Race

Race Matters talks about the social injustice that occurred back in Los Angeles, 1992. The Rodney King beating and the riots that followed.  Social Injustice seen first hand on video yet was justice really served? Can dignity be replaced? Can a man who was violated feel worthy or secure in his own skin? I’m not really sure. I think trauma will always take its toll and the human who was traumatized will soon be haunted.

The article talks about xenophobia, which is a fear of foreigners. What cracks me up in America is that we are all some sort of foreigner. Race is what? A color? Ethnicity? A Culture, an adoption of beliefs and rituals.

Race is an issue that we can all relate to. Chapter 8 tells us that “Race is also one the bases on which our society perceives, rewards, and punishes.” Once again society classifying human beings. Rewards? Punishments? What does that mean? Well, it means imbalance. Inequality. Chapter 8 also tells us “Race is a concept, not a scientific one”
The article Race Matters quotes W.E.B. Du Bois when he wrote:

“They approach me in a half-hesitant sort
of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then instead of saying directly,
How does it feel to be a problem? they
say, I know an excellent colored man in
my town.… Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I
smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may
require. To the real question, How does it
feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.”

A problem. What kind of problem? Was he a problem for being his natural self?

 I remember many years ago I was hired as a Nanny to a little Italian girl. Her parents were from Rome and wanted their daughter to be taken care of by an Italian. I worked for them for a while before the mother asked me if I spoke Italian. I didn’t, so I told her my father who was a first generation Sicilian to America, never taught me or my siblings the language. My mother was Neapolitan and didn’t speak the language either. The mother of the little girl had the nerve to tell me Sicilians were looked down upon in Italy, and soon after told me she didn’t need me to take care of her daughter anymore. The problem was I didn’t meet her Roman standards. I was classed within my own so called ethnic group. I was so insulted. Raised to be proud, I was looked down upon by someone who felt my class was too low for her higher and whiter class. Was I being punished for not meeting her standards? That was my first realization to what it means to be different. My dad was very upset by the treatment. I was told to be proud and move on. Of course I did, but it stayed that stayed with me for a long time. After reading Du Bois quote, I can see what he means.

Social Stratification

At some point in our life we all think about class. Whether it’s our own or someone else’s. We can’t help but to separate people by external things. These things include money, prestige, status and so on. What we have, and the powers we hold are what put us into a class.

Watching “People Like Us,” was very enlightening to me. I always knew their where social classes, but seeing first hand how people of all different classes view themselves and others is quite disturbing. In the beginning, when people were categorizing people in a social class just by watching them walk down the street seems so degrading. To realize even the loaf of bread we buy says something about what class we are, in is something I don’t think about. I do think of it as being over priced when I pay $4.00 for whole grain, but I think good health is not something that should be compromised, nor should we have to go broke to be healthy. This video was interesting when gadgets for cooking were considered to be something only a person of a higher class would know about. Wine and other leisure’s show our socioeconomic status. People who don’t even know how to read the foreign labels but purchase the products just because they can. The poor mom busting her butt at Burger King and not even respected by her own children, well that was just sad…

　

Their was an article in the Daily News about the debate between lower class families not having access to produce which contributes obesity. They are saying there is no excuse for the people in West Harlem to be overweight when they have a Fairway market with low priced produce and a free shuttle bus to transport consumers. So I guess now these people will be classed as being obese and lazy because they have access to the low priced produce. In reality, what is low priced produce? I find the price of produce outrageous. I have a job and find eating healthy very expensive.

I guess this is where a class systems comes into play. Ranked according to their economic position. Either you can afford the bread or not.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Worthy or Not?

To be poor is something I think most people fear. Constant worry of how the bills will be paid. Will the kids have enough to eat or am I going get fired? But what does it really mean to be poor? What does it mean to be deserving?

After reading “ Positive Functions of the Undeserving Poor: Uses of the Underclass in America,” it made me wonder why people with less money are stigmatized. Why are they accused of crimes and all the wrong doings? I was really interested to read that people receiving supplemental help are actually monitored for who they live with. How a person who is so called a “deserving person,” can have a live in partner but an “undeserving poor person” is not allowed. Who is a poor person to have feeling for another human being when they can’t afford to, right? It is plain to see from this article that the plan is designed that way. Who can the upper class blame for the crimes committed. Or any other wrong doings for that matter. Don’t we need a scapegoat?

