Posts

September 21st

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“Struggling with Stereotypes: Users and Abuses of a Critical Concept”

This article was an interesting read to me for multiple reasons. In this article the author starts with explaining how certain words “can lose their power through overuse”. I thought to myself how true this is in everyday life. So many people say slang words or joking insults without really even knowing the meaning of the word to begin with. However the word is said so often so it seems socially acceptable. The main topic of this article was to dissect the meanings and issues revolved around generalization and stereotyping. This article surprised me in the way that it was not at all trying to say that these two topics need to be erased or looked at as a problem and nothing more. In fact the author flat out disagrees with the idea of getting rid of labels and generalizations. The author is more concerned with the public being able to make educated decisions when looking and interpreting at the world. The article gave great detail how the media is a huge factor to generalization, as the creators don’t believe they are stereotyping, when they essentially are creating a “group stereotype”. Meaning an individual could cause a label for the whole of a group of people when that is simply not the case at all, since everyone is different. The author also did a good job at not just blaming schools for the negative sides of generalization and stereotyping, instead he spoke about the difficulty of explaining such topics as they have grey overlapping areas. Another part of the article I found very interesting was when it talked about how group knowledge needs to be open to change. It sounds easier than it actually is, because people don’t like to change, if they have a particular view since they were little then they are pretty set in that thought process for the future. Labels, generalization, stereotyping etc. are a part of our world that will never go away. However if more people where open to looking at change, not necessarily accepting it but understanding it, I think it would make a difference. The article also concluded that when studying these concepts in the media it is important to look at patterns to understand just how the media causes “group generalization”.

Trends in Human Population in the Cook Islands

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In looking at larger scale trends in environmental quality, we have pulled together population data over time across the Cook Islands. This is the overall trend (summing across all 15 of the islands that comprise the Cook Islands): Here is a bit more complicated graph wherein an island representing each of the temporal patterns we […]

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Go away Sterotypes

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Greetings from disneyland,

 

Personally when it comes to  Race stereotypes I greatly become angry and frustrated about how the word becomes so closed minded.Honestly I detest stereotypes, personally I don’t believe they have a reason for being around.  When the article says that “We need to stop categorizing and generalizing people” it’s the sad truth that we as a society are to focus on putting  labels on anything. Thnik about it, you have tv movies displaying the jocks as brainless people (for example think of glee, they preseve Noah Puckerman’s character as a stupid football player who liked to sleep with Cheerleaders. Or take the Nerds of the big bang theroy, the show allows people to think smart people are loners that may or may not find someone to accept them.) But in all honestly this article has officially kind of gave me a new look on it. I do believe we need to stop stereotyping, but in this article I can see why we need to look at it in a different light, mainly that this could change for other people if we teach them to see that being open to others and their ideas will prevent stereotyping. Our open minds can bring us to a better place than generalizing and creating problems for other people.

 

Do We Still Believe in Civil Rights?

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On March 15, 1965 a man from Giant Oaks California by the name of James J. Sloan wrote a letter the Congressman Harold T. “Bizz” Johnson urging support of the Civil Rights Bill. Which entailed for the most part the abolishment of the prerequisites required to vote, as well as the discrimination against minority groups when voting.

FullSizeRender (3)Mr. Sloan then progresses throughout his letter and continues to give support of federal troops in the south or “whatever means taken to guarantee the safety of individuals of whatever color.”  In bring this statement up he was referring to Bloody Sunday which had taken place in Selma, Alabama. Bloody Sunday is the name referred to the events that took place on March 7th where over six hundred SNCC and SCLC activist marched to support The Civil Rights Act. Where they were held to a stop by the Alabama State troopers a demanded to turn back. Once they had refused they policemen then open fired with teargas and beaten with billy clubs, leaving over fifty people were hospitalized.

The letter then precedes to urge the congressmen to pass the bill explaining it is the right thing to do and it would extend America. How simple this may all sound It is not the only thing I had stumbled upon. After going though simply one other folder I found a completely different radical view than what Mr. Sloan had expressed.

