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Week 2/3: Group Relations, Conflict, and the Possessive Investment in Whiteness 	

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Week 2/3: Group Relations, Conflict, and the Possessive Investment in Whiteness 	

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By Roxanne Alabastro
Glazer and other conservative scholars believe in the ideology of individual meritocracy - that America is a land of equality where access to social mobility is determined solely upon the merit of each individual. However, Takaki and other scholars (predominantly scholars of color) recognize that one’s access to social mobility in America is suppressed or privileged depending upon one’s self and/or imposed group identity. Lipsitz is in consensus with Takaki. He argues that those identified as White in this country have long privileged from structural, material investment in Whiteness. In other words, White Americans have monetarily benefited from the systematic exploitation and oppression of BIPOC. While Glazer advocates for the maintenance of the status quo, Takaki and Lipsitz, who recognize the structural injustices in America, advocate for structural social and economic change.

Structural social and economic injustice continues to exist today. This past week, the deep-rooted narrative in our country that dehumanizes Black Americans in order to justify their oppression to uphold capitalism, in combination with a militarized police force that feels invincible knowing they have the support of a neoliberal government, has again resulted in the murder of a Black American by police officers and a militarized response to those pushing back. If this cycle is to end, radical structural changes must be made against capitalism, imperialism, neoliberalism, and racism.

Due to the history of structural economic advantage to those identified as White or non-black POC, I believe it is the duty of those amongst them/us that want to make change to contribute financially to the cause. I have identified one organization that fights for community solutions to protect people not profit and defund the police below.

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By: Bernice Nicolas
In Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection, Patricia Hill Collins interrogates the construction of race, class, and gender as intersecting identities that can be redefined as sites of resistance through coalition building. In order for this to occur, it is necessary to first recognize how the dynamics of hierarchized power and privilege produces forms of oppression that are relational to one another. Once it is understood how these differences of positionality are all situated with and against each other systemically, then we are able to identify the ways in which horizontal coalitions can be fostered. This means building meaningful relationships that reject the ways in which our identities are confined to rigid categories by seeking to work with folks outside of them through the understanding that we are interconnected. Collins suggests that this group solidarity can best be done around common causes. However, it must be grounded on the intentional acknowledgement that while there are common causes to be combated against, there are also different experiences within them, and in turn, differing levels of stakes. This is where practicing individual and intra communal accountability must be practiced in order for these collective efforts to take place. This is especially imperative to consider during these current times where advocacy and support for the Black community must be practiced critically and impactfully by non-Black allies. For example, the Asians4BlackLives organization seeks to build cross-racial solidarity with Black communities through partnered efforts in mobilizing and amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement. However, solidarity must be sustained beyond this action through the understanding that allyship is a continuous process that must be actively worked on. For Asian-American communities specifically, this means recognizing how the “model-minority” construction reinforces and relies on anti-Black racism where confronting Asian-American participation in this project’s violent logic must be done in order to understand how to disrupt its perpetuation. This  means going further than disseminating educational material in how to unlearn this by also contributing material change and support through redistribution of wealth to Black led grassroots organizations, movements, programs, and mutual aid efforts. Linked below are a few resources that folks with financial capacity should donate to. (365 words)
- George Floyd Memorial Fund:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet
- I Run With Maud - Justice For Ahmaud Arbery Fundraiser:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet
- Justice For Breonna Taylor Petition:
https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/justiceforbre-breonna-taylor-officers-fired?source=coc_main_website
- Minnesota Freedom Fund:
https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/donate
- Reclaim the Block:
https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2
- Black Visions Collective:
https://secure.everyaction.com/4omQDAR0oUiUagTu0EG-Ig2

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Week 2: Possessive Investment in Whiteness and Law Enforcement

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Week 2: Possessive Investment in Whiteness and Law Enforcement

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By Celia Sedano
Possessive investment in whiteness is the rank racialization in society that involve structures and institutions that put minorities at the bottom of hierarchy. There are many institutions and structures in the United States that fall in possessive investment in whiteness, the one I want to focus on is law enforcement. How possessive investment in whiteness is seen in law enforcement is through police brutality and these incidents always involve a person of color. Police brutality is the excessive use of force by a police officer on a civilian that is not necessary in the situation and results in the harm and/or death of the person. There have been many news reports on television and other media outlets that show police brutality. This isn’t the only example but most recently the death of George Floyd is an example of police brutality and how racialized the system of law enforcement is on the treatment of people based on race by police officers. In videos of the incident, George Floyd can be seen complying to officer orders and from the video Derek Chauvin, Minneapolis Police Officer in Minnesota, can be seen having his knee on Floyd’s neck and Floyd speaking out that he couldn’t breathe. George Floyd passed away as a result of the incident. The knee on Floyd’s neck was most definitely a form of unnecessary excessive force and these kind of police practices and behaviors need to be brought to the awareness of the public because there needs to be more officer accountability. Chauvin has been charged to 3rd degree murder and manslaughter, in Minnesota 3rd degree murder means that the murder was not based on an intent to kill and that the cause of death was due to indifference of life. First degree murder is the intent to kill, meaning it was premeditated or planned. Second degree murder is not planned but it happened out of the moment like getting in a physical fight that went too far and resulted in the death of someone but the death was not intentional. Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person without any animosity. The world will continue to watch the story as it keeps unfolding, police accountability needs to be more seriously enforced and the continued awareness of excess force and police brutality on innocent people is important for necessary law enforcement reform.
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There is a link to a YouTube video about George Floyd and the incident. There is also a link that defines what the three different degrees of murder are and what manslaughter is relating to law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cfUiLPACpY

https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/murder-charges-in-minnesota-43141

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By: Miriame Diawara

Intersecting privileges is looking at how multiple identities/identity categories contribute to your privilege. However, for Black women, they have intersecting disadvantages that contribute to their discrimination. If you think about the image of a crossroads, where one side is racism the other is sexism, where those two lines meet symbolize the discrimination against Black women It’s not one or the other but a combination of the two. “Misogynoir” refers to anti-black racist misogyny that black women experience. The term was coined by queer black feminist, Moya Bailey and black activist Trudy. Misogynoir describes the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience. We deal with the same discrimination based on gender, but on top of that, we must deal with the injustices of racism.

“It is not surprising that misogynoir would be enacted against the Black women who brought the word to public acclaim but it is nonetheless troubling”. Misogynoir would be used against the Black women who founded it in order to attack their intelligence and credibility. The typical depiction of feminism in America often overlooks the struggles of African-American women. Gender justice is acknowledging the different privileges of white women, women of color, and black women. Woods African American girls who stand up for themselves are quick to be labeled as “angry” or a “bitch”. We are exposed to more criticism simply for speaking our mind, I alongside other black girls have learned to censor myself in particular situations so we’re not seen as a threat.

We can relate this back to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Most people don’t know this movement was founded by women. A lot of the news and media coverage focus on Black male deaths and female victims of Police murder often get pushed to the background. Black women are constantly fighting racial justice but rarely get the same support in return. However, there is some progress being made because #BreonnaTaylor is being remembered alongside #AhmaudArbery and #GeorgeFloyd.

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Black feminist and activist Moya Bailey coined the term "misogynoir" in 2008 to discuss the discrimination black women face every day. This discrimination often comes in the form of stereotypes that have existed since slavery that affects all black women at every level of social and economic class.
Reading for the rest of us
"You have the Jezebel, which is again this idea that black women are hyper-sexual. Then there's also the mammy, this idea that the black woman's only role is to serve, to nurture other people. And then with that stereotype comes the sapphire, which I think we understand is the angry black woman. So the sapphire is the black woman who is loud, who is always challenging people around her, is always fighting until that angry black woman stereotype is very much part of why people dislike black women and assume a negative intent on the part of black women when they are expressing their displeasure with something. And so that stereotype, I think, does a lot of damage to black women, sense of outrage or injustice and the ability to say when things are being descript, when they are being discriminated against," activist Moya Bailey shares with Brut.
Evidence of misogynoir
Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die in childbirth. If low-income, they are evicted at higher rates than any other group. Even black female celebrities face this discrimination. Michelle Obama was the target of racial, sexist, and even transphobic attacks throughout Barack's term. Every day, people were commenting on her weight, hair, and general appearance, trying to tear down the First Lady in any and every way possible. Bailey hopes that by opening up the floor for the discussion of how black women are discussed, there can be action taken to prevent this discrimination.

Brut.

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Misogynoir: how we talk about black women | Brut.

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Black feminist and activist Moya Bailey coined the term "misogynoir" in 2008 to discuss the discrimination black women face every day. This discrimination often comes in the form of stereotypes that have existed since slavery that affects all black women at every level of social and economic class.

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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By: Adam Abukar

During the 3rd week of the class, we were introduced to the term Possessive Investment in Whiteness (PIW). The term developed by George Lipsitz, is “an organizing principle that benefits those who profess to whiteness as a form of property through the use of systemic and institutional structures.” PIW is the driving tool to explain how racism in all of its features works here in America. The most notable however, is how PIW is enforced through the police. Being founded upon colonialism and slavery, the police have displayed their lack of regard to black communities, often times being deadly. The way whites here in America have abused institutions like the police in order to control and exert their racist ideals over black people is disgusting. There are countless videos of whites displaying their privilege through calling 9-1-1 for a simple grievance such as barbecuing in a park. Just this week, there was a woman who could’ve potentially killed a man because SHE was the one breaking the rules and was called out about it. She claimed, “Please hurry there’s an African American man threatening me!” These 9-1-1 calls lead to the police brutalizing any victim who encounters them. Thankfully for Christian Cooper, this wasn’t the case. The most notable and RECENT victims of racism and police brutality are George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, just a week apart from each other's tragic deaths. I experienced something similar in my life where a white woman called the police on my brother and I for no apparent reason. She profiled us as being a group of teenagers who stole alcohol from a nearby convenience store. Thankfully, we were able to get out of the situation safely but there was no denying the worry that experience could’ve gone in a completely different direction. I think whites acknowledging their privilege and not abusing it will begin to veer this country to the right direction. [Words: 319]

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Mapping Police Violence | Samuel Sinyangwe | TEDxBrookings

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Week 3: Possessive Investment of Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment of Whiteness

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By Angela Dosono

To me, acknowledging proximity to whiteness was the key in thinking more critically about how to become a better ally for groups whose solidarity from others is imperative.

For awhile, I lived in an echo chamber--fixed upon the mindset that minorities ALL face the same barriers & must care for one another at the same level, as if are all the same in the social hierarchy--when that is indeed NOT THE CASE. Far too many times I have failed to contextualize the subsets of the term "POC" and the varying levels of proximation to whiteness/privilege that are held between different groups under that term. Asian Americans closeness to whiteness is essentially the core of everything I have failed to recognize in the past. And with the recent events of George Floyd, acknowledging the privilege aspects of identities that are proximate to whiteness and how it contributes greatly to complacency and lack of accountability among communities is crucial to note. Crucial to note when the Asian cop allowed Floyd to die. Crucial to note when far too many Asian Americans felt the need to simply "not claim" him when in fact this proximity to whiteness is what got that Asian cop--and extensively even the Asian community--to be responsible for cases like Floyd's. Where anti-blackness (which is incited by PIW) and the Asian community's disacknowledgment of this, is what essentially killed him.

If Asian Americans simply ignore our complicity to horrendous acts like the deaths of Black bodies, then our proximity and investment to whiteness will only continue to be telling. It is up to us to acknowledge our faults and hold each other accountable for the ignorance and deaths that we have essentially turned a blind eye to so many times.

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This post is a follow-up to
Please someone share the original source of this image so I can credit them!
20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now.
It would be a massive missed opportunity if we fail to make the connection between the stories of Amy Cooper and Tou Thao and our daily behaviors. It's easy to dismiss these as isolated incidents perpetuated by "racists" - but none of this is just one person's r acism coming to light and none of us is innocent.

We all perpetuate anti-Black racism in our daily lives. We can't fight anti-Black racism unless we can notice its manifestation in ourselves and others on a daily basis in our workplace, social interactions, and online engagement.

1. Calling the police on Black people - doing this *escalates* everything and is very possibly life threatening for Black folks, yet I see Asians using this tool of oppression too quickly whenever they perceive (a lot of times not even real) threat. I challenge everyone to reflect on the time you've called the cops - did they actually help? What did they do that was helpful? We mistake calling the cops with safety - they don't keep us safe.

2. Asian store owners following Black people around, profiling, and over surveilling. Being "afraid" of Black people the moment they are in sight.

3. Not believing Black people's stories and struggles: "are you sure they meant it that way?" "it's not always about race" aka gaslighting the fuck out of them. This is especially harmful because gaslighting that comes from other marginalized groups is EVEN MORE gaslighty.

4. Preferring lighter skin color over dark; using and promoting skin "whitening" products. Colorism has long been a part of Asian cultures globally and the damning effects are seen within and across different Asian communities.

In doing DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) work, I've found it useful to actually name the detailed and insidious ways we all participate in oppressing each other.

This one is for my people. Reminder: I don't speak for all Asians.

5. Using AAVE, Blaccent, language/terms created by and for the Black community - I know, this one is sometimes confusing. And I'm still a little mad at Akwafina. Sometimes we also do this via " digital Blackface " - using giphys that use stereotypical images of Black people.

6. Cultural appropriation in the form of art, music, fashion, hair, make-up, etc. Google "Asian Rappers" - I'm screaming. If you're contemplating getting dreadlocks as a non-Black person, consider this response from Michael Harriot: "I'd tell him that it means something. Dreads are a subtle protest and a personal bit of empowerment in a culture that strips away every part of your heritage, down to your hair follicles. I'd tell him that - for some - it is a religious experience. I'd explain that it is the height of privilege and disrespect to appropriate all of that just because he thinks it looks cute."

7. Respectability politics based on false narratives and model minority myth: "They bring this upon themselves" "They should not commit crimes" "Asians worked hard to earn our place."

8. Believing we can fit in if we act more like white people. Don't be like Andrew Yang. He is wrong.

9. Using and co-opting social justice language created to achieve equity for Black people and other marginalized communities in a way that *only* benefits us. "Affirmative Action is racist against Asians" ← it's not and we need to call our people in.

10. Forgetting that we benefited from various social justice movements led by and with the Black community.

11. Consciously or subconsciously only referring friends who look like us to job opportunities.

12. Staying silent when Black people experience violence (which is.. everyday) and never posting anything publicly due to fear of being othered - silence = tacit approval, no matter how you want to explain it.

13. Not understanding why some Black people are mad at us. Yes, mistrust, cynicism, and anti-Asian prejudice towards Asians exist in the Black community and they hurt. Heck, sometimes we experience violence, too. Learn about the complex relationship and histories between the Black/Asian communities to understand the anger and frustration, and model allyship to build solidarity. Don't get defensive. Trust, there are so many Black folks who have had our backs and who continue to fight for us.

14. "I don't date Black people" ← "but we all have preferences" is just another way of saying you have racist beliefs about Black people.

15. "I only date Black people" ← fetishization of Black people requires deep self-reflection.

16. Saying the N-word. Just don't. "But I have Black friends." "My Black friend said I can..." I don't care. And no one person can speak on behalf of an entire community - that's tokenizing and we should do better.

17. Dancing to music by Black artists but never engaging in social justice conversations.

18. Avoiding Black neighborhoods and calling the areas "sketchy" "ghetto" "shady." Looking for "good school districts" and meaning where there are mostly rich White / East Asians who get into elite colleges.

19. Not understanding the systemic reasons why there are so few Black people in leadership positions and using false narratives to justify ("pipeline problem" "we don't lower the bar" "hire the best").

20. Not understanding how we use the same tools white supremacy uses to oppress us to oppress Black folks. Being the oppressor's favorite tool to create a racial divide among people of color.

21. Caring about our families immigrating so we can be together but not giving a shit about mass incarceration of Black people that separate families daily.

22. Not valuing Black customers, clients, users, the same way we salivate over white customers, clients, users, etc.

23. "I don't see color." omg can you just stfu. (Read this if you're still confused why this is harmful.)

24. Valuing the approval of white people more than forming solidarity with Black people. Not calling white people out when they make racist comments or perpetuate microaggressions. Call that shit out whether Black people are in your presence.

25. Not participating in protests and riots when bodies are needed to show solidarity and power.

26. Believing our individual economic and financial success will free us and negating the systemic disparities that continue to plague *our* communities, too.

27. Letting our parents, families, friends get away with anti-Black racist remarks and behaviors. I know it can be challenging to risk your family dynamics, especially if you're super family oriented like many Asian families. Use this guide by Kim Tran to try.

28. Only reading, learning from, and quoting non-Black scholars, speakers, writers. Only using research from predominantly white institutions.

29. Performing allyship using hashtags #BlackLivesMatter but not actually doing anything different to fuel change.

30. Policing Black people in our daily lives via over scrutinizing ( Black people are disproportionately scrutinized in the workplace), over punishing (hello, school-to-prison pipeline), and tone-policing (e.g., "don't be so aggressive").

31. Believing in and holding onto the notion of " proper " English while dismissing people who deviate from the white/white-European centered ways of speaking and writing as less educated. You see how that hurts us, too, right?

32. Forgetting Black Asians exist.

More examples you'd like to share? Comment so we can all learn from each other!

Need ideas on how to take ACTION? Check out 20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now.

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30+ Ways Asians Perpetuate Anti-Black Racism Everyday

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This post is a follow-up to 20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now . It would be a massive missed opportunity if we fail to make the connection between the stories of Amy Cooper and Tou Thao and our daily behaviors.

