Question O

I think to have a change for the better we need to overcome our fear of what other people think. Parents and relatives always saying to be yourself or be who you are.  I believe if someone truly is passionate about something then they will not be afraid, but we have to believe in it.  I believe issues of social justice are not for the faint of heart. I have grown up a lot in the last two years, trying to understand social justice. I find that we have to be optimistic and oppurtunistic. When an ignorant comment is made, especially if they know better, one thing we can do is to ask why they said that. I also can tell them some of the facts. Its also in the way one says things. I think I can use my humor sometimes, I'm pretty witty, not to toot my own but beep beep. I help by talking about social justice issues amongst people. I also plan bone marrow drives. I do at least 60 hours of community service a year. I think that I will leave the world a better place by example. My friend and I started Giovanni's Team at UNH 5 years ago. We have 6 potential matches which is crazy because the chances of someone being a match are 1 in 20,000. The thing I have done over the past 2 years is immerse myself in the community. One has to start small and work thei way up the ladder. I think the most realistic thing any of us can do is to immerse themselves in their community and talk to people. Become involved. That is the best way to learn from other people too. Good intentions only get us so far, fear is what holds us back.  One just has to get out there and make themselves known to the community. All the people at Waysmeet and the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs are more than willing to talk to people about issues of social justice. I learned so much just through meeting Sean, Otis, Ellen, and Larry...not to mention all of their staff and students. Also something to remember is that it is a learning process, we keep learning, one can never know all there is to know about social justice. One just has to keep on moving forward and trying to learn and be involved in their community, which is what I intend to do.

Question N

I believe a good activist is someone who understands that they are not always going to be met with flowers and smiles. Although people enjoy and certainly appreciate when people listen to them, its not always going to happen, in fact it won't. We talked about people who have privilege are blind to it and they can feel a lot of guilt towards those who are being oppressed and as a result they become defensive. A good activist needs to be hard, someone who can handle negative attitudes and words and someone who is not all rainbows and sunshine all the time. I have found that there is something to be gained with tough love. Not abusing people, but chances are that some will cry, I mean social justice is not easy. It shouldn't be, if it was then we wouldn't have any isms to be concerned with because everyone would be all about rainbows and sunshine...so, a good activist needs to understand that the world is not always a lovey dovey place, which is why they need to be hard, not cold to people. I associate a effective, positive change agent with someone who is nice, has a sense of humor, is passionate about humanity, and someone who can "live simply, give more, expect less" -which is just a quote that I love and also think is something that people should live by, in general. In respect to being passionate about humanity-I always think of MLK, he said, "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live," and when it comes down to it, I believe if a person is going to combat any of the isms they should have that passion because if they do not then the consequences could be more than they could handle. I'm not saying that if one does go against an ism that they will be hurt or in the worst case actually die, but with a lot of these isms there is tremendous emotion and sometimes a lot of hate. I admire MLK because he was so articulate and I feel like he knew things that would not have been apparent to the most genius people. I also admire his strength and his passion. I admire Bell Hooks for her devotion and her demeanor. I like the video "Visionary" because it  doesn't have a real tone to it. I like videos where one can get the facts. I enjoyed the "Activism" video because it demonstrates the "hard" personality that I referred to earlier. People have to be willing to stand up to oppression.

Quick Blog # 6

At school my life is more full of people of diverse ages. Home is more just me and my family. The oldest person in my immediate family is 54. Work is certainly not diverse because I work in the mailroom and all the people there are my age. I think my surpervisor is 28? I actually hang out with my a diverse age group. I am a pretty decent people person so I can talk to almost anyone about things. Younger people are sometimes hard for me to handle (teenagers) I have a nephew who is sixteen and he is nice to me when his friends are not around, is is when they are around for the most part, but his mouth just goes. I appreciate elderly people because I love their stories. I loved talking to my grandmother about the past and how she lived on a farm and had like 10 cows and they used to have to pick up after them....it's a good story. Young and middle-aged adults are privileged because they are generally past all the legal business (drivers license, being 21) and they are physically able to do for themselves. Older folks are viewed as incapable or in the way sometimes. Younger people still have that need to be taken care of aspect to them sometimes. To combat ageism I think we need to teach it. We need to have an experience where individuals can understand how it is to walk a mile in the shoes of an elderly person.