No more than three years later another letter was composed by Eugene P. Bayliss on the date of March 20th nearly exactly three years later from the first letter. The tone of everything changed, the two new big bills were the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and Title VIII.  Both the Civil Rights Act of 1968 also known as the Fair Housing Act and Title VIII were laws that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing.

Bayliss throughout the letter is completely against the passage of both these act FullSizeRender (4)and actually  insults America and trashes African American remodels. She even questions exactly whose Civil Rights the government is fighting for stating “Whose Civil Rights…the phony civil rights of the Stokely Carmichaels, Rap Browns, and Martin ‘Lucifer’ Kings.” She urges the denial of this “un-American bill”

What is startling to me is that the general public of California in 1965 had been pro-civil rights and had wanted the African American citizens to be able to vote, but in a short time span the citizens would be totally against Title VIII. It leaves a total unanswered and real question of is discrimination an segregation really over even after fifty years or is it only others thinking on the behalf of their own good?

Blog #2 – Structural Factors and Generalizations

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Childhood as we know in today’s society can be described as a time of innocence, fun, and carefree. However, after reading Karen Sterheimer’s take on childhood, my perspective of this word and the meaning behind it completely changed. She states that “childhood is constantly shifting and changing, and it becomes defined based on the needs of society” (27) meaning that what we know of what childhood is now may have not been the same during a different time in America. Jazmine touched on a key point about childhood when she mentioned that different factors such as social status, living environment, ethnicity, and immigration status are predictors into determining different childhood experiences. Thus, as a society we cannot truly blame popular culture for its “negatively effect” on changing childhood. Rather, Sternheimer explains that structural forces is what influences change within childhood.

Further, generalizations, stereotypes, and labels are what our society utilizes to communicate with one another, however, learning how to properly utilize them can be confusing and difficult not only for children but also for adults. The article states that “we need, use, and draw upon generalizations to make sense of the world around us” which is true, however, when generalizations are used in a negative way to make assumptions about individuals who may not necessarily fit that specific generalization, then that becomes an issue. As Alexa stated, it is in our human nature to make generalizations about certain groups, institutions, topics, etc., to helps us understand how the world around us works. Often times, however, the media tends to make generalizations/stereotypes about certain groups without specifically targeting them which in turn creates a misunderstanding on how society sees them.

With that being said, I wanted to ask if you all were convinced by Sterheimer’s argument on structural factors as being the means for negatively affecting childhood as well as what are your thoughts on generalizations being utilized by the media.

Civil Rights

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There were many Americans who reacted to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in a positive way, after he died many people believed that his death shouldn’t be in vain.

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They felt that the only way to accomplish that was to support what he deeply believed in. What I think was really interesting was that before when he was still alive not many people believed in him and the few people that did believe in him were never heard until after his death. Honestly to me their support wasn’t genuine if they really supported the civil rights they would’ve believed from the beginning when King was still alive and fighting for his dream. I feel that the people who supported him after his death were sympathetic and wanted to see his dream come true even if he wouldn’t be alive to see it in person.

So many people were sending letters to President Johnson, urging him to take action to pass the civil rights bill. They were scared that if he didn’t act soon that the House of Representatives would reject the bill before it had a chance to make a difference. Many people believed in supporting the minorities because they saw that no one would help them. Most of the minorities were jobless, homeless and had no voice.  When King stepped up, he became the voice for so many people, because of his bravery he was respected and admired by many. Just like he was admired by many, he was hated by many people as well, these people were the ones that assassinated the King.

The first letters I read were supporting the Civil Rights movement, they mostly talked about how we should pass the bill because since most of the minorities were born in America they should have the same rights we have.

Haverstock
Haverstock

Like in the words of Mr. Haverstock “Tragic events of the past few days make it clear to all have eyes to see and ears to hear that all is not right in America. The tragedy of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination and the ensuing violence and destruction in our cities certainly must tell us that it is high time to move in the directions so ably pointed out to us in the report of the President’s Commission on Civil Disorders.”