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Intersectionality is defined as how different identities of a person cross and intersect which includes race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality. Intersectionality shapes the way people go about in the world, their experiences, and their politics. It is difficult to separate an individual’s multiple identities, which makes intersectionality important when analyzing a person’s experience in life. In “Race, Class, and Gender in Asian America”, Espiritu discusses the dilemma of many Southeast Asian women regarding employment. The dilemma amongst Southeast Asian women is that getting a job can be empowering to them while also being oppressive. The traditional culture amongst Southeast Asian women is that they are expected to stay home and take care of their families. They are expected to maintain the house by doing housekeeping chores and take care of their families. But in American culture, finding a job as a woman is considered empowering due to the history of oppression women face. They were expected to stay home and take care of their families while their husbands work and “provide” for them financially. Southeast Asian women who come to America are looking to break away from that social norm. From the perspective of a Southeast Asian woman, their intersecting identities as a woman and Southeast Asian person create this dilemma because they want to uphold their traditions and culture while also maintaining or finding a job that could be empowering to them. They cannot separate those two identities from one another, as both identities shape their perspectives and experiences in life. (252 words)

From personal experience, I too practice intersectionality. I am a queer woman of color and it is hard to separate those identities because they all cross and have an effect on my life and how I am perceived. I go out in public and constantly think about my multiple identities. When I am out with my partner and people stare at us, I am thinking is it because we’re both queer, women, or people of color? All of those identities shape a person and their experience in life and politics and it is difficult to separate them. I was diagnosed with a chronic mental illness about 6 years ago, which I also consider to be an identity. On top of being a queer woman of color, I also have to be mindful of my disability as it affects how I interact with people and also impacts my work. All of my intersecting identities cannot be separated from each other and it affects my politics and experiences in the world. I am an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, anti-racism, and disability rights due to my intersecting identities.

This is a TED talk on Intersectionality that I've watched a few years back for one of my other classes and it had made such a huge impact on me to this day.

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The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED

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Week 2: Assimilation into the “American” Society.                    		   

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Week 2: Assimilation into the “American” Society.                    		   

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By Tihtina Sintayehu

The assimilation theory believes that adapting to American culture has the ability to change one’s social status. Assimilation theory implies that, when an individual from a minority culture abandons their culture and adopts the traits of the dominant culture, they will be accepted in greater society.After moving to the U.S. at the age of ten I struggled with my identity as I tried to adapt to a new culture. Before learning about it I really didn't pay attention to how I have changed and in what ways I had to assimilate to the “American Culture”. I have been able to acknowledge how I have continued to change throughout the years. From the way I speak English, the things I value and even my mindset which was completely different and shaped differently based on the different cultural environment I grew up in. I myself have felt the pressure to lose parts of my identity in order to fit into the “American” society

Glazer argues that American society is an inclusive one nation and individuals can practice their own culture.That if an individual works hard enough everyone has equal opportunity to succeed. I believe otherwise, assimilating is a big part of America's structure and In order to thrive in America you have to be of certain economic and/or ethnic background and In result, individuals are recognized based on their diligence rather than on their differences.The reading we did by Schaeffer argues against assimilation through the The pluralistic Perspective which involves embracing diversity  different ideas and people. But in order for this to happen there needs to be acknowledgement of the power imbalance in the American society between the dominant and minority groups. The reading by Malcom X: The Black revolution supports this idea. In his writing he discusses the power difference between the dominant group and Black Americans. Malcom X talks about in order for there to be equality the dominant must lose some of its power and until then the minority is going to continue to suffer and assimilation is just one of the consequences. (348)

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2010/09/01/8385/assimilation-today/

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/500780/legacy-native-americans-forced-assimilation/

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Bereket Katiso

One of the class discussions that resonated the most to me was the discussion we had in week 7 about assimilation theory. As I stated in our thread, assimilation theory is the understanding that if someone from another country assimilates correctly they are considered a true part of American society and as such, they are afforded the ability to be judged by their hard work instead of what makes them different. My issue with this theory stems from the fact that even though assimilating into American culture awards a form of social mobility the act of stripping away what makes people unique then you are stripping away a form of their cultural capital. An example of this comes from one of Professor Bonus’s lectures this week where he discussed how language is treated within the education system, he brought up the issue that most people viewed bilingual children as a hindrance and would devise programs to strip them of their non-english speaking side. Dual language transition programs like ESL teach children to perceive their native language as a hindrance and as something preventing them from being like the other kids. However, Professor Bonus emphasized that there are programs that view these children's bilingual ability as a resource; language retention programs are alternative programs that lead to dual language speakers, the only issue being that these programs are expensive. By giving funding to the proper programs there is evident proof that changing the way these children perceive their native language is going to have a positive effect on their psyche and allow them to cash in on a form of cultural capital that is unique to them. (272

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Learn about the current debate facing ESL education. Specifically, should ESL students be completly immersed in full-English classrooms, or should they receive targeted support in learning the English language?

With classrooms become more diverse, public schools are experimenting with new language programs to enhance ESL student learning.

ESL students, standing for English as a Second Language, typically need additional resources and support to adjust to the various linguistic complications of learning a new language. As a result, ESL students typically require additional funding.

However, as public schools are coping with reduced funding due to the economic recession, educational experts are debating the best approach to balancing school budgets while caring for each child's language development. In an effort to save costs, some schools and states have created mandatory full inclusion programs, where ESL students are immersed in a regular paced English class, with students who are fluent in English. This strategy will reduce the costs of ESL specialists while still engaging ESL students in an atmosphere for learning.

While this approach certainly helps balance school budgets, many educators and parents argue that the full inclusion classroom is ineffective for both fluent and ESL children.

Public Schools and ESL Programs

As The Multicultural Education Journal explains, the 2001 national mandate, No Child Left Behind, required that all public schools help ESL students become English proficient, as both fluent and ESL students are mandated to meet State and National achievement standards. While public schools are legally required to provide educational support for ESL kids, many experts assert that the current approach is both ineffective and flawed. As the number of minority students is rising each year in the United States, experts predict that by the year 2020, at least 50 percent of school-age children will be of non-English speaking backgrounds. With the current and rising statistic of non-English speaking students in public schools, leaders assert that all schools must take a more active approach to protecting the instructional support for these non-English speaking students.

Furthermore, as Inside Higher Education supports, "'During turbulent economic times, educational programs that serve culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse student populations may be at a disadvantage when competing for reduced funding with programs that serve conventional, mainstream student populations.'" As many schools are forced to lay off teachers, enlarge class sizes, and distribute more responsibilities among the current school staff, many educators fear that the ESL students will be left behind.

For example, California is one of the many states implementing the "full inclusion" classroom approach, requiring that all public schools instruct classes solely in English. This approach, titled Proposition 227, provides ESL kids with $50 million each year for additional English tutoring support; however, these students are forced to engage in fluent English classes, even if they have never been exposed to the language before. This proposition, like many full inclusion programs, is not solely designed to save school budgets; moreover, all of the propositions for full inclusion have the backing of experts who assert that the best way to attain language fluency is through inclusion instructional methods. While full inclusion has research and studies to support its incentives, many leaders still argue that there are better ways to teach both ESL and English speaking students through non-inclusion practices.

Is Inclusion the Best Approach?

One of the biggest arguments against full English inclusion classrooms is revealed through the studies that assert ESL students adopt fluency more rapidly when engaging in specialized language support programs.

In addition to the argument that specialized support helps to increase ESL student learning, many educators and parents argue that the additional ESL support helps to maintain the challenging environment of a fluent classroom. Specifically, as a regular paced English class is designed to instruct students who are of an "average" English speaking proficiency, immersing non-English speaking students in such classes often forces teachers to slow down the pace of instruction, making the overall challenge of the classless rigorous for English speaking students.

For example, when a teacher in a regular paced history class assigns a research essay on a specific topic, that teacher must strive to accommodate his or her instruction and support to all students with needs-including language, learning, and cognition needs of both ESL and fluent students. Subsequently, as students work through their research papers, a single teacher's ability to support each child becomes more challenging. The more children and special needs there are in each class, the less specialized support a single teacher is able to offer each of the individual students.

While various experts fear that inclusion programs diminish the educational opportunities for both fluent and ESL students, many leaders and parents disagree. According to Education Week, while support programs are in many ways essential for ESL children and families, many believe that separate setting instructional methods, which involve separating ESL children from fully fluent classrooms for the entire or partial class period, inappropriately create an environment of segregation.

In fact, as Education Week reveals, many new ESL programs are currently being evaluated by protestors who assert that the separate setting methods are a violation of the federal civil right's laws. As public schools are required to provide equal educational opportunities for all students, some believe that these programs only stimulate increased cultural bias as they do not provide opportunities for students of various and diverse backgrounds to interact. Some protest, "Special-education and E.S.L. programs have undoubtedly made substantial progress... But it is time now to move beyond unequal separate systems to integrated ones where all students have access to all the services necessary for their success."

Overall, while the debate wages on, schools will be forced to make serious budgetary and educationally driven questions regarding how to protect the needs of all students to ensure that neither ESL nor fluent students are left behind.

Questions? Contact us on Facebook @publiccollegereviews.

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Inclusion or Exclusion? The ESL Education Debate | PublicSchoolReview.com

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Learn about the current debate facing ESL education. Specifically, should ESL students be completly immersed in full-English classrooms, or should they receive targeted support in learning the English language? With classrooms become more diverse, public schools are experimenting with new language programs to enhance ESL student learning.

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status / Week 7: Immigration, Schlesinger vs. flores

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status / Week 7: Immigration, Schlesinger vs. flores

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By Karen Lopez Ramires

During this quarter we have discussed many topics that are prevalent and continue to shape our society. We see how our institution revolves around whiteness while neglecting communities of color. POC folks live a life of “lifelong minority status” no matter what they do they will continue to be treated as a second class citizen. Obtaining higher education, obtaining social and economic stability doesn’t help POC folks achieve mobility in comparison to their white counterparts. Lifelong minority status is having to live in a country that sees and treats you as less because of a hierarchy that favors whiteness. Having to grow up in a nation that views me as foreign and continues to remind my parents of their illegality while forgetting that they are the ones on stolen land. Lifelong minority status is connected to week 7 discussion on immigration where Flores writes how “citizenship” has nothing to do with someone’s legal status but how they are viewed. Schlesinger represents the whiteness of this nation, wishing that minorities would silently blend into the American way of life without making noise.  The “progress” white folks that “support” us until we call them out on their privilege. I have always struggled with finding some sense of belonging. As a brown woman, I am seen as a foreigner in the United States while also being seen as a foreigner in Mexico. Neither place is accepting of my identity because of its obsession with whiteness. Despite my formal citizenship in both countries I have tried to erase my culture, my existence. No matter what I do the world American will never truly belong to me, no matter how much communities of color contribute to this nation we will never truly know what it feels to be an American because of our skin color.

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Color of Fear -  What it Means to be American

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty in relation to our current economic situation by Kyle Rini

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty in relation to our current economic situation by Kyle Rini

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In week three of this quarter we were all introduced to many important topics that contributed to the greater discussion of this class of Ethnic Studies. One in particular that stood out to me was the idea of a “culture of poverty” coined by Oscar Lewis. A “culture of poverty” is the idea that behaviors of groups of people cause them to be poor and that no structural barriers are at play. We were presented an example of this concept in a video where a musical artist attempts to explain why “Filipinx people don’t get rich” by claiming that Filipinx culture promotes children giving back to their families too much.

This idea of a “culture of poverty” I believe is outdated and not entirely correct. We learned in lecture that Oscar Lewis claimed that cultures of poverty were mainly perpetuated by behaviors such as “women led households”, women giving birth too young, bad childhoods, among others. While I do believe that behavior is a huge factor in determining success, some of the criticisms of Oscar Lewis don’t seem to be entirely true as there are many anecdotal cases of people beating these odds.

Today, culture of poverty is an important topic due to there being an increasing disparity between wealth of minority groups and the top 1%. There is still a great deal of debate whether or not culture influences things like wealth, violence, and decision making throughout ones life. When it comes to the economic debate there is a split between many American’s on whether we should adopt a more socialist economic structure or impose more capitalistic values than we already have. Personally I believe that culture is a factor in the chance of whether someone will be successful but certainly not the only one. Whatever your opinion on the economic debate of capitalism vs socialism is, I encourage you to look into it for yourself and form your own opinion.

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Is Capitalism Saving or Destroying Us? | Davis Smith | TEDxSaltLakeCity

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Andy Chen

The topic that stood out most to me in the class was the discussion about formal and cultural citizenship during week 7. A big question we often ask is who belongs in America and often we look towards formal citizenship. Formal citizenship according to Professor Bonus is defined as having legal documentation of citizenship within a country. He also points out William Flores’s argument of formal citizenship not being enough as cultural belonging is as vital to becoming a citizen. This introduces the idea of cultural citizenship which in the “Citizens vs Citizenry: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship” course reading by Flores, he defined cultural citizen as the deep sense of belonging in a nation or community. Flores expresses the acceptance of everyone to the community and to focus less on the legal status. Even with formal citizenship, there are people who can still feel like a foreigner at home because their community is not as welcoming or it’s hard to obtain the same governance as the dominant group. Most of the time for naturalized citizens coming from a non-European country, their cultural difference can often deter their acceptance in American Society. Even for people of color whose' family have been in the United States for generations, the law will often favor those within the dominant white group. Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr who supports formal citizenship calls for more assimilation rather than acceptance of other ethnicity as he sees them as a divider that separates America. Assimilation calls for someone outside of the dominant group to conform to their culture which is not ideal because it requires one to give up a part of their identity to be up to “standard”. It promotes self-hatred in the form of internalized racism. The more I watch or read the news each day, I can understand why a lot of people may lose their sense of belonging or being a cultural citizen in this country. In the news, I realized that many people of color with or without legal documentation are sometimes not guaranteed the same legal protection as the dominant group as the white citizens are often protected even further in the court system. This all roots from the systematic racism that is built into our foundation from discriminatory policies to bias policing. This needs to change as this form of governance is deterring many from a sense of belonging. We must restrict to unbiased policies where the law protects everyone under it, not just those in power. (417)

About the video: This video by Jubilee show why it's unfair to judge people and explains why anyone can be American. After watching this video, one thing that I lesson that I learn is that being an American citizen has no prior requirements so everyone under US laws should be governed without bias.

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Andy Yamashita

The possessive investment in whiteness is a theory created by sociologist George Lipsitz, which argues that, though racism is baked into the foundations of this country, during the 1950s and 60s a different type of racism — less obvious than the type that led to chattel slavery and Jim Crow, but just as harmful — created structural and institutional barriers to prevent all people of color, but specifically black people, from achieving social mobility. Lipsitz specifically points to urban housing renewal projects, which destroyed cheap, inner-city housing without replacing those living spaces, loans that discriminated against black people, and a feeling amongst white America that upon the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it had atoned for its mistreatment of black people since the first slaves had arrived in Jamestown. Lipsitz also sights poor living conditions in black communities, job vulnerability due to seniority, and other policies implemented by both liberals and conservatives that have institutionally hurt black people. He discusses the impact of seemingly race-neutral policies, like tax reductions for the rich and how they impact black people who often make up the working class, but most of all, the important thing is that the possessive investment in whiteness isn’t clear at first glance. Lipsitz says that because of its almost subconscious nature, white people can avoid looking at the bigger structural issues in society, and can instead focus on individuals. In his opinion, the only way to fight this issue is to create a pan-ethnic, social movement that is dedicated to eradicating and explicitly acknowledges white structures of power.

This has been clearly demonstrated recently in the killing and subsequent protests following the death of George Floyd. A black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was choked to death by a police officer, sparking protests and riots across the country. However, his death, which was widely shared on social media after it was recorded by a bystander on a phone camera, has prompted many to look at the history of the police, the institution it represents, how it confronts the black community, and it’s history. Many have pointed out that early versions of police groups in the south were the slave catchers, who’s entire purpose was to restore a slave owner’s supposed property to them. This is an institution that at its root, has been created to keep black people subservient to the greater culture, it has a possessive investment in whiteness.

https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/

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Week 3-4: Possessive Investment in Whiteness/ white privilege 

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Week 3-4: Possessive Investment in Whiteness/ white privilege 

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Elsa Vasquez

Possessive investment in whiteness (PIW) is a practice through systemic and institutional structures. This practice is taken to partake in the power and privilege it brings. In class we discussed how powerful an organization could be if the practices produce inequality and goes unnoticed. Something that should be emphasized from George Lipsitz is that "Even though there has always been racism in American History, it has not always been the same racism." (Lipsitz 1995) He even continues by mentioning some of the institutions that have had unequal access to people of color. One of his examples was the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) which was an institution that gave most of its loans to white people and denied access to communities of color. In class we also talked about Redlining being an institution practice that would selfishly decide which race can live where. Today, white privilege is still visible through different practices. Police brutality, mass incarceration, the healthcare system are just a few that have shown the inequality that people of color receive on a daily basis. This year has been year full instances but one I want to focus on would be the police brutality that continues to happen but fail to take action for the injustices made. George Floyd recently died after being pinned to the ground by a policeman, Derek Chauven after repeatedly saying he couldn't breathe. This is not the first time something like this has happened but many people have taken action by protesting which has led to many acts of violence. The privilege Americans have was shown through the protests they had about opening businesses up as their own constitutional rights. They even had guns and rifles with them publicly. The protests that people of color are having because of George Floyd have been to get justice for his death. The man who killed him was not charged until 3 days after his death which just shows how far a community of color has to go to get the right justices.