Question M

I used to be ageist until I did a short stint in a rehab hospital and I was the only young person there. I was seventeen. Most of the people there had about 45-60, even 70 years on me. I talked with them some and a lot of them had family but they would complain that their family did not visit them. I felt bad about that. Then my grandmother went into a nursing home, she's still there. She was so angry that she got put in a nursing home because she owned and maintained her own house for a good 40 years, but her daughters tried assisted living and she just needed a higher level of care. She is going to be 85. She still has her mind and that is what makes it so difficult for her to accept that she is getting too old to take care of herself. It's kind of like having a disability because she wants to be independent but she cannot physically keep up with an independent lifestyle.  She does not want to be a "burden" to anyone. I feel like the root cause of ageism is  life is so fast-paced and  people actually do treat their family members like they are a burden because the life of an old person is a lto slower paced than that of a young person. I feel like older people have earned it though. I feel like maybe this "ism" is seldom talked about because its a source of guilt for many people, just like a lot of the other isms. Of the videos I watched I liked "Once we were young" the most because it shows how easy it is to help older folks out. Really it is just time, once a program like that is established people have options. I am sure that many older people do not have many that they can depend on, some do, but most do not. This video also made me sad to know that each week 30 older people commit suicide. I believe that is a red flag to society. Our older folks need more options as opposed to living the rest of their days out in a hospital because they cannot afford the high expense to live in a assisted living facility or a nice nursing home. I feel like we kind of just forget or dump our older folks into someone else's hands. We need more options. The sad thing is that no one knows what it is like to be old until they are old too.

Question L

I think this video demonstrates that th human body is highly capable of not only adapting to changes , but living with changes. I feel as though people who are "able" bodied make judgements for people with disabilities because they cannot imagine how it would be to live like the person who is disabled. They often over empathize and end up feeling bad for an individual with a disability. This video shows that many people with disabilities want to be seen as what they are, able-bodied. If a person with a disability can do the same contemporary dance that a non disabled person can do than there should be no problem there, and mostly there is not. I believe that people over empathize with the person who has the disability which makes the person seem inadequate or useless because that is how the able-bodied person would feel if they were in that situation, especially because it is so foreign to them. I can realte that Susan Wendell's article because I believe that she talks about disability being socially constructed. I believe that over empathising with people whow have disabilities is a social construction, like gender. People feel safe and secure in their male or female category and all those outside of the category threaten their security, I suppose? The same is true with disability because many people feel uncomfortable around people with disabilities because they assume that disabled people's social needs and wants are different than their own. I feel that disability and gender are in a way similar in that many people see "the rejected body" as Wendell put it.

Question K

I feel as though "Beautifil Daughters" spoke more to me because I was able to see the reactions on those women's faces when they talked about how they were treated and the fear they experienced. I am too guilty of staring at women who I believe may be transgender (because of their height usually). I'm the type of person who catches myself and then feels bad because I know that if they saw me staring at them then I probably just added to their frustration, also, my mother would probably be very dissappointed if you saw me staring at someone. Anyway, throughout the video, I was in awe of how these women were able to stand up to fear and ignorance rather than crawl into a hole and hide who they are. I think the way they handled what they were up against is a tremendous testament to human strength and ability. In a way, I believe they are role models for how we, people involved in social justic, should be on a daily basis.  They presented themselves an a strong front against fear and ignorance. Its inspiring that people can make their way up the ladder to, "stand up and be counted" as Leslie Townsend said. I think it's great that her mission is to be a role model, she is taking control of an oppurtunity to lead by example. I also think Townsend's answer should resonate with cisgender people and we should realize that to be an ally one has to stand up and be counted too, because there is definitely strength in numbers. I feel like the "Trans Woman Manifesto" was so well thought out. It explained the narrow confines we have as people who identify as male or female. Townsend said to stand and be counted most likely because before she was unable to do so because she did not fit in a category. Categorizing people is hurtful and as a 5'9" heavy individual I get treated as less than female all the time, yet I dress as a female, look like a female, I am just too big to fit into the feminine category because I am not short and dainty. I'm too tall and too wide. It makes me laugh. The narrow confines are ridiculous.

