I enjoyed doing this assignment. Going back to my old neighborhood was fun. Taking pictures was also enjoyable. There were so many pictures to choose from, it was hard to pick just three. The writing was also enjoyable. It brought back a lot of fond memories. I did feel that there was a lot of linking involved. I did not have difficulties with editing. I really wanted to go into more detail about my heritage, but 200 words comes up fast. What does it mean to be Irish? The food my family cooked, some recipes from Ireland handed down for generations, were some of the things I wanted to talk about. There is so much more to being Irish that my grandfather and father taught me. There is more to being Irish than drinking beer and eating corned beef, as some people think. I would have loved to interview my grandfather for this paper, but that is not possible, because he is no longer living. When writing the paper, I had to make sure I kept my thoughts intact. It as easy for me to want to veer off into other subjects, because there was so much more I wanted to talk about. Organizing my ideas before writing my paper helped me to stay on track. I did edit twice, and revise, to make sure my thoughts, ideas and facts were clear. https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/gettingmydegree.home.blog/105
“The Trouble With
Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Equality”
By Walter Benn
Michaels
In
this book, the author is comparing the difference in diversity using race and
economic standing. He quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald saying to Ernest Hemmingway,
“The rich are different from you and me.” The point of the story, as Hemmingway told it,
was that the rich aren’t really different from you and me. Fitzgerald’s mistake
was that he was treating the rich as if they were a different kind of person,
instead of the same kind of person with more money. Treating rich people as if
they were a glamorous race. In this book, the author compares different scenarios
to cover race, identity, diversity and equality.
The
author talks about Robert Cohn’s money in the book, “The Sun Also Rises”. No
one cares about the money, but about the fact that he is a “race conscious,
little kike” (meaning, Jew). Showing the difference that the fundamental
differences are different, than how much money you have.
The
book, “The Great Gatsby” is used as an example. That Gatsby made a great deal
of money, but it’s not good enough to win Daisy back. A story of a poor boy
that becomes rich. It’s more of a story about a man who makes a lot of money,
but tries and fails to change who he is. Someone who pretends to be something
he is not.
Fitzgerald
treats them as if they really do belong to different races. As if a poor boy
was only passing as rich. Someone yells,” We are all white here”. But they
think Gatsby is not white enough. The Gatsby takes one kind of difference, the
difference between white and poor, and rediscribes it as another difference. It
describes the difference between white, and not so white. The book, “The
Gatsby”, gives us a vision of our society divided into races rather than
economic classes.
The
author points out that race has not disappeared, but should be understood as
social entities instead. Good and bad ways. The bad ways involve racism,
refusal to except people who are different from us. The good ways are the
opposite, embracing difference, celebrating what we have come to call
diversity.
Diversity
emerged out of struggle against racism. The word “Diversity” began having
meaning for example in 1978, when the Supreme court ruled that taking into
consideration the race of an applicant to the university of California was an
acceptable practice if it is served the “interest of diversity”. The point the
court was trying to make was that universities had a legitimate interest in
taking race into account as a way they would take into account what part of the
country the applicant came from, or what their academic interests were. They
had an interest in having a diverse student body and racial diversity like
geographic diversity could be an acceptable goal for admissions policy. What
happened here was that diversity was now connected with race. Now universities
measure rankings by race, not the number of people from different areas of the
country.
The
general principal the author points out, is that our commitment to diversity
has redefined the opposition to discrimination as the appreciation of
difference. That racism itself is not a bad thing, which it is, but that race
itself is a good thing.
The
author points out that once his students take a course in his human genetics
class, they will stop talking about black and white and Asian races, and start
talking about black, European, and Asian cultures instead.
The
author discusses how we love to think that the differences that divide us, are
not the differences between those of us who have money and those of us who
don’t, but are the differences between those of us who are black and those of
us who are Asian, Latino or whatever. A world where some of us have enough money
is a world where the differences between us present a problem: the need to get
rid of inequality or to justify it.
We don’t like to acknowledge differences
exist. Americans don’t like to be associated with being lower class, and don’t
identify with being upper class. The class we like best to be associated with
is middle class. But the upper, lower and middle class are much different. Over the years, the gap between rich and poor
has grown much larger. Poor people do not want to contribute to diversity, but
want to stop being poor.