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Wilson Ta

CW/TW: anti-Blackness, racialized violence, police brutality

During week three, the class was introduced to the term possessive investment in whiteness (PIW) which is “an organizing principle that benefits those who profess to whiteness as a form of property through the use of systemic and institutional structures (Lipsitz, 1995).” Coined by George Lipsitz, PIW is essential to discuss how racism and other systems of oppression operate. One institution in particular in which PIW is perpetuated through is the police. As an institution founded upon colonialism and the enslavement of Black folx, the police have time and time again served for those who profess to whiteness especially at the expense of Black and Brown communities. Recently, Amy Cooper--a white woman--called the police on Christian Cooper. Amy, following a pattern of white people calling the police on Black folx doing nothing, expected a scenario where the fears of white people are valued over Black lives. Victims of police brutality such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Tony McDade also demonstrate the effects of PIW and continued institutionalized violence of police. In Floyd’s case, an Asian American officer was directly complicit, demonstrating that people of color can also participate in PIW--not totally dissimilar to Akai Gurley and officer Peter Liang. As an Asian American, this reminds me of our positionality and the need to hold ourselves and others accountable especially because of the prevalence of anti-Blackness and the belief of the model minority myth within our community. In the case of Liang, Chinese Americans claimed Liang was a scapegoat after their conviction instead of acknowledging their racism and standing in solidarity with Black folx. (264)

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Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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We're holding a lot of grief and anger over the Black lives stolen by white supremacy in recent weeks. For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others whose names never made national headlines, we demand justice and mourn their loss. But we also recognize that this is not enough. In this moment-especially with the knowledge that it was an Asian American cop who stood by and did nothing as his partner literally crushed the life out of George Floyd-it is urgent that we as Nikkei and Asian Americans recommit to the hard and messy work of uprooting the anti-Blackness from within our communities.

The anti-Asian violence being directed at our communities during this pandemic is inextricably linked to the anti-Black violence that allows the police to murder unarmed civilians like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, that teaches the Amy Coopers of the world to weaponize their white tears to summon those same police, that teaches us to stay silent while those same police commit those same murders as if that will somehow protect us. If we hope to end this violence-all of it-we must reckon with our complicity in this tangled web of white supremacy, and our responsibility to dismantle it.

Our historical inheritance is Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs building Asian solidarity for Black liberation, but it is also Mike Masaoka and S.I. Hayakawa peddling a model minority myth that encourages us to step on others to ascend into whiteness. It is Vincent Chin beaten to death by angry white men and James Hatsuaki Wakasa shot by a camp guard, but it is also Peter Liang and Thou Thau.
We are both victims and accomplices of state violence, and we must engage with that complexity and leverage the privileges we have even as we name the systems that harm us.
We must learn from our history-not simply because our elders also faced incarceration and state violence, but because there are hard-won lessons that we urgently and desperately need to carry forward today: Crises can quickly become cover for the increased criminalization, surveillance, and policing of communities of color. Our acceptance in this country is conditional and revocable. We cannot rely on racist systems designed to plunder our labor and our culture for protection.

What kind of ancestors do we want to be? That's a question we return to again and again, especially over the past few days, and it's a question we pose to our community from a place of love and accountability. We don't have all the answers, and we, like everyone else, are constantly learning and striving to do and be better. But what we do know is this: Silence is compliance, and we want to be the kind of ancestors who were loud and disobedient and stood on the side of justice.
Black Lives Matter.
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[Header photo: Asian Americans at a rally to support Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton in Oakland, 1969.]

Additional resources:
Minnesota Freedom Fund Black Visions Collective Black and Asian American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List Letters for Black Lives 20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now

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Asian American Anti-Blackness Is Real-And So Is Our Responsibility to End It - Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment

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We're holding a lot of grief and anger over the Black lives stolen by white supremacy in recent weeks. For George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others whose names never made national headlines, we demand justice and mourn their loss. But we also recognize that this is not enough.

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Week 4: Intersectionality by Gabby Grimstead

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Week 4: Intersectionality by Gabby Grimstead

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For the Padlet Gallery Walk I wanted to focus on Intersectionality a term that has not only captured my interest in this class but the class I first learned the term in which was a gender and women’s studies class where we focused on intersectional feminism. Intersectionality is the social categorizations each aspect of our identity falls into such as race, class, able and disable, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, among others. We often talk about privilege pertaining to race, but there are other areas that we hold privilege in that need to be factored into an “ism” we discuss as a community. Kimberlé Crenshaw created the term to help explain these different areas of our identity where we hold privilege; she uses the juxtaposition of media coverage between black male victims of police brutality verse black female victims of police brutality. There is often more media coverage of black male victims than there are of black women she ties this into intersectionality because though both people are black, the difference between the two is gender. Similar in Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege and Male Privilege where both white men and women both have white privilege, white men have both white and male privilege. In order to create a cohesive fight for equality, we need to be able to understand where we hold privilege. In my life the areas where I hold privilege is; I am white passing, able bodied, cisgendered and was born into an upper middle-class family, the other parts that factor into my identity is that I am queer, female and Hispanic. I often shock or bring realization to my male friends on how I have to prepare to walk back to my house at night; I make myself look more masculine and bigger (with larger and baggier clothing), how I have both my phone and pepper spray ready to go in case I am attacked, I always have shoes on that I can run in or easily slip off if I need to escape and I send texts to friends telling them when they should expect me home. They have often never had to think about a 3 block walk home with the same precision that I have had to. One of the issues that I consistently focus on are the crimes against trans-women of color, their intersectional identity falls into many areas of oppression being LGBTQ+, a woman and a person of color. This is one of the reasons why I am so invested in learning more about oppression as it applies over many identities and how those overlap in every individual. Recently there has been more conversation surrounding intersections within each movement which will aid in the fight for equal representation and treatment for all people, helping to fight the “ism’s” that have been learned through generations and history. (472)

https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness 

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness 

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Noa Ngalu

The term Possessive Investment in Whiteness and known as (PIW) to me is basically an advantage given to the white people because of the color of their skin. While minorities are at a disadvantage whenever given opportunities. Possessive whiteness has been going for generations and generations and it shows in police brutality today. One example that I have seen PIW or white privilege was when I was reading a post about an African American police officer who accidentally shot one bullet and killed a white woman. That African AMerican police officer was sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison. But just the other day George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight, screaming for his life while a white officer held his knee against his neck not allowing him to breathe for seven minutes. Sadly, George Floyd was pronounced dead a couple hours later and the police officer who killed an innocent man who wasn’t resisting arrest is being protected by other officers of the county. There have been many riots that have been occurring all around the world because of this incident. Another incident that can really connect to this topic is the riots that have been happening before the George Floyd incident. Many whites were protesting for the “ Reopening” of the economy. The protestors were all mainly white people walking around armed demanding freedom. None of the protestors were harmed. But if you come back to the George Floyd protest where it was mainly minorities, Many protesters were pepper sprayed or even hit with tear gas. Donald Trump had just allowed the military into Minneapolis and tweeted, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” There is a big difference between the two protests and that shows what Possessive Investment in Whiteness/ White privilege looks like today. (299)

Media:

https://www.sacbee.com/article243037206.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/armed-militia-members-other-protesters-demand-freedom-michigan-gov-whitmer-n1207096

https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2020/05/29/george-floyd-kneeled-on-by-three-officers-video-vpx.cnn

https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2020/05/29/twitter-labels-trump-tweet-minneapolis-protests-platform-rules-social-media-gold-ldn-vpx.cnn

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Journe Pegues Week 6 Black Popular Culture 

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Journe Pegues Week 6 Black Popular Culture 

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Black in Black Popular Culture is made up of three components style, music, and body. Each component has a significant subliminal meaning to it. Style is the subject, music is the deep structure, and body is the canvas of representation. This topic caught my attention because Black Popular Culture has always been an interest of mine. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t listen to music and it’s not only for entertainment but also because music is one of the only forms of expressions I could ever identify with. Music is what made me more understanding and appreciative of everything that’s around me and I think it would be accurate to say it structured my personality and my views on life. As for style, I try to incorporate it into everything I do. I think my photography work is my best example of that because of the way I can choose where I take the pictures which elements I want to be in the pictures and what expressions I want my audience to see. My style choices may seem sporadic but there is a reason for every detail of every thing I decide to post. Lastly, the body being the equivalent to a canvas is something I resonate strongly with. Since middle school I have kept a hobby of drawing occasionally and have even made my own tattoo designs that I plan to have completed. The first tattoo I ever drew was for my grandpa who passed away, it was my way to have a connection and show that though he may have passed, he is a part of me. I want to eventually get a bunch of tattoos that all have meanings to show what really matters to me because if my body is going to be my canvas I want it to be suited just for me.
Song linked is a piece that I think demonstrates the three components of Black Popular Culture when looking at the song through an analytical sense and is a pretty good song in general. (WARNING: explicit version)

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Theory of Assimilation Week 2 Module by Mayra Galvan 

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Theory of Assimilation Week 2 Module by Mayra Galvan 

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The theory of “Assimilation” states that one should shed one’s old world ways in favor of the new one, the dominant culture. The purpose of assimilating into the dominant culture according to the theory states that in doing this, it will not only allow for one to be seen as someone who is the same, but it will also lead to a better life, it will erase group differences, and it will allow for one to be judged solely on one’s own merits. The critiques of this theory include the denial of guaranteed acceptance into the culture as groups of people continue to be marginalized by their differences despite having assimilated, as well as the fact that life may not always get better as seen in the Latinx Paradox. As a Mexican-American, I can personally connect with both of these issues. Coming from a household with immigrant parents, my entire life has been built upon assimilating into the American culture. Growing up, the only language I knew was Spanish despite living in the United States. I only spoke Spanish up until the age of five when I attended kindergarten. Upon my arrival to school, the language-barrier existed between myself and the other kids and I was forced to learn English in order to not stay behind the rest of the classroom. Despite my fast grasp of the language, I continued to be looked at differently because of the accent that I had then, which is something that I can now see reflected upon my parents. My parents migrated to the United States when they were in their late teens and have resided in the United States longer than they have known their own homeland, Mexico. Despite having left their home, family, culture, and life in Mexico, they have had to assimilate to the American culture for over 20 years, and to this day, they continue to be marginalized and are judged by the color of their skin. Moreover, my family has also faced the consequences of assimilating into this country for so long as they have risked their own health which is another issue demonstrated in the documentary, “Becoming American”. As the documentary demonstrates within the Latinx Paradox, the longer immigrants assimilate and reside in the United States, the more their health conditions deteriorate which defeats the entire purpose of “Assimilation”.  (402 words)

Media:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/racism-not-lack-assimilation-real-problem-facing-latinos-america-n974021

https://newstaco.com/2017/11/13/new-poll-reveals-one-three-latinos-faced-discrimination-u-s/

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Week 3: “Why Filipinos Don’t Get Rich” and Culture of Poverty by Sherry Fisher

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Week 3: “Why Filipinos Don’t Get Rich” and Culture of Poverty by Sherry Fisher

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In week 3 of the quarter, Prof. Bonus had the class watch three videos as a part of our to-do list, with one of them being a YouTube video called “Why Filipinos Don’t Get Rich”. In the video, the speaker argued that Filipinos participate in a “culture of poverty” which keeps Filipinos from becoming wealthy. He believed that the behavior of giving money to relatives in need prevents Filipinos from becoming wealthy. Instead, the speaker says that Filipinos should participate in the “bootstraps model” and become self-reliant, utilizing opportunities to make their own wealth instead of relying on handouts from family members. Instead of blaming Filipinos for allegedly “keeping themselves poor”, there should be an examination of the structures that prevent Filipinos from getting rich, such as possessive investment in whiteness.

As a half-Filipino individual, this video initially made me upset because I felt that he was attacking my personal experience and twisting it to be something else. Out of my mom’s family, she is the only one to immigrate to the U.S. She knows that she is in a position to give back to her family back home. All my life, she has taught me that it’s important to be generous and help those that are less fortunate than you. Sending money and goods back to your family isn’t something that keeps Filipinos in poverty; it’s a sign of love and upliftment. When I go to the Philippines I am always happy to see the old shipping boxes that we had once filled with clothes and food to be shared with them. (263)

Attached is a photo of my cousins and I from when I visited the Philippines in 2017.

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Kalid Elias

Assimilation refers to the cultural transition one makes after moving to America. There are cultural differences that may impact the everyday lifestyle one brought from another country. Such as eating and exercise habits which typically worsens health after moving to the U.S. Being a basic example, it would be easy to relate assimilation on the enormous weight gain my parents experienced after moving to the states. Though over the years I’ve noticed many other habits and practices change within my parents as they fell closer into American culture. It’s simple to notice certain adjustments when my parents come from countries/families that don’t lay heavy on a lot of acts America is big on. For instance, listening to music, eating out, allowing children to sleepover, etc. My parents come from not only a foreign country, but very religious households. It’s hard to keep all Islamic traditions inside an American home when numerous American activities are not supported religiously. As we got older as kids, I noticed how my dad would play music for my sister and I to “fit in” and allow us to enjoy our childhood after years of complaining how negative music is. Or how hanging out with the other gender without parental advising is not allowed, but throughout the years, I observed more comfortability with my parents on who I associate with because of how open and accepting the societal culture we lived around was. Of all terms discussed in this course, assimilation sits different with me as I use this outside of school to determine the adaptations of my Muslim, Ethiopian parents.

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Extended interview: Millennial Muslims on life in America

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Celeste Garcia

The term possessive investment in whiteness by George Lipsitz means that whiteness has a “cash value” that accounts for advantages that come to individual’s through profits. I choose this term because I’m a student studying public health, so one of my interests and goals is in reducing health disparities because I believe that everyone regardless of social status, gender, race, etc. should have the opportunity to be healthy as possible. This term is shown currently during the pandemic due to how White Americans in our country have more privileges and advantages in government responses that in turn do not have an adverse effect on them compared to other groups like African Americans. Two issues that are evident right now is how Black communities are being disproportionately affected by COVID-19 and police violence. These are public health issues because there are affecting the health of groups of Black people in our country. Black people are dying prematurely, and this disparity shows the racial inequities in our healthcare system, government, and criminal justice system to name a few. For those who profess whiteness, they have privileges and advantages that many of communities of color do not have. It is unfortunate that we continue to see the deep racial divisions in U.S. society that is why we must learn and educate ourselves about racism in our country. We must also support organizations and policies that work to address the root cause of these issues and dismantle the structural inequalities placed in our society.

Link to a podcast called Code Switch that talks about race and how it impacts society:

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What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society - from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.

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Horizontal Coalitions in Regards to Recent Events by Jeanette Nguyen 

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Horizontal Coalitions in Regards to Recent Events by Jeanette Nguyen 

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Patricia Hills Collins articles discuss the idea of horizontal coalitions, which is the idea that having support from different organizations and intersections can help combat social issues. For example, you do not have to be Black to support the Black Lives Matter Movement. There are many ways you can show support in addition to sharing and liking posts on social media. It is imperative to be educated on the topic matter, and speak up in your inner circle and community as well as publicly. For example, with the COVID Pandemic, Asian Americans have been facing discrimination and many members of the community have been speaking up about it. But they stay silent when it comes to the discrimination against the Black community. The Asian American community has a long history of being anti-black. It is important that these two communities work together and stand in solidarity to combat this issue. For example, recent news surrounding the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd have been brought to the public’s attention. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in the neighborhood when he was confronted by two white men who suspected him of neighborhood break-ins and was shot and killed. George Floyd was arrested and with handcuffs behind his back, was pressed against the pavement while a white officer kept him down with his knee against his neck. He told the officers he couldn’t breathe but the officer didn’t stop. He became unresponsive and died. The people responsible for murders were not charged until the public held protests and called for these officers to face charges for their actions. In both cases, these men were racially profiled and targeted because of the color of their skin. Unfortunately, society is still trying to combat police brutality with movements like The Black Lives Matter Movement, and these horizontal coalitions could aid in fighting these issues.  (309)

Media: Facebook Post from the Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center showing support for the Black Community

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Najma Sheikh
The genre of Hip-Hop has always been seen as male dominant and has exuded toxic masculinity. Byron Hurt broke down the ways he’s looked over sexist lyrics and the “prison-like” mindset of this rapping lifestyle. The common theme to making it big is singing about women, guns, drugs, and a rich lifestyle that’s unattainable to most. Additionally, rappers change their name to tougher sounding names as rapping with your name is not seen as “cool”. Furthermore, we haven’t seen these themes change even in today’s music, and despite older adults claiming real music is gone, younger generation rappers are singing about the same things. Music videos still feature women in sexy clothing, dancing around men, and viewed as objects. On the other hand, when women like Nicki Minaj rap about vulgar things and her riches, it’s seen as redundant or uninteresting, despite male rappers doing the same thing. This double standard goes to show that women are not allowed to sing about themselves or others in sexual manner but it’s acceptable and cool when men do it. Additionally, Nicki Minaj has always been compared to women rappers despite changing the game and paving the way. Women in rap are not treated with the same respect and are even referred to as a "b*tch" when they're assertive and speak up for themselves. In the following clip, Nicki Minaj highlights the double standards she faces everyday as a woman in the rap industry.

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Nicki Minaj - My Time Now Documentary 2.

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness (PIW)

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness (PIW)

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Janvi Wadhawan

PIW is an organizing principle in social relations that ensures an advantage through systemic practices of aversion, exploitations, denigration, and discrimination, as practiced by people who profess to whiteness as property. It is coordinated by group behavior and it has the ability to be invisible and appear normal. Therefore, it blames the structures that are designed to benefit certain groups for why some people become successful and why others do not.

It is in the interest of white people to constantly maintain this structured advantage, as they only remain in power when subjugating non-whites. This is shown clearly through police brutality, as the system is created in such a way that police presence, and therefore the likelihood of interaction, is dramatically increased in neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly POC. The police in it of itself maintains white supremacy. There is a long history, within the United States, of law enforcement being made up of white supremacists, or those that sympathize with their case. police presence, and the use of extreme force, maintain racial and class boundaries. Through this, it is clear to see the constitutive nature of whiteness and policing, which has led to the current dynamic between most specifically black people and the police force. The ability of the police force to covertly exert and maintain white supremacy indicates the degree to which the possessive investment in whiteness is maintained through social, structural, and cultural relations. The police force is reliant on hegemonic whiteness in order to divide and conquer, and their power structures are contingent on tense relations between various groups of color. Essentially, this requires that these groups compete for the approval of whites, and by doing this inherently at the expense of other groups. (287 words)

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Kamila Duell

Possessive Investment in Whiteness is the act of using the system to create advantages that are not earned but given to the dominant group within our society that allow them to benefit from. While doing this, it creates disadvantages to people of color/minorities, and creating spaces for them to be in and succeed in society harder. Possessive Investment in Whiteness is something that is practiced throughout society and not just created.