Prostitution and Male Supremacy

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article because as I was reading it a bunch of things started to click, to make sense. We talked about how the key to privilege is power. I never thought of prositution as something that men initiated. I always thought of it as something women do because they need money for drugs or they have children to take care of. When Dworkin says, "I would like to say to you that these men are cowards, that these men are brutes, that these men are fools, that these men are able to do what they do because they have the power of men as a class behind them, which they get because men use force against women," it clicked that in order to keep one group on the top there has to be one on the bottom. Then I started to put the pieces together that male dominace is more about control than anything else. Even men who don't use or "participate" in prostitution because they should be allies to women. I agree with Dworkin when she says, "they have the power of men as a class behind them," because with pornography that is so true. They have the older men who have done it or allowed it happen, the middle-aged men who have done it or allowed it to happen, and now they have the younger men who are following the example of men before them which really just creates a cycle of abuse against women and not just prostitutes. For example, I was talking to my friend one day and I asked him what he thought of porn because I had just seen a disturbing video about the unfortunate backlash of porn against women. He said that he thought it was empowering. Well, that is something that summed up the cycle: empowering. Of course it is, for men. Sexual acts are almost always embarrassing for a woman to see, but when men see them it is that collective, "Yeah..." I think this because women do feel ashamed or embarrassed because they know that's how they would feel in that position. No one really wants to be objectified. I feel like a lot of women say that they like the attention or they are just free to be themselves. I always think when I hear a woman say either of those things: well for who? Because most of the time there are men around when they start acting "not themselves" its one thing to be around a group of girls, when men are thrown into the mix most women change their attitude really quick. I feel like men have used their power to condition women for that kind of behavior and it is almost impossible to tell a girl or woman that she is acting that way because she doesn't even realize that she is. Once again, a cycle.

Process Piece and Resources

I think my project turned out pretty well, especially the video piece where I got to demonstrate a specific situation that I have witnessed.I want to do something about able ism because it is the privilege that I struggle with the most. A good deal of people have denied my disability for me. The only good that accomplished was to help me tell which of my friends were not really friends. It is horribly embarrassing to explain one's self to people who are really only acquaintances, but they see you often enough to give a look or make a comment. I just wanted to lay out some of the advantages and disadvantages to having a disability people can see and having one they cannot. I do not think that people always intend to assume things about ability and certainly no one wants to lower their opinion of someone's ability without talking to that person first.My major problem is when people argue about it when it is not their body. I feel as though people feel it is okay to judge people they deem as not that serious. I have had friends who have visible disabilities say that I am lucky no one can see mine, unless I am tired. With my video, I kind of just wanted to show the kind of assumptions people can make...I had to downsize a bit. I also wanted to drive home the point that people are so quick to judge by sight. The problem with this is that people do not know anyone's complete situation except for their own. I mean I have the privilege of being able to claim that I am able-bodied in every way. I also wanted to demonstrate how I find that people can be more accepting and empathetic towards individuals with visible disabilities until one, an individual with a virtually invisible disability, explains their situation, which should not have to happen. I am hopeful that people will come around because once we educate someone on any issue of social justice, most will be good to other people based on what they have learned, most of the time. I feel as though a lot of the things that were said in my powerpoint prove that  most of the time people just do not know.

Resources:

Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.

