White Privileges

"I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group"
White privilege: Unpacking the Invisible knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

This article is now considered a ‘classic’ by anti-racist educators. It has been used in workshops and classes throughout the United States and Canada for many years. While people of color have described for years how whites benefit from unearned privileges, this is one of the first articles written by a white person on the topics.

Here is Peggy McIntosh discussing how she came to the understandings she writes about:

Tim Wise, another sociologist, applies this concept to the 2008 election in his article, "White privilege, white entitlement and the 2008 election." Here is an excerpt:

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

And here is Eddie Murphy doing a SNL skit based on this concept:

Are you a "Real Guy"? BVD Wants to Know

I copied the following post from the blog "Sociological Images"
by gwen, 19 hours ago at 12:43pm

Chelsea S. sent in a link to the BVD website and its BVD MANual campaign. BVD is a brand of men’s underwear. The site has several tabs that let you “study” men in various ways. In the Chemistry section we see what men are made up of (larger version here):

So guys are made up of, among other things, obnoxium, machisium, bragnausium, and larcenic.

If you go to the Sociology section you can take two quizzes. The first is about getting dressed (take the quiz here). If at the first step you answer that you are male you are taken to a second step that asks “model or guy?” If you answer model, you are directed to the female category. Once on the female track, you get to go through a series of questions playing on stereotypes of women and, apparently, men who don’t qualify as “guys”:

The second one is on being comfortable (quiz is here). In the second step you have to choose between “sensitive type” or “guy,” and if you choose “sensitive type,” you go to the female section:

In both cases, at the end of the female path, the last question is “Wouldn’t you rather just be a guy?”

It’s a great example of the association of “real” manliness with obnoxious characteristics, while men who don’t meet the requirements for being real men are feminized. While real guys are stereotyped (they’re self-centered, obnoxious, and braggy), those characteristics are still preferable to being a “sensitive” guy with “feelings” and “needs.” And of course, it also denigrates women when being associated with femininity is a way of ridiculing men.

Violating social norms

New Views on Cohabitation before marriage

As we begin to explore the subject of sociology, We have been looking at how sociology is more than just 'common sense', or a social science that simply validates what 'everyone already knows'. I asked you about whether living together before marriage increases a couple's chances of avoiding divorce. The 'common sense' answer is, "Yes. If a couple learns about what it's like to live together before they get married they will have less unexpected, unpleasant surprises;" or, "Yes. A couple can find out a lot more about each other when they live together first, and then decide if they want to get married." I then explained to you that sociological research did not support this conclusion. Studies found that there was actually a negative correlation between cohabitation before marriage and staying married; That is, people who lived together before marriage actually had a higher incidence of divorce. The hypothesis was that those who live together before marriage have a weaker sense of commitment than those who wait until they are married to live together.

Turn out that new research finding have recently been published that suggest that this question is far from resolved. Read the story here:

Contexts Crawler » new views on cohabitation

So, other than, "Don't believe everything your soc teacher tells you", what else can we learn from these new research findings? What social factors are at work that influence the lives of young couples? How do sociologists help us to understand the important events and decisions of our lives? How is this an example of using our 'sociological imaginations'?

Implicit racism

How racist do you think you are? Racism can often be hidden in our unconsciousness. Even though we try very hard not to be racist, we are socialized in to think of white as good and black as bad. Harvard University has been conducting a fascinating study of how we very subtly (implicitly) associate certain traits with being good or bad. Take the 'Implicit Associations Test' on race. Your results may surprise you.

Is Race Real?

We all know that people look different.  Anyone can tell a black person from an Asian person--or can they?  Check out this people sorter activity and see if you can classify people according to race. After that, explore other questions and issues about race with the many interactive activities on this website.   

Also, Watch this Dave Chapelle video of the 'racial draft'
via videosift.com

Class Dismissed

Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class examines television’s portrayal of working class people, from early images of the late 1940s to those on display in recent situation comedies, dramas, and “reality” programs. The film focuses primarily on two issues: television’s under-representation of working-class people and their concerns, and the stereotypes that are used when they are represented at all.

In the United States, commercial television is a huge corporate enterprise, and the backgrounds and interests of those who control the industry have little in common with those of the working class—who happen to be the majority of the American people. Class Dismissed argues that television misrepresentations and stereotypes help to both create and reinforce negative perceptions of the working class.

Watch the program here:

http://www.videosurf.com/video/class-dismissed-how-tv-frames-the-working-class-9230267

Adultescence

Just as the concept of 'adolescence' as a stage of life appears as a result of the industrialization of the 18th century, sociologists (and, indeed, the people at Webster's dictionary) have identified a new social phenomenon that has been labelled 'adultescence', among other things.  I'd like you to read the following articles and comment on your views of this stage of life.  Is it indeed something that is so pervasive in society that it will become as well recognized as the period of adolescence that we all know about and expect everyone to go through?  How is it a result of the structure of our society?  Is it appearing in other cultures besides ours?  Do you know anyone who is currently living this lifestyle?  Do  you expect to be an 'adultescent' when the time comes?