During this current pandemic that everyone world-wide is going through we have things like police brutality against Black Americans going on in America. I am extremely interested in this because one I'm Black and I feel like when this happens to another Black person, it could happen to me. It makes me take things very personal because being in America, race or perception of race is a huge thing, and it makes me take a step back and think about how cautious I have to be. The current murder of George Floyd is just disgusting in general, and just the fact that it was done in broad-daylight, videotaped, in public, and witnessed by so many people is just even more disgraceful. The lack of movement on even arresting the officer when the incident happen just shows how he is benefiting from being White, and I don't even say officer because his position of power because when officer, Mohamed Noor shot a White woman that he claims as an accident, he was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Ex-officer Chauvin on the other hand has had multiple complaints of excessive force, shooting, and many other things but has never had a consequence. By practicing this and not stopping this behavior it has allowed people like him to get away with things like this because he is "above the law" in a way. The ability for White people to exercise this force with no consequence, just shows how the structural, and social violence add to this problem of possessive investment in whiteness. This murder is just disgraceful and disgusting and just shows where we are as nation. How race is a big deal, color is real, and how people are murder, and mistreated just because of their skin color. People like the Asian-American officer he stood there and witnessed this heinous action are just as guilty. And any other officer who watched or contributed to this murder. This isn't an individual problem this is societal problem, because it doesn't just happen there. People who say that violence are being ignorant to the violence that contributed to this one case without considering the rest. If something so similar to a a current day-lynching can happen in 2020, things are not even close to okay. And everyday is a struggle for Black Americans, because all they can be doing is walking. It is so hard to put in words how I feel about these situations because I could've been like Breonna Taylor sleeping in my own home and they still would've killed me. It is not safe to be Black in America.  (589 WORDS)

https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/29/us/george-floyd-new-video-officers-kneel-trnd/index.html

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Criticism of Louisville Metro Police is mounting as the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville ER technician killed in her own home has come under national scrutiny.

Police officers entered Taylor's home in the early morning hours of March 13 as part of a narcotics investigation, with officers returning fire after one of the members of the Criminal Interdiction Squad was shot in the apartment.

Taylor was struck at least eight times, dying in the hall of her apartment.

"It felt like no one was listening," Tamika Palmer, Taylor's mother, said on Memorial Day. "Like no one cared what happened here. ... It was frustrating. It was lonely. It was miserable."

Two months after she died, Taylor's death became a national story, with activists, celebrities and members of Congress speaking up about her death. Since then, the FBI has opened an investigation into the case, Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad has announced his retirement for the end of June and charges stemming from that night against Taylor's boyfriend have been dropped.

Records show that Taylor was not the main target of the investigation, but she and her apartment were specifically named on the search warrant that led police to her home that night. Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was not named on the warrant or the investigation.

No drugs were recovered from the apartment.

A defense attorney for Walker has claimed in court filings that Walker fired in self-defense, believing the home was being broken into because police didn't announce themselves.

Spokespeople for the police department have declined to answer many questions about the case, citing an ongoing internal investigation into Taylor's shooting. But, they did say officers announced their presence.

Here's what to know to date:

Who was Breonna Taylor?

Breonna Taylor (Photo: Christopher 2X)

Taylor, 26, was an ER technician who had worked at two area hospitals, Palmer told The Courier Journal. Taylor had previously worked as a certified EMT, and aspired to further her career in health care.

Palmer saidTaylor was a young woman who adored her family above all else and who had made plans to succeed.

"She had a whole plan on becoming a nurse and buying a house and then starting a family. Breonna had her head on straight, and she was a very decent person," Palmer said. "She didn't deserve this. She wasn't that type of person."

Family members described her as kind, hardworking and honest and that they were angry she was dead at age 26.

"She really did not deserve to end her life so horrifically," said Taylor's aunt, Bianca Austin.

Why were police at Taylor's home?

Though Taylor was not the main target of the narcotics investigation that prompted Louisville Metro Police officers to enter her home, the officers did have a search warrant for her and her apartment.

Her death has raised questions about why police waited until 12:40 a.m. to serve the warrant and fired more than 20 rounds into her home, particularly, activists and attorneys have said, since Taylor and her boyfriend were not the main subjects of the search warrant.

The warrant did include Taylor's home and had a "no-knock" provision, meaning that police could enter her house without identifying themselves as law enforcement. However, LMPD officials have said the officers knocked and announced their presence before using a battering ram to enter the home.

Taylor's address was listed in the warrant, records show, based on police's belief that one of the narcotics investigation's main suspects, Jamarcus Glover, used her home to receive mail, keep drugs or stash money earned from the sale of drugs.

A detective wrote in an affidavit summarizing the investigation that led to the warrant that Glover walked into Taylor's apartment one January afternoon and left with a "suspected USPS package in his right hand," then got into his car and drove to a "known drug house" on Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

Jaynes verified through a U.S. postal inspector, according to the affidavit, that Glover had been receiving packages at Taylor's address.

A U.S. postal inspector in Louisville, however, previously told WDRB News that LMPD didn't use his office to verify that Glover was receiving packages at Taylor's apartment.

Postal inspector Tony Gooden told WDRB that a different agency had asked in January to look into whether Taylor's home was receiving suspicious mail, but that the office had concluded it wasn't.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, a Florida-based attorney known for his involvement in high-profile cases of black Americans killed in shootings, wrote in a news release that Gooden's statement "directly contradicts what the police stated in the affidavit to secure a no-knock warrant for her home."

A lawsuit filed recently by Taylor's family against the three LMPD officers involved in her shooting says police had identified Glover at a home more than 10 miles from Taylor's before police executed the warrant at Taylor's residence.

No body camera footage is available, Conrad said in the aftermath of the shooting, because his Criminal Interdiction Squad does not use that equipment.

What is a 'no-knock' warrant?

Police can seek "no-knock" entry, meaning they don't have to identify themselves before entering a residence or business, if there is a reasonable suspicion that knocking would be dangerous, futile or inhibit the "effective investigation of the crime," LMPD's policies state.

In this case, police said it was necessary at Taylor's house because "these drug traffickers have a history of attempting to destroy evidence, have cameras on the location that compromise detectives once an approach to the dwelling is made, and have a history of fleeing from law enforcement."

Taylor had no criminal history and Walker had no felony charges before the night of the shooting.

Civil rights advocates have long complained that no-knock warrants are dangerous and unnecessary.

Even with the no-knock warrant, Louisville police have said they identified themselves before using a battering ram to enter Taylor's residence.

Representatives for Walker and Taylor's family say that isn't true, and that neighbors have said the same.

On May 22, Jefferson County Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine played a partial recording of statements from Walker during a press conference. Walker said he and Taylor heard a loud banging on the door, and yelled out asking who was there. Walker said they heard no response, so he grabbed his gun, feeling "scared to death."

They got out of bed and were going toward the door when it "comes off its hinges" and Walker fired one shot, still unable to see, he told police.

What happened when police entered?

Two officers and one sergeant entered Taylor's home "without knocking and without announcing themselves," the lawsuit claims.

At least two other police officers, a lieutenant and an officer, were on the scene as a part of executing the warrant that night. However, LMPD officials named only the three who used their guns.

Taylor and her boyfriend, Walker, woke up to the unannounced entry and believed their home was being broken into, according to the suit.

"While police may claim to have identified themselves, they did not. Mr. Walker and Ms. Taylor again heard a large bang on the door. Again, when they inquired there was no response that there was police outside. At this point, the door suddenly explodes. Counsel believes that police hit the door with a battering ram," Rob Eggert, who is defending Walker, wrote in a motion.

Walker, acting in self-defense, according to Eggert, then fired one gunshot, hitting LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the femoral artery in his thigh. Police have said Mattingly later underwent surgery and was expected to make a full recovery.

After Walker's shot, LMPD officers returned fire, police say.

The lawsuit says officers "failed to use any sound reasonable judgment" and fired "more than 25 blind shots into multiple homes."Bullet holes were found in at least one neighboring apartment unit.

Eggert has said he inspected the apartment building on Springfield Drive where Taylor lived and found evidence of 20 gunshots fired into the building, some of which entered other apartments.

During the gunfire, Taylor was struck at least eight times and died.

A search warrant that police obtained to search Taylor's home less than three hours after she was killed indicates that police may have believed it was Taylor, not Walker, who shot at police.

The statement in the warrant's affidavit says a "subject inside the residence was armed with a(n) unknown gun and fired a shot striking a detective. In the course of protecting themselves and other civilians, detectives returned gunfire and struck the subject (an) unknown number of times. The subject collapsed inside the listed residence and subsequently (was) pronounced deceased on scene."

During Wine's press conference, he revealed that Walker initially said Taylor was the shooter.

In a clip of Walker's recorded interview, played Friday, he was heard explaining that he said that because he was scared.

"I had no reason to say it, like I say, my gun is legal and everything," he said. "Clearly, I was scared. I don't know."

Wine explained after the clip that he thought it was "important that the public knows" the information Walker initially provided police because police documents listed Taylor as a suspect, despite the fact she was unarmed.

"Police were not trying to disrespect Ms. Taylor in any way," Wine said. "They were acting on the information that was given to them by Mr. Walker."

According to Walker's arrest citation, he gave a statement shortly after the incident stating that he was the sole person to fire a weapon in Taylor's apartment.

What happened after Taylor's death?

At a press conference the day of Taylor's death, police said they were opening an internal investigation into the shooting and had placed the three officers involved on administrative reassignment.

Officials, who had yet to name Taylor, said she was shot and killed after three LMPD officers returned fire in her home. Walker, 27, was charged with attempted murder of a police officer, they announced.

Citing the ongoing investigation, officials said at the time it wasn't known if Taylor was armed, or how many shots the officers and the suspects had fired.

Walker, later that month, was released from jail on home incarceration - infuriating the president of FOP Chapter 614, which represents Louisville Metro Police officers.

President Ryan Nichols said in a news release that Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens' decision to release Walker, who also faced a first-degree assault charge, was a "slap in the face to everyone wearing a badge."

Stevens' decision was made over the objections of the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, whose prosecutor argued that "one person is dead, and one person was almost killed due to Mr. Walker's actions."

But Eggert, Walker's defense attorney, said it was really officers who were the danger: "In this case, the threat to the community came not from Kenneth Walker, but from police."

"Had Breonna Taylor been killed by anyone except police, the person or persons responsible for her death would have been charged with a homicide," Eggert wrote in a motion. "Kenneth Walker III is an innocent victim of police misconduct."

What is the status of the investigation?

On May 20, Mayor Greg Fischer announced on Twitter that LMPD's Public Integrity Unit provided its investigative file to the office of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

Because Wine's office recused itself from the case, Cameron's office or a special prosecutor he appoints will decide what, if any, criminal charges the officers should face for the night Taylor died.

Fischer also announced that the FBI and U.S. Attorney were provided copies of the investigation.

Should there be any additional requests, Fischer said, the PIU will handle the follow-up.

Additionally, the FBI announced on May 21 that it would open its own independent investigation into Taylor's death.

On May 22, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia asked the federal Department of Justice investigate Taylor's death and LMPD for any "pattern or practice of constitutional violations."

What happened to Kenneth Walker?

Walker remained on home incarceration for nearly two months following the shooting.

But as Taylor's death gained attention, so did calls for Walker's criminal charges to be dismissed. A GoFundMe for his legal defense raised more than $210,000, and Metro Councilwoman Jessica Green, D-1st District, called him a "hero" for trying to protect his girlfriend.

On May 22, Wine announced he was dismissing the charges against Walker, citing the need for further investigation.

"I believe that additional investigation is necessary," Wine said.

But Wine said Walker's case could be presented to a grand jury a second time, depending on the results of investigations by the FBI and Kentucky Attorney General's Office.

Still, Walker's attorney, Rob Eggert, said he was "thrilled" by the dismissal.

"Theoretically, they can bring it back," he said, "but now he is freed from home incarceration and can go on with his life."

What do we know about the involved officers?

Three LMPD officers were involved in serving the warrant on Taylor's home: Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Officers Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove.

Mattingly was shot in the leg and taken to University of Louisville Hospital, where he underwent surgery. All three have been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

Cosgrove was previously sued for excessive force by a man he shot in 2006 at a Speedway gas station in the East End after the man allegedly backed his car toward the officer at a high rate of speed. A federal judge eventually sided with Cosgrove in the case, according to court records.

The suit also claims that Hankinson "has a prior history of unnecessary force and corruption within his employment," and that his use of force history documents "dozens of situations where he has sent citizens to the hospital for injuries from being tased, pepper-sprayed and struck repeatedly in the nose and eyes."

Have any policies changed since Taylor's death?

New policy changes will require greater use of body cameras by Louisville police and more scrutiny of no-knock warrants.

Fischer announced the updates on May 18, saying that all no-knock warrants will now require the police chief or his designee to sign off on them before going to a judge for final approval. This, he said, will provide " an additional level of scrutiny."

Additionally, Fischer said the department's body camera policy will now require all sworn officers to wear cameras when serving warrants or in any situation in which they will identify themselves as police officers.

The changes come in response to two major concerns in Taylor's death: that police were acting on a no-knock warrant, and that those officers were not wearing body cameras.

But by the end of the week, two members of Louisville Metro Council filed legislation that would restrict and monitor the circumstances in which police can use no-knocks even further. The legislation, filed by Jessica Green and Barbara Sexton Smith, calls for banning no-knocks completely if drug possession is the only suspected criminal activity.

Fischer also announced Monday that the city would create a work group of community, public safety and criminal justice leaders to explore creating stronger civilian review of the police department.
Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Tessa Duvall: 502-582-4059; tduvall@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @tessaduvall. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.
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Who was Breonna Taylor? What we know about the Louisville ER tech fatally shot by police

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Criticism of Louisville Metro Police is mounting as the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville ER technician killed in her own home has come under national scrutiny.

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Week 8: Alternative pop culture/hip hop/rap and violence

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Week 8: Alternative pop culture/hip hop/rap and violence

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Javon Jefferson

On May 25th, 2020, I posted my discussion about alternative pop culture which has to do with cultural politics in regards to hip hop. On the same day, George Floyd was handcuffed laying on his stomach, surrounded by 4 cops, one cop with his knee on his neck and later died. I circle back writing about this topic because its relatable to what we're facing now as the black community. Cultural politics according to Professor Steph Newell, is "the way that culture which includes people's attitudes, opinions, beliefs and perspectives, as well as the media and arts-- ship society, political opinion and gives rise to social, economic and legal realities." When it comes to hip hop in this regard, it speaks about violence. Someone killing a person, living in fear, being a target for someone but through the lens of police brutality. Hip Hop is a very essential platform for the black community because we express our struggles with injustice, being targets for the police, mass incarceration, poverty, how the rights and laws don't apply to us. In many rap songs you can hear the song speak about African Americans and their upbringing which could lead to a life of gang banging and crime. New York and LA are examples of places that would be the epicenter for people within the black community to live this life. In 1988, the rap group NWA released a song called "Fuck the police"  they said that their music is a reflection of their reality and what they wake up to every day. Expressing lyrics such as " A young nigga got it bad, cause I'm brown and not the other color so police think they have the authority to kill a minority. Fuck that shit cause I ain't the one, for a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun, to be beatin' on and thrown in jail." hip hop and rap artist like NWA, 2pac, and Nipsey Hussle have all used this platform to voice similar sentiments that have reigned true for people within the black community for centuries and is still relevant today when it comes to the relationship between African Americans and cops.  When it comes to pop culture Rap and Hip Hip have made a monumental impact on the lives of African Americans, making our message louder in ways where we can't continue to be ignored about such matters that still continue to happen to this day.

I am a young African American male and this impacts a person like me more than anybody else because when you're black you are automatically a target because cops don't see a young black man or woman with hopes and dreams, disappointments and accomplishments... all they see is just another nigga. That's the country I and others like myself live in and its heartbreaking.

(478)

RIP George Floyd

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Salma Al-sammary

In week three of class we watched a film called "When the Bough Breaks", which is a documentary that speaks on  the racial gap of low birth weight and premature babies seen amongst African American and Whites. The doctors in the film hoped that as education level increase and poverty amongst African Americans decrease that the racial gap of premature babies would decrease instead, it increased. The neonatologist believe that this was due to something called a life long minority status which means that no matter your level of education, or how financially successful you are non-whites, especially African Americans are treated differently in the American society, and that the inequality that African Americans face contributes to the high rates of premature babies being born.

During my undergraduate career, I did my research with the Somali Health Board here in Seattle, WA. This was a qualitative research method which looked at maternal and infant outcomes within the Somali community. Somali women suffer from high rates of premature babies, c-sections, babies with low birth weight, and unequal treatments in the hospital during their labor and delivery process. My mother is Somali so I have seen much of the unfair treatment in hospitals that is happening to Somali mother within the community that leads to the high rates of birthing defects.

Below I have attached my poster presentation that I did last year at the research symposium on this research.

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Possessive Investment In whiteness/ white privilege
Week 3
Erica Haynes-Ferguson

Possessive investment in whiteness has come up many times since we first talked about it in week 3. PIW as defined per Professor Bonus is “ An organizing principle in social relations that ensures the advantage through systematic practices of aversion, exploitation, denigration, and discrimination as practiced by people who profess to whiteness as a form of property.” Basically what this is saying is that White people have privileges and advantages that are unearned just because they are white, while people of color and minorities are systematically denied these rights and put at a disadvantage in banks, government offices, school, etc. We also talked about White Privilege in the McIntosh piece where she says all of the different things she has had the advantages of doing because of her being a white woman, and stuff that she doesn’t have to worry about because she’s white.