http://www.xtranormal.com

http://www.slideshare.net/

Question J

I think this video demonstrates the narrow-mindedness that is prominent in politics. Let me just say that I wanted to smack that ignorant girl in the face who said that no one should be passing judgement on the Freeholders. What were they doing to Laurel Hester and Stacie? Freeholder Kelly wouldn't even show up to the emergency meeting because he believes gay and lesiban relationships are morally wrong.He was passing judgement on them for being in a homosexual relationship. When that girl got up there and TRIED to be cute I think she missed the a key point. Those kinds of forums are for people to say what they need to say to the people who govern them. I didn't think any of the things people said were outrageous or  even unnecessary. I feel like anyone in a homosexual relationship should be allowed the same rights and privileges that heterosexuals recieve. If Freeholder Kelly was allowed to base his opinion on the fact that the couple is homosexual and that's the only reasoning he has, then people should be allowed to defend themselves. It's called public discourse and that girl was more or less saying that everyone should be nice to each other, which was most certainly not going to happen, and what they said was not even bad! If they told her she couldn't be that tan because tanning is morally wrong I am sure she would have some choice words to say to the Freeholders. It would make more sense for them to stand against the over use of tanning beds because they can actually cause the loss of human life. The general public tends to go against biggotry, or at least I hope so.  We know that biggotry was behind the initial suggestion based on the fact that Kelly brought his own moral beliefs into it as I am sure the other Freeholders did. Not to mention, when one woman asked if they went out and got married that night would the decision change and the Freeholders said yes that makes their argument seen even more weak. The thing about politics that jeopardizes the rights of homosexual couples is that the government is hypocritical. They say that their is a separation between church and state, so why do we hear so much about how God or The Bible says that homosexual relationships are wrong. In case no one in politics noticed, both God and The Bible fall under the "church" category. Oppresion is caused by peoples so-called moral beliefs. Morals, a lot of the time are used as a disguise for fear. It reminds me of how people fear change, or at least that is the saying. Well, homosexual relationships are a change. I liked what one man said about the seperate drinking fountains and sitting at the back of the bus. That made me think that everything is about power. I have a nephew who is five and a niece who is 3. They fight all the time over toys, not because they want to play with them, but because they want to have them in their power. My nephew, Damitri, gets upeset not because he does not want Rose to have the toys because she'll break them or she will lose pieces, but because they are his and he wants power. Its the whole mine thing and man does it get tiring.  I feel like that is the best way to describe the Freeholders...as children fighting with the general public. The only difference is that these Councilmen are supposed to be educated and rather than toys they are fighting over civil rights, which in essence are not rights that belong to them to fight over anyway. They were Laurel Hester's rights.  I think the Govenor stepped in because he did not want to deal with the backlash that NJ would have to face for being ignorant or hypocritical. I'm glad Stacie got what she deserved in the end because it was the right of her partner to give it to her in the first place. They should have had that time to be together rather than to spend it fighting for their rights.

Quick blog #4

I am not really sure of the example she is putting out there. Some girls might see there parents as "haters" for not allowing them to do things. It could be a rally cry to rebel against ones parents?

I also find the video semi annoying...I think the little girl at the end of it is so cute. However, I think the "teacher" dancing on the floor like a stripper was a bit unnecessary.I am pretty sure that Willow Smith has a lot of young fans, so I mean really? That was the only thing I thought was inappropriate besides the fact that Willow Smith is being exploited or at least in my mind, I disagree with all of the children who have not hit puberty yet having careers and talking about adult things like swag, haters, and love. I think they are just being used to make money for their families. Not all.

The lady who dressed her daughter up like Madonna is, in my opinion, either living out her dreams through her child or plain old ignorant. I don't understand why that is cute.



   

Question I

I like the way Jean Kilbourne uses advertisement. I thought the ads that she used were very compelling and made the argument. It was very cut and dry. When Kilbourne says that ads shape the way women think about their sexuality, I thought so true. Women, especially college aged, are very aware of the way men view them. Rather than be disliked by men, a lot of college aged men are very ignorant and tend to look for a specific type of girl, and seen as a raging feminazis, women will dress like strippers. I especially notice this when my friends, both white and of color,  go out on Thursday-Saturday nights and their whole personality changes because most of the time the girls I am talking about are complaining about men and how they really only want to sleep with them. Even my DXP sisters act this way, even though they all claim to be feminist and have feminist ideals. I feel like we all want to be accepted. So, when they go out they want to be desired by what seems to me a bunch of drunk guys.I shake my head, but its the whole social acceptance issue that plays against them. I also shake my head when people say that young women dress like "sluts" as though it is the young woman's fault. I also feel that young women have a choice and if they are educated they should be making the right decision. Then again I feel that the harassment they will face as being labeled a "prude" or "uptight" outweighs the benefits for them because the effects would be long term. Women are not going to start standing up for themselves against being objectified overnight. A lot of women have also been crucified for doing so i.e. "feminazis".  I feel kind of sick about it  because I know they know it is wrong to perpetuate the cycle of sexism and objectification. For them its like a competition. I think Kilbourne does a good job at explaining how the ads affect the attitudes of young and adolescent girls. I like how she mentions that most men don't have anything to worry about by being objectified because of our culture. A lot of people, like my friends who dress in less then there clothing to go out, will say "well it makes me feel good about myself to have some attention from men" and when I hear this I do shake my head. I feel like they are allowing it to continue by saying "it makes me feel good" to deny that their behavior is in anyway related to being objectified or being consumers of the idea of how women should be. I have never had a discussion with them about it because I tried and it immediately went to the issue of me trying to be their "mom" so I guess we have to pick our battles, or approach them differently?