Poverty is an ongoing issue in our country. We take the time to bail out Wall St. (cause they must have been deserving) but no one cares for the mother living in a one bedroom with 4 or five kids. Its her own fault. No one cares that her husband is on the street with a drug habit he got when he was making it big selling drugs to take care of his family. What about the elderly woman who has no family and can’t afford her prescriptions, who’s going to take care of her. But I guess it must be her own fault she’s old and sick. Just because her husband fought in a war, who is she to be deserving of her much needed medication. Why should she spend her last days in comfort. Of course I say this all with sarcasm to show examples of situations and the outlook of the deserving. I for one as a single mom had my own share of judgments and misfortunes. It takes a lot to overcome society and their judgments but like the article says, poverty needs to be looked at and changed before any of the stigmas will be removed.

The list goes on and on of moral wrong doings in our country and yet we continue to stigmatize and never consider the real issues surrounding them. Does society like these classes. Do they feel better knowing someone is worse off then they are? Maybe. I guess we have to wait it out and hope for the change that is so much needed.

Deviance

I was having hard time thinking about what I can write on deviance. What do I know about deviance? I think I’m an upstanding law abiding citizen. What boundaries do I cross, what do I do that I’m not even aware of. Am I guilty by association? In reality, I’m sure I am guilty on some level.

Chapter 6 has opened my eyes to some of my behaviors. In terms of Folkways, I think we all get away with a lot. Crossing over to the other side of the street not to say hello or even not answering the phone when my caller ID tells me its someone I don’t feel like talking to. Yes, I get away with it and it’s not really a crime. But is it wrong or just rude? Mores, well, I think I usually draw the line on Mores. I wouldn’t consciously break the law or even behave in an immoral way. I wouldn’t violate a person or intentionally do anything harmful to anyone. Taboo, well I’m sure I’ve done some forbidding things, but I can say I know what the boundaries are. According to Freud, incest is taboo and to that I most definitely agree. I think some people are just risk takers. They know they shouldn’t, but do. Deviants? Maybe, maybe not. I guess it depends on the situation and circumstances.

Stigmas on the other hand, well, they speak for themselves. According to Erving Goffman, the term stigma is used as an attribute that changes you from a whole and usual person to a tainted and discounted one. There are things people do to normalize things to try and make them more normal. Woman fight for rights and so on. Our race can be a factor when it comes to stigma. Recently, I was sitting in the doctor’s office; I couldn’t help but over hear an elderly woman talk about actor, Tyler Perry. She was saying how he was stopped somewhere in Georgia by a white cop who didn’t know who the actor was until a black officer came to the scene. “Didn’t he know that Tyler Perry could buy and sell him out? Now he knows who he is,” she was saying. I listened and smiled at this woman’s pride. I admit, I wondered if Tyler had been speeding, but what this woman saw was a white cop pulling over a black men. She went on to say " if he didn’t have money, he’d go to jail.” Is she right? In my opinion, yes, she sure is. Was Tyler Perry stigmatized because of his skin color? Or was he breaking law and knew he could pay his way out of the situation? I guess there are two sides to the story, but I found it interesting of how this woman was ready to defend a man she didn’t even know because she saw this as an injustice because of race. I am sure she has seen a lot of racial injustice in her time. Inequalities that have shaped this woman’s beliefs. We ended up chatting and turns out she was a past parishioner at my church. I told her my mother grew up the projects and she seemed surprised but was pleasant and as turned it out, we knew some of the same people.

After reading “Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System,” I empathize with all groups who are no treated with equality. Once again society and status making the decisions for everyone. Trust is lost in over government’s legitimacy and certainly among groups in our society leading to crime and endless suffering that doesn’t seem to change because of societies views in certain situations. Change the can’t be made because of stigma and even taboo. The human is over looked and the individual needs are not met. Until then we will remain in the place we are. For some neutral and for some narrow minded. And that’s just the way it is.