..."It is education that has altered my life. Carried me far." This quote was drawn from the story "The Hunger of Memory." In this essay I will answer the prompt "To what extent does a person's culture inform the way we view others and the world." I will defend that prompt by saying "Our culture always informs the way we view people or the world around us." In the stories "Everyday use", "Hunger of Memory" and " Indian Father Plea." They are all good examples of my thesis statement because they use three areas of culture such as education, family and ethnicity. Those all help to explain how culture shapes the way we view things. A person’s culture influences the way that he or she looks at and interacts with the world. For example, in the story "Everyday Use" education plays a big role in the story." She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know." Mama speaks these words in reference to Dee’s formative years. Rather than her daughter’s intelligence and accomplishments triggering pride in Mama, Dee’s schooling prompts fear and intimidation in her instead. Education is the means through which Dee rejects and belittles her family, thus leading to division and alienation. At the same time, knowledge is a provocation, reminding Mama of the exposure and opportunities...
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...Inequality Julie McElwain Park University Abstract Social inequality is how different categories of individuals are prescribed by the society. The society uses basic characteristics such as gender, sex, education, and ethnicity among other factors in order to categorize an individual. The social inequalities determine the access to limited goods such as market labor force, education, health care facilities, and other forms of participation in the society. Different forms of social inequalities are constructs of geographical distribution, and status within the country, however, cultural aspects, mostly integrated with cultural identities, of society are perceived to be the major contributor of social inequality. Discourses have, therefore, been raised on whether the poor deserve to be poor or not and whether the rich deserve to be rich or not. In order to address this question, I examined different dimensions of social inequalities in my life such as social class, educational level, and race among other factors. In this paper, I will also try to bring out understanding of different theories in attempt to explain social stratification. A comparison will be done between different perspectives through interviews and my own perspective of social inequalities. In essence all factors discussed in this paper show a link between social inequalities and different factors such as economic and political system. Trends such as widening inequalities among the groups...
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...opportunity to get to know any individual better. I was given the opportunity to interview an individual of my choice, who is close to my age and gives comfort level. I chose to interview a relative, six years my senior but is a companion, a friend and, we have spent much time together. My interviewee is a divorced female, 59 years of age mother of two adult children and two granddaughters. Her name is Frances Hicks. She is well educated and was employed for the Federal government for 25 years. Her professional was a secretary to the judge and in her later years became a data entry consultant. .She is presently retired but does consulting and charitable work for many organizations. . The interviewer and the interviewee believe that seeing the behavior being performed gives a more vivid picture than reading. I believe that I do not also remember everything I read or may not comprehend it in the same manner, whereas she believes that reading helps her to form her own description of how the behavior is truly unfolding. The interviewer and interviewee have similar feelings, I have found it easier to study in a library where it is quiet and peaceful, but my feelings are so much more comfortable at home with the background noises and some distractions. Home is preference for both of us with the presence of family. This environment creates less worry about what is happening at home when not there. She has the same feelings about studying at home but believes...
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...Abstract The point of this paper is to help the reader grasp the different aspects of human identity construction with regards to ones race and/or ethnicity. This is a topic that is incredibly important to all races of people regardless of economic class or whatever else is seemingly more important. It is quite impossible to go throughout life without forming an idea of who you are or where you have come whether you care to make it a part of your daily life, have no choice or acknowledge it when it is convenient; without that knowledge I find it difficult to fully make the most of life. Through the readings from the semester and class discussions I have come to the conclusion that White ethnics choose to either assert their ethnicities thickly or thinly, or they chose to incorporate it into their lives symbolically. Blacks on the other side of the spectrum lack choice in their racial identity because their race is visible and so it is assigned to them. Asians have both the ability to choose to assert their specific ethnicities but they are racially assigned. The issue with racial and ethnic construction is that it is born of social construction-what others believe of your race to be true. This can make the identity construction process much more difficult depending upon your racial or ethnic background. Regardless, I find this to be an important part of the identity construction journey. How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone. ...
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...Comparative essay on race/ethnicity ENG 125 – Introduction to Literature Instructor Benjamin Daw May 15, 2011 Comparative essay on race/ethnicity In this comparative essay, I will talk over the role and ethnicity in “The Welcome Table”, written by Alice Walker and “What it’s like to be a black girl”, written by Patricia Smith by exploring the difficulties that black women face, no matter of age or where they may live. When it comes to these two stories and poem both written by black women, the one thing both writers have in common is their main character is a black women or girl. Both have dealt with some form of discrimination because of the color of their skin is black. In Alice Walker, “The Welcome Table”, she writes in third-person omniscient trying to explain to the audience how this old black lady just wanted to worship inside of a church, any church. This older black woman has finally found a church, once she was inside she did not even realize that this church was for the white folks – all she wanted was to worship the lord. The older woman in this story was not afraid of the fact that all the members were white, this is the first sign of discrimination against her based off her race no one wanted her to stay there but she was determined to worship the lord inside of this church. Everyone in the church wanted her to leave the church, telling her this is not your church and she did not belong there. For some unknown reason...