Video Treatment

I am doing my project on the issue of abelism. More specifically, I am going to focus on the issues of abelism we cannot see. I am going to have a few clips from videos that I have not yet narrowed down. I am going to make a slideshow presentation. I am going to use Xtranormal to make my video. I do not have a whole lot of experience with computers and general...I mean, I know the basics. My sister is an engineer, so seeming as I am stuck at her house until at least tomorrow, I am going to ask her to help me with this project, not the work, just the assembling of the video. I worked at Disability Services for Students, which is moving to Smith Hall over spring break. They have a ton of resources and I might use some direct quotes from them to help illustrate some of my points. No one understands the effects that disabilities have on the psyche and everyday life like Kathy Berger and Rebecca McMillian. While I am snowed in, I am going to work on it as long as the power stays on. The thing I want people to understand is that not everyone who looks "normal" or"average" is. The social implications of having a disability that no one else can see are daunting. The most helpful thing people can do sometimes is to ask questions, sometimes the most helpful thing is to let it go. The worst thing one can do is to assume that they know anyone else's situation. 

Quick Blog #3

I have experienced privilege through class by always being able to afford brand names. I have always been able to wear the best sneakers and clothes. I had a car when I was 15 and a half to use. I did not have to worry about paying for gas, not because my mom didn't expect me to pay for it, but because I knew if  I was unable to pay for it my mom could.  I know that having the security that my mom can help me with almost anything is a privilege.There are many ways that I have experienced privilege through class, and although I try not to take advantage of it the security of having it is privilege enough, I believe.

I have a disability which requires a good deal of doctors visits and sometimes multiple bouts with physical therapy. The fact that I do not qualify for any financial aid severly hurts my mom, whom is a single parent. Not so much now, but there was a time when I needed to have 3 to 4 MRI's a year, each with a co-payment of 600 dollars. Not to mention the related doctors appointments. Also, my mom has her own health problems (we have bad genes I guess) so even with insurance and my mom having a good job that earned her upper-middle class status, we were pinching pennies and we still do but I feel like people in the middle class get a lot a disadvantaged tratment from the government.

As far as class and race go I have noticed that people tend to assume that the lighter the skin means the higher class. I say this because when talking to my moms boss makes a decent paycheck too. I was talking to her just a couple nights ago and she told me she lived in a trailer. I was shocked. Naturally when that shocked feeling hit me I recoiled and thought to myself wow that was ignorant. I mean I did not act shocked...but in my head I was like why...later in the conversation she said that she didn't need all the extra space because it was just her and her daughther and son-in-law, whom were trying to save some money, which is smart, but normally it is just her. It all makes so much sense and I was shocked at myself for being such a judgemental person in that moment. She is in the same class as me and most of my family. Its hard to get to the point where one does not have the urge to judge people, but its a process. 

















i

Question H

I noticed that the religious oppression played out by judgement and racism. When the names were being shown over the map of the U.S in the video the people who were killed were not all Muslim. That leads me to believe that racism was the main piece in the "judgement" of the people who carried out the crimes. It is almost impossible to look at someone and determine their religion. I feel like at that time the country was just down. We did not know what was going on which is why it was wrong for the government to post pictures of people with turbins and say they did it, get them (or thats what a lot of people thought). I am not surprised at the narrowmindedness of Americans, at all. I feel like racism is at the heart of a lot of our problems in this country. The sense of entitlement that many people have is almost sickening. I am half Turkish and I know it sounds ridiculous, but I get harrassed by my narrow-minded friends and family who know and call me things such as "sandnigga" and "camel jockey" and "terrorist" which they do as a "joke." I believe that just shows how ignorant they are. I have tried to explain to them that they are not funny and its immature and inappropriate to no avail. It is so hard to break through to people who are middle aged, even young adults, I am white, too, so no one else would ever say stuff to me about being because they would look at me and assume I am Christian (I was raised Roman Catholic) ...I can only imagine what people who "look Muslim" got/still get. I feel like President Bush kind of screwed the Sihks, and anyone else who wears a turbin, over. Ife we were really "united" he would have spoke up to the nation rather than appeasing the Sihk leaders

