Sociology and How It Applies To Life: May 2011

Friday, May 20, 2011

My Sources

All of my sources may not have been included in my annotations. I used the Powerpoints on Moodle as my sources and I used Google for images.

After the decline of the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Power [social] Movement emerged. A social movement is change sociologically organized and intended, oftentimes organized. They are continuous, include a large scale of people, organized, collective, there is action exerted, and it addresses social change (Week 15 Lecture Notes). All social movements must have a shared ideology, access to resources, social organization, collective identification, and political opportunity structure. The Black Power Movement was a mixture between a counter movement and a revolutionary movement.

Making a Social Change in 2011

In the news recently, there has been a lot of coverage of the social change occurring in Egypt with the government. There was a social change that was made and it had a great deal of impact to the country. Social change can happen in five different ways. It can happen from environmental pressure, population pressures, technological and cultural innovation, diffusion of technology and culture, and social and organizational conflict. In the case of Egypt, there was a mixture of all five ways that change can happen.

Civil Rights Movement

Historically, Blacks were discriminated against since they were kidnapped and brought to America from Africa. In the 1960's, the Civil Rights Movement emerged to advance the rank of Blacks in America and to give them the chance to become first class citizens, like Whites. With the help of Civil Rights leaders like Charles Hamilton Houston, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, Blacks gained a status similar to their White counterparts. They had created a social change. According to lecture, change in societies is inevitable and can be experienced as anomic. Though change may take on the same characteristics as other social change movements, the depth and velocity of the change differs.

Immigrants

In 2011, when most Americans say immigrant, they automatically think of people of Hispanic/Latino descent. Yet, there are immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds. Even Justin Bieber is an immigrant. Because America is considered a big melting pot of people, most people's roots can be traced back to another country-making them an immigrant of some sort. There are laws against illegal immigrants and people constantly rant and rave about "protecting our borders". These people do not sympathize with the push-pull factors that cause people to illegally come into the U.S. In the documentary, Which Way Home, some of the young boys left their native countries because of their family life. Others left to seek new opportunities and to seek jobs to support their families back home.

Birth Cohorts

Birth Cohorts affect individuals through the cohort effect and the period effect. The cohort effect is likely to experience similar life course events at roughly the same time. For example, if a young woman is about to graduate high school and she is about to give birth to her firstborn. The period effect focused more on common history. Everybody that was alive for the 9/11 terrorist attacks was affected by this event. More recently, people that were alive in 2008 were alive to witness America's first mixed race president take office.

The Millennium Generation

The Millennium Generation was born between the 1980's and the late 1990's. This group is the most ethnically diverse and they are most likely to grow up in a nontraditional family. They also are very connected to the media.The problem with this generation is their reliance on technology. For example, in some classrooms, students do not take physical notes, instead, they take notes on their iPads and laptop computers. Socially, people interact indirectly and use technology to interact. For example, text messaging or social networking on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Matriarchies in the Animal Kingdom

A matriarchy is a society dominated by females and female influence. In American society, there is an emphasis on patriarchy or male societal dominance. In the animal kingdom, many animals focus on the mothers and the mother's influence on the child. For example, when baby elephants are born, they stay by their mother's side to learn how to survive. The male elephants live in isolation and the females rule the colony. Lion prides are also very matriarchal. There is usually one male in a group of females. The females do all of the work while the males are only there for mating. When the cubs grow up, the males are kicked out of the pride.

Female Rap Artists

If someone is asked asked to name a popular female rapper, first, they'll think for a minute and then retort artists like Nicki Minaj and Lil' Kim. These women used their sexuality to become popular and rise up the totem pole in the patriarchal hip-hop culture. These women use hypersexuality to sell records and to become more popular. Hypersexuality is the exaggerated caricatures used to glamorize society's idea of the ideal woman. These women use their sex, and body assets to attract fans.

Married With Children

The popular 1990's sitcom, Married With Children followed the lives of Al and Peggy Bundy. Al Bundy exerted male dominance in his home by his constant basing against women and his wife. He viewed women as merely an accessory. Peggy was the perfect wife and she would cook, clean, and cater to her husband. She was submissive and did what he said. Every now and then, she would defend herself if she was upset or didn't like how she was treated, and Al would say that she is acting like a "bitch" by expressing her feelings and being assertive. If men are opinionated, tough, and assertive, they are seen as "in control". But a woman is a bitch. Why is that?

Rap Videos

The above video is an example of the way women are shown in hip-hop videos. Excuse the language.