I think this resonated with me so much because with everything going on right now, I really hate when I hear arguments of why white lives matter. To be honest, that’s honestly another part of their privilege. They can just sit here and make it seem like they have a lot of stuff happening to them when most people are the ones causing all of the stuff happening right now. #Blacklivesmatter was our privilege that white people should not be able to take from us. It was started because we spoke up about the injustices and the killings of black bodies in our world by WHITE police. It just astonishes me that people really can say that what happens to black people happens to everyone because simply it doesn’t. But white people get the privilege to counteract our movement, and also get acquitted and no repercussions for their actions. To combat PIW you should really say something and educate people that say some stupid stuff relating to their power/ privilege. (314)

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The Inherent Power within Social Construction

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The Inherent Power within Social Construction

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Module - Week 2 (Social Construction)

Mandy Vu

Social construction has a grip on all of our lives, whether we see it or not. Most people don’t even know or even acknowledge it to be something that is real to our society. The theory of social construction is defined in week 2’s module is “that humans are arbitrarily assign meanings to things and actions. I want to specifically focus on race as many of our society’s social constructions are diverse and touch many part od people’s lives. Main thing I want to focus on is the brutality that black people have faced since the founding of our country on THEIR backs and lives. I am a Vietnamese American, so I have no idea what it is like to live and be black. There is a constant target on the backs of black people that is defined by the social construction of race. My race however is seen to docile and obedient, the model minority. There are oppressions that I face, but none that make me think whether or not I am going to live to see the next day just because of the way I look. I don’t get a second look when I go into a store or when I walk down the street. I don’t get pulled over on a regular basis because I look suspicious. I will never know what these things are like, unlike the black population where this is a constant reality of their every day lives. So there is no excuse for me when it comes time to stand by the sides of black people in the oppression they face, because I know damn well that there is a common goal among the oppressed and that is to dismantle the systemic oppression that has had a grip on this country for far too long.

Youth talking about Police Brutality: https://twitter.com/codyreese_/status/1265933297281929216?s=12

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Topic: Immigration, Schlesinger vs. Flores

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Topic: Immigration, Schlesinger vs. Flores

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Module - Week 7 (Class Discussion #7 On Immigration Policy)

Abigail Heath

One of the class discussions that resonated with me the most was our discussion on immigration. Within this topic, we engaged with the perspectives of Arthur Schlesinger and William Flores. Through Schlesinger and Flores’ argument, we explored how their understanding of citizenship and American society contrasted. Schlesinger’s greatest concern was that ethnic awareness was a threat to American society and unity. As he states in The Disuniting of America, “History is littered with the wreck of states that tried to combine diverse ethnic or linguistic or religious groups within a single sovereignty.” (226) From this quote, it is evident that Schlesinger believed that cultural and linguistic differences are detrimental to American society. In furthering his point, he refers to Afrocentric education as an example of how “the cult of ethnicity” undermines American culture. Alongside his worry of ethnic separatism, he strongly valued the model of assimilation; in  The Disuniting of America he expresses that the United States’ success in managing ethnic diversity is due to its “very assimilating, unifying culture” (227). In contrast to Schlesinger’s argument, Flores believes in the concept, cultural citizenship. In Citizens vs. Citizenry: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship, Flores defines cultural citizenship as “a broad range of activities in everyday life through which Latinos and other groups claim space in society, define their communities, and claim rights. It involves the right to retain difference, while also attaining membership in society. It also involves self-definition, affirmation, and empowerment.” (262) Schlesinger understands ethnicity as something divisive and superficial, that one’s identity should be molded, assimilated, to the state’s dominant culture, while Flores celebrates ethnicity and understands it as fundamental to citizenship, it defines and renegotiates what it means to be a citizen. Accordingly Flores denies the model of assimilation that Schlesinger promotes, and instead advocates ethnicity/culture as a site of empowerment, and as an instrument to reshape and imagine American society.

This discussion especially resonated with me because I am a first generation American. My parents did their best to assimilate to American culture because they believed it would benefit my sister and I, but I wish they had passed on more of their culture to my sister and I. Therefore, I really appreciate the perspective of Flores who believes that multiculturalism is something to be embraced. (Word Count: 381)

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Do You Feel American?: Immigrant Parents vs 1st Generation | Middle Ground

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Week 1: The Black Revolution by Malcolm X and its implications on identity--Alejandro Martin Villa

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Week 1: The Black Revolution by Malcolm X and its implications on identity--Alejandro Martin Villa

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In the first week of the quarter, our class established a definition for culture that combined the traditional materialistic view of it with the notion of assertion of dominance or power over other people. In a way, it was seen as something meant to distinguish the rich from the poor and over the years, this obviously translated into more than just that. Certain cultures, or groups of people had felt a sense of superiority over others which led to inequalities, unfair privileges, and chaos throughout America. For me, reading The Black Revolution by Malcolm X exposed me to a perspective I can not understand, at least not to its full extent, but one that I connected to. I am a Mexican American student who is the son of two immigrant parents, whom for the longest time were undocumented. We definitely felt tension and hate speech in our lives--the classic "go back to your country ********!" and many more. Reading through the passage, I felt the power in his words, the overwhelming passion and precision in his declaration to a group of all White men. He states, "It was stones yesterday, Molotov cocktails today; hand grenades tomorrow and whatever else the next day," responding to the injustices that were happening throughout America leading up to the civil rights movement. He is shaped by society and its implied truths and history into becoming a leading Black Nationalist champion ready for an all out war! This situation clearly shows how society and inequalities spread through culture can shape certain groups to act and change this unjust hegemonic practice. Today, this can be seen through the systemic racism of police brutality's over certain ethnicity and the unjust death of many African Americans including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others. People are not okay with this racism and unacceptable behavior and are making sure their voices are heard. In Minneapolis, rioting is happening and statements are being made. I do believe people have a right to have a voice and emotions they are having are valid. People are angry and something needs to be done. Society has pushed them to this, and in order for stop we must be willing to compromise and change the accepted reality that black people are far more discriminated against than whites when it comes to police brutality and there is proof to support it.  It's is very interesting to see, in person, that our identities are subjective and socially constructed and that it is up to us to challenge our oppressors in order to find the respect we deserve. The first week of the quarter educated me over this issue, and it is something that needs to get resolved.

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Malcolm X Speech: The Black Revolution (1963) part 1.wmv

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Urania Mendoza
Intersections are different categories of identity within ones self that interact with in relationship to other identities. These intersections can be changed and are thus enforced through different rewards and punishments. For example, a gay couple that are walking around holding hands may be punished by others by being stared at, given dirty looks, or even confronted by violence and so the next time they are out, they try to hide that identity by not displaying affection in front of others because of this punishment. This also shows that intersections are built from practices of values and hierarchies that affect how one may be punished for an identity or rewarded for it. Another example of intersection as explained by Espiritu is the experience of southeast Asian-American women that get a job that empowers them as a woman but at the same time they may be oppressed by their husbands because they are also a wife that is traditionally supposed to leave the breadwinning to the husband. Collins suggests that as a society we need to be able to look at and understand what privilege is and how our different intersections may come into play and allow us to gain privilege from them. For example black women and black men have the intersections of being black however black men have male privilege that allows them to oppress women. Intersectional coalitions are also necessary in the discussion of intersections because you don’t have to be a certain identity in order to be something else as is socially constructed.

My identity as a Mexican American woman pursuing higher education means that I have to juggle growing up in a country that was not made for women to succeed, much less women of color. I also have to navigate through the system of higher education which comes with greater difficulty as a first-generation student. However, I still recognize that some of my identities come with specific privileges that allow me to talk about other issues and be an ally to others with identities that are different from mine. Through coalitions such as the Black Lives Matter movement, I use my identity as a non-black woman to listen to black folk and help bring attention to social justice. (373)
I linked a Ted talk which discusses intersectionality and why it's needed.

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The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED

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Week 3: Possessive investment in whiteness/ White supremacy

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Week 3: Possessive investment in whiteness/ White supremacy

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Annaliese Youngs

In week 3 we read Lipsitzs essay “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness”, an organizing principle that ensures advantage of those who profess to whiteness as a form of property through systematic practices of exploitation and discrimination of people of color. Society is currently constructed in such a way that systematically disadvantages people of color in workplaces, offices, government, schools, media, and politics. The pervasiveness of this injustice is so large that it often goes unnoticed and unacknowledged by white people who benefit from it. “Whiteness” becomes a form of property that creates an expectation of entitlement, that fuels frustration when not enforced. White supremacy is extremely prevalent throughout society today through overt and subvert practices of domination. Recently I came across a graphic on social media that illustrates examples of overt and covert practices of white supremacy. Overt examples of white supremacy such as lynching and the KKK are mostly seen as socially unacceptable, and thus incorrectly lead many white individuals to believe that race is no longer a problem in America. Nevertheless, there are far more instances of covert racism that continue to contribute to the oppression of people of color, and denying the existence of discrimination adds to that oppression. The covert examples of white supremacy listed in the graphic were quite convicting as it made me reflect on my own privilege as a white individual and made me ponder in what ways I may inadvertently be contributing to covert white supremacy and thus perpetuating possessive investment in whiteness. Not calling out racist jokes, or even choosing not to engage in racial issues simply because the topic does not concern me personally, are both socially acceptable forms of white supremacy that would be wrong of me to deny. Learning about all the ways in which I benefit from possessive investment in whiteness and understanding the importance of calling those practices out is simply the start of resistance and the move towards a more just society (words: 327).

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Weeks 1, 2 and 4: Conflict in Identity Perception and Formation, the Double Consciousness Inspired by it, and the Effects: Chronic Stress

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Weeks 1, 2 and 4: Conflict in Identity Perception and Formation, the Double Consciousness Inspired by it, and the Effects: Chronic Stress

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Marcellius Caviness

The purported goals of the first module of study within American Ethnic Studies 151 was to understand the connections between culture and identity as established via (and defined by) the works of Kaplan and Hall, and the four scholars: Marx (contextual identity), Saussure (lingual understanding) , Freud (the undefinable unconscious), and Nietzsche/ Foucault (socially constructed, power-wielding regimes of truths). In what followed, topics of social mobility, privilege and education introduced new, and yet, simultaneously interconnected and compounding theories of group identity (voluntary or assumed), chronic stress, and intersections that built upon earlier ideas. Throughout the quarter, the theme which anchored these ideas was conflict, both in the process and the results of an identification that was originally “identified” by Kaplan but which was explicitly outlined by W.E.B. Dubois’s Double Consciousness and cautioned against by ideas of chronic stress in minorities (specifically, as discussed in class, people of color).

Carla Kaplan’s “Identity” defined the term as, ironically, both an immutable aspect of one’s character and a necessarily compromised (because of societal pressures) component that results, inevitably, in the formation of political groups that encourage singular identity and violence. Indeed, it appears as though identity is not, as she claims, “an unending... process of becoming,” but rather a bureaucratically overseen means of selection of those who exist as they are supposed to rather than as they are. The conflict introduced here is evident, but vague, as merely an introduction, perhaps, to the manyl regimes of truth that exist on the subject. More than simply a tool, though, for homogenization of the masses via selective recognition by powerful figures in the face of its presumed existence within (and supposed immunity to impurification), Identity is a multifaceted source of struggle within an individual (not explicitly, but, indeed, inherently inspired by society) over conflicting categories of difference. This understanding was introduced by W.E.B. Dubois, who called this notion of multitudinous struggles in a single entity Double Consciousness. Certainly, it builds upon Kaplan’s work by understanding that identities are mutable, because, according to Dubois, the idea is inspired by the attempt of individuals (specifically, African Americans) to compromise between being Black and being American, an apparently difficult task that would be impossible without the idea that identity is subject to change. It is also, similarly, a struggle that is based on acceptance based on appearance. It is enough, here, to be recognized as one thing instead of another (discrimination is not necessary) to inspire contradiction.

Whether or not these conflicts are more destructive than those of forced group participation is rather unclear, but the theories involved are more obvious: Group Theory (advanced by Ronald Takaki), the idea that success is based on the identification of an individual with a specific group (it is not difficult to imagine the effects of being identified as Black instead of American); Intersections (Mcintosh), which simply describes the reality that multiple categories of difference can exist in an individual at one time (the foundation of Dubois's work); and, perhaps most importantly, the idea of chronic stress. Chronic stress describes the lifetime health effects that result from the acute identification by others (and the specific treatment conferred as a result) of an individual with a particular group. The effects range from depression to early labor that results in underweight children, and I argue that these effects can exist outside of institutional America. I argue that it is enough for an individual to be treated differently because of a particular identification, that workplace discrimination and public violence is not necessary, to inspire chronic stress and pain in an individual. I argue these things because I experience them myself.

Throughout the class discussions, I have described the struggles I have encountered  in regards to my mixed race, being black when it is inconvenient to others (like the “increased likelihood I have to get into college”), but white all other times. As I look in the mirror, I consider what my own identity is. Am I American? Yes. Am I a dedicated, first-generation college student? Yes. But all of these things can be confirmed undeniably with documentation, transcripts, etc. But am I black? Am I white? In the past, I have consistently checked one box: African American. But if someone were to see me would they agree? Historically, the answer to this question has been no. Perhaps, they are not sure what I am, but they are often 100% sure that I am NOT African American. The problem is when I look to the African American community for recognition and confirmation and they, too, reject my claim. So, I have to compromise my own identity, not for political reasons as suggested by Kaplan, but, nevertheless, the integrity of my African American identity is shattered, forcing me to accept that I am “white.” But I am not white, at least, not culturally, which, according to Hall is all that really matters. So, I am not black to any except myself (and my family, of course), but I am not white either. What is the result of this conflict? Double Consciousness and chronic stress, a constant struggle to accept myself as black when I am seen as white and accepting that, genetically, and certainly, somewhat culturally, I am white when I see myself as black.  (881 words)

Media:
Who I am and what I feel.

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Week 1: UW Values Different Ethnicity Differently 

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Week 1: UW Values Different Ethnicity Differently 

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Jeamel Alday

In this gallery walk, I decided to go all the way back to week one in which Professor Bonus made us play the boat game to show us that we hold different values for differing identities. What is interesting to see about UW is that they proclaim that they’re extremely diverse when it comes to identities however when we look at the statistics and then their webpage, we see something that is extremely off. I mainly want to focus identities on terms of ethnicity since when students come into UW, they do have to fill out a survey exclaiming what ethnic group they associate with. Now looking at the statistics that are broken down; we start to see something very off. We see a vast majority of People of Color being identified as Asian American with an overwhelming 25.7% from winter quarter while the next one being international at about 16%.  When looking at the international student page however, we see that there is a 9/10 top ten countries are from Asia.

When we look at the screenshots its obvious that UW’s acceptance team do hold a bias for Asian students. While looking at their “diversity roadmap” there is no where that addresses the issue with the large gap between Asian American enrollment and other people of color enrollment. This makes me believe that they see no issue with this and rather proclaims they have done a great job at making the student body “diverse” in terms of ethnicity. What’s infuriating is that they tokenize these students who are underrepresented in their pamphlets and website to proclaim how diverse they are.

The media I wanted to share are these screen caps that I found as well as how a pie chart I made to physically see how much of a gap there is between the different people of color.
(300)

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Lipsitz- The Possessive Investment in whiteness

Ghane Buze

PIW, coined by Lipsitz is basically with being white comes privileges, and advantages. White people benefit from being white, since the day they were born, they were given white privilege. It can be subtle, and it can be loud. And when I mean loud what better example then groups of white people rioting in Michigan ARMED, and untouched. ARMED, AND UNTOUCHED, because they don’t like being quarantined for their safety. Black people, or any minorities could NEVER. Because like Lipsitz says public policy and private prejudice coincide to create this possessive investment in whiteness. It is society which has given white people this power. At this event and other protests in the US there were not only weapons, but hateful confederate flags being waved, and  Trump plastered all over. Meanwhile while people in Minneapolis are rioting for another murder by an officer. Trump the same person many white supremist support is tweeting how this will lead to military coming in and shooting. These people are rioting because their voices were not heard and that officer was not arrested, but after guess what? The officer was arrested. This is real, and if you are black like me, have black friends, family, or whatever, this is a battle we must all fight together. So when I post on my social media asking my white friends to stand up, and say something its because you have the power and more safety to do so. Its because if you love us, you will fight for us. Its because sometimes silence does more harm then not.

Stolen from Twitter, a picture from Michigan with armed WHITE men protesting  for opening up the state. Did they get met with any violence?
...
no
(wc:299)

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Week 7: Black culture in American society. 

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Week 7: Black culture in American society. 

