Agenda for 1/29

1. In notability: create a new folder, title it "Sociology," and then create a new note.

2. Developing the Sociological Imagination:

"SEEING THE GENERAL IN THE PARTICULAR"

Disney Ad Analysis

In your notability note answer the following questions as best as you can (write down whatever some to mind :

A. What aspects of American culture/values are evident in this Disney ad? What ideas does it support? How does it reflect they way Americans think about life? Think about sex and gender, masculinity and femininity, body image, race, socioeconomic class, childhood.

B. Think about which group in society this ad is meant to target? Do you have any concerns about companies designing ads to target this group?

C. Add one of your observations to this padlet

"SEEING THE STRANGE IN THE FAMILIAR"

• Why do Americans value gun ownership?  
• How does this value effect the lives of Americans?
• Need more evidence?  
• So does this value "make sense"?Answer in your Notability note.

3. The effect of categories (and expectations). 

• Listen to Pt. 1: 0-6:40 (and you should definitely listen to the rest because it's AWESOME!)

4. Connecting the Sociological Imagination to your life!

• "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace
• How do the ideas in this excerpt connect to the concept of the "Sociological Imagination." Think about the iceberg and the waterline of visibility.

HW:

Assignment #1 - Due: 2/3
What is the main point of Wallace's "This is Water" speech? What is the connection between his words and the "Sociological Imagination?" Respond a 1/2 page paragraph (typed).

• Below are excerpts from the speech to help you think about the question.
  

"The only thing that's capital 'T' True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. This, I submit, is the freedom of real education, of how to be well-adjusted. You get to decide what has meaning and what doesn't. That is real freedom. That is being educated and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness."
“Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”

Agenda for 1/29

1. Intro to Mr. Parise

2. Intro to YOU!

3. Values of the class. Rules for the class.

4. Introduction to Sociology - keynote

Agenda for 1/26 - Maroon

1. Intro to Mr. Parise

2. Intro to YOU!

3. Values of the class. Rules for the class.

4. Introduction to Sociology - keynote

HW - Assignment #1

Assignment #1 - Due: 1/28

What is the main point of Wallace's "This is Water" speech? What is the connection between his words and the "Sociological Imagination?" Respond a .5 - 1 page paragraph (typed).

• Below are excerpts from "This is Water" speech by David Foster Wallace.
  

"The only thing that's capital 'T' True is that you get to decide how you're going to try to see it. This, I submit, is the freedom of real education, of how to be well-adjusted. You get to decide what has meaning and what doesn't. That is real freedom. That is being educated and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness."

“Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.
It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”

Agenda for 1/22

1. Sociology Survey

2. Go here: http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php

3. Follow the directions in class to compare the "Demographic Overviews" and "Population Pyramids" for Guatemala and the United States.

4. What differences do you see in the "Demographic Overviews"?

5. What differences do you see in the "Population Pyramids"

6. Poverty in Guatemala

7. Living on One Dollar

Agenda for 1/14

1. Work on Sociology Final Essay (eBackpack)

2. Final essay due Tuesday 1/20 (no late essays accepted unless under EXTRAORDINARY circumstances)

Agenda for 1/13

1. Discuss experiences while completing the "White Privilege" assignment.

Your shopping list now lists the following items:

• Bandages
• Silk stockings
• Blemish cover/Make-up
• Book and toy for 6 year old daughter
• Fashion magazine for fashion and beauty tips
• Romance novel for entertainment in case the date doesn't work out
• Birthday card for your best friend (an African American woman who'll turn 40 in a few days)
  

*After completing this assignment, how do you feel as an African American women shopping in Southern Maine?

2. A segregated prom? An interview with one of the students who organized the town's first integrated prom.

3. Racial (and economic) disparities in education?

4. Blacks are not the only race still experiencing prejudice and discrimination:

Which one is real? Any different from the other two?

5. Native American Mascot - Cartoon Analysis (Assignment #19 - eBackpack)

6. What about the Washington Redskins? Bob Costas' opinion on Sunday Night Footbal. The reaction to Costas' editorial.

Agenda for 1/12

1. Discuss experiences while completing the "White Privilege" assignment

2. A segregated prom? An interview with one of the students who organized the town's first integrated prom.

3. Racial (and economic) disparities in education?

4. Blacks are not the only race still experiencing prejudice and discrimination:

Which one is real? Any different from the other two?

