The Promise" from The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
personal troubles become public issues; private v. public
coined term "sociological imagination" = enables a person to understand history in its meaning for the individual AND society as a whole
Inherently biased, part of this is from personal experience.
About the Editors" & "About the Contributors
a. Patricia Hill Collins - black woman; sociology professor at UMD, professor of African American studies at Cincinnati; wrote numerous books and articles; won awards
b. Margaret L. Anderson - professor of sociology at U of Delaware where works with Black
Why Race, Class, & Gender Still Matter by Anderson & Collins
race, class, and gender still structure society in ways that value some lives more than others
race, class, and gender are intersecting categories of experience that affect all aspects of human life (overlapping and cumulative) = matrix of domination
Missing People & Others: Joining Together to Expand the Circle by Madrid
Being the "other" or the outside of the region
"Exotic but not exotic enough" - not in either the ethnic group or the non-exotic group
False consciousness - not realizing you are "the other" and need to integrate
US vs. THEM mentality - us means people in
Toward a New Vision by Collins
We should recognize that our differing experiences of oppression creates problems in relationships among us
Collins suggests to build coalitions around our common causes
We need to build empathy
Oppression by Frye
immobilization due to not one but many wires of oppressors
power of METAPHORS ? look at cognitive psychology and framing
uses iron birdcage of oppression - only look at one bar, don't understand why can't knock out the bars but look at whole scheme of thi
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by McIntosh
exclusive advantages afforded to certain people based on group identity or states
often unearned and invisible for people enjoying them (feeling safe, having connections, health care, similar cultural expectations)
some cases is often visible and embraced
A Different Mirror by Takaki
National identity crisis: plays out in education, healthcare, etc.
Uses the mirror as a metaphor. We can use a different mirror to see what the U.S. actually looks like, versus what people in power say it looks like.
Label Us Angry by Torres
Shows how difficult it is for oppressed people to break out of the path that society has created for them
Carlos and Jeremiah have very different triggers and coping mechanisms: any one decision can affect your whole life
Systems of Power & Inequality by Anderson & Collins
Race, class, and gender = systematic forms of inequality
each of these is socially constructed, but not a fixed category
systems of power: systems that differentially advantage/disadvantage groups depending on social location
prejudice: hostile attitude t
Shadowy Lines That Still Divide by Scott & Leonhardt
People think they have greater elasticity than they actually do - mobility is the movement of families up and down economic ladder
It can maybe happen, but not as quickly
Defeats purpose of "The American Dream"
Class means different things to different pe
Is Capitalism Gendered & Racialized? by Acker
Capitalism is a system that is embedded with sexism and racism; this cycle is hard to break because it is embedded and reinforced throughout history
US capitalism dominated by white males
domestic and caring activities are devalued and seen outside of the
Health & Wealth by Jacobs & Morone
So much wealth in the country but such a huge inequality gap in terms of health/medical care.
health care system in it for profit--severely overcharging for medicine
thousands of preventable deaths due to lack of health insurance
patients with health insu
Sub?Prime as a Black Catastrophe by Oliver/Shapiro (pg. 139)
Racial targeting Black Americans
Interest rates higher for Black Americans
Banks that gave out money, don't get money back; feeds the false stereotype that "people of color don't pay back"
"sub-prime" loans lower interest rates--higher fees in the end whe
Lifting as We Climb (pg 143)
Women face oppression when it comes to both race and gender; despite social changes, they remain immobile
wealth/net worth = total value of one's assets minus debts
"women of color have less wealth"
more likely to work in service occupations
benefit less
Why is There Poverty? by Johnson
Economic system organized so that wealth is at one end and scarcity is inevitably at the other
Smaller elite control most of income and leftovers divided among the rest
The system and the participation of individuals results in equality
Social problems ca
Seeing in 3D by Anderson pg 286
Take a 3D view; don't just focus on race; also look at class and gender
"without the knowledge that helps filter what you observe" you may have trouble understanding racism or sexism, etc. (286)
many reports about the effect of the recession were not spec
Welfare Reform, Family Hardship, & Women of Color by Burnham (BB)
Welfare reform = reduce welfare rolls and move women towards economic self-sufficiency but stripped single mothers of any govt. support 1996
Women's movement into low wage jobs ? housing insecurity, homelessness, food insecurity, hunger