The
author’s goals are to show how our current notion of diversity trumpeted as racism
and biological essentialism. Meaning the assumption that all members of a
category are alike, or share similar if not identical characteristics. Example: Gay men are not athletic. His second
goal is to show the American love affair with race. Dressing race up as a
culture has continued and intensified. Almost everything we say about culture
seems to be mistaken. His last goal is to shift focus from cultural diversity,
to economic equality.
The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States
during World War 2 was the forced relocation and incarceration in camps in the
western interior of the country of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of
Japanese ancestry. The internment was resulted more from racism than security
risk. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor,
Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 ordering all
Japanese-Americans to evacuate the west coast, many of whom were American
citizens. There were ten intermittent camps located across the country.
Traditional family structure was held within the camps and
American born children were allowed to hold positions of authority. Some
Japanese American citizens were allowed to return to the west coast beginning
in 1945. The last camp closed in 1946.
The relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps
during World War 2 was one of the worst violations of civil liberties in
American history. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, rumors
fueled with race and prejudice of a plot among Japanese Americans to sabotage
war efforts. In 1942 the Roosevelt administration was pressured to remove
people of Japanese ancestry from the west coast by farmers seeking to eliminate
Japanese competition. The public feared sabotage.
The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the location order,
Hirabayashi-vs.-United States and Korematsu-vs.-United States. Early in 1945,
Japanese American citizens were allowed to return to the west coast, but not
until the last camp was closed in 1946.
Ten intermittent camps were set up in California, Idaho,
Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas.
Many were forced to sell their property at a huge loss before entering
the camps. A 1948 law provided for reimbursement for property loss by those
interned. In 1988 congress awarded restitution payments of twenty thousand dollars
to each survivor of the camps. By the end of the twentieth century, the United
States government paid $1.6 Billion in reparations to detainees and their
descendants. The last 274 internees were removed from San Francisco California
on May 20th 1942. Only six seriously ill people remained in local
hospitals.
1 Kiyoshi Katsumoto, left, remembers the number his family was assigned: 21365. “That’s what we were reduced to.” he says. (Dorothea Lange).
Jada Martin Jada Martin is a Full- Time student at Oakland University in Rochester Michigan. Jada is majoring in Journalism.
Jada Martin is a full time Student at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Jada has been living on campus for two years. Jada grew up in Oak Park Michigan, and is majoring in Journalism. Her dream is to work for CNN as a journalist. In her spare time, Jada likes to go shopping and dancing. Jada loves art museums, and also loves to travel. When I asked her what she likes best about Oakland University, Jada said,”Safety, and its a great learning experience.” In this short video, Jada answers questions about diversity and inclusion.
Black Twitter is a cultural identity consisting of black Twitter users from around the world , on the Twitter social network. They focus on issues of interest to the black community, particular in the United States. Active African American Twitter users who have created a virtual community.
One example is #BlackLivesMatter. The hashtag was created in 2013 by activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullars and Opal Tometi. They felt that African Americans received unequal treatment from law enforcement. Alicia Garza describes it as, “An ideological and political intervention, in a world where black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for their demise.”
Garza also added, “It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, or humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.”
Black Twitter is an extension of the black urban experience. It has power and impact. Twitter gets a lot of attention for dragging someone through the mud, but it also serves as a mechanism for activism. African Americans use Twitter at a higher rate than any other ethnic group. Examples of tweets are: #YouOKSis which is for street harassment and also, #BlackLivesMatter which gives voice to the ongoing movement to reform police practices.
Black Twitter, is not a hashtag or website, it is a group of individuals that come together to have conversations about , culture, identity, and race. Black Twitter is not a secret platform. Its all in the way that people use the platform to draw attention to issues of concern to black communities.
