Reading Reflection #8

At the beginning of this chapter we are immediately reminded of the divide between men and woman, in the case in the military as woman do not have to register for selective service as of now. This is a subject I have struggled with. I want all the same rights as men but I have no desire to go into war. I feel almost hypocritical wanting to have it all expect that, can one pick and choose? I also struggle with the military for the same reason that Newman next brings up and that is who signs up for the military. I have know people to join who are not doing so to get out of their economic situation or because it is the best option they have, they have done so because they wanted to (they also went to Annapolis) however those seem to be rare cases. Newman points out that "the most disadvantaged reaches of society have been overrepresented--to poor and working class people with limited educational and occupational opportunities military serve hold out the promise of stable employment, comprehensive insurance coverage, a living wage, free schooling, and the development of marketable skills" (269). No one can argue that those are not good things to acquire in life however there is also the risk of being shipped over seas, possibly to fight in a war you do not agree with, and dying. I struggle with this idea because on one hand those are great opportunities that are available for those who might not have those options without the military's help. However at the same time it bothers me that people might join the military because there is no better option, shouldn't they join because they want to?

Reading Reflection #7

"There is some concern that if the movement to legalize same-sex marriage is effective it will reinforce the idea that the only legitimate intimate relationship is marriage and therefore may actually limit the diversity of "acceptable" relationships rather than expand it"
-Identities and Inequalites: Inequalities in the Law and Justice

This concept that Newman presents in Chapter 7 is one that I am not very familiar with. I have always been someone who thought they believed in gay marriage however that is the extend into which I have delved into this issue. This chapter brought up several interesting arguments as to what way legalizing gay marriage could go. I understand, as the chapter discusses, that some gays askew marriage because they view it as an "oppressive system" (238) as have some heterosexual couples. I have always thought that heterosexual people took marriage for granted however and that it should be available to everyone. I had not previously thought about the limits that marriage imposes on relationships. It loosely can be connected to issues of sexuality. Should there be a dichotomy, gay and straight, or can sexuality be looked at on a spectrum. The same concept could be applied to marriage. The book seems to be saying that marriage would make other relationships less legitimate, there would be single and married, however there are so many more intimate arraignments that people desire and this chapter made me aware of such.

Observation Journal #3

This summer I worked at Macy's in Hawaii at Lancome doing makeup and selling cosmetics. It is a very busy mall that all the tourist frequent. It is also in a place that is one of the most diverse cities I have ever been too. Everyone is usually a little bit of something and it is not uncommon to ask "what are you" in a very non-offensive way. Racism does exhist but in a very different sense than in does in the Continental U.S. That being said this vast mix of different ethnicitys has a tendency, in my opinion, to create some very good looking people. When not busy a lot of the other girls and I would stand around, gossip, and comment people who walked by. One day I was with some girls I did not know very well and an extremely attractive man walked by, he looked like Tyrese (just so you get my point), and I pointed him out. One of the girls said "oh you like black guys" and I was taken aback. The way she said it, and her comments after, had to do with my being white. I have seen some of her ex-boyfriends, who are at least part black, and she is Filipino, Chinese, and Hawaiian. The way she said it was in a way that made it seem like it was odd for me, being white, to find this black man attractive. I countered her comment with "no I don't just like black guys, I like good looking guys". I do not care what ethnic mix someone is, I don't typecast my attraction to people, but I will notice good looking guys when I'm bored at work. This story came to mind when discussing in class the idea of Vermont and the lack of diversity there is here and really made me wonder how an interaction like this would happen in Vermont when it was met rather negatively in a place that is so diverse. The fact that this type of question occurs in such a diverse and accepting place says a lot about how permeated racism is in American society. I say this because I know for a fact it had to do with me being white. There are many polynesian and black people who date and I have friends who are a mix of black, Filipino, Chinese ect. Even in Hawaii, where everyone interacts with everyone (for the most part), it is still regarded as slightly odd for someone who is white and someone who is black to date, this is one of the few interracial dating mixes that I have encounted with opposition. I think that says a lot about how American society's opinion has effected even those in a place so used to a melting pot of race and ethnicity.

Reading Reflection #5

"Stereotypes, in and of themselves, are merely cognitive mechanisms we all use to find commonalities among groups and to simplify our perceptual worlds. Hence, they can be positive or negative or even neutral"
-Identities and Inequalities: Expressing Inequalities

This chapter right away seemed very confusing to me. I did not understand how Newman could talk about how stereotypes, even positive ones were bad and the say they were not. He talks about woman being regarded as good mothers and how that can have a negative impact on their lives in regards to pay and their behaviors and also how woman who do not have children are looked at as outside the norm. He even translate woman being regarded as good with children to its effect on abortion law. In the next section he goes on to say that stereotypes can be positive and I think he is negating his own point. Sure there can be positive stereotypes such as "Asians are smart" and perhaps being Asian you might enjoy some benefits from that. However even though being smart is a positive attribute being put in the" smart" category based on your race is not, to me at least. This is the same as woman being good mothers and nurtures. I am not good with children in the least and feel foolish when someone thrusts a child at me and I have no idea what to do with it. I am then regarded as odd because I don't think a little kid is "so cute". I just found this chapter to be a little convoluted it its argument and do not agree that stereotypes can be neutral, let alone positive. I feel stereotypes always have negative connotations (is that a stereotype?).