The average rap video is about three to four minutes long with an abundance of gyrating women, or video vixens, as they like to be called, and flossing what luxurious items they have that you don't or wish to have. These women are in videos with partial articles of clothing covering their "unmentionables". These women are labeled as hoes, gold-diggers, and as sexual objects. According to Week 13 lecture, sexual objectificaton is the practice and attitude of overlooking an individual's personality and/or abilities and treating them or looking at them as an object to be used for one's sexual pleasure. The worth of a woman is devalued and women are merely sex objects.

Eminem

No matter what, there is always going to be a battle of the classes. Oftentimes in modern society, hip-hop music is seen as deviant by the outside world because of what it promotes. On the other hand, society glamorizes rapper, Eminem, almost always when it comes down to declaring "the best rapper of our current time". People are quick to point out the good in Eminem lyrics rather than the bad. This is an example of of stratification by race. Because Eminem is a White rapper, his music is not seen as negatively as his Black counter parts. The troubling reality, according to lecture, hate offenses continue to exist. As evident, Black rappers are still seen as deviant more than White rappers are like Eminem.

Sample Eminem lyrics:
Roman's Revenge by Nicki Minaj (Feat. Eminem)
"So finally I broke down and bought her an iPod
And caught her stealin' my music, so I tied her arms and legs to the bed
Set up the camera and pissed twice on her
Look, two pees and a tripod!
The moral to the story is, life's treatin' you like dry sod?
Kick it back in its face, my God"
Versus
J. Cole lyrics:
"Always thought my first time would be with someone I cared about
But being a virgin was something to be embarrassed bout
I used to ask for practice so I wasn't scared out my mind
You call it rhymes I call it clearing out my mind
Was just a young boy staring out my blind
Till I got free from my momma leash
Running loose through the streets
Like a stray dog in heat"

Malibu's Most Wanted and Racial Transparency

Brad "B-Rad" Gluckmann was an aspiring rapper in the movie, Malibu's Most Wanted. B-Rad was White and he surrounded himself with Black culture. Even though he claims that he understands the Black struggle in one scene, his kidnappers Bloodbath and Tree try to use his racial transparency to get him to rob a liquor store in their neighborhood. Racial transparency is the state of having no "color". Whites have this advantage in society. When Whites walk into places, they are not looked down upon, as someone would other minorities. As B-Rad walks in, he greets the owner and attempts to get some malt liquor. Because he was associated with Black people, the owner saw him as a threat at first and kept a very close eye on him.

Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment

The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, third grade school teacher, Jane Elliot decided to do an in-class experiment with her all-White class. Elliot divided the class amongst eye color to exhibit institutionalized racism. According to Week 12 lecture, institutionalized racism established laws, custom, and practices that systematically reflect and produce racial inequalities in society-despite it it is intended or not. If your eyes were blue, you were superior and if your eyes were brown, then you were inferior. Many of the kids were fine at first but after a while, the kids began to clash with one another over their eye color. One little boy is heard saying that he performed poorly because he had brown eyes. This experiment was reminiscent to the Jim Crow laws. Blacks began to feel inferior to their White counterparts because they did not have the same advantages they had.

Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest follows three crooked cops that all have something that they need to do in a specific time period. Don Chedle's character Tango was an undercover police officer that sold drugs in his neighborhood. Even though he took initiative and had potential be an asset to his community, Tango fell right back into the stereotypes that people label Black men as. This is an example of the consequences of race and ethnicity. People of color continue to confront stereotypes, prejudice, and racism. They are unable to overcome these factors, even after economic success. In the end of the film, Tango is murdered by another officer because he thought that he was another neighborhood hoodlum.

The Children of Celebrities or People with Money and Weber's Ideology

According to lecture, there are three main sources of inequality: socioeconomic class (group of individuals with a common economic situation based on wealth and income), socioeconomic status and prestige(the prestige, honor and life-styles of specific social groups), and Power (the ability to make decisions that will compel others to follow your commands despite their resistance). How do the children of celebrities become celebrities too? First of all, these children are usually born into money so they are already members of the upper class. As a result of their being born into money, they also life the specific lifestyle associated with their social group, the upper class. Finally, these kids are born into power. If a random actor from Wyoming sought the same movie role that Jaden Smith, more than likely, Jaden Smith would get the job. Even though he may not be the better actor, he has the money and power to get the role he wants.