During the last part of World War 2, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The dates the events occurred was August 6th and 9th 1945. The americans bragged that they now had a new way of distruction. The atomic bomb, code named “Little Boy” was dropped on humans. No warning was given. It contained uranium, and formed a mushroom cloud into the air. The first bomb dropped killed 80,000 people instantly. The second bomb released killed at least 74,000 people. Nuclear weapons have not been used on civilian targets since this event. Cancer and birth defect from this event have been felt for generations. I believe the ethical and legal points of this event can be debated by many people. Uranium and Platonium were used, and today, you never hear of these compounds being used. The distruction this event caused is overwhelming. But do we really know the thought and plan of the United States military. It’s hard to look at distruction of human beings. It’s easy to read about something and come to a conclusion without knowing all of the facts. My father was overseas during World War 2 when this event occurred. He was in the Navy. I remember as a high school student asking him about this event for my history class. It was something my father never talked about. When I asked my father to tell me about it, I remember him saying, “ We had a job to do, and we did it and came home.” Wow, a totally different viewpoint than a civilian would have. When I asked him more questions, he told me again, “ We had a job to do, and we did it. Don’t ask me again.” I believe the distruction of the event did bother my father because he would never talk about it in detail. My father had many military stories he talked about when he was in World War 2. But this was not one of them. I do believe , now that I am an adult,that this event was devistaing to him. I hope in the future something like this never happens again.
What drew me first was
“Diversity”. Hesitant to click on was “White Privilege”. What surprised
me most was how people have a different explanation and definition of
the word diversity. What confirmed an expectation was how people limit
it to one thing like for example, “race”. What was new? Was that the one
person determined diversity just on looks. What caused strong feelings
was how they felt like the workplace was not equal. What further
questions were raised was how they feel certain people don’t belong ,
and want to be with people only like them. My pull for action is to
maintain my family and home, with an open mind about diversity.
Personal reflection in journalism’s role is to cover events but to probe more deeply. They wanted to examine words and phrases that people of all different diverse backgrounds use differently. As a newsroom, they wanted to be able to understand events better, so they can limit misunderstandings for stories in their newsroom. The role of personal reflection can also mean that your responses are different from someone else’s. Your opinion and beliefs, empathy, experiences and contrasts play a key role in personal reflection in journalism. The article, ” Media must do better with race reporting.” about the times changing, came to mind.
I felt comfortable taking the test. I felt it was a bit repetitive, but I
am sure there was a reason it was submitted that way. I don’t feel that
in my subconscious, that I have any implicit biases. The reason being,
is that I am a pretty honest person, and do not judge people on their
race, background , age, appearance, political orientation or age. The
article “The Enduring Whiteness of the American Media” that we read in
class, came to mind on this subject. The part in the article where
people are typecast in the work place, reminded me of an incident I went
through at a job I had at one time. A certain area was up for bids and
an African American Lady wanted the spot. I never met her before. They
put me in the area because I was qualified, and she did not like that.
She had implicit bias towards me, making comments that I got the
position because I was white. She did not realize she was making such
comments until I brought it to her attention. The end result was a
meeting with management, where she made the same comments to them. When
they pointed it out to her, she was very upset with herself and
apologized. I was very hurt by this because it was a decision by
management to put me there, and I had to deal with her implicit bias.
The end result is that this happened many years ago and we are still
friends to this day.
I thought the documentary was a great video. It offered information on race, media, politics and United States history.I also enjoyed listening to the speaker, Deepa Kumar. I was shocked to learn terror attacks by white extremists outweigh attacks by Muslim Americans since the 9/11 attacks. Her information on “War on Terror” in 1979, the Iran Hostage Crisis hit home with me as I lived through that media coverage when it actually happened as a high school senior in that year. Her information on how Americans have been taught to fear Muslims , and the actual threat posed by Muslim was very eye opening. She discussed terrorism to make me understand how bias the media can portray people from different cultures in the wrong way. I am the generation that started to view Muslims differently, because of this, that’s what the media did to my way of thinking. The connection Deepa Kumar makes between the ban on Muslims and the treatment of Japanese Americans during the second world war, is that the two are alike because of their ethnicity issues and one bad event that took place involving them with the United States. After the Pearl Harbor attack overseas, Japanese in the United States, whether citizens or enemy aliens were assembled in centers, removed from their homes, and treated poorly. They were treated bad because of their ethnicity and one bad event. The Muslims after 9/11 were also treated badly after one event and their ethnicity. Americans looked at Muslims as dangerous and discriminated against them,. Also, if they were citizens, it did not matter. If they “looked” Muslim, Americans associated