Reading Reflection #4

"The very essence of who we are-out gender, our racial and class identity, our sexuality-is not private property"
-Identities and Inequalities: Learning Difference

This chapter began with an interesting story about parents who tried to keep their twins from learning gender specific roles but to their dismay found they were unable to do so. This is because they forgot that gender, as well as race, class, and sexuality, are not solely private matters but are also influenced by society. This chapter was interesting however it is similar material I have found we learn in many of our social work (if that is your major) and psychology classes. This idea that everything fits in a private and public world and is socialize according this both is a concept often covered in these classes. I thought the section that was interesting and not often covered was about learning sexuality. I have always felt that this subject can tend to be very hush hush and not often talked about. School occasionally tries to teach both males and females about "the birds and the bees" but unless you have parents who are very comfortable discussing sex and sexuality there is little else you are taught beyond what you see in the media and from peers. Newman backs up this idea by saying that "straightforward, direct sexual socialization is relatively uncommon-consequently, the information that children do receive tends to be largely informal, piecemeal, and peer-driven.(122)" I think this part of the chapter gave weight to the importance of education about sexuality. He also discusses the heteronormative aspect of the information that is out there which I feel further makes a case for the importance of sexual information both hetero and homo to today's youth. This chapter discusses how society socializes them with everything else. Why not sexuality as well?

Observation Journal #2

Is Sept. 11Th still evoking racial slurs against "middle-eastern looking" people?



I was at brunch this last weekend with a friend (the one mentioned in the previous observation journal) and her boyfriend who was here for the weekend. I am not sure what was going on this past Sunday on campus however there was a group of Indian people who were around campus and at one point were gathered with the men doing some sort of chant by Joyce, though I am not sure what this was for. This group of people exited Joyce in-mass and the first thing this boyfriend said was some flip comment regarding the Taliban. I was busy looking at the women's beautiful saris and this comment caught me so off guard that all I could say was something to the effect of "hey! no, not OK, don't say that kind of sh-t". He looked at me like I was slightly crazy, like that comment shouldn't bother me and I said "that's just not necessary". After an extremely awkward pause we all went back to eating brunch. Newman says that slurs "reflect broader cultural and political themes" (76), and he is right. This type of slur would have never come to this boy's mind had it not been for September 11Th and the hysteria it created around people of middle eastern appearance. This young man feels it is his right to say such things because he is a Vermonter, the type who is proud to call themselves rednecks, and he hates "all of those types" (as I have heard him say in the past). Because of the political and cultural events that have taken place in the past few years there are comments I often hear when people of certain appearances are around. I was defiantly taken aback by this statement. The people who were on campus were (I am fairly positive) Indian and not wearing turbans or anything that might be viewed as "Taliban-esque". This comment was driven purely on the basis of their skin tone and I am still not sure how to process it. I think I might need to get some new friends though.

Reading Reflection #3

"You can't put white people in their place when the own the place to begin with"
-Tim Wise

I think that in this article Wise makes some very insightful observations about racism. It was interesting to read this article after we had discussed these idea in class already. I find that this article helps put into words the sort of concepts we discussed in class. He talked about words to be used in being racist towards whites as opposed to blacks and the lack of weight that they carry in the capacity to offend or upset. He makes the important point that they even illicit laughter and therefore more definitely do not have the power to oppress whites. I watched the SNL skit he is referring to (youtube.com "Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase Old Skit") and while funny also serves as a great example for Wise article as well as our class discussion. Even the very nature of skit with Chevy Chase being the interviewer and Richard Prior as the interviewee is speaking volumes about the impact racist words have as those with power use them to oppress those without power. I also agreed with his discussion of poor whites. He says that while poor whites "are less financially powerful than wealthy people of color--they nonetheless retain a certain "one-up" on equally poor or even somewhat better off people of color thanks to racism". Wise is very correct in this observation and it is something that I can back up with fairly personal experience. My father's family grew up extremly poor in rural southern Vermont. They were on welfare and certainly looked down apon by the near by wealthy communities however I have been told that one more that one occasion (apparently my family think this story is funny) my grandmother would say "yeah well at least we aren't n--". It is that sort of mentality that continues to make the idea of reverse racism an unsubstantiated myth is society today.

