Does the power struggle still exist in the 21st Century and are teacher’s encouraging the inequality of power instead of addressing issues at school?
(Indent)In the past, countries like South Africa experienced a power struggle called the Apartheid. White South Africans were seen as the Superior race and were allowed privileges that other races were denied. Being born and raised in South Africa after Apartheid, where it is now called a Democracy. The power struggle is still just as ripe and evident as it was back then, it is just in reverse. Now the Black people are allowed privileges and the White people are denied them. It seems like only those in power; wealth and literacy are heard out and are able to actually make a change. Today, a similar fight for power is evident in classrooms, work places and all over the world. Mary Louise Pratt, a woman of the Elite MLA Academy presented a speech, “Art of the contact zone” to expose the students and faculty to the contact zone. Pratt uses a very clever technique by starting off with the story with personal illustrations and then leaves us dumbfounded by the points her essay makes about the inequality of power. Pratt’s explanation and emphasis about the struggle of power, past and present is completely true. Although the contact zone is a great idea in terms of power being equally distributed between people in society is, it’s not feasible because people always want to have more power than the next.
The contact zone is a great
Based on theme two, they reconstructed the myths about whites and blacks. They began to explain the concept of “If they gain, we lose”. There was a concern of the participants having and not having and about sharing privilege but not wanting to give it up (McIntyre, 57). McIntyre explains that there are always exceptions to the rule and it reconstructs the myth of “equal opportunity for all”.
The story “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” that’s written by Rebecca Skloot. The author talks about a story happened in the 1950’s, and it’s effects still happening. The aspect that controls the story is power of privilege. In all places, in all times, power of privilege is specified for people who called elite. They get this power to control situations, but it does not mean they all deserve handling this power. This power created to control everything and improve or develop it. It is just considered under the actions that seem like what Skloot mentions in the story, but this power is related to all things in our life. Now, let’s go back to the story, and see the effects of that power under the wrong usage. At that period of time, the power of privilege was controlled by whites. The separation that was between blacks and whites, and the arrogance that some white people had encouraged them to insult black people. Dr. George Gey is the one of the doctors who used their power to do something no one at that time knew it’s consequences, which is taking the cells. On the other hand, Henrietta whose cells were stolen with out her permission. Finally, the results mostly affected Deborah which is Henrietta’s daughter.
Based on the evidence supplied by author Kent Anderson Leslie, slaves in antebellum Georgia did not always live under the oppressive system of chattel labor. According to Leslie, the rules that applied to racial hierarchy were not strictly enforced, especially when it came to propertied and wealthy planters such as David Dickson who chose to raise his mixed-race daughter at home. Amanda Dickson’s experiences during Reconstruction demonstrate that she had much more freedom after slavery was abolished than may have been expected before the Civil War. Amanda Dickson’s experiences and those of her mother in particular do not fit the presumed mold of oppressed slave with no opportunity for a better life.
Pat Summitt. That name for some people means nothing. But to hundreds of others, it means everything. She was the main reason why women’s basketball became so competitive and why people started to watch it. Pat Summitt was never a loser and her tremendous win to loss ratio proves it. In the four decades that Summitt was part of the University of Tennessee she had a 1098-208 record. Famous women’s college basketball coach, Pat Summitt, victories and losses always contained courage, determination, and powerful leadership.
In this course we learned about many different types of oppression, from the time America was first “discovered” and the discoverers began oppressing the Indians, to slavery, to the oppression of the mentally handicapped, all the way to more “modern” times in schools were students are being oppressed.
This purpose of this paper is to synthesize this writer 's three key revelations from this semester which are, (1) white privilege, (2) curriculum corruption and inadequate United States history education in K-12 public schools, and (3) United States legislation which disadvantages the minor races as a means for the dominate race to maintain power and control. Thus, this exploration organizes each area of significant course discovery, which a hybrid of class sources and readings relating to each area of learning supports. Additionally, this synthesis includes a summary of this writer 's social location as well as the course material’s impact on the understanding and interpretation of these themes. Finally, this paper ends with a conclusion and presents final thoughts about the concepts we 've discussed in the Sociology 321 - Race and Ethnicity course throughout the spring 2016 semester.
All young people will encounter others who may discrimate against them for many different reasons the things they are told may damage there self asteem hindering their learning and feeling of self worth. Others may abuse their power in a physical mental or emotional sense to hurt others and this is to be stopped prematurely wherever possible. It is important in the work place to stop young people abusing their own power and also being taught the importance of npote [predudising or usin g power to abuse others. This should be taught to yioung people froma young age in a person centred way.