them with being the enemy. Terrorism is misunderstood because of many things. One issue, would be President Trumps 90 day ban on Muslims entering the country or traveling. This would cause people to automatically think of terrorism. Trumps order for suspension involved countries, seven nations, that did not kill Americans in terrorist attacks. He called the, “Radial Terrorists”. in a way that is misunderstood. “Moral Panic”, it changes the world, because you have an image of terrorism that is misrepresented. Terrorism is not associated with the “white culture” in the media. Number of plots and number of attacks of terrorism in a study, showed that less than one Muslim per one million is involved in terrorism. But because of racism in the media, Muslims are held responsible. Extensive coverage of the middle east during the Olympics war on terror, made Americans look at Muslims differently, and misunderstanding terrorism. Dehumanization and demonetization are real. I do buy the argument. The examples of events in history she gave as examples are real. Native Americans fought to keep land from whites, African American slaves who were turned into property, they were seen as a threat. Chinese were brought into the United States to build railroads, but were denied citizenship because they also were seen as a threat to Americans. Cartoons, the media portrayed them as a threat . Also, the Irish and Italians experienced radicalization. This is the process in turning people into a threat, the media portraying them in a way that we see them in a different way because of their ethnicity. “Clash of Civilizations” argues that the media portrays the clash of civilizations because it helps to propagate the Us verses them mentality. Hollywood contributes this mentality by putting Muslim people in roles that show violence, the bad guy, Also other other ethnic backgrounds such as Asians. Putting people in roles that do not show diversity, but putting them in roles that the audience will think matches their ethnicity. Hollywood stereotypes. 1980’s-1990’s cultural stereotyped because of movies during this time was bias. The Oklahoma bombing was caused by a christian white male, but because of the media coverage, people automatically associated it with a Muslim attack. Blamed it on the middle east.The movies, American Sniper and Zero Dark 30 portrays Muslims , Pakistanis as the villain. Twitter became racist with comments about Muslims because of “Zero Dark 30”. The process can change if the government stops spending so much money on terrorism and war. Americans need to stop focusing on terrorism and bias views on Muslims and other ethnic groups. More apologies need to be made. Not grouping people in different ethnic groups in the media, and educating people on Islam and other countries , would play a key role. This bias terrorism mentality did not happen overnight. I believe this and the next generation need to be taught at home about terrorism, diversity, and having a fair world. You can not control what is in the media, the movies, the internet on your own. But what you can control is what you teach your children about diversity, and that will change the way people think in the future. Focusing on healthcare, education and a good quality of life, are most important to teach the next generation so things will change in the world for the better of all mankind.
Drug addiction reporting for years was often perceived as a frighting subject. Journalists are changing their ways of reporting drug addiction. Promoting a rational view is the goal. The goal of “The Influence”, a single issue website, is to promote a rational view on drugs. Instead of the legal aspects of drug use, they focus more on the rehab industry. They are not promoting drug use, but focus on the reality that most people who get high, don’t become addicts. The focus is stories that are overlooked by big name media. They intend that if drugs are approached rationally, there is a much better chance of using them or not using them in a way that is good for society. The growing heroine problem in the united states began to up the drug reporting. Some of the challenges that have come to light, are the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous. Addicts seeking recovery drugs, and language used to discuss addiction are also questioned. New drugs coming to light like synthetic drug are new to reporting. Drugs like K2 are an example of the change in the reporting of drugs. Rather than reporting on the effects of the use of K2,interviewing users and scientific research can build a journalistic piece. A journalist ca challenge the social dangers of K2 with the notion that it is causing mass hysteria, but explore why people use them, and where to go from there. A country that is still raging the War On Drugs, needs articles that do not represent bias. “The Influence,” are committed to backing up everything they print with evidence. Sites that are run by activists, leads to misinformation. The Influences work, harbor on opinions at times and they acknowledge it. But unlike other sites, they are actually journalists. A piece on electronic cigarettes had flaws. Linking them to cancer with unsupported evidence. Drug news services are as common as recovery companies looking to advertise. This happened during the Affordable Care Act, which expanded insurance coverage for addiction treatment, “The Fix,” which was established in 2011, discovered that there was money directing people to rehab clinics. Little reporting has been done on selling ads or marketing plans for recovery companies. This is the invisible side to the business side of recovery companies. The lack of regulations in the rehab industry argues reform. The Influence does not publish opinion pieces by well known doctors. The focus for the journalist is not reform, but writing about rehabilitation, marijuana legalization, and reduction measures for opioid users. Journalists outlets like The Influence, want to report drug “Reality” and misconceptions of drugs as to not stereotype, and offer open-minded views and facts about drugs and rehabilitation.
Getting My Degree 