Final Sumblog EVER! (12)

Reading 56 talks about the issues facing the ‘hood or poor urban neighborhoods and how larger chain corporations like Walmart, Ikea and Marriott choose to expand their businesses to these areas. The argument from the business perspective is that there are more jobs created for the people who live nearby in the low income regions and that they also are allowed easier access to cheaper products. But the flip side to this is that these companies pay notoriously low wages and have advanced their efforts in cracking down on union organization. I’ve always had the view that the local ‘mom and pop’ shops are hurt the most when these larger chain businesses move in because they are able to offer more benefits and cheaper products or services, taking away from the business of the local stores. This is a really hard split and the book illustrates well how some people, like Willie Cole, can move up the hierarchy from cashier to manager and so on and become more successful than they may have on their own but that isn’t always the case. These companies use stories like this to cover up the economic damage they do to the community and how they know what little choice there is for the people to decide between accepting the low wage jobs and standing against them but there is often little hope in what seems to be a David vs. Goliath match up. It’s a really dirty tactic to employ local religious leaders to vouch for these companies, preaching slogans like ‘any job is better than no job’. I see it as a microcosm in a way. It’s all a ploy to distract the harmfulness of their presence. At the end of this reading there was one sentence that said Walmart had been fighting battles in Queens, New York that had they won it would have given them a store in 9 of the 10 largest urban markets which include all but Detroit. Which with their economic trouble wouldn’t be a smart business move but really shows how if there isn’t a large profit to be made, they don’t care about offering jobs to people of color.

This picture doesn't relate exactly but it's along the lines and I like the style.

 

Sumblog 11

Reading 55 talks about the changes that are happening among the involvement of the young population, specifically women and how relatively new forms of media are organizing cultures. It starts off with a little debate arguing whether or not these growing rates in technology use is more dominated by female or male groups but ultimately concluding with the focus on that the participation by both groups is still structured by gender and other dimensions of the social experience. The new technologies (such as smart phones and the internet) that come along with this generation are continued to be believed as the best way to get younger people involved with current events and politics but the immediate problem seen at the same time is the disengagement with the issue. I personally know I have this problem too. I need the shock value to really connect and even remember issues that may be detrimental to others but something that I just scroll by because it isn’t happening to me (like the people in the homeless video with their relatives on the street). In regard to the use of these new technologies having expanding women’s groups I believe is due to the youth of the groups themselves. There may not be as many obstacles established over gender in forming an online group or some type of media for women online as there would be outside of it all. As the book states however “Often, ‘good participation’ is defined as young people’s membership, taking part, or sharing decision-making in pre-existent programs…” (p.729). To what extent would you tell someone to their face you disagree with them as compared to what you would say through some other indirect and even anonymous means as a computer for example?  With the standard of ‘good’ achieved by simply participating, how much benefit can somebody really have in making a difference toward the cause that organization is for?

Sumblog 10

There’s a Global divide happening and there’s more than one possible outcome. Never before had I considered anything close to an optimistic ending when thinking about the distant economic future. It was enlightening to read of how the labor demands of the economic system are conceptually a pyramid scheme in that there are great fortunate winners but only very few, leaving the majority living with very less.  The idea of eliminating the need for manual labor would also eliminate the losers of the pyramid scheme equation by introducing technology advanced enough to complete the tasks of the same demand as a low-level worker. It might seem like a farfetched idea but say it could happen; what would the system look like then?

Continuing into the more pessimistic approach, Scott Sernau writes how states often compete and try to “steal” businesses from each other by offering large tax breaks to the businesses so they’ll locate inside the state’s boundaries creating more jobs there but in making those offers they lose a large amount of tax revenue to support public institutions as Sernau puts it. Essentially it’s good as a short term approach but you’re kind of caught with your hand in your pants when it comes to having to come up with some money down the line. States are shooting themselves in the foot by creating these “business friendly” environments that facilitate company growth while weakening the foundations it’s built on: the workers. By encouraging “low taxes, low wages, few unions and environmental regulations” companies are able to offer jobs while lowering the satisfaction levels of the people working those jobs. Having a job is nice but for minimal pay, benefits and protections, don’t expect anyone to stick around very long.

            It’s a little shameful to say but I have never given this issue as broad of a look as this reading has offered with just this little amount of background knowledge. The futures I see playing out in real time, I have only previously envisioned in fiction.

Good ol' Calvin and Hobbes reminding us all to keep the "little guy" happy.

 

Sumblog 9

Climate of Fear, reading 38 in our text highlights the problems of discrimination and hate crimes pressed upon undocumented immigrants living in the northeast United States. It summarizes how “social institutions, such as the criminal justice system and the government often contribute to the creation of a climate of hate directed at immigrants.” (p.525). Suffolk county of New York state is home to six of the top 100 wealthiest zip codes in the entire nation, and though there are many affluent families there are also those living much more modestly. The stratification systems in place to maintain a degree of segregation are clearly seen in the legislation. “County Executive Levy in June 2006 mocked activists demonstrating against hate crime violence and the mass eviction of zoning laws” (p.530) was quoted after several incidents of Hispanic minorities who were targeted on while walking on the streets and beaten severely simply for their ethnicity. All of the examples in the reading mention that “in most cases the attackers are white males in their teens or 20’s” (p.529) often members of the high school athletic teams and it is important to note that these crimes are always committed in groups. Whether it’s as direct as jumping a person on the street or implementing stricter policies to target undocumented immigrants; the groupthink phenomenon fuels the discrimination. My own personal experience parallels the examples in the text, how all of the incidents are made up of a group of people bullying one other person and never one person by themselves bullying another. As the book mentions how people reported being chased on foot into the woods by vehicles  and shot by bb guns and pepper spray in drive-bys I thought back to a time a few years ago where I was out on my motorcycle riding home when a group of high school aged kids in a truck were blatantly swerving in and out of my lane getting closer each time to the point where I was forced off the road, needless to say it was infuriating. I couldn’t imagine someone getting as much enjoyment by themselves as they would terrorizing others in a group, though I’m sure it’s happened before. So in summary regardless of the scale, social institutions have a way of blinding people’s inherent morality and permitting them the confidence and justification to act out uncharacteristically.