Reduces health of
The Invisible Poor by Newman (BB)
How does newman define the "working poor"? -->Those employees who receive minimum wage. What's troublesome with this definition?-->some are young people earning minimum wage but live with parents in middle class house, women working these jobs many times
The First Americans: American Indians by Snipp (pg 194)
5 periods of incorporation of American Indians = removal, assimilation, Indian New Deal, termination and relocation, self-determination
Indians reduced from millions due to disease, war, famine, genocide
were forced into reservation in Oklahoma by the fed
Is This a White Country, or What" by Rubin (pg 201)
White people never had to think of themselves as White until they were surrounded by people of color
Whites scared outsiders will corrupt society and dilute culture;
scared because of economy (less jobs available) and conscious of racial identity
Being wh
Optional Ethnicities by Waters (pg.209)
White people (European descent) have the option to choose whether or not to embrace identity with their heritage or ethnicity
"passing": raised as one race and change at some point to claim a different race as their identity
"Symbolic Ethnicity": refers t
What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar About Identity by Ferber (pg 96)
According to White supremacy, the author was an abomination b/c she was Jewish
She'd never experienced "otherness" but now she has based on her being Jewish
White supremacy wants boundaries: Whites with Whites, etc
considers other races impure
Jewish folk
Racism without 'Racists' by Bonilla?Silva (BB)
White people today do not claim to be racist although discrimination is still with us
Whites blame blacks for race problem - are 'playing the race card', affirmative action, aren't working hard enough
color-blind racism: by not recognizing the different r
Color?blind Privilege by Gallagher
Targets stereotypes - white friends with braids; black people wearing expensive clothes
People aren't treated without empathy, just equally
allows whites to believe segregation isn't an issue because its illegal, but still exists
Media portrays that racis
Seeing More than Black & White by Martinez
Defines race by two things: Black and White ... yet we live in a much more diverse society than this binary ? competition between oppressed peoples
Latina/os, Asian Americans, Native Americans, etc. are left out and we forget about their experiences
Reaso
The Contested Meanings of 'Asian American by Kibria
DIFFERENT than other minorities because of ability to overcome disadvantage
being labeled as the "Model Minority" = strong work ethic, devoted to education, privileged position, different because of values in work/sufficiency/education
Dilemmas of racial
Race as Class by Gans
Race as a social construction - reflect hierarchy with whites at top and darks at bottom
Race/class correlation
Social construction can be reconstructed
A Dream Deferred by Mun?oz
The undocumented students are some of the most self motivated and focused students teachers say they have ever had because they have so much to gain and so much to lose.
60,000 undocumented students graduate every year but a path to education difficult ?
Sex & Gender Through the Prism of Difference by Zinn, Hondagneu?Sotelo, & Messner
Prism = is transparent that produces a spectrum when light refracted off it
Prism of difference = spectrum of people to show how gender is organized differently (sexuality, ethnicity, social class, physicality, age, nationality)
Feminism produced division
The Myth of the Latin Woman by Cofer
cultural signals create stereotypes (hot tamale ? sizzling, sexual firebrand)
young Latinas influence in decisions about clothes and colors - bright colors, provocative clothing and movement, family honor and protection
MYTH = work as domestics at menial
Becoming Entrepreneurs by Harvey
black women are starting their own businesses in beauty salons
they are still marginalized as having to be in the beauty industry and still isolated in low income neighborhoods
it has pros of having the advantage of having their kids at work and hiring wh
The Well?Coiffed Man by Barber
white middle class men are seeking service in the women oriented hair salons
they oppose the women decor and still disrespect the women who are helping them to keep up with the "man code"
they fear of being called feminine but rather not go to the male or
The Culture of Black Femininity & School Success by O'Conner, Lewis, & Mueller
black girls raised to be assertive and independent, higher self-esteem, socialized towards voice and power as consequences of models of black women
at risk for failure at school because express voice and power too ? psychological isolation, conflict with
Prisons for Our Bodies, Closets for Our Minds by Collins
use state-sanctioned institutional mechanisms to keep hierarchies
racism = blacks get inferior schools/housing/jobs and relies on membership in a discriminated community
heterosexism = pressured to stay closeted so are segregated from each other
common se
The Invention of Heterosexuality by Katz
First started out as an act to procreate, sexuality was yet to be expressed.