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Benet Sparks

First we should identify what culture is. Culture is, according to Cornel West, a site of valuation, a site of power (ideology). Is a site of inequalities of consciousness and criticism Perspective). And lastly, it is a site of change, history demystification, reconstruction and representation (aims). But BLACK culture is a form of art. It is a style in the subject, music and the deep structure of culture (not writings). The body is the canvas of representation. We’ve learned in class and throughout history that sometimes Black people aren’t left with much except their imagination, but that imagination has been given so much power in America. Black culture has this power because it is the site of recognition and empowerment (Kamahele). Many people strip pieces of our culture and try to rename it as their own without recognizing that it has been stolen, and not so much appreciated in honor of the Black culture. If cultures are about identities, and culture is a site of power then identity can also be a site of power. I know for me coming to terms with my Black identity/culture was hard. I think most Black people go through this phase of trying to find out how they want to move through this world, and how they want to be perceived. It wasn’t until later in my life when I figured out that Black people are just as diverse in identity/culture aspects as we are when it comes to hairstyles. There are Black people in this world who don’t feel the need to conform to any sort of rules and live how they want to without any judgement to others or themselves. We have people that listen to Tupac, and people that have never heard of him. People who watch anime, and the ones that watch L&HH. We have afropunk and G. Herbo concerts, there is a wide range of people that make our culture so unique. I am finding out that I wouldn’t typically fit in with what society has conformed for Black people. But I could if I wanted to, I am able to code switch in my own community which I used to think was a burden, but now I see is a skill that I have naturally acquired. Even then I know that just because society doesn’t think I fit into the box, doesn’t mean I know that my Black skin, music, hair and culture is beautiful regardless. (411)

Media:

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Black History is Golden: Black Culture is Your Culture

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Week 8: Alternative pop culture/Hip-Hop/Rap & Violence

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Week 8: Alternative pop culture/Hip-Hop/Rap & Violence

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Christian Jones

Last week we talked about the topic alternative pop culture in discussion post 8 after watching the Byron Hurt video from 2008. Alternative pop culture has to do with cultural politics in regard to Hip Hop. Cultural politics is the struggle to acquire, maintain, or resist power using culture as a site of that struggle. It is the production of a set of dialogues that reflects or critiques society using alternative forms. One of the issues that was relevant then and is still relevant now in Hip-Hop/Rap genre of music is violence. This genre of music not only talks about killing another individual or someone trying to kill them, but the violence that is being seen through police brutality and other forms of injustice.

Through rap lyrics, you hear about violence between African Americans emerging from gangbanging and territorial ownership within the Black community. From places such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami to name a few. The song “Hit ‘Em Up” by 2Pac released in 1996 is an example of bloods versus crips, west coast versus east coast beef.

“Any of you niggas from New York that wanna bring it, bring it!... We gon’ kill all you motherfuckers!”

Some believe that this led to the murders of the rappers Notorious B.I.G and 2Pac.

You also hear about the thoughts of an individual after hearing about someone is trying to kill them because of their recent money and fame. These lyrics come from Notorious B.I.G song “Warning” dating back to 1994.

“Touch my cheddar (money), feel my Baretta/Buck, what I’mma hit you with you motherfuckers better duck/I bring pain, bloodstains on what remains”

In the black community it is hard to make it out of poverty, as it seems there are always obstacles that are put in front of us causing us to start at the beginning. That is why people in the Black community revert to selling drugs and other illegal activities because they trying to find ways to make ends meet and provide for themselves and their families.

There are positives that come with talking about violence in the Hip-Hop/Rap genre. For example, police brutality and injustices in the judicial system in regard to Black men and women across the country. These lyrics come from the now passed Nipsey Hussle in the song “50 N****z” releasing in 2014

“It’s legal to kill black people… It’s legal to kill unarmed black people/That’s fucked up”

“One shot got life, Zimmerman got acquitted”

“Wonder why we never have faith in the system/Look at young niggas like a waste of existence”

We hear the similar thing being said by 2Pac back in 1991 in song “Trapped”

“Can barely walk the city streets/Without a cop harassing me, searching me/Then asking my identity/Hands up, throw me up against the wall”

The Hip-Hop/Rap genre has made an enormous impact in the lives of the Black community. It gives everyone with who is Black man or women the ability to speak out and to relate to the times that were happening then and that are happening now.
(511 words)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41qC3w3UUkU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbSm6HsX_ek

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiEHsj3O-dQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-VUV9VcRAQ

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50 Niggaz -  Nipsey Hussle (Mailbox Money)

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Some 60,000 Black people die prematurely every year because of the stress caused by discrimination and by place-based impediments to medical care, healthy food and clean water and air.”

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Week 3/4: Possessive Investment in Whiteness and horizontal Coalitions

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Week 3/4: Possessive Investment in Whiteness and horizontal Coalitions

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Andrew Juntilla

Possessive Investment of Whiteness is an organizing principle in social relations that ensures advantage to people who profess whiteness as a form of property. This term was coined by Black studies scholar and author, George Lipsitz in his book, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics.” I chose this term because we are in the midst of national crisis and black communities have been hurt in disproportionate ways. Covid-19 has disproportionately affected black communities in the United States, Black Americans represent 13.4% of the American population, according to the US Census Bureau, but counties with higher black populations account for more than half of all Covid-19 cases and almost 60% of deaths. Yet, once black communities have waived Covid-19, there is still a fear of being ensnared by that quintessentially American and dangerously malignant virus of white supremacy. As Lipsitz points out, today we see education inequality, wealth gap, health gap and employment discrimination that linger long after the Civil Rights Act and other legislation outlawing legal discrimination, and he paints a picture that where we stand today, little is being done to help. I wanted to use this Gallery walk as a place to highlight the current state of the Nation in accordance with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Our nation is divided at the core by the race we profess to, and if you refuse to profess whiteness, you will be at a severe disadvantage in America. Unfortunately, that is the truth of the current age we live in, black people dying prematurely, redlined into low-income communities, and disparities of white crime against black people. The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a protest against the racial inequality, which begs the term horizontal coalition. Black people shouldn’t stand alone fighting for equity, but there should be support from people of all races. However you identify yourself you must see the civil disruption in our country dismantling our nation from the core. In order to be an agent of change we must stand together against the injustice of the racist system we live in, America.
(347)
Media:
This is a documentary that follows the evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement through the first person accounts of local activists, protesters, scholars, journalists and others. This brings attention to inequity in black communities and is necessary information to being the community together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIoYtKOqxeU

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Naomi Lizama

"When the Bough Breaks" is a film that explains the phenomena of why African American women have difficult pregnancies, especially premature births. Black people are constantly experiencing racism, even before they are born, in the womb. The racism that these minority groups experience not only affects their mental health but also their physical health-- it causes chronic stress. The film defines chronic stress as stress with discrimination. In addition, the film focuses on how premature birth rates are higher with African American women. If an individual in a minority group was to get checked up with a doctor, chronic stress is something that the doctor may not be able to see or measure. So, "Lifelong Minority Status" refers to the discrimination that many minority groups experience in society, that affects their health and that of their families. Unfortunately, racism in today's society includes a great deal of violence in addition to stress as we have seen on recent news.

As a Micronesian, I am part of a minority group and I have experienced and observed the mistreatment of minorities. I will share my experience with discrimination. One day my mother and I walked into a dress shop and after being in the store for a while, I noticed that everyone else but my mother and I were approached and being assisted, so I told my mom, “Do these people think we can’t afford anything in here or is it because we’re brown.” My mom thought I was being funny and she laughed, but I really was speaking out of frustration.

I appreciate the issues and terms that we have learned in class because they make so much sense as I am able to relate them to what I have observed and experienced. (292)

Attached is a podcast talking about racism and chronic stress, related to the “Lifelong Minority Status" discussion.

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The day Dr. Roberto Montenegro finished his Ph.D. was memorable. But not for the right reasons.

"I still cringe when I think about it," says Montenegro.

It had started well. His colleagues at UCLA had taken him and his girlfriend (now wife) out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate.

"I was dressed up in the fanciest suit I had at the time and my wife looked beautiful, like always," he says. "We laughed and we ate and we were excited we didn't have to pay for this."

Montenegro was elated - celebrating a hard-won step toward his dream of becoming a physician-scientist. There had been so many late nights, so much work. But now, he had a Ph.D. in sociology and was headed to medical school at the University of Utah.

"I felt like a king," Montenegro wrote in an article for the journal JAMA last year. At the end of the evening, the couple got in line to pick up their car from the valet outside. They were third in line when a Jaguar pulled up to the curb.

"And you see this woman get out of her car," says Montenegro. The woman must not have seen the valets, though they were wearing red vests.

"She passes the first couple, she passes the second couple, she gets to me and she hands me her keys," says Montenegro.

The valets, Montenegro says, looked Latino - like him. The woman, who wasn't, assumed he was a valet, too. He was so shocked he just took the keys as she dropped them into his hand.

"I didn't know what to say, what to do," Montenegro says. "But I vividly remember turning red, and I don't often turn red. And I remember my heart pounding. I remember feeling really confused and hurt and angry."

Five minutes later, still standing in line waiting for his car, it happened again. Another person handed him their keys.

"I was at the pinnacle of my celebration, and with one swift action, I was dismissed, he wrote in JAMA. "I was made invisible."

It wasn't the first time that Montenegro had run into racist assumptions, and it wouldn't be the last. At various research conferences, academics he doesn't know have tried to order drinks from him. In medical school and during his medical residency, he was sometimes assumed to be a technician at the hospital - even when wearing his white doctor's coat.

"It makes you question yourself and makes you feel confused and shocked," he says. "It was a constant reminder of feeling like I would never fit in."

Montenegro, who now has an M.D. in addition to his Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in child psychiatry at Seattle Children's Hospital. He is part of a growing group of scientists who are trying to answer some big, complicated questions: What does the repeated experience of discrimination actually do to your body? And could such experiences be partially responsible for health disparities that exist among different groups in America?

"Individually these incidents seem benign," Montenegro says. "But cumulatively I believe that they act like sort of low-grade microtraumas that can that end up hurting you and your biology. It's not just having your feelings hurt. It's having your biology hurt as well."

A poll recently released by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that roughly a third of Latinos in America report they've experienced various kinds of discrimination in their lives based on ethnicity - including when applying for jobs, being paid or promoted equally, seeking housing or experiencing ethnic slurs or offensive comments or assumptions.

Amani Nuru-Jeter, a social epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley, is another researcher working to find out how, as she puts it, racism gets under the skin. "How does the lived and social experience of race turn into racial differences in health - into higher levels of Type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease or higher rates of infant mortality?"

For example, black children are about twice as likely as white children to develop asthma, health statistics suggest. And racial and ethnic gaps in infant mortality have persisted for as long as researchers have been collecting data. People with diabetes who are members of racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to have complications like kidney failure, or to require amputations.

Genetics might partially explain some of the differences, Nuru-Jeter says. Research has suggested that different populations may respond differently to some asthma drugs, for example.

"But it's not an adequate explanation for the very persistent dramatic differences we see in health outcomes between racial groups," she says. And public health researchers have found that health disparities remain even after they take into account any differences in income and education.

Nuru-Jeter and others hypothesize that chronic stress might be a key way racism contributes to health disparities. The idea is that the stress of experiencing discrimination over and over might wear you down physically over time.

For example, let's go back to how Montenegro remembers feeling that night when strangers assumed he was a valet. He said he was "turning red," his heart was "pounding." Those are signs his body was feeling acutely stressed.

"When you start to worry about something, whether that's race or something else, then that initiates a biological stress response," says Nuru-Jeter.

Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol shoot up, readying your body to flee or fight. Those hormones can help you kick into action to escape a wild animal, for example, or to run after a bus. Under such circumstances, the ability to experience stress and quickly respond can be benign - and valuable.

Whatever the source of the perceived threat, the physical response - higher levels of stress hormones, a faster heart rate - usually subside once the threat has passed.

"That's what we expect to happen," says Nuru-Jeter.

But research suggests bad things happen when your body has to gear up for threats too often, consistently washing itself in stress hormones.

"Prolonged elevation [and] circulation of the stress hormones in our bodies can be very toxic and compromise our body's ability to regulate key biological systems like our cardiovascular system, our inflammatory system, our neuroendocrine system," Nuru-Jeter says. "It just gets us really out of whack and leaves us susceptible to a bunch of poor health outcomes."

A number of small studies have documented similar stress reactions in response to racism, and even in response to the mere expectation of a racist encounter.

In studying black women, for example, she has found that chronic stress from frequent racist encounters is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation - a little like having a low fever all the time. Nuru-Jeter thinks it might be a sign that experiencing discrimination might dysregulate the body in a way that, over time, could put someone at a higher risk for a condition like heart disease.

Now, this kind of research is complicated. There's no thermometer that measures degrees of racism, and it's not like scientists can take a group of people, expose some of them to discrimination, and then see how they fare compared with others.

"Unless we could experimentally assign people to racist or nonracist experiences over a life course, we can't make causal connections," says Zaneta Thayer, a biological anthropologist at Dartmouth, who is currently looking into how discrimination experiences might influence multiple aspects of stress physiology, including cortisol and heart rate variability.

So, researchers find correlations, not causal links.

For example, Thayer studied 55 pregnant women in Auckland, New Zealand, and found that women who said they experienced discrimination had higher evening stress hormone levels late in pregnancy than other women who didn't cite frequent discrimination. Another study, at Duke University, found that black students had higher levels of stress hormones after they heard reports of a violent, racist crime on campus.

The connection isn't just with hormones. Other scientists have found correlations between discrimination and various measures of accelerated aging, including the tips of people's chromosomes and subtle alterations in gene activity.

Individually, such studies are rarely conclusive, Thayer says. "There are always more questions to ask."

But collectively, she says, they form a compelling picture of how discrimination, stress and poor health might be related.

And sometimes, in rare situations, researchers do get a slightly sharper glimpse of how such a connection may be playing out.

On May 12, 2008, about 900 agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement - including some who arrived in a couple of Black Hawk helicopters - raided a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa. They were looking for people who were working illegally in the U.S.

"You could time exactly when it happened," says Arline T. Geronimus, a behavioral scientist at the University of Michigan who has studied the event. "It was a surprise, and it was quite extreme."

According to some witnesses, the agents handcuffed almost everyone they encountered who looked Latino. They ended up arresting more than a tenth of the town's population, detaining many for days at a fairground.

According to Zoe Lofgren, a California representative who chaired a congressional hearing on the Postville raid, detainees were treated "like cattle."

"The information suggests that the people charged were rounded up, herded into a cattle arena, prodded down a cattle chute, coerced into guilty pleas and then [sent] to federal prison," Lofgren said at the hearing. "This looks and feels like a cattle auction, not a criminal prosecution in the United States of America."

The people arrested were charged with criminal fraud for knowingly working under false Social Security numbers, despite allegations of judicial misconduct and reports that few of the employees were actually guilty of that crime.

"People lost their jobs," Geronimus says. "People were afraid to go home in case there would be raids in their homes. They were sleeping in church pews. Some fled the state."

By all accounts, it was an extremely stressful event for the approximately 400 people who were arrested and their families.

But the event also sent ripples throughout the state. Apparently, as Geronimus and her colleagues reported this year in the International Journal of Epidemiology, it may even have affected the unborn children of some Iowa residents who were pregnant at the time.

In the months after the raid, Geronimus says, some Latina women living in Iowa started giving birth to slightly smaller babies.

The researchers looked at birth certificates of more than 52,000 babies born in Iowa, including those born in the nine months following the raid, and in the same nine-month period one and two years earlier. They found a small but noticeable increase in the percentage of babies who weighed less than 5 1/2 pounds - the definition of what pediatricians term low birth weight - born to Latina moms.

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"Pregnant women of Latino descent throughout the state of Iowa - including those who were U.S. citizens, including those who were not right at Postville - experienced, on average, about a 24 percent greater risk of their babies having a low birth weight than they had in that very same period of time the previous year," Geronimus says.

Before the raid, 4.7 percent of babies born to white moms were low birth weight. After the raid, that number dropped to 4.4 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of babies with a low birth weight born to foreign-born Latina moms went up from 4.5 percent (76 babies) to 5.6 percent (98 babies). And it went up for the babies of U.S.-born Latina moms, too - from 5.3 percent (42 babies) to 6.4 percent (55 babies).

Overall, that's a difference of just a few dozen children, each probably born just a few ounces underweight. But at that stage of life, a few ounces can make a difference, Geronimus says. Babies born small are at higher risk of dying in infancy and of having health and developmental problems later on.

"Low birth weight in general is not higher in the Latino population than in the white population," Geronimus says. "And in Iowa it was not higher before the raid, and it was not higher years after the raid. But there is a spike that happens to be exactly when the raid was."

And it's worth noting, she says, that the effect even occurred among babies born to Latina moms who were U.S. citizens - people who shouldn't have been worried about being arrested or deported.

"So why did it suddenly spike?" Geronimus asks. "Well, there's a lot of research that suggests that stressful events during pregnancy can result in some complex immune, inflammatory and endocrine pathways and can increase the risk of low birth weight."

She and her colleagues think the poor treatment of people who "looked Latino" to the immigration agents might have caused additional stress among women outside the immediate area of the raid who were pregnant around that time.

"People could begin to worry this could happen to them or to people they know or in their communities," she says. "And those worries alone can activate these physiological stress responses, even if they never did have a raid in their own hometown."

In fact, other researchers have noticed similar connections.

In the six months following the Sept. 11 attacks in the Eastern U.S., babies born in California to moms with Arabic-sounding names had a higher risk of being born small or preterm than observed in that group during the same time period the year before - a change that didn't apply to other babies born in the state.

Both studies investigated the impacts of specific, dramatic events - and the results were consistent.

"You could time exactly when it happened," says Geronimus. "We could measure before and after."

But she views such events as merely slivers of insight into patterns that may quietly be happening on a much larger scale among many populations. Patterns that are harder to tease out and measure - like the effects of centuries of racism against black Americans, or a persistent series of incidents involving police brutality against minorities.

Maybe, Geronimus says, the cascade of stress that such events initiate sets the stage for health disparities in a generation of children - before they even enter the world.
Rae Ellen Bichell is a science journalist based in Colorado. She previously covered general science and biomedical research for NPR. You can find her on Twitter .

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Scientists Start To Tease Out The Subtler Ways Racism Hurts Health

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The day Dr. Roberto Montenegro finished his Ph.D. was memorable. But not for the right reasons. "I still cringe when I think about it," says Montenegro. It had started well. His colleagues at UCLA had taken him and his girlfriend (now wife) out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate.

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Hee-Jin Lee
In “Race, Class, and Gender in Asian America”, Yen Le Espiritu presents a certain dilemma of many Southeast Asian American women. The excerpt displays that getting a job in America is both empowering and oppressive at once for Southeast Asian American women. The original cultures of Southeast Asia expect women to stay home and run housekeeping jobs and leave it to men to go out and work. That is why it seems to be empowering for women to come to America and break those norms. Unfortunately, due to an increase of Southeast Asian women getting jobs, domestic violence cases of their husbands increase, since they feel as if they have lost their masculinity. Consequently, these women are forced to choose between their jobs or their family.