 

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Conrad

Just like there were people supporting the Civil Rights Movement because of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. there were also people who were supporters even before his assassination. Rolfe J. Conrad specifies on his letter that “I am requesting this not as a momentary emotional response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, but rather because of the renewed awareness that this is the kind of thing which should have taken place some time ago.”

The people who were against the Civil Rights Bill were very blunt and harsh template_1442599906790IMG_20150918_101927about their thoughts against the minorities, they didn’t want them to have any rights. They wanted the rights just for them and thought that if the President gave their rights to the minorities that he would be betraying the majority of the American citizens.

Overall the civi rights bill, changed the perspective of many people and how you don’t really realize thta there’s more than just your own needs in this world. We all share this world and it’s better to live it fairly.

Civil Rights: Government or people?

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The rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality, what does that mean to us? It should mean everything. The Civil Rights were created in the place of discrimination against blacks. They earned their rights to personal liberty. Many U.S. citizens seemed to be very concerned with the idea itself, but, not in a negative way. Citizens from all over the country addressed Congressman Harold Johnson on this specific subject. I read an extensive amount of letters concerning the Civil Rights movement and many surprised me. Although we want to believe that back then everyone was associated with racism towards people of different color, there were quite a few, in fact many that were routing for these law  to be passed.

The letter I have posted above was written by a fifteen-year-old high school student. This letter although not completely nostalgic, still had somewhat of a sentimental feel to it. This young girl writes in behalf of her colored peers expressing that she believes they cause no trouble and are all  like us. She goes as far as explaining how when they first came to the U.S. we used them as slaves. It warms my heart immensely because we wanted to believe that many people were just racist but in reality there were many warm and pure hearts out there that felt the need to take a stand to this. Although no one really knew what the Civil Rights Act was going to say or do to help anyone they were all for it. Equality has always been a big thing in this country, The land of the free and the home of the brave right?

This letter warms my heart  because it proves how many people were truly concerned with the way equality was working in the country. Even this young student that many may want to believe is still an age of “incompetence” speaks out. As I read these many letters from all types of people, I started to understand that as a country the citizens of the U.S. were united together without the encouragement of any government or anything else. I read in one letter from a mother of three children that she believed she raised her children to be kind to everyone no matter the color of their skin. The things they experienced through the government, on the television and all over the news exposed them to the prejudice people and ideas of this country. This was kind of hard to think about because although she has a point, the government does represent us as a whole and the things we believe.

There were many events leading up to the act. Maybe these events influenced the way many people thought. Or maybe some people already thought a certain way about the equality among us all but in the end it really didnt matter because there were people willing to stand up  and fight for equality and fight for what this country was founded on. Trust, freedom, and bravery.

My Take on the World 2015-09-18 23:18:41

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On April 9, 1968, Richard Eggers from Red Buff, California wrote to Congressman Harold “Bizz” Johnson to give his insight on two topics that were swiping the country: civil rights and the Vietnam War. Mr. Eggers starts off by saying that he’s studied these two topics rather well, so his opinions aren’t just made on the “spur of the moment.” He also mentions that he is a history teacher and has had to deal with all sorts of questions from his students. However, Mr. Eggers goes on to say he knows that he doesn’t know everything about these topics. Despite this, he feels as if it is his responsibility to let Mr. Johnson know of his opinion so that the congressman could represent him. Mr. Eggers talks about his experience in Washington D.C. shortly after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. He was completely appalled at how people were reacting to King’s death, how he deserved to die, and how the areas where the African Americans lived were in horrible condition. Mr. Eggers mentions that the type of reaction of King’s death was “based on racism, which is based on fear; which in turn results from ignorance and lack of education.” His solution is to fight with federal and state programs that provide better housing, education, jobs, and welfare instead of guns, fire, and violence. He states that he is willing to pay the higher taxes to make this possible. Also, towards the end of his letter, he mentions that he doesn’t see the need to be in Vietnam and wishes that the troops be removed.

While reading this letter, I couldn’t help but think, “Why can’t everyone think this way?” Mr. Eggers seemed to have common sense and saw how inhumane it was to treat other human beings with such disrespect and actually wish death upon them. He saw African Americans as actually people and not a nuisance like many other Americans did at the time.

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