Adultescence

Achieving "adulthood" is more elusive; Transition to Adulthood occurring at a later age

Women should marry younger?

Socialization of Gender in Pixar films

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/03/22/gender-in-pixar-films/

Violating Social Norms

Social Norms are the rules that a group uses to define appropriate attitudes and behaviors for a member of that group. We respect and adhere to social norms to make sure we are accepted, and even popular, among our fellow group members. Some social norms are formal laws, but many are simply agreed to by group members. We learn these norms from interacting with other member of our society; we come to know when and where it is appropriate to say certain things, to use certain words, to discuss certain topics or wear certain clothes (and when not to!). One of the sources of humor on "The Office" derive from the fact that Michael and Dwight are continually violating the implicit and explicit norms of behavior for their situation. If you are a fan of the show, can you think of other instances where the source of the humor is in the violation of social norms?

social construction of reality

There is no difference between spit and saliva except how we think about each. Our reality is how we experience the world. For example, we can experience this substance in many different ways. When a mom uses it to wipe a baby's face, it's perfectly acceptable to us. (How the baby experiences it is a different story!) A baseball player spits and we don't think anything of it. When two people kiss, the exchange of substance is accepted as normal. But you can think of any number of ways that this substance would be considered incredibly gross; If someone spits on your desk in class, for example, or your mom tries to use it to clean your face now that you are no longer a baby. Baby drool is ok. Adult drool is disgusting. The object or action has not changed, but our interpretation of it has. This is what we mean by the 'social construction of reality.

New Views on Cohabitation Before Marriage

As we begin to explore the subject of sociology, We have been looking at how sociology is more than just 'common sense', or a social science that simply validates what 'everyone already knows'. I asked you about whether living together before marriage increases a couple's chances of avoiding divorce. The 'common sense' answer is, "Yes. If a couple learns about what it's like to live together before they get married they will have less unexpected, unpleasant surprises;" or, "Yes. A couple can find out a lot more about each other when they live together first, and then decide if they want to get married." I then explained to you that sociological research did not support this conclusion. Studies found that there was actually a negative correlation between cohabitation before marriage and staying married; That is, people who lived together before marriage actually had a higher incidence of divorce. The hypothesis was that those who live together before marriage have a weaker sense of commitment than those who wait until they are married to live together.

Turn out that new research finding have recently been published that suggest that this question is far from resolved. Read the story here:

Contexts Crawler » new views on cohabitation

So, other than, "Don't believe everything your soc teacher tells you", what else can we learn from these new research findings? What social factors are at work that influence the lives of young couples? How do sociologists help us to understand the important events and decisions of our lives? How is this an example of using our 'sociological imaginations'?

How would you respond if you heard a racist slur?

How would respond if you heard someone being racist? If you're one of the majority who openly condemn racism, then you probably think you'd be perturbed and that you'd reject or reprimand the racist in some way.However, a new study by psychologists in Canada has found that students were largely unmoved when they heard a racist slur, and most of them failed to reject the perpetrator.
Dozens of multi-ethnic (but not black) students at York University in Canada were fooled into thinking that a white participant (actually an actor) in their group had responded in a racist way after a black participant (another actor) accidentally knocked his knee. Specifically, the white student participant was heard to say either: "Typical, I hate it when black people do that" or: "“clumsy *igger". In a control condition, no comment was made.
Afterwards, a brief mood questionnaire embedded among other irrelevant measures, showed that the students who heard one of the racist remarks were no more upset than the participants who heard no comment. Moreover, when asked to choose either the black or white participant to be their partner in a subsequent task, the majority of them chose the white participant, despite what he'd said.
By contrast, dozens of other students from the same University, who were randomly selected to imagine, but not participate in, these events, predicted that they would be distressed at hearing the racist comments and most said that they would subsequently choose the black participant to be their partner, rather than the racist white person.
A possible explanation for the mismatch could be that it is our non-conscious attitudes that influence our behaviour in a real situation - perhaps we harbour some latent racist beliefs - whereas we rely more our more conscious and deliberate attitudes when it comes to predicting how we'll behave.
"...despite current egalitarian cultural norms and apparent good intentions," Kerry Kawakami and colleagues said, "one reason why racism and discrimination remain so prevalent in society may be that people do not respond to overt acts of racism in the way that they anticipate".
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Kerry Kawakami, Elizabeth Dunn, Francine Karmali, John F. Dovidio (2009). Mispredicting Affective and Behavioral Responses to Racism. Science, 323, 276-278