Generally started becoming defined and designated a norm/role/identity
Correlations between: 1) society's organization of eros and pleasure; 2) mode of engendering people as femi
An Intersectional Analysis of 'Sixpacks', 'Midriffs' & Hot Lesbians in Advertising by Gil
Male bodies seen as toned and young so codes men to be desired and objectified ? size a symbol for male power, dominance, independence
The Midriff = young, attractive, heterosexual, sexually powerful, white
Increasing number of lesbians in media ? feminin
The Darker Shades of Queer by Han
racism in the gay community
white upper-middle class gay men are more desirable and are considered as leaders in gay organizations
black gay men are too masculine and asian gay men are too feminine therefore the gay white men is the desirable
Asian and bl
Selling Sex for Visas by Brennan
Sosua in DR is popular vacation spot for male European sex tourists - women marry them so they can migrate to Europe or receive money from overseas
Both women and men use each other
Driven because of poverty and single motherhood (meager jobs, low wages,
Morgan Spurlock's 30 Days on Minimum Wage
Morgan and his wife use their sociological imagination to empathize upon the troubles faced by families living in poverty
brought awareness to average families living in poverty, working several jobs , living with numerous amounts of debt and unpaid bills
Tim Wise's The Pathology of White Privilege
The dominant group is the norm to which all minority groups are compared. According to Wise, this is why February is recognized each year as Black History Month, while there is no White History Month. His point is that white privilege is so ingrained, and
Katrina Browne's Traces of the Trade
The DeWolf family was responsible for the sale of 10,000 African slaves in the Americas
Katrina contacted family members to join her on a journey to confront their family's dark history
The family became extremely wealthy from the slave trade, which they
Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly 4
ads sell images of normalcy --false images which are constructed
turn women's bodies into things--dehumanized--allows for violence and objectification
91% of plastic surgery is performed on women
women w/ breast implants often lose sensation in their brea
Jason Katz' Tough Guise
young men are taught at early ages to be tough and masculine
women justify the "bad boy" image of men
men associate terms like: tough, independent, respected, powerful, violent, strong, and successful as being masculine
Masculinity is opposing being Femin
Sociological imagination
-recognizing the intersection b/t personal biography and history
-is inherently biased
-using our bio & history to understand society
-coined by C. Wright Mills, a sociologist who wrote "The Promise" which was an essay in the book "The Sociological Imagin
Privilege
-often unearned
-advantages/benefits given to specific people based on social status
-often invisible to the people enjoying it but sometimes visible and embraced
-exempts some classes from rules or standards applied to others
-keeps privileged folks dist
Power
-use of social identity to access resources and to produce an effect so to gain something from it
-amount of social, political, and economic influence of people in society
-the amount of control someone has
Oppression
preventing mobility for others
-system that maintains advantage and disadvantage based on social group
-operates intentionally and unintentionally
-at individual, institutional, and cultural levels
-Individual = attitudes and actions prejudice against a s
Intersectionality
-a paradigm
-multiple parts of our identities and how they intersect
-comes from sociology, cultural studies, and critical race theory coming out of law
-Patricia Hill Collins calls it MATRIX OF DOMINATION
-we are each a mosaic of our identities
-these ma
4 Classes of Contemporary Class System
1) Capitalist class: corporate executices and capitalist owners. Substantial economic ownership
2) Managerial Class: In between class - managers and top professionals. Has been delegated significant control over means of production and distribution
3) Sma
% of Americans in poverty?
15%
Class Convergence Theory
Predicted continuing rise in affluence of workers with the assumption that US capitalism was providing a better standard of living. Largely incorrect.
4 Periods of Capitalism
1) Mercantile and Plantation Capitalism (1770-1850)
2) Industrial Capitalism (1850-1890)
3) Early Monopoly Capitalism (1890-1940)
- growing concentration of power in few monopoly corporations
- led to great depression
4) Advanced (late) Monopoly Capitalis
Class
Groups of people of similar economic & social positions which share politics, lifestyles, consumption patterns, cultural interests because of their shared position
Socially constructed.
Classism
System of power that is based on class through which the upper and middle classes are advantaged over the working class and poor. Internalized classism - justification of classism by working class and poor.
Wealth Inequality
Richest 10% controls 2/3 of Americans' net worth
Elasticity
How correlated your economic status is to your parents'. High elasticity = low class mobility
Homestead Act of 1862
Fed Gov opened Western land to certain European immigrants. 1.5 million homesteads built between 18602-1930s. 46+ million (white) people benefit from this welfare program today
Double Consciousness
Being able to see yourself from your perspective and the perspective of your oppressor
False Consciousness
Not realizing that you've been exploited
Ideological Racism
Developed in US and overseas since 18th & 19th centuries. Views physical characteristics as linked to social/cultural characteristics. Lack of scientific support for racist ideologies hasn't diminished their power.
Reverse Racism
Label used for the modest government affirmative action and equal opportunity efforts that still exist. Inaccurate and oxymoronic. Reverse racisim would require hundreds of years of oppression of whites by blacks to truly be reverse racism.
Types of Racism:
1) Isolate Racism
2) Small group racism
3) Direct Institutionalized Racism
4) Indirect Institutionalized Racism
1) Isolate Racism
Harmful action taken intentionally by a dominant group individual against members of a subordinate racial group without the support of his or her community or institution
EX: policeman who chooses to single out and physically abuse Black people despite la
2) Small group racism
Harmful actions taken intentionally by a small group of dominant racial group individuals without the support of norms or rules of a large organization or social context.
EX: white supremacist groups
3) Direct institutionalized racism
Organizationally or community prescribed actions of White Americans that by intention have a negative impact on members of subordinate racial groups. EX: White flight, realators choosing not to let Blacks into a community
4) Indirect institutionalize racism
current actions and practices of White Americans that have a negative impact even though these organizational norms were established and carried out without intent to harm. EX: hiring practices that prevent some people of color from getting hired
Percentage of neighborhood that has to change from white to black for white flight to start happening
2%
Gender Queer
One who identifies outside the gender binary
Third Gender
sets apart identities other than M & F that appear across cultures
8 homophobic myths
1) LGBT ppl molest children at higher rates than straight people
2) same-sex parents harm children
3) people become homosexual because they were sexually abused or there was a deficiency in sex-role modelling
4) LGBT people do not live nearly as long as s