From the southeast Asian women’s experiences, we learned that intersecting oppressions, like being Southeast Asian and female, cannot be resolved easily. The intersections eventually end up with contradictions and dilemmas, especially those related to labor.

I personally connected to this passage, because it reminded me of all the times I felt life as a female and a Korean is challenging. When I first attended American elementary school, I was one of the smartest and fastest at math calculations. As a result, many of my classmates admired me and complimented me. As I went through middle and high schools, I realized that my male friends did not want a smart girl by their side, they wanted air-headed and flattering girls. Once, I was in a study group for SAT, and the boys in the group always looked offended when I solved my math problems faster than they did. If someone was to compliment me for doing so, they would just want to move on. But when they finish before I do, they would make it such a big deal and cheer for themselves. I wondered why they behave so strangely, and I realized that it was because I am a girl. Because when another boy finishes before them, they do not really react negatively. As a Korean, my family has high expectations for me, so I just wanted to do my best for school and seem ‘smart’, but boys saw that as ‘unattractive’ or even offensive. (371)

Media:

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Week 4: Intersections of Gender, Race, Class, Sexuality, and Disability by Carla Beltran

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Week 4: Intersections of Gender, Race, Class, Sexuality, and Disability by Carla Beltran

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After the reading of Kimmel, I have come to consider it to be one of the best articles on masculinity, sexism, and homophobia. In Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and Silence in the Construction of Gender IdentityMichael S. Kimmel begins the discussion of gender issues or gender, and in these readings of sexism, feminism, and homophobia, these issues are seen as women’s or gay and lesbian issues. Somehow the largest perpetrator of violence, aggression, and fear toward women and the LGTBQ community is somehow missing or only discussed indirectly. Many feminist researchers have fairly criticized news headlines of rape incidents that say, “woman alleges rape” in the passive voice as opposed to, “man arrested for rape”. Textbooks that exclude men and masculinity from discussions of sexism, feminism, and homophobia commit the same mistake. Teaching students about masculinity issues is hard specifically because talking about masculinity is a very un-masculine thing to do. Traditional masculinity, according to Kimmel, is homophobic in the sense that any sign of femininity in a man is sure to draw emasculating criticism from his peers. Men, who agree with to this narrow form of masculinity, then are afraid of or have a hatred of any nonconforming men. This is common in the Latino community and from firsthand experience in my Mexican family. When women are weaker, less than and feeble compared to males. Even the simple act of many father/son relationships in a Latino household that are damaged by narrow definitions of masculinity. Including many male Latinos who many of their fathers are uncomfortable with hearing “I love you dad” or receiving and “I love you son” back. Another form of fear and shame of that first-generation Latinos experience here in the U.S is the pressure to become “manly” enough. Often the machista mindset becomes the entire identity of a man here in the U.S and working with your bare hands to earn money can become a form of toxic masculinity and also a stereotype for males and females in a Latino household. Because being a man does not mean only working and being a woman does not only mean cooking, cleaning and breading. Gender is socially constructed. Gender is fluid. Latino masculinity/machismo mentality is toxic masculinity and the mindset needs to change.

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status by Lupe Galvan 

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status by Lupe Galvan 

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During week three we needed to watch three different videos and the one that talked about lifelong minority status was, “When the Bough Breaks”. This video was about Black women and how they are more likely to give birth to premature babies no matter their socio/economic status. In conclusion it was said that this is common with Black women because although some might have moved up in the social ladder, they are still prone to racism. No matter your status, people are still judged by the color of their skin and how they look. Lifelong minority status is common among all minority groups. Being a Latina woman I have seen people look at me differently because of how I look and judge me before they get a chance to know me. I think since everything is socially constructed and there will always be a dominant group, minority groups will always be seen as less. People can always move up in society, but they can’t change the characteristics that make them who they are. In this video that I have attached, they talk about how minorities are becoming the majority, but that still doesn’t change our status. Since the minority population is growing this is a threat to most white people. They feel their authority and privilege being threatened that they fight against us to feel powerful. This is why people like the current president will always exist and put in laws that affect minority groups because they don’t want us to succeed.

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The fractured politics of a browning America

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Geneva Thompson

The reading/topic that spoke to me the most throughout this quarter had to of been the ‘Mixed Race’ reading from week 6 by Naomi Zack. Being someone that is mixed with black and white, I related to a lot of what was being said. This chapter talked a lot on how most people in America don’t realize or even recognize that people who are mixed, can and sometimes do identify with multiple races. A lot of the time when Americans do acknowledge racial mixture, they look at it as a sense of blackness rather than realizing the multiple different races that an individual may identify with and despite their white appearance. This reading really talks on arguments and problems with mixed-race identity and how it stems from tradition and customs of different cultural beliefs, and what entails you to be “black enough” or “white enough.” I wanted to talk about this topic because I identify with being white and black, but at first look you would think I am a white person. Its where this idea of colorism comes in, and my blackness or whiteness has constantly been questioned, because of either my skin color or the way I act. I was raised by my African American father and have identified with black culture my entire life. This topic is sensitive but important for me to talk about because growing up I have encountered not fitting in with both sides of my identity. I’m not white enough when I’m with white people, and I’m not being black enough when I am with black people. At times even with my own family. Its sensitive because I never want to force the idea of being accepted in the black community and make it seem like I am demanding acceptance from POC. I know being white passing gives me privilege and I know that I don’t encounter discrimination like a POC does every single day. But at the same time because I was raised by my father who is a POC, I tend to find myself identifying more with POC over whites because of the cultural background I was brought up in. My experience like many others, is a prime example of why being mixed race can be confusing for us in finding our identity and where we best fit in, while also trying to not offend the culture we want to be a part of and recognized as. (406)

A link where people who identify with multiple races talk about their experience as being mixed race.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/26/the-mixed-race-experience-there-are-times-i-feel-like-the-odd-one-out-

A picture of my dad and I :)

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To come to the realization of intersections about race, gender, and class is to recognize the connection that each of our lives has with one another. In Espiritu's reading, the dilemma presented about being a Southeast Asian woman is a result of one intersection or body holding power over another. Meaning that specific conditions and other categories of difference have interactions and operations to each identity, specifically about power. It's frustrating that a simple notion such as obtaining a job creates which is supposed to be empowering is entirely oppressive at the same time. To combat this and other forms of oppression, Espiritu suggests that we build an "imagined community." Or a coalition in which we are all bounded by the struggle against the systems of oppression.  In my reflection of the intersections I hold onto, there is an understanding where I hold more power compared to other men within the intersection of gender. Touching upon racial identities, I claim myself as an Asian American, which is a separate experience than the Black experience. That does not mean that I have to be Black to fight against anti-black sentiments. That does not excuse me and others from claiming to be a person of color whenever it benefits me. Being a person of color and my other intersecting identities requires me to resist white supremacy. It's a lot of unlearning dominant ideology such as being complicit to violence and the uplifting of myself through education and various means of resisting oppression to uplift others. Intersectionality allows me to support my own identities while supporting other people's identities. (267)

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Week 3/4: White Privilege in possessive investment in whiteness by Magnan Kone 

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Week 3/4: White Privilege in possessive investment in whiteness by Magnan Kone 

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Possessive investment in whiteness is defined as an organizing principle in social relations that ensures advantage through systemic practices of aversion, exploitation, denigration, and discrimination as practice by people who profess to whiteness as a form of property. It's about blaming the structures that are designed to benefit a particular group of people in this case white people. Possessive investment in whiteness is “invisible” but it works everywhere. It is seen in banks, government offices, workplaces, schools, media, sports, politics, etc. Lipsitz talks about this in his work. White people don’t have to work hard for what they gain, and they don’t face discrimination. The system is built to help white people succeed. They automatically get benefits just for being white while minorities must work twice as hard to get the same benefits white people have. Possessive investment in whiteness is still being combatted by the black lives matter movement which began in 2013. The movement campaigned against violence and systemic racism towards black people during the time.  More of those situations started happening which led to the creation of the black lives matter movement. Black people during this time were facing a lot of police brutality specifically from white cops and being racially profiled. You would think in 7 years we would've combatted this issue but no it's still happening and it's getting worse. White people in this society are accusing Black men of crimes they didn't commit; Black people are getting shot by white people because they seem "Dangerous" and Black people are STILL getting shot and killed by cops. We still see this issue happening and its an ongoing issue we must combat. (272 words)

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When it comes to injustice against the community, why does it take a video to be believed? How can fairness exist in the absence of belief?

WASHINGTON - When it comes to injustice against the community, why does it take a video to be believed? That was the case with George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Christian Cooper.

A young man runs down a street pursued by vigilantes. The pursuit ends in his death at their hands.

A man confronts a woman willfully breaking a minor law. Upset with his audacity in questioning her, the woman issues a threat, saying she will call the police. Which she does. And with a voice breaking in manufactured fear tells them that he is threatening her, and to please, hurry to her rescue.

A man is apprehended by police for possibly committing a crime. He ends up face down on the ground, handcuffed, arms behind his back, his neck underneath an officer's knee. For five minutes he pleads with the officer, saying that he can't breathe, that he can't move his neck. He says, "I'm through. I'm through," and then he is still.

Ahmaud Arbery, Christian Cooper and George Floyd. Three black men. Three videos. Two showing the fatal outcomes. One shows the weaponization that has led to similar results in the past, and all provoking outrage and demands that justice be served.

In the short term, this has begun to happen: Ahmaud Arbery's killers are currently in jail, awaiting due process. Four of the officers involved with George Floyd have been fired, and Amy Cooper, the woman who called for police to remove an annoyance, has felt public shame and lost her job.

But imagine for a second that these videos didn't exist; that the public didn't bear witness to these events. What would the outcomes have been? If you're being honest, I think you know.

In the case of Ahmaud Arbery, we do. According to his mother, she was told that her son was a thief, shot and killed after being caught burglarizing a home. What would have been said about George Floyd? What would have been believed about Christian Cooper? More than likely, the worst.

So ask yourself: Why must it take a video? Why is word of one citizen given more value that another? For every one of these incidents that we see on video, there are many others that we don't. Many others that are denied justice because the imagined hysteria of an Amy Cooper is given more weight than a community's hard-earned fears.

How can fairness exist in the absence of belief? It's this absence that makes these videos necessary. And it's this absence that means that, as the family of Philando Castile can attest, even with a video, justice is not guaranteed.

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George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Christian Cooper: Why does it take video? | Reese's Final Thought

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When it comes to injustice against the community, why does it take a video to be believed? How can fairness exist in the absence of belief? WASHINGTON - When it comes to injustice against the community, why does it take a video to be believed?

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Week 4: Intersections and Horizontal Coalitions by Audrey Curran

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Week 4: Intersections and Horizontal Coalitions by Audrey Curran

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Intersections refer to conditions in which categories of difference interact with or operate in relationship to other identities. These identities, such as race, sex, gender, and sexuality are mixed within individuals, giving rise to multiple privileges and oppressions. Intersecting identities are social constructions organized through systems and practices productive of inequalities and enforced through rewards and punishments. However, they are not monolithic, and can be combated by acknowledging them as such. Patricia Hill Collins suggests that we can do this by understanding how power and privilege work, building relationships and coalitions around common causes, and reinforcing empathy and accountability. One should acknowledge their own privilege and join horizontal coalitions of people with varying identities in order to address the inequality resulting from their power.

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is a growing horizontal coalition in the United States focused on ending racism and violence against African Americans by our criminal justice system. Social media has been the main platform for this movement, as members share stories about our criminal justice system’s history of racial prejudice, show video evidence of police brutality today, and organize protests and fundraisers fighting for the cause. Anyone, no matter what their identity, can share these posts on social media. Though a white person will never experience the oppression they are fighting against, them bringing exposure to this issue by a simple retweet is an exercise of their privilege that will help change the norm. As with any horizontal coalition, you don’t have to be black to say that black lives matter. A tweet yesterday, which already has nearly half a million likes, proves this: “i’m not black, but i see you. i’m not black, but i hear you. i’m not black, but i mourn with you. i’m not black, but i will fight for you.” Widespread exposure and a fundamental understanding of what this tweet means will build the empathy and accountability necessary to change the harmful norm of police brutality against African Americans. (327 words)

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Week 7: Cultural Citizenship and the COVID-19 Pandemic by Ramziya Amini

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Week 7: Cultural Citizenship and the COVID-19 Pandemic by Ramziya Amini

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Cultural citizenship refers a sense of belonging to a country. William Flores describes the process by which non-white minority groups in the United States gain cultural citizenship by demanding rights for themselves. This process reshapes American society to make it more equitable. Flores argues that cultural citizenship is even more important than formal citizenship.

This term interests me because it reminds me how complex issues of racism and xenophobia are. While individuals belonging to non-white racial/ethnic groups may possess legal citizenship, this does not guarantee a sense of belonging in American society. I connected this term to the current issue of xenophobia and racism towards Asian Americans. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in hate crimes against this community because the first case of the virus emerged in China. There is a long history of non-white groups in the United States being blamed for and associated with disease. This recent increase in anti-Asian sentiment reveals the hostility that still exists against non-white groups. While non-white groups may possess tangible rights through the law, they are still often the target of discrimination and prejudice. The consequences of such bias may be detrimental to the health of the Asian community. If Asian Americans perceive that they may be discriminated against, they may be less likely to seek testing or treatment (Illing, 2020).

I think that recognizing the spread of anti-Asian racism during this time is an important first step for this community to demand fair treatment. There must be efforts to combat inaccurate portrayals of Asian Americans that associate this group with infectious disease long after the end of the pandemic (273 words).

I used information from this article: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/4/21157825/coronavirus-pandemic-xenophobia-racism

Media:

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Connecticut Attorney General Speaks Out on Anti-Asian Racism Amid COVID-19 | NowThis

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Week 5: What is "Black" in Black Popular Culture by Stuart Hall

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Week 5: What is "Black" in Black Popular Culture by Stuart Hall

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Keith Taylor

After reading What is “Black” in Black Popular Culture, I’ve come to realize that Black popular culture can mean a whole lot of things in terms of what is “Black” and what isn’t. Black culture may consist of things such as rap music, black art and sports. It can also have something to do with how you grew up in a black household. I believe that every black person has various similarities in relation to how they grew up. It’s funny to see memes and twitter posts that say “if you grew up in a black household this probably happened,” and maybe 95% of the time it is true. Me being a Black man in America, I’ve come to realize that many people of the same culture have a lot comparisons to each other such as interests, music, and standards of a household. When I was a young child playing in the streets, my parents made it a rule that I had to be home before the street lights came on because it can be dangerous at night by yourself. Black people carry many traditions that may differ from mainstream American traditions. For example, typically in black neighborhoods the residents like to throw a block party on the 4th of July with music, barbeque, and they just party all day until it’s time to watch fireworks. I don’t believe I have ever heard of a white neighborhood doing that—most of my white friends usually go to the beach rather than hangout with their families on the 4th of July. There has always been a difference in that area. I’ve always felt that black people have been more family oriented as well.

In the popular culture aspect, if you can’t already tell—most black musicians are either rappers or R&B singers. One thing that I have noticed is that they never get rewarded for their work in the music industries. There have been some great black albums over the years but it seems that it is never enough for the voters of the Grammy Award Ceremonies. I think that can tie into possessive investment in whiteness or white privilege. I remember a time when Taylor Swift won Album of The Year in 2009 over Beyoncé. Fans did not quite agree with that decision and neither did Kanye West as he politely interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech to praise Beyoncé as the true winner. Drama like this has been happening for years.
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Media:
TikTok video of comparing black households and a video of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift at the Grammy's.

https://vm.tiktok.com/KYPjvV/

https://youtu.be/1z8gCZ7zpsQ

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What is "black" in black popular culture?