This media piece is a song such as a million others that talk about the large scale discrimination of government institutions.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mhP4zfa3qc

Sumblog 8

               In class discussion on the case of immigration reform we talked about the recent changes in numbers coming into and out of the United States and some of the factors that could be influencing the fluctuations. Various opinions were suggested ranging from the U.S.’s economic recession and stricter boarder security that are likely to be behind the lower Mexico to United States immigration numbers. But there has also been a large change in the amount of people moving in the opposite direction, going from the United States to Mexico. Are the influences of the push and pull factors keeping this ratio in balance or is there a shift swaying it to one side or another?

                Our class reading The Treacherous Triangle: Justice, Immigration Enforcement, and Child Welfare claims that the system we have in place does not equally favor all. This reading begins with the story of Roberta who was an undocumented immigrant who was traveling home from a family party with 3 of her children when she was pulled over and had admitted to have been drinking that night, the officer administered a Breathalyzer and was found out she was over the legal limit. She was put under arrest and when her immigration status was revealed she was moved to an immigration detention center, lost contact with her children and after seven months detained she was deported back to Mexico without her children. The system in place that separated Roberta from her children is unforgivingly structured to remove anyone regardless of the circumstances if they are an illegal immigrant to the United States. In the book it mentioned that over one fourth of deportees who come through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program have no prior criminal conviction (such as Roberta) and another 30 percent only involve minor charges.  This system evacuates plenty of suitably fit parents and families simply because they are in violation of the correct documentation and not because of more serious and harmful offenses. This system is so structured in deporting illegal immigrants that the methods offered to the detainees in order to simply be reunited with their children are often impossible because of the restrictions placed on them by the system itself. It seems cruel to wave the possibilities to be with their children again in their face when there is no way of actually achieving it. This is definitely a flawed system that needs to be re-prioritized.

                This media piece is a bit of a pick me up from the reading, it’s a song by Bob Dylan who sings about “coming to America” and in doing so finding out that if you have no privileges or status that you’re going to have a rough time. It’s one of my favorites and has some funny things to think about.  The link to the song http://vimeo.com/35540786 and to the lyrics http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobdylan/bobdylans115thdream.html  

Sum Blog 4

       So this week in class we discussed the old and new models of the matrix of domination and reviewed a few of the pros and cons of each view. Previous to Patricia Hill Collins, the matrix of domination model could be said to have had a point system based on classifications of people’s characteristics. At the peak of privilege sat the youthful, educated, heterosexual, protestant, married, financially stable, white, male (speaking in generalities of course).  These pinnacle traits varied place to place, culture to culture and etc. but say for our sake the traits mentioned are the highest one can ascribe/achieve. Any other trait whether skin color, disability, personal beliefs, etc. that don’t align with the ‘ideal’ then they were viewed as a handicap in a sense. Now this view of rank isn’t something specifically tangible that can be ordered with a set point system necessarily, but rather just understanding that when asking the average American who they would rather have babysit their kids; choosing between a gay, black, female, wiccan and a straight, white, protestant, male that the majority of the answers probably don’t come with a pentagram. This old model is pretty basic in this sense and doesn’t sink into the details of any situation.

The new model conceived by Patricia Hill Collins goes into more depth than the previous model. Recognizing how ideal traits weren’t all universal she based the new model off of the surrounding environment. A gay person in San Francisco wouldn’t be viewed the same as they would, if they were in the deep south, to use an example from our class. She said that all traits overlap and are interconnected. There’s blended relationship between a person’s characteristics and their environment that gives them their ‘standing’ or their ‘rank’ in society, if you will. Which is why I think aspects of both models are true, with the way people always have to classify things I would bet my life that there will always be a ranking order in traits. Patricia’s new model is just more accurate when looking at the details of what gets ranked the highest and why.

Sum Blog Three Religion

It’s taken me way too long to get going on this for some reason but I think I’ve finally asked myself enough questions to get something to start with. A few of these questions being; why is there religion?  Was there one true faith that started it all and everyone else just liked the idea and ran off with something of their own? Being pretty certain that not all religions can be true, means that a few have to be false. So with a socially constructed religion, what would be the motive for creating it? Power, control, money, even sex are simple things that people desire and scheme to gain. When you think of religion’s that revolve around the gain of these things plain and simple you think of cults; The Manson Family, Branch Davidians, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, etc. It’s counter intuitive to have a religion covet such impurities but people fall for it every day. Many centuries ago in the catholic faith a person could buy indulgencies to avail their loved ones from purgatory; “a place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going to heaven.” Religion’s kind of a messed up thing when you look at all of it together. There’s this band I like but haven’t listened to in a while that serendipitously shuffled its way into my headphones the day our class was talking about religion that I now have to share with you guys but it encompasses and flaunts how embarrassing people can be.

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16vmlbmIEkQ

Lyrics: http://www.verselib.com/they-call-that-religion-lyrics-devil-makes-three,-the/A6DB62

In regard to inequality I think the song highlights well how people always want to stand over the other and take advantage of any situation they can. Now all religion isn’t bad but it’s just the junk that people create of it that makes it sick.