5. Native American Mascot - Cartoon Analysis (Assignment #19 - eBackpack)

6. What about the Washington Redskins? Bob Costas' opinion on Sunday Night Footbal. The reaction to Costas' editorial.

Agenda for 1/9 - Maroon

1. Race may not be real, but the effects of race certainly are:
 
2. Maybe these effects are the result of "white privilege?"
"White privilege refers to the unearned advantages that whites receive because of their skin color. It includes a vast array of concrete advantages varying from institutional settings (systemic discrimination in housing markets) to everyday encounters (e.g. being able to shop in a store without getting followed). They provide a variety of social and economic benefits, and can be cashed in, to confer greater power, authority, and status upon whites. But as Peggy McIntosh argues in 'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,' these privileges are usually invisible to people who benefit from."

3. White privilege = white as the normal/regular and nonwhite as a foreign "other." 

• We can see this assumption of "whiteness as normal" in these racial "micro-aggressions."
• How is this idea expressed in this video: "What type of Asian are you?"

4. White have also been privileged in the ability to buy homes through various government programs that worked to deny home ownership to blacks for many decades.

• The effect of these policies? An America today that is still segregated by race. An interactive version of these maps

 5. Here are more subtle, and less obvious, examples of white privilege.

• Read through the examples of white privilege, individually.
• Choose the five examples that you think are the most beneficial to white people.

6. What about white Privilege in education?
    

HW: Assignment #18 - The White Privilege Assignment - due Tues. 1/13
Imagine that you are a 34 year old African American single woman with a young child. You have just met this gorgeous man who has asked you for a date in two days. You really want to make an impression on him so you intend to go to a grocery store to buy a few things that you will need to get ready for your date. While you are in the kitchen, trying to write your shopping list, making supper, and watching your 6 year-old daughter, you somehow manage to cut your finger. You use the last bandage you have at home and add "bandages" to your shopping list. Your shopping list now lists the following items:

• Bandages
• Silk stockings
• Blemish cover/Make-up
• Book and toy for 6 year old daughter
• Fashion magazine for fashion and beauty tips
• Romance novel for entertainment in case the date doesn't work out
• Birthday card for your best friend (an African American woman who'll turn 40 in a few days)

Because you are African American, you want to make sure that you buy bandages, silk stockings, and blemish cover/make-up in a color that matches your skin color. Similarly, you will buy a fashion magazine created for an African American audience that gives beauty and fashion tips to African American women. Also, you feel that your daughter should develop a strong African American identity, so you intend to buy a children's book and a toy that feature pictures/stories/etc. of other African American children. Because your friend is an African American woman, you'll buy a humorous birthday card, featuring African American cartoon figures. Finally, in case things don't work out with the date, you want to read a romance novel written by an African American author featuring African American people.

Go to a grocery, department, or drug store and try to find the articles listed on the shopping list. Do not buy the products, just to try to find them.

After your shopping experience, answer the following questions:

1. Were you able to find all the items listed on the shopping list? Which items did you find? Which ones were you not able to find?

2. If you found items from the shopping list, how did they compare in price to comparable products for European American customers?

3. If you found items from the shopping list, how many different companies or manufacturers (e.g., Almay, Cover Girl, and Revlon) produced African American products, and how many different companies/manufacturers produced comparable products for European American customers? In other words, would you be able to choose from a number of different products?

4. Assuming that you, as an African American woman, encountered some difficulties in deciding on certain beauty products (e.g., making decisions regarding the best color of blemish cover to use), whom in the store would you ask for help? Is there an African American sales person around? Are there other African American women in the store that might be able to advise you?

5. If you were to encounter problems with one of the sales people and you wanted to talk to the manager, who would the manager be, an African American man or woman or a European American man or woman?

6. Having answered these questions, how do you as an African American woman feel?

Agenda for 1/8

1. Race may not be real, but the effects of race certainly are:

2. Maybe these effects are the result of "white privilege?"

"White privilege refers to the unearned advantages that whites receive because of their skin color. It includes a vast array of concrete advantages varying from institutional settings (systemic discrimination in housing markets) to everyday encounters (e.g. being able to shop in a store without getting followed). They provide a variety of social and economic benefits, and can be cashed in, to confer greater power, authority, and status upon whites. But as Peggy McIntosh argues in 'White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,' these privileges are usually invisible to people who benefit from"

2. Some examples of white privilege.

• Read through the examples of white privilege, individually.
• Choose the five examples that you think are the most beneficial to white people.