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...When exploring theories and concepts associated with the psychology of the human mind, you quickly discover that genetics does play as big a role as does one's upbringing. I specifically enjoyed the section that explored different types of motivation an employee may or may not display. Another area that I found to be enlightening delved into the various psychological disorders that we may encounter during our life. I am going to apply what we have studied throughout this course to my interview with Dorothy. Certain aspects, methods, and attitudes are going to be explored, such as memory, learning, intelligence, personality, cognition, motivation, and testing of Dorothy and myself. In order to retain information, some people prefer to read the data while other people prefer to listen as the data is read. "Once you know your own natural learning preference, you can work on expanding the way you learn, so that you can learn in other ways, not just in your preferred style. And, by understanding learning styles, you can learn to create an environment in which everyone can learn from you, not just those who use your preferred style." (www.mindtools.com) One of the first questions I asked Dorothy as we began our interview was how she remembered information. I offered two options; reading about a behavior or observing the behavior. She explained that she does like to read, but if she needs to recall the information, she prefers to observe the behavior. As I am a visual learner also...
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...Hits Milestone with Gender Parity” issued on November 5th, 2015 in The Globe and Mail by Jane Taber, discusses gender, race/ethnicity. This article reminds me of sociological concepts in the textbook “Seeing Ourselves” of Gender in chapter 32 and Race and Ethnicity in chapter 34. Also, the theme I can relate to is groups and organization because it discusses the different gender and race/ethnicity in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet. In this article Justin Trudeau kept his promise for a gender parity parliament. Fifteen women were put in a position of Trudeau’s cabinet. Canada is now one of five nations to have gender parity in government at the federal level. The article identifies...
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...easy to spot someone blaming themselves for the occurrence of their personal life problems. For example, a single-mother may blame herself for not being able to support her children well due to a shortage of money and unavailability to find a decent job. Another could be a newly wed couple having daily arguments that may lead to their divorce, or women who are facing difficulties perceiving their housekeeping responsibilities and wanting to become something more than just a homemaker. These various private tensions may seem very personal. These dilemmas are all related to a bigger world called society and this is known as the sociological imagination. Sociological imagination suggests that people look at their own personal troubles as social issues and, in general try to connect their own individual encounters with the workings of society. The personal problems are closely related to societal issues such as unemployment, marriage, war and even the city life where the private troubles and the public issues become clearly apparent. With the understanding of the sociological imagination, I began to notice the daily choices I make, the classes I attend, the way I was raised by my parents, the group of people I choose to hang out with, the things I like to converse about with others are all somehow affected by public issues and what society tends to make us believe is right. There are many areas in my life where I feel that I am greatly affected by various sociological theories such...
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...sociological study comes into play. It analyzes the actions of one towards another and tries to determine the reasoning behind it. The goal of the research we conducted is to learn about sociological concepts and relate them to fictional and possible real-life situations. We decided to analyze the film, Lucky Number Slevin to determine how class and power, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexual orientation are displayed in a Hollywood movie. The main goal for the paper is to be able to get a better understanding of the main concepts of sociology, and how they can easily be related to a major Hollywood picture. The film is set in New York City where there are two major crime bosses that rule the criminal world. These two men are The Boss, and The Rabbi. They are former partners that had a massive falling out 20 years prior that caused them to go into seclusion for their safety from one another. Slevin seems to be a man that is in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up doing dirty work for The Boss and repaying another man’s debt to the Rabbi. In the end Slevin was working with Mr. Goodkat to overthrow the two crime bosses and get revenge for his father’s death. By looking at Lucky Number Slevin, we analyze each concept separately and operationalize each. The breakdown of the paper was set so that Alexandra Polak worked on the topics of Gender and Sexual Orientation, Ahmed El Najmi analyzed the concepts of Race and Ethnicity, then Ian Ladouceur looked at...
