SOCI 3422 Blog

As I sat in class and listened to the teacher, as she reminded us of what a great leader and eloquent speaker Dr. Martin Luther King was, I am filled with joy and pride, but then these emotions are quickly changed to one of dismay, confusion, then anger. Why am I angry? There are still so many missing pieces to the puzzle, that evening Dr. King was assasinated, that it makes me angry to think that this entire assasination may have been planned. Like our teacher said, only the very rich could have afforded to travel via airplane, not only that, but the high-powered weapon the assasin used was very expensive, and he could not have afforded these items. I have also spoken to my father-in-law on numerous occasions about the circumstances and events that led up to the evening that Dr. King was murdered. My father-in-law was one of the first black police officers that were hired in Memphis Police Department, and he has been interviewed several times by the local T.V. stations about what it was like to work as a police officer, back in those days and also about the evening Dr. King was murdered. My father-in-law shared with me, that he would always be one of the officers, who would work as a body guard for Dr. King whenever he came to Memphis, but on that day Dr. King was murdered, all black police officers were taken off that shift or sent somewhere else to work on that evening. There are still so many unanswered questions that sad evening Dr. King was killed that it sometimes saddens me to think that it was all part of a conspiracy.

The presentations Tuesday were great! I loved coming in dressed as a Native American and seeing all the reactions that people were giving me for not having a shirt on. :P The dishes that we all had were very appetizing and highlighted the presentations even more. Below is the link for At The River I Stand. Unfortunately, the only link that I could find to the video only shows the first 5:39 minutes and the only way to get to watch the whole thing is ordering it for $25 on DVD. :( The clip that it allows us to see is very moving as it is though. The url is: http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0007
There is a little more information about the film below the clip and it really makes me want to purchase it just so I can watch it but it's a problem when I don't have the money to spare. This class has been an eye opener for me. I didn't think that there were so many problems in our society that I didn't know about. This makes me wish that there was no inferiority within our set of races and that all of the issues with social class would be obliterated. I know to many that would sound communistic and undemocratic, but this country is not run under perfect democracy as it stands anyway. I could rant for days about the various things that are messed up in this country and all over the world, but this website isn't quite big enough for me to do so and I don't exactly have the time to waste my breath knowing that it won't change. I love Professor Warren and the way that she teaches and I am sad that she is moving away after the semester is over because I have told so many people about this course and wanted them all to get taught the exact same information that I have learned from her. This information is something that I will hold dearly for the rest of my life and her words will be passed down in my family for generations to come.

This has definitely been my most eye opening class of the semester. It was interesting to find out so many of the facts about immigration and colonization into the United States. Of course, I knew that immigrants were treated poorly and unfairly given stereotypes, but I had no idea the injustice that they faced once they reached land. I think the presenters did an excellent job of portraying what life was like for these different minority groups. I especially enjoyed the presentation on Mexican Americans. The skit was great and they did an excellent job of engaging the class while still remaining fun and informative at the same time. While I don't agree wih everything Dr Warren had taught us thus far, I will say that I have a new respect for those in such minority groups and appreciate the things that I have been blessed with.

To LEARN and UNDERSTAND our HISTORY. This is not about just BLACK or WHITE, itâ??s way pass just that. This class has helped me to answer the Hows and Whys, and thatâ??s all I need to know, so that I am able to better understand the way this â??WORLDâ?? works.
This class focuses on the sociology of race and of ethnic relations is the area of the discipline that studies the social, political, and economic relations between races and ethnicities at all levels of society. This area encompasses the study of racism, residential segregation, and other complex social processes between different racial and ethnic groups. The sociological analysis of race and ethnicity frequently interacts with other areas of sociology such as social psychology.

I know that people are very much entitled to their opinions, but facts are facts and truth is OUR OPINIONS does not matter. Its all about Facts. We go to school to learn what we need to know about the real world, and lastly how do deal with the world. And we can only learn that about understanding the people that we share this world with, because after ever SHADE is here to stay. In short, I love this class, I hope everyone as learned as much as me.

What I do enjoy the most about this class is the fact many of the things we learn are historical facts. I think that's it is interesting to hear about how different ethnic groups resist oppression whether it be sticking together in groups, or trying to fight back for equal rights. Not only getting more information about life for past minorities is neat, I also like that she defines words and clarifies their definitions. For example, she made clear the difference between prejudice and discrimination with explaining one is a thought while another act on it. Overall, I just have a better understanding of ethnic groups and their coping along with the label that goes with a feeling a person might have toward others.

I'm not gonna lie, I am having an interesting and challenging experience with taking this class. You may all know me as "that guy" that doesn't buy all of the stuff Professor Warren tells us, and occasionally speaks out about it. I do not agree with a lot of the things we have discussed in class. The history part of the class is fascinating, learning about different minority groups is always nice, and I believe it should be required of all students. However, when we discuss current day topics and the whole WASP running the show deal, I disagree, and tend to tune out. Now, I scored well on the test because I know the answer she is looking for, regardless of what I personally believe. I just want to challenge some of you all to think about the current day in a different light. Yes, there are still old money WASPs that do have influence. But there are also major role players in society that are in no way WASPs, a sort of new player in the game. My example, and I apologize for offending people (since I know this will), is President Obama. I'm not here to argue his background or anything related to that. I would just like to point out that if our society was still entirely run by discriminating WASPs, I highly doubt we would have put him in the place he is in. He may be whatever percentage Caucasian, but he is also part African American. In his lineage, there are signs of Muslim descent, regardless of whether or not this was passed down to him. I am in no way knocking our President, I just don't believe that if the WASPs had as much power as some would claim they do, that he would be in his position. Also, I disagree with the portrayal of lack of upward mobility. I believe that every student sitting in our class, as well as Professor Warren are living testaments of upward mobility. With the amount of scholarships and grants available to us, mixed with the endless possibilities ahead of each of us, I don't see how you can agree that we are "stuck" in the class we were born into. Work hard and be rewarded.

Again, I'm sorry if I offend anyone. I just think differently than Professor Warren does, and have had some stuff on my mind.

I spent several days researching about my targeted minority group for the group project/presentations and realized that the available resources seemed to be limited at the McWherter library. This of course was only limited because the topics plugged into the search bar (databases) were limiting the search itself. I found that there are many articles and books available if you widen your search a little more. If you search history and separate countries at a time, you'll find all forms of resources to read and pull information from. I personally have a mini library at my house to browse through and choose from to pull subject information. One of my favorite books is "20th Century Day by Day", which offers occurrences, major or non, throughout the world every day of the century. If anybody would like to borrow this book just let me know!

I presented about Italian Americans, but for another class I presented on Illegal Immigration and Mexican history in the United States. Much of what the book tells us was news to me. It's amazing that no matter what our viewpoint is about illegal immigration, we all support it from an economic standpoint by purchasing various food products and fast food. It was also an interesting fact to point out that Mexicans are not alone in illegal immigration, but maybe because they have a history of being hated and discriminated against, it is easier to target them even though they help our economy so much. For example, Canadians can immigrate illegally as well, it's just not in large numbers, and the media does not show that, so our attention is not on it. One last thing, Mexicans who have been here all their lives may want to distance themselves from other Mexicans, i.e., if they have more Spanish blood and can "pass" they may want to assimilate themselves into the power structure. This may be sad, but many are just grouped together with illegal immigrants who are always stigmatized in the media.