Question G- "Who Owns How Much"

I believe that this article makes it clear that there is a corrolation between race and income that cannot be ignored. To me this article shows the difference between African Americans and Whites that reminds me of how Johnson said that people who are not of color would say things such as if only the blacks were smarter or put more effort into life that they would be better off. When I saw the statistics and then read the "Scraping By" section I was like yes this is why we have classim to deal with too. Its because the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Now getting back to what Johnson said, people cannot look at the statistics and not see that it is unfair. I feel like this article reinforced the problems we have with class, gender, race, etc. The thing that we see here is what happens when the distribution of wealth is not being done well because the rich will not give up what they have to those less fortunate. The thing that got to me about this article is that it clearly shows the issue classism is to this country. I cannot understand how people like politicians can allow this to happen when they work for the people (all the people) not just the rich.

Question F

I feel as though cruelty is something that people are using as an excuse to write off Elliot's demonstration. I think of it like this, when/if a child touches a stove burner they feel the pain and its is enough to make that child remember that they should not tough the stove. So, if demonstrating the entitlement of white privilege is the case to be learned and it is done by refusing privilege to those who have it and not a burning stove then I consider that to be fairly mild. People don't get it. No one wants to see it so one has to show them. Unfortunately, I believe that the sense of entitlement blinds people to the truth, but when we experience the privilege or lack there of we are more likely to understand based on that experience. I think Elliot could have had a lighter tone when she was talking to students, but the effect would have been less so. I know that someone can talk at me for an hour and twenty minutes every day if they want, however, I will not retain that experience because I was barely involved. If Elliot came to my class and did that experiment I might be more likely to understand her message because she showed me. Yes, people can be very thick headed. The level of cruelty in the video is nothing compared to the reality of the situation that Elliot is trying to help the students understand.

Quick Blog #2

I feel as though this article is reminiscent of the attitude towards white privilege and what Johnson said about denying that it exists. People treat fat people in the opposite way by constantly joking and making fun of fat people. Last night I was flipping through channels and on Tru Tv's Most Shocking they dedicated a whole episode to making fun of fat people. They called it the Biggest Losers episode. People act as though they do not care about the fact that they have fat friends or family members. They continue to poke fun and harass fat people as much as necessary to make them either feel better about themselves or prove that they hate fat people to the rest of their friends or whoever.I feel like the following article is an example of people starting to acknowledge that we have a problem in this country. Many of those who are overweight are so because they eat when they experience different emotions. Nagging, sadness, happiness, depression, etc. Its different for everyone. Most people assume that overweight people are fat and lazy and thats it. It would be interesting to see how it would be if roles were reversed.

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/08/25/america-s-war-on-the-overweight.html

Question E

The chapter deals with people in a privileged position denying/disagreeing that they are in fact privileged. It's only been two years since I was introduced to social justice. A lot of what Johnson talks about with denying privilege sounds to me the way I used to think when I first heard the word privilege associated with white people. Privilege still sounds kind of snobby to me. I believe that is a reason why a lot of white people deny it or ignore it. Like Johnson says the mere mention of the phrase white privilege can induce eye rolling by people who are unaware. He is right, I have been met with a lot of people telling me "no that doesn't exist, it's them" meaning people of color. Johnson is right. I wish I could share this with those people because I feel that because I am a woman, disabled, and young most people I talk to are saying or thinking "she's just complaining" which is another thing Johnson mentioned. For example, the passage about how if only black kids would go to college they would be fine is another way to brush off the problem and not listen to people. I mean it is hard when people are constantly being held back by society and no matter how hard they try their are some things that they cannot change and they accept that. I don't think that giving excuses to people is an effective listening tool, especially people who do not want/need an excuse.The sad thing is that all people need to do is listen. I find it to be especially troubling that my own male friends, mostly white, won't listen and people consider them educated. I mean I used to be ignorant too but I at least gave people the time of day. That's the problem with the sense of entitlement that comes with being the highest on the privilege scale. 

