine who was white, employing contradictory logic to maintain the color line. After World War II, government sanctions and subsidies helped create segregated suburbs where Jews, Italians, and other not-so-white Europeans ethnics were able to reap the full advantage of whiteness. This episode revealed some of the ordinary social institutions that quietly channel wealth and opportunity so that the dominants culture could benefit from a racist system .

            I must admit this video bought on emotions that have been long forgotten. I feel like I’m split between two worlds from my parent’s ancestry. I realize the government creates policies for social control but it still leaves me saying “Aren’t we all human” from the Americans concocted story that “there’s” something different about “those “people” to rationalize the devastation’s that they have cause and the effects that it still have..  I have to acknowledge race is a modern idea it has no genetic basis there isn’t a human subspecies; skin color is really only skin deep, most variation is within, not between, “races” slavery predates race. Race and freedom were born together furthermore race some how justified social inequalities as natural and colorblindness will not and cannot end racism.

“To get beyond racism we msut first take account of race. There is no other way.”

                                                            Supreme court justice Henry Blackmun

Ted Talks Educations Extra Credit

            “ All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.”

                                                                        Benjamin Franklin

        Ted talks Educations; explores the ideas of transforming the US education.

 The first speaker was Rita F. Person. She goes on to state that the thing we forget and rarely talk about is the value and importance’s of human connections “relationship” Person asserts that if teachers encourage students to be better and have “I am” somebody mentally they could achieves amazing things. Person acknowledges that it isn’t easy, but it’s something that needs to be done.

        

        Remember when you were a little kid and everything I mean everything that you touched, seen, saw and spoke came with the question why? Ramsey Musallam states the importance of building curiosity in students and if your able to do that the possibility is infinite. He spoke about his daughter’s, and how he was afraid when she got older and went to school that her teacher’s wouldn’t support her curiosity Musallam argues that there is a difference between knowledge and understanding and if teacher instilled some foam of understanding it’s more likely to stick.

Grits is what set apart each individual’s from one another. Angela Duckworth believes that all human being has the capacity to learn; it just depends on the passion one might have. Duckworth’s argues that this should be promoted in children’s and young adults and it should be nurtured in school  Bill Gates and Dr. Geoffry Canada both spoke about change and how the old ways is no longer working because no one is benefiting from them. Gates stats there are a few things we can do to measure the effectives of teaching and see if it’s really working just like Dr. Canada he stated the graudation rate of is school being 100% and college Admission being at 93% he stated the old ways wasn’t working. Students are changing and we must adapt to it.  Sir Ken Robinson spoke he explore the idea that what we are teaching is no longer effective and how America has great educations but it exist in alternative educations he explain that this shouldn’t be. The norms of the dominant cultures needs to be dominated to accepted the values of what the new norms can be..

This video urged teachers and America to change we are no longer living in a era where the academic standers for education was effusion .

I must admit teachers have one of the hardest jobs in the United States but we must also acknowledge that resources is not distribute evenly.

Classification of classes #8

"Class can be harder to spot than racial or ethnic differences, yet in many ways it's the most important predictor of what kind of financial and educational opportunities someone will have in life."

      Growing up i never thought of class as anything but a word; never fully seeing the bigger picture; that is imbedded in our society. I guess to some degree i had the mindset of being middle-class do i even dare to say upperclass; never questioning the social  stratification but definality knowing it existed especially when i went to school. from the friends i had to the clothes we whore on a daily basis.

             In the documentary "People Like Us" looks at the way Americans constantly evaluate and categorize other "social Status" this un-question ideology deeply-held of egalitarianism and fairness, where citizens are in fact subject to sharp class distinctions and inequalities of opportunity.

  "  I found it funny how we could define a person class simply by looking at photographs".

      The film touch on various of class and the rolls such as the fallen gentry, social climber working stiff and social critic people who are defining "class" exploring the many variables that contribute to the determination of a person class; such as, ancestry, education, and money. According to the film, individual defined class as having money, how you were raised, and your state of mind. Evidently we use status symbols in order to show others were we should be within the social hierarchy.

American has a secret that cannot be described in a traditional sense.  It is more of “The emperor wears no clothes” kind of secret. Everyone knows class stratification exist but people do not talk about it openly, like it’s something that should be avoided bring discomfort for the inhabitants of the “Land of Free”, and the inheritor of “equal opportunity”

        I guess it would be wishful thinking if Americans citizens would actually acknowledge wealth as the deciding social class identifier and try and change the mindset of generations to come.

But then again just like in the reading “Media Magic” by Gregory Mantsios, he states four beliefs that are widely held bout class in America. The media is distinction that the middle-class is comprised of the upper class and white-collared workers, and the under-class solely defined as the poor and colored. The implication disclosed in the media is that “we” are burdened by “their” inability to support themselves “really” As mantsios point out, “for the media” ‘we’ the affluent not only stand apart from the ‘other’ the poor, the working class, the minorities and their problems.

Furthermore, America is built on this illusion that everything is equal and fair, there are to many deciding factors that define class most, which is man, made. Can I go deeper and say this is foam of social control letting each person know indirectly know where they stand and what is expected of them.. I must say this has been one of my favorite blog because the material has enlightening me to a point that my mind is coastally running.