3. White Privilege in education?
 
HW: The White Privilege Assignment - due Mon. 1/12

Imagine that you are a 34 year old African American single woman with a young child. You have just met this gorgeous man who has asked you for a date in two days. You really want to make an impression on him so you intend to go to a grocery store to buy a few things that you will need to get ready for your date. While you are in the kitchen, trying to write your shopping list, making supper, and watching your 6 year-old daughter, you somehow manage to cut your finger. You use the last bandage you have at home and add "bandages" to your shopping list. Your shopping list now lists the following items:

• Bandages
• Silk stockings
• Blemish cover/Make-up
• Book and toy for 6 year old daughter
• Fashion magazine for fashion and beauty tips
• Romance novel for entertainment in case the date doesn't work out
• Birthday card for your best friend (an African American woman who'll turn 40 in a few days)

Because you are African American, you want to make sure that you buy bandages, silk stockings, and blemish cover/make-up in a color that matches your skin color. Similarly, you will buy a fashion magazine created for an African American audience that gives beauty and fashion tips to African American women. Also, you feel that your daughter should develop a strong African American identity, so you intend to buy a children's book and a toy that feature pictures/stories/etc. of other African American children. Because your friend is an African American woman, you'll buy a humorous birthday card, featuring African American cartoon figures. Finally, in case things don't work out with the date, you want to read a romance novel written by an African American author featuring African American people.
 
Go to a grocery, department, or drug store and try to find the articles listed on the shopping list. Do not buy the products, just to try to find them. 

After your shopping experience, answer the following questions:

1. Were you able to find all the items listed on the shopping list? Which items did you find? Which ones were you not able to find?

2. If you found items from the shopping list, how did they compare in price to comparable products for European American customers?

3. If you found items from the shopping list, how many different companies or manufacturers (e.g., Almay, Cover Girl, and Revlon) produced African American products, and how many different companies/manufacturers produced comparable products for European American customers? In other words, would you be able to choose from a number of different products?

4. Assuming that you, as an African American woman, encountered some difficulties in deciding on certain beauty products (e.g., making decisions regarding the best color of blemish cover to use), whom in the store would you ask for help? Is there an African American sales person around? Are there other African American women in the store that might be able to advise you?

5. If you were to encounter problems with one of the sales people and you wanted to talk to the manager, who would the manager be, an African American man or woman or a European American man or woman?

6. Having answered these questions, how do you as an African American woman feel?

Agenda for 1/7

1. Big/Essential Idea - "Race is a social construction"

• What does this mean?
• How is this idea different from how most people think about race? 
• The history of race in America.
• If race is a social construction, can we just make a new race in America? The US Census reveals how race has changed throughout the history of the US.

2. Is it hard to talk about race? The "difficult conversation" about race. 

• Do you agree? 
• Is it difficult to talk about race? 
• Why is it difficult for some to talk about race?

3. How does race impact the lives of people in America?

•  Stereotyping: 
• What are stereotypes? Why stereotypes?
• What stereotypes must black men endure? 
• What was the purpose of this skit?

• Racism
• Racial Microaggressions.
• White Normativity - "What kind of Asian are you?" 

• Racial segregation
• How segregation happened in the North? It's all about where you could buy a house.

5. "Race" may not be a biological reality, but what about "white privilege"...a media analysis of the concept.

Agenda for 1/6 - Gold

Like height, race (skin color) is a spectrum. Where you draw the line is arbitrary.

Where does white end and black begin?

1. The "difficult conversation" about Race...?

2. If race is a social construction, can we just make a new race in America? The US Census reveals history of U.S. racial identity

3. So if race is a social construction (created and perpetuated by society), so are our ideas (stereotypes) about people of different races. What stereotypes must black men endure?

4. Race - Keynote

• Racial Microagressions
• Racial segregation in American cities?
• How segregation happened in the North? It's all about where you could buy a house

5. "Race" may not be a biological reality, but what about "white privilege"...a media analysis of the concept.

Agenda for 1/5 - Maroon

Like height, race (skin color) is a spectrum. Where you draw the line is arbitrary.

Where does white end and black begin?

1. Race - Keynote (PDF of Keynote from class)

HW - Assignment #17

• Links for the HW
• • "Race the Power of an Illusion pt. 1 
  • "Race the Power of an Illusion pt. 2 
  • "The Social Construction of Race" 
  • "The Unequal Opportunity Race"
  • "A Long History of Racial Preferences - For Whites"