Question D

I feel as though the experiment at Stanford shows us how racism is allowed to thrive. The experimental prison guard said that even when he was doing sadistic things others would follow him and he was fascinated by this. He had established his power by being mean and unjust to the experimental prisoners and getting the rest of the guards to follow him. To me this is reminiscent of racism because the individuals with power have always been the white people and behind that power is a privilege that many white people do not even recognize or choose to ignore. This is to say that white people have not faced as many road blocks as people of color. That was reflected in the Driving While Black video, which I see as a sort of metaphor for the history of the United States in regard to race relations.  The privilege that comes with having white skin is power. Its the power to drive down any street I want in any neighborhood I want without even thinking about it or being nervous. Its the power to walk into a club and swim as much as I please without people pulling their kids out of the pool or holding on to their belongings. Like in Kiri Davis's: A Girl Like Me, its not being seen as loud and obnoxious. I will say that the video about the kids being kicked out of the pool made me tear up when I saw the boy crying. When I see things like that I get a bit emotional. Anyway, I can relate pretty much everything back to professor Harrison's demonstration of equality because it is so true. We don't need a power shift, we need a balance and something has to give. As Professor Harrison said those at the top need to give a little. Education and acknowledgement are the most important pieces.

Lecture by Michael Kimmel.

I do not find much worth in Gray's notion of gender differences. I agree more with Kimmel. I feel like Kimmel went straight to the point or the root cause of the issues we have with gender differences. To me he focused more on how men who are privlileged do not know what they have and therefore they misuse their privilege. It also relates to what Professor Harrison demonstrated about women being below the equality line and men being above, but the men won't come down. I find that to be true among a lot of my white male friends. With a couple of my friends I have tried to explain just what privilege is and as soon as they hear that they are on top they immediately disagree/ tune me out so maybe I will just refer them to this video. When Kimmel said that some of the students did not really respect his female colleague I was like, yes! I know what he means. Its as though women are not allowed to teach or even talk about gender differences without having an alterior motive. It relates to what we talked about with the F Word I like how he described the four values of manhood. For example, the mighty oak remark was pretty funny. I also like the way he demostrated inequality by showing with his hand that if the scale tips men freak out, which I also thought was funny.

Feminism

Some of the myths associated with feminism are that women have to be a lesbian, masculine, angry, ugly, etc. to be a feminist. I believe feminism is a way to achieve equality between men and women. I do not think it means that women are angry at men or do not like men. I think that is ridiculous. Also, like Professor Harrison said there is an elevation of the higher class who have unearned advantages that they don't want to give up those advantages so they demonize the group trying to promote equality. It's that simple. Unfortunately, demonizing people creates a snowball effect and those being demonized can get angry, as they should. I consider myself a feminist, but I think there are a lot more out there who are afraid of the stigma. Because people are afraid of the stigma that comes with being a feminist most are unwilling to label themselves as such. I believe that feminism is being held back by people like Colbert and that unfortunate excuse for a man Limbaugh because so many people watch/ listen to them. Colbert is very funny and I actually watch him sometimes, but he's not helping anything. Like it was said in the video young girls do not want to be seen as men hating or ugly lesbians (which is also ridiculous) but I feel people are so afraid to ask anyone what feminism actually means for fear of offending somebody.

Question A: 1/3/11

When Hooks talks about rap music she mentions that white males are at an advantage because they can act as though they are a part of the black culture but only when it is convenient for them. She also talks about the unfortunate fact that money is at center of virtually everything and rap artists are just trying to make money, but the product they put out is directly related to what the consumer wants. The consumer is a white male somewhere between the late twenties and late forties who also has the age privilege which makes them more influential in our society. I believe this is one way to keep racism active. I also agree with what Hooks said about white people who dress or act like people in rap videos are essentially doing it out of convenience. Many individuals who maintain this behavior are ignorant. Even if they know about white privilege many people choose not to acknowledge it. People tend to take aim at what they see so when it comes to rap videos and they see, mostly, black men rapping vulgar lyrics and girls dancing half naked they blame the people in the video.

 I think these media allow white people to be in control. It seems as though the only way for rap to sell is if it appeals to the consumer. Unfortunately, white men are at the forefront for this and black men are being blamed for the content when the content of the video is a adaption to what the consumer, a white male, wants.  I think Hooks did a good job explaining that.