The Media's Influence & Marxist Conflict Theory

The media is a primary influencer in many people's lives. The media would be the bourgeoisie because they are the owners of the means of production. This power allows the media to tweak the views of people through whatever method they seek. For example, now that the year 2012 is coming closer, more and more films are being created about the end of the world to trap people into believeing that the world is ending in 2012. The people influenced by the media are the proletariat and they are basically, the workers who only work for their own labor. Some members exist in a state of class consciousness where they understand that someone is trying to oppress them and they challenge the bourgeoisie. People that exist in a state of class consciousness would be Amish people and other people that do not use radios, TV's, or computers.

Rappers Vs. Teachers

Rappers get paid millions of dollars a year to promote lifestyles of lavish cars, an over abundance of women, and the list goes on. On the other hand, the salary of teachers decrease almost every time there is an economic downturn. Now, what's wrong with that? What do rappers do to influence one's life? Sure, they may make the party a lot more fun but in actuality, where can it be applied. Teachers teach their students essential skills that would be helpful throughout the student's lifetime. Functionalists may argue that social inequality and stratification are necessary for a society to function but shouldn't we base pay on how important (society wise) their occupation is? Unfortunately, rappers still get paid more because they have more power over people like teachers. The Conflict Theory argues that stratification has some costs and benefits that benefit one over another. As Karl Marx famously stated, "Those who control the means of production, also control the means of mental production."

Education in Low Income Neighborhoods

According to Week 11 lecture, social stratification is the ranking of people based upon access to valued resources and rewards. It determines life chances in a society and it affects lifestyles among groups of people. Kids that are in less affluent neighborhoods tend to have a lower education quality because of their environment. Contrarily, kids in affluent areas have more resources and are more prepared for college. This is an example of social stratification. The more money you have, the more money, time, and effort will be exerted at your school. For example, on the Titanic, the people with more money were more likely to live than those who were poor because of their location on the ship.

Tyler Perry and Intra-Stereotyping

Tyler Perry is a popular film director known for his popular Madea plays and his movies. His movies surround the lives of mainly Black women, having trouble with their counterpart(s), and they ultimately seek help from this “Madea” character. Madea stems from the Mammy, an overweight, loud expressive Black caricature from Minstrel Shows. Yes, Tyler Perry may be Black but he is still underrepresenting his race because he is misrepresenting them. Sure, if you look at the bigger picture, Perry’s work may be debated as positive but if it is positive, why aren’t his characters shown in a positive way. According to Pehl’s article, Latinos in the Media, “There are simply too few players in this game to create new positive ideas and eliminate old negative ones.” Perry continues to make these movies that project Blacks in a negative light because people, time after time, keep supporting these types of films. Hopefully, not all of the Spike Lee’s have died out and there is hope for positive Black film.

Blacks in the Media

1. According to Week 10 lecture, some researchers argue that various minority groups are unfairly represented in the media. They are portrayed in the media through reinforcing negative stereotypes. If you were to turn on the news right now, what would you see? “Today in South Central, a young man was shot to death while standing in front of a liquor store. The shooting is suspected to be gang related. Witnesses say the suspect is a Black male in his mid-twenties.” Or would you see something similar to: “Today, Paris Hilton was just arrested for robbing jewels from Nicole Richie’s Malibu apartment.” Pehl’s article describing the negative stereotypes reinforced by the media goes hand in hand with the roles Blacks are given in our entertainment. Everybody loves the classic movie, Friday, and everybody quotes the movie. Why couldn’t Craig and Smokey be two White men from Calabasas? Because that is not what media wants to reinforce. Racial minorities are always depicted as subtle, second-class citizens in film. Even with networks like BET, the forms of entertainment shown on the channel, still exhibit that Blacks should be ghetto and live in the ghettos of their neighborhoods in order to be Black. This epidemic is similar to Pehl’s concern about channels like Telemundo. They do not reinforce true life. They only reinforce the fantasy lifestyle that the media wants you to have based on their standards.

Hip-Hop

Rewind to the inner cities of New York, during the mid-1970’s/early 1980’s. Break-dancers and emcees would entertain the crowd while deejays would spin the hottest records. Fresh graffiti would be on the walls, subways, and every other public place paintable. This was the roots of hip-hop. As time went on, hip-hop became more commercial and by the 1990’s the original aesthetics of hip-hop were diminished by the representation of hip-hop in the media. The media felt Black men had various women always surrounding them, with large chains, and fat/“phat” wallets. Now hip-hop has evolved in rap. According to Week 10 lecture, cultural appropriation is the adaptation of some specific elements of one culture by a different culture group. In this case, hip-hop was taken over by the media and once it rose in popularity, it began to decline in authenticity. Because of hip-hop’s evolving, rappers are shown in a negative light more often than actors. The original meanings of hip-hop have been destroyed while its reinvention attempts to take over the hip-hop game.