Reading Reflection #2

"Can you see a person's chromosomes? No, I didn't think so."
Identities and Inequalities

While the book and the Jensen article covered a wide spectrum of identity issues, I choose to focus on the dichotomy of gender. The beginning of the chapter focuses on Deirdre McClockey who lived life by all appearances as a successful male. After an sex operation she continues to be successful, as a female. The chapter looks at what this mean, what it takes to be a man or a woman. I agree with Newman what he states "genders are fluid-they can overlap" (55). I view gender as a social construct. I appreciated this chapter because the author broke down the difference with gender and sex, which I think is a line that often gets blurred. While you can be born with into either the male or female category, even this is not set it stone. Gender is something that is taught through socialization and society seems to be a firm believe in dichotomy, male and female, the same as they ten to view sexual orientation. Albert Kinsey argued that "sexual orientation lies along a continuum, with "exclusively heterosexual" at one end of the scale and "exclusively homosexual" at the other" (64). I be live the same could be said for gender. I also focused on the concept of intersexuals, people who's sexual anatomy is not altogether clear. Again I have read this before however it always shocks me to see that "about 90% of intersexuals who undergo "corrective surgery are designed as female" (59). This also usually happens soon after the child if born not because they are facing any health risks but because not "fixing" them "would undermine our culture's dichotomous and essentialist understanding of sex" (59). Please, by all means, completely alter and determine the path a child will go down, without their consent, before they have any say in it, because you are can't put them into one of two categories you are comfortable with.

Observation Journal #1

I have a friend who's younger sister just recently went off the college for the first time. Of course when this happens you are always faced with the dreaded new roommate situation. Sometimes you luck out and get an amazing roommate who you hit it off with, but sometimes you do not. This particular situation is not a good one, the girl's roommate is fairly odd, she goes to bed at about 7pm, never wantes to even get dinner with my friend's little sister despite repeated invits to leave the room, and smells. Apparently not only does she herself smell (I have been told she has yet to have been seen showering, and its been 3 weeks) she also has brought food from home that, as least to my friends little sister, smells horrible as well. Ordinarily we would just laugh this off however the issue is that this smelly roommate is Chinese. She is a first generation US citizen, her parents came from China, and the food she was sent to school with is all very traditional. The reason I bring this up with that my friend proclaimed to me "I am not racist but..." and has proceeded to dub this girl the "stinky chinky" and laugh about it every time. This is not the first time I have heard her be racist however it is the only time I have heard her refuse to apologize for it stating "well she does smell". I ask you, what does her smelling bad have anything to do with being Chinese? This brings to mind Newman's point that "this emphasis on between-group differences can obscure both the differences that exist among individuals within groups as well as the similaritites that exist between individuals who belong to different groups" (14) I can marginally understand how foods that are much different that what you are used to might smell bad or strange to you to begin with but you need to keep in mind that the same goes for you and the foods you are used to as well, they may be strange to others. The fact that this roommate does not shower has nothing to do with her ethnicity, there are people all all ethnicities and races who come to college and don't shower. I was saddened that someone who I regard as a good friend would be so narrowed minded at to call this girl an ethnic slur due to not showering regardless of if it rhymes or not. There are plenty of nicknames to poke fun at bad personal hygiene with, not that you should, without attaching someones ethnicity.

Reading Reflection #1

"White families are simply 'families'"
Identities and Inequalities p. 16

The Wise article was an eye opening statement for me as to the socialize racism that is instilled in people. Reading about a woman who spent her life being a "good liberal" and yet as her mind deteriorated reversed to the phrases she had never uttered but none the less surrounded her throughout her life made me wonder, what about me? What would I say if my mind what no longer able to control what came out of my mouth? I tend to view myself as someone who is not inclined to use racist terms, but that doesn't mean I haven't heard them. Granted we have not grown up in a time where the 'n' word is as commonly used and accepted and our parents are most likely not members of the KKK but think about it, what do you think you would say?

The Identities and Inequalities reading was actually something I spent a good deal more time thinking about. Newman pointed out something I had never before noticed. When learning about family diversity you learn about Latino families, African American families, Asian families, but you do not learn about White families because they are regarded simply as "families". When I first read this it was like an 'aha' moment, causing me to recognize something I had never noticed before. Then I started to think about it more indepth. I moved to Hawaii after 8th grade and attended a high school where there were about 10 white students in my grade, the rest of the 250 being made up of a variety of asian and island students. I was the one who was looked at as the "minority", in my first class someone asked me if I was albino because I was so not tan from living in Vermont. Through this is obviously a specific case it was interesting to me because I have been in the position of being the study of diversity, however even though I had been there I still had not noticed what Newman pointed out about most texts on diversity.