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Stuart Hall Born February 3rd 1932 He was born in Kingston, Jamaica He is of African and British decent He moved to England in 1951 More information on Stuart hall Hall has also widely discussed notions of cultural identity, race and ethnicity, particularly in the creation of the

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Week 3: Possessive Investment in Whiteness

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Kimiam Waters

During week 3, we explored the topic of possessive investment in whiteness within American society. As described in Lipsitz’s, “Possessive Investment in Whiteness”, PIW refers to the systems and institutions in society that afford privileges to people who subscribe to the ideologies of the dominant, white culture. According to Lipsitz, these systems have existed throughout America’s history. Earlier institutional practices were overtly discriminatory, but evolved to hide their racist intentions by exploiting communities primarily occupied by minority groups. Schools, banks, stores are all examples of where PIW can be found. It is not limited to just the governing bodies of America. Lipsitz lists several techniques through which people from any background can reduce the influence of these structures and even combat it. Firstly, he states that it is essential to not view this expansive issue as monolithic, but rather a problem that is subject to change. Adopting this perspective legitimizes the idea of taking action toward progress. Lipsitz recommended action for people who benefit from PIW is giving up space for disenfranchised groups to voice or demonstrate their grievances. As for those disenfranchised groups, he asserts that education is the best tool to learn and, subsequently, combat these intricate structures as they are often veiled by the clever manipulation of data, words, or both, which is taught through the education system. As a gay African American, my current pursuit in higher education reflects the necessity of this point made by Lipsitz. My motivation for attending university is to remove people from the same circumstances I had to quietly witness many peers and family members fall victim to. A clearer path toward this preeminent goal is revealing itself to me as I learn more about topics like PIW, which illustrate a need for more internal reform rather than temporary external remedies as I had planned to create. Upon graduation, I intend to frame my prospective research in HIV prevention in terms of PIW to contribute not only to the dissolution of its influences within my field, but to inform society of its existence so that others can start integrating it in their work. Hopefully calling it by its name will lead to the disillusionment of America’s collective consciousness and true progress can start being made nationwide. (375)

Media:

This is a link to the Brotherhood initiative website. The BI is a UW program that aims to close the graduation gap between men of color and the rest of the UW population. We do not learn about the systems that contribute to our population’s disproportionately low graduation rate, but are rather taught the skills and given the resources to overcome them. However, it is an academic program that is enabling us to learn about these systems within higher education so that we may utilize this knowledge for our own benefit or the benefit of others.

http://brotherhoodinitiative.org/

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You could say that all humans are the same because they are all apart of the human race, but that would just be a dry statement that would anger and frustrate many people in this world. Especially if you are a POC because you would know what comes with having a skin color that is anything but white. So stating that everyone is the same because we are all human is basically stating that the differences that make us who were are do not matter. According to the week 8 powerpoint we should treat "similar-situated persons similar and differently-situated persons different" This did not make sense the first time I read it out loud, but after thinking how to relate that to my life i thought about how one person may act and if you are in the same type of group as them then you may be viewed and judged the same way that they were. IE if a black football player was to cheat on their girlfriend then it would make a lot of the of the other black football players look bad and they would get a label over them. Thats how I tried to make sense of it, it may be wrong but who knows. It got me thinking about intersectionality as well and thats where I found my piece of media, its a piece where it speaks about being biracial in America and the struggles that may come with it. This one hit home to me because as a African American, my mother is white and my dad is black I wasn't really prepared for how the world was going to treat me. I know the struggles that come with being biracial in America and I am actually very proud to be mixed raced and I know that these two identities cross each-others paths and intersect and thats what makes intersectional identities so interesting to me. You can never just group someone into one identity because there are so many identities that they may have that are behind the scene and is not physically present. (350)

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Being Multiracial in America | The New York Times

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty by Cherry Arcilla

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty by Cherry Arcilla

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Culture of poverty is a social theory that blames the poor for being poor. It was first introduced by Oscar Lewis who believed that in order to repair poverty you must teach them better behaviors, manners, and no sex early on. These are very specific behaviors he felt contributed to the culture of poverty. In class we also watched a man on youtube who explained why Filipinos don't get rich. I did not like the video because all he did was blame Filipinos for helping their family. He, himself isn't even Filipino and I find it mind boggling that just because he has Filipino friends, all of a sudden he knows how the whole culture works and tries to teach everyone on youtube about it. It is disrespectful, it lacks research, and it is unbelievable that someone could go on social media and blame a whole culture for being poor without discussing the trauma and violence that has been done to Filipinos. This ties in with culture of poverty because he is suggesting that Filipinos are poor because of our cultural values and how much we value our family interferes with money. Personally, I think that the reason Filipinos have a hard time being rich is because we were not rich in the first place. Filipinos have endured years of torture and obstacles being in America which has led to us always getting the short end of the stick. Furthermore, I think that he fails to see that it is easier said than done to give our family members opportunities. Some may not even be able to take that opportunity even if they wanted to. There’s always more to someones story and to label them as lazy and unappreciative is a little bit ignorant to me and it reminds me of Oscar Lewis.

As someone who sends money back home like the guy on youtube mentioned, I do find it hard to save money. However, I am aware of my privilege being in America. It's easier to get jobs, find scholarships, and etc. compared to my province back home. The reason I don't mind sending money home and the reason I will continue to send money home is for my dad. For the first half of my life, my dad took care of my sister and I as a single dad. He worked constantly and always made sure we had food on the table even if it was only for my sister and I. I was 8 years old and my sister was 12 when all of a sudden my mom comes back in the picture and moves us to America. My dad was very understandable and he knew it was for the better but it truly broke his heart having his two daughters move thousands of miles away. The first few years away from him was rough. I cried every single day and all of the money I was making from baby sitting went to him because his health declined drastically after we left. I was only 9 at the time and I was already sending money back home.

There is really more to someones story than what it seems. Maybe the reason I disliked the youtube video was because it hit too close to him or maybe because you just shouldn't over generalize a whole ethnicity just because you have 3 or 4 friends that identify as that.

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Week 6: Intersectional/ Horizontal Coalitions in the Black Community                    By Iman Mustafa                                                                    

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Week 6: Intersectional/ Horizontal Coalitions in the Black Community                    By Iman Mustafa                                                                    

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In this post I wanted to connect, how the context of our identities in the world are just as important as we identify. I found this most important in Patricia Hill Collins Toward a New Vision, which discussed the importance of understanding intersectionality and how coalition building across similar identities across race, class and gender are beneficial towards making social progress. She describes that for us to fully understand how power and privilege work, we need to build relationships and coalitions around common issues. I believe that intersectional and horizontal coalitions are powerful and help to bring much more awareness and change around an issue. In the black diaspora, I see  Malcom X’s push to bring attention to the importance of Pan-Africanism in the black diaspora, but especially in America, because of their denial of civil and human rights in America. He brought awareness to the  importance of coalition building between the continent of Africa, and African diaspora.  Since African Americans in the United States were brought to the states by enslavement , they were not able to establish and create a way for them to challenge the American system to give them all of their rights as humans.  I think this is significant because a lot of popularized movements in the United States tend to be focused solely on the effect of Black Diaspora in the United States without considering how this issue is not only national but global. Although issues that create institutional racism are unique to the United States such as the school to prison-pipeline, prison industrial complex and diminishing overall black health. All of these issues are all connected historically to the long-lasting effects of colonialism. By exerting energy within the black community in the United to solely focus on United States issues, is important because the context in which these issues were created was to target black Americans. To neglect the idea that the liberation of black folk in America is just as important in the rest as not being just as important, is counterintuitive, and slows down the potential progress by not creating global coalitions that are cross national.

Clip on Malcolm explaining the significance of Pan-Africanism

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty by Cierra Devine 

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Week 3: Culture of Poverty by Cierra Devine 

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When looking back at all of the awesome topics that we discussed thus far, I felt a deep connection to this one specifically. One of the videos from this week was about Filipinos and why they don’t ever get rich, the man in this video goes on to explain it is because the culture practices behaviors that keep them from making money. One of the main issues he pointed out was that family members are making money but then give it back to the rest of their family, so they then don’t have as much. In my mind I see this as common sense, since my family raised and provided for me, I will do the same later in life and will give back for what they did for me. I believe the goal in life isn’t to have tons and tons of money but to be comfortable and stable. What gives me joy in life is seeing my friends and family thriving and happy, if giving them money will do this then I will do it. This may be seen as a negative behavior and cultural activity by some, but it is normal to my family. Also, part of the reason this video bothers me is because it is a white man speaking on behalf of Filipinos, he claims that he understands the culture and can see the issues with it because he has friends that are Filipino. That is one of the main issues with white people, they believe they can speak about other cultures simply because they have observed them, but they are doing so as an outsider, so their perspective is entirely different.  (284)

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status By Scovia Joseph

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Week 3: Lifelong Minority Status By Scovia Joseph

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The topic of Lifelong Minority status came up during an important film we watched during week three that related racism and health. The term is defined as unequal treatment of African -American women where race defines the ability for the mother and child to receive adequate support for their needs through the healthcare system. In the documentary we were introduced with a very educated, healthy and successful women who went through the traumatic experience  of having a pre-mature baby. The odds were stacked against her. Furthermore, her baby was going through a series of situations that mentally detangled the mother as a whole. Throughout this documentary professionals tried to understand why black women were more at risk to having pre-mature labors rather than having a consistency of healthy births. Many of the causes include the stress of being in a society where you have to worry everyday about if your cries will be heard, if you will get treated the same. Just the idea that you were a certain color made you extremely vulnerable to the many injustices passed around, no matter how many degrees or money you made. You were more at risk than a white women that did not go to school and does not make the same amount of money that you do.
After looking at this example, we as students and members os society need to think about what are some of the solutions that we can offer in support to these women and people of color. Solutions could include the promotion of who these people are and what we contribute to society. Also encouraging black people to take routes in healthcare to provide with the necessary tools and knowledge to support one another. lastly the promotion of mental health care. We need to be able to talk about these issues, with our peers and also solve some of the issues we have, for ourselves. Empower one another and create a sense of community and active support. These types of solutions is the step in the right direction. A path that will provide us to live freely. (351 words)

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Module 5 - Part 2 Targeting Groups with Different Learning Needs: Migrants & Ethnic Minorities

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Week 3: Assimilation Theory and Latinx Paradox by Celeste Granados 

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Week 3: Assimilation Theory and Latinx Paradox by Celeste Granados 

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Within the Latinx community, assimilating into American society has been important to increase their social mobility. The cost of this has been the health of Latinx people as it begins to worsen the longer they stay in America. In Week 3 and Discussion Post #3, we talked about the downside to assimilation by discussing the Latinx Paradox from the video “Becoming American.” Assimilation theory was invented by Robert Park to fight racism, but it had the opposite effect. In order for individuals to be socially mobile in America, they had to adapt to the dominant culture by shedding their culture for a new one which led to assimilation. In contrast, the Latinx Paradox is the contradiction between the health of Latinx people when they first come to America to years after. They were in good health at the beginning but the longer they stayed in America their health began to worsen as they started to assimilate to American society. Having that family connection was an important factor for Latinx people which contributed to their good health. This affected them negatively once family members started getting busy with more work that lead to less family time and to their exposure to harmful chemicals as a result of their jobs. This phenomenon emphasizes the downside to assimilation for certain racial groups. I feel that it is important to recognize these issues in America because many people that come here are basically forced to assimilate so that they can become socially mobile. Success in American is determined by how well an individual can climb the ladder so that they can make it in America. If an individual can’t do that by assimilating to the dominant culture than it is harder for them to find success. For Latinx people, their health has deteriorated because of assimilation but isn’t something that should be happening in a 1st World country. By acknowledging the downsides to assimilation, people of different races coming to America are able to embrace their culture by working towards a more pluralistic society and not one that is centered on a dominant culture. (350 words)

Media:
Video of Latinos talking about belonging and identity

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Defining Latino: Young People Talk Identity, Belonging | NBC Latino | NBC News

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Possessive Investment in Whiteness in Schools by Jessica Hernandez

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Possessive Investment in Whiteness in Schools by Jessica Hernandez

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Possessive Invest in whiteness is a concept by George Lipsitz that we covered in Module 3 Week 3. It’s “an organizing principle in social relations that ensure advantage through systemic practices of aversion, exploitation, denigration, and discrimination as practiced by people who profess to whiteness as a form of property” (Lipsitz) and it can be seen everywhere from banks to schooling. Specifically in banks, when thinking about “who has more access to receive loans?,” white people will more likely receive a loan in comparison to a Black person. In schools, this is a crucial issue because white “culture” is what we are taught since kindergarteners to 12th grade and a majority of the time teachers are white. Also, it’s usually “invisible” and draws its power from this, for example it opens the door to the dominant race while closing it for minorities.
Going to middle school and high school in Yakima, Washington where Latinos and Hispanics make up 45% of the city's population my teachers were always white, rarely did I ever have a POC as a teacher. This didn’t make sense to me because both in middle and high school more than half of the school's population were POC, there was hardly any diversity in the school. Also, as I’ve mentioned the dominant culture is basically the only thing taught in schools, there is a Eurocentric curriculum. In history, we are taught about how good the United States and rarely are taught about how horrible the US had treated minorities throughout history. For example, in high school I never learned that Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the US dehumanized them and mistreated them because they feared that they were in contact with people in Japan. In English classes we read and analyzed “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “ The Tempest”, and many others by William Shakespeare, a white European man and same goes with “The Adventures of Huckleberry” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain, another white male. US education is based around eurocentrism, where we focus on Western culture and we have to decolonize it. (355 words)

Media:

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Assimilation is when ethnic groups shed their culture and traditions to blend in with the dominant society. The idea of assimilation can be linked to a lot our readings throughout the quarter, but it really stood out to me in Schlesinger’s work and his strong encouragement of ethnic groups to assimilate to reduce the fragmentation in the United States. Growing up I was aware that my family and I were different and looked different than the dominant society. I have never been ashamed of my background or ethnicity. I do remember that in elementary school speaking Spanish (or any other language) was discouraged so I would rarely speak Spanish. Middle school was slightly more lenient. But I remember my friends and I couldn’t speak Spanish to each other without getting looks from other students or the teachers telling us to stop. I understand why some students and families see assimilation as a means to increase social mobility. The assimilation theory assumes that if groups fully assimilate, individuals will be judged solely on the merits of their hard work. I don’t think this is necessarily true. I don’t think the dominant society will ever see ethnic groups as equals, even if they fully assimilate. I think this is evident more than ever with the increasing videotapes and documentation of police brutality against black people. Some people truly do believe they will have a better chance at reaching “The American Dream” if they assimilate and lose who they are. I think it’s sad that to this day diversity is not celebrated throughout the nation.

In connecting assimilation to education, topics like assimilation, genocides of people of color, and a lot of the history that negatively impacted ethnic groups are not taught in middle school or even high school. Grade schools focus on Christopher Columbus, they sugar coat topics like segregation and slavery, they just don’t give the entire picture. It wasn’t until I took a history class at this university that focused on race that I learned about assimilation and the atrocities that have been committed all in the name of the nation. It was a really eye-opening class, and I wish grade schools would incorporate and teach these topics to the younger generations so they could be more aware and respectful members of society. (339 words)

Media: A TED Talk of a woman from Venezuela who speaks about being different and how it influenced her life.

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What makes you special? | Mariana Atencio | TEDxUniversityofNevada

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"Disinvesting in Whiteness by Social Movements." (Module 3) by Aiyanna Guadiz

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"Disinvesting in Whiteness by Social Movements." (Module 3) by Aiyanna Guadiz

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In this online gallery walk I wanted to discuss George Lipsitz reading, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness” (PIW).  As we all know Lipsitz defines the possessive investment in whiteness as “an organizing principle in social relations that ensure advantage through systemic practices of aversion, exploitation, denigration, and discrimination as practiced by people who profess to whiteness.” It also can be seen as property assets for social mobility, by investing you get access to opportunities and resources that help you thrive.” We see PIW everywhere. We need to start taking deliberate actions in combating whiteness. We can combat this by calling it out by its name, getting more educated, and by social movements like #BlackLivesMatter. The focus of the movement is about real structural change. It's not just a moment, it's a movement for all people of color. They use social media as an outlet for protest by demanding equal rights for the black community. Although this movement is not just for the black community, it’s for everyone who wants to be an ally to fight against state violence and provide economic justice for all.  Intersectionality is critical to this movement because unlike other movements before this movement is composed of a diverse leadership board of women and the LGBTQ people. It’s important that we start shifting our mindset to a more intersectional approach in combating whiteness. Once we start disinvesting in whiteness and reinvest in the lives of the marginalized, we can start having community control. political power and finally end the war on black people.
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Media:
Here I have attached a little more about the history of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.

Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016)

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Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016)

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Week 1: Socially constructed ideas in school by Yuan Zhou 

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Week 1: Socially constructed ideas in school by Yuan Zhou 

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Social construction is a theory of human beings arbitrarily assigning meanings to things and actions. It was introduced in the first week when we talked about identities. I did not realize how many things are socially constructed until I was introduced to that term. For example, the idea of masculinity and sexuality are socially constructed, and because they were made by human beings, they could change over time. The society is more welcoming of all people and is becoming less conservative. However, there are still certain ideas associated with certain racial groups. All those ideas are socially constructed, and I think some of them are what we call stereotypes. This concept was introduced in week 1, and we also had a class discussion on it. It further helps me to understand that we are inventing identities, and we are not born with them. Stuart Hall also points that out in his writing, where he states that our identity is created by certain rules, and they are socially constructed.
Understanding the concept of social construction helps me to relate it to myself. When I was a freshman in high school, a white kid called me a monkey for fun. I did not like that, and I guess the reason was there is a socially constructed idea that Asian people are associated with monkeys. It made me feel like he was making fun of my race. That was not the only incident where people assumed things about me as a person because of race. Now I am looking back at it, it was all socially constructed ideas of Asian people. I don’t think I was born with those identities, and they are coming from how people associate things with Asian people. I don’t care if people say something mean to me because of my race at this point. However, to a 14-year-old, these things could have a bad impact. I think it’s important to recognize these issues are happening in school, and some socially constructed ideas should be reevaluated. ( 337 words)

Media: Here is a meme I found of Asian stereotypes. Not all stereotypes are trying to make you feel bad. I think it's important to understand where their intentions are

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Social Mobility Within the Black Community (Module 2) by Daisia Goldsmith

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Social Mobility Within the Black Community (Module 2) by Daisia Goldsmith

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I want to focus on Social Mobility as discussed in class (discussion #3: on Filipinx and Latinx People). I want to start by saying ‘social mobility’ is an overarching topic that has two sets of perspectives and theories that lead you to success or failure. The only way to be socially mobile is to be successful. Success is defined differently for everyone. To me, success is reaching an internal goal (non-materialistic/no house or car, etc.). In my eyes, it means to literally make mistakes, and LEARN from them. Watching the video clip “why Filipinos don’t get rich” sparked an interest for me to reflect on the black community I’m involved in. The video used the culture of poverty theory, blaming poor people for their continuation of cultural practices but when I analyze my community, I’m considering their American history (slavery, civil rights, etc.). The video also suggests the bootstrap method by saying if people worked harder, they would be successful but that’s not true due to structural inequality that black people have always experienced and still continue to go through. In 2020 people of color are not getting hired for jobs based on their name and assumptions about who they are. I’ve noticed within my own group of friends a lot of their failure has to do with their family depending on them. I’ve witnessed the toll it took on them and for me to provide resources wasn’t enough, they had to get out of that group mentality on their own.

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Module - Week 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

Name:

Discuss your topic/issue:

Media:

250 words minimum

Due: May 29th, 11:59pm