Kozol highlighted how against the popular belief and expectations, a trend of re-segregation has been growing inside the urban public schools in US. Kozol’s purpose of writing is more than just highlighting the issues at Fremont High school. The high school is just a small representation of the bigger apartheid. Kozol has drawn a picture of the mismanagement and the hopelessness growing among the students due to it. This becomes overwhelmingly evident when Kozol wrote about the time he was speaking with an African American girl “’Dear Mr. Kozol,’ wrote the eight-year-old, ‘we do not have the things you have. You have Clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. ‘Can you help us?’ (Kozol, 410)”. First off, it needs to be pointed out that Kozol frequently leaves out names of personal interviewers in his article, which leaves room to doubt if what he is saying is true. But giving the benefit of the doubt (considering Kozol’s credibility), the statement with the eight-year-old itself is eye opening to say the
The details build an appeal to pathos and impresses upon the reader that this is a problem worth discussing. They are shared in exploited proportions through the excuse called privilege. And knowingly or unknowingly privilege is something that is given to one unknowingly due to the state the modern world is in. Privilege was unfortunately molded over time and to the best of the future the future leaders of the world are working to make things favorable so that the apparent mistakes made in the past won’t follow through into the future. She had also mentioned in her essay that ‘Privilege is relative and contextual. Few people in this world, and particularly in the United States, have no privilege at all. Among those of us who participate in intellectual communities, privilege runs
In the 1890s, American women emerged as a major force for social reform. Millions joined civic organizations and extended their roles from domestic duties to concerns about their communities and environments. These years, between 1890 and 1920, were a time of many social changes that later became known as the Progressive Era. In this time era, millions of Americans organized associations to come up with solutions to the many problems that society was facing, and many of these problems were staring American women right in the face.
In the modern era, these perceived needs involve keeping the elite in power and keeping those of different races and lower social classes (the two of which often go hand-in-hand) at a disadvantage in schools and in the judicial system. This is not a singular phenomenon, as schools create an environment for children to organize themselves into groups, often based on race and social class. Even without students dividing themselves, school administrators may divide students. In his article "The New Jim Crow: Male and Female, South and North, from Cradle to Grave, Perception and Reality: Racial Disparity and Bias in America's Criminal Justice System," author Gary Ford also comments on the disadvantage non-white students share: “African- American students are far more likely than their white peers to be suspended, expelled, or
Racism is an obstacle that continues to play an active role in daily lives across the global. Currently, Americans are outraged by the actions of white police officers toward black men. In Ferguson, Missouri an unarmed, black teenager was shot by a white police officer and a black man was choked to death by a white officer in New York City. Racial tensions run deep in the United States, but race is social construction that is learned. Sociologist Amanda Lewis’s book, Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities defends the notion that schools are institutions in which children learn about race and maintain racial inequality.
Power binaries are a prevalent feature in all societies, past and present. One group in power holds the position at the top of the binary and, in doing so, pushes those who do not fit into the group to the bottom, socially and politically powerless. During the 1930’s in America, the most significant binary was the division between whites and people of color, specifically African Americans. (“Historical Context: Invisible Man”). Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man explores this time period through the story of an unnamed narrator struggling to find his individual identity as a young black man in a world that is constantly holding him down. The trials and tribulations the narrator endures and the people he encounters on his journey exemplify how the imbalanced power structure of a racist society will not truly allow even successful people of color to obtain substantial power unless they twist the definition of power itself.
South Africa has a history of legal segregation (Apartheid) which stems from prejudice, discrimination and anxiety with regards to intergroup contact. However, after 1994, when South Africa was declared a democracy, segregation was declared illegal and the society became racially mixed. Nevertheless, segregation still seems to be a contemporary phenomenon, though not legally enforced. In this essay I will explore Contact Theory as a way of reducing prejudice and intergroup anxiety; I will also discuss segregation and desegregation within the context of South Africa and our history and comment on whether inter-racial co-existence can be considered as the successful desegregation of South Africa. Lastly, I will also look at contact as a viable solution to segregation that is still taking place within our society.
Sociologists view power as a system of stratification that is based its ability to direct another person’s behavior, honor and prestige, which most of the times leads to patterns of social inequality. From this perspective, inequality means who gets what, how they get whatever they need, and why they need it in the first place (Diez, 2013). Power can either lead to social equality or inequality. In order to explain this in detail, the author of this paper explains two incidences, the first one in which the author was in power and the second one in which the author was a perpetrator of discrimination.