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...people at some Boston Bar that were not of the liking of the Accused. The defense gave reasons like Hernandez had just signed 40 million extension, so he had no reason to be part of this murder. The accused are trying to also put some doubt by saying that the police has some sloppy investigations done. The legal experts have been saying of late that there is some doubt and what is helping the accused is that the murder weapon pistol has not been located along with no legit witnesses of the shooting coming forward. There is not much of a feel of which side is winning so this outcome could go either way. A doctor on the behalf of the defense, say that two other men were on some serious drugs like PCP and might have committed the crime since it is has been told that PCP can cause violent stages. Unfortunately Hernandez DNA was found on a shell casing in a rental car, but the defense state it came from gum. Shayanna Jenkins said she was told to give money to Earnest Wallace a guy that has been also charged for the execution and was told to do this by Mr. Hernandez. She took a box and did not ask about it or does she now remember where she put this box. It ended up smelling like weed, and that it was weed instead of a gun, and the supplier was MR Lloyd. Mr. Kraft the owner of the Patriots had a conversation and said he was innocent of these charges so I guess for...
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...How do you feel about change? For many, change is scary. From when I can remember, education did not take on the form of many programs. Education was something you needed to get by in life and that was final. Despite its many changes, public education still faces challenges with academic success. Education Reform is best known for improving public schools. The system focuses on changing teacher centered schools to student centered schools, because its main standards are academic centered thriving more on assessments such as test scores. In my experience, diversity in schools have affected me socially and emotionally. As a black woman growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, I did not feel as welcomed. Granted I was not discriminated...
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...a 2.0 GPA to qualify and at the NCAA you must meet a 2.5 GPA. Looking into all the information that I’ve studied the Federal Graduation Rate data are used to measure the institutions. Secondly, many hypotheses are tested to base their findings of other studies which speak on the topic of athletes and other students. Finally, during this study they should find that Graduation Rate does or doesn’t affect the student. Literature ReviewGraduation Success RateWhen looking at this head line we find that the NCAA is...
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...issue of whether indeed ethnicity influences proceedings in the court room or not. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said in a 2001 speech that a judge's gender and ethnicity does, and should, influence his or her decision-making on the bench. Sotomayor made the comments on October 26, 2001, at a University of California-Berkeley symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the first Latino named to the federal district court. She states something very relevant to this which was, "I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society," she said at the event, sponsored by the law school. "I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions. The aspiration to impartiality is just that — it's an aspiration because it denies the fact that we are by our experiences making different choices than others." "Our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. This is not to say that all African Americans, all Latinos or all women share the same views and life experiences. This too would be a silly position. But it is to say that in our society, factors such as race, gender and social class influence our lives and how we are treated. These experiences help shape how a person approaches legal issues and how a judge decides cases. Another high role model included in his campaign a very remarkable man’s quote which was, “I have a dream that my four little children will...
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...Identified with Race and Minority “I Don’t Speak White” Written by Kendra Alexander Your language is your identity; the way you speak depends on your environment and the people surrounding you. Race and ethnicity are not huge factors in the way one expresses themselves. While some associate certain slang verbiage with the African American race, each ethnicity and race have their own “slang” or abbreviations they use. The way we communicate within our social groups connects us to one another. Edward Sapir, in Language: an Introduction to the Study of Speech, stated “Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations.” Every culture creates their own language, they find a way to clarify themselves amongst each group, whom is to say one language is better than the other. Negative connotations can be placed on the way one speaks due to their background, or ethnicity. If a minority person speaks “well”, along with these negative race connotations, the person is then seen as acting as though they are the “superior” race. Language can connect us, but it can also segregate our defined cultures. Language and behavior tend to be associated with race, class, and popularity. The connotations of language and race create the “acting white” phenomenon showing that basic stereotypes still exist unrealized or unnoticed, and not only affect social aspects of a person’s life but their overall health. What is Considered...
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...Belonging This essay discusses defines belonging. It identifies some elements of belonging, and focuses on selected few. It discussed concept of belonging from my perspective and looks at the significant of that from Aboriginals perspective based on research. It gives a brief history of the cruel nature of colonisation, its impact on Aboriginals and how this colonial mentality is perpetuated through discrimination to the Indigenous Australian disadvantage. It states why the policy introduced by the government does not sound promising, what the Aboriginals wants and human rights implications in the issues facing the Aboriginals. Definition of belonging Belonging is the connection and relationship of individual with the world around him/her. (Jacques Dufresne….) Even though belonging has physical components, it can be felt individually, and develops to diverse stages with time and circumstances. This means that human state of belonging is not permanent. The status of belonging can be explicated by the choices that people make. The concept of belonging Analysing and reviewing sense of belonging I approached it by applying to my own being-that I belong to a family, my mother and fatherland, an ethnic/cultural group, a religious, professional and community groups. Within these groups I have forged good relations. The thrives that keep this profound affiliation going for me is the values we share, that include honesty, caring, sharing, participation, inclusion and respect...
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