Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inequality. Show all posts
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Short Video of the Day (Race & Redlining: Housing Segregation In Everything)
As Gene Demby explains in the video, housing segregation didn't happen by accident. What's the impact of housing segregation and how did it create better conditions for whites? Housing segregation means unequal experiences in terms of quality of available public schools, interactions and experiences with police, likelihood of being near environmental hazards, and ability to build wealth.
Note: I saw the video on Mark Anthony Neal's NewBlackMan blog, posted here.
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Annette Lareau - Class Differences in Family Life (Video and Article)
Showing this 6 minute video in my Social Stratification class today. Annette Lareau talks about her research on class differences in family life.
Click here for a related article in The Atlantic, "Explaining Annette Lareau, or, Why Parenting Style Ensures Inequality."
Click here for a related article in The Atlantic, "Explaining Annette Lareau, or, Why Parenting Style Ensures Inequality."
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Broke and Famous
In the future there will be two categories of people: broke and famous.
79% of the population will be broke, 21% will be famous.
But that’s okay because everybody will have the chance to be famous.
Everyone will be monitored 24/7/365 and every action recorded permanently.
That’s how they will decide who gets to be famous.
It will have the intended benefit of ending crime.
(People will stop committing crime once they realize they will be caught and punished immediately. Even white-collar crime will be punished.)
The streets will also be totally clean because littering will bring immediate punishment.
At first people will bemoan the end of privacy but complaints will stop after people see how nice it is when there is no crime and the streets are clean. Plus there is the chance of being famous.
And it should be said that it won’t be horrible to be broke.
Basically the conditions will be tolerable enough so that nobody minds too much.
Everyone will be able to pay their rent and have enough to eat.
How we gonna eat? Just watch The Jetsons.
They will also require immunizations for everybody, free of charge.
Plus they are going to turn January into Equality Month. Everybody will have exactly the same amount of possessions and money for one month. It will take a lot of maneuvering but they can figure out how to do it.
So everyone will get to taste equality for 31 days.
Why January? Gotta start the New Year out right, right?
People will be rewarded with lots of cash if they demonstrate proficiency in another language.
They finally figured out that two languages are better than one.
Only one news channel will exist and it will be called HOTT News.
All the anchors and reporters and pundits and sportscasters and meteorologists will be models.
There won’t be any hate on HOTT News because it will replace all the other news channels that will lose ratings when they run out of ways to hate. (It turns out that hate has an expiration date.)
People will embrace the change because HOTT News is gonna make tolerance sexy.
Music will be pretty good too because they will ban lyrics.
So there won’t be any violent and misogynist songs.
Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of good music. It’s amazing what they can do with JAZZ.
(If you’re wondering what happens if people listen to songs with lyrics they already have, the answer is they will be punished immediately. Don’t worry, HOTT news will make censorship sexy.)
So there will be broke and famous people, no crime, clean streets, free immunizations, rent and food paid for, more multilingualism, censorship, and tolerance. It won’t be a perfect situation but it will be good enough. They finally figured out that if conditions are good enough and if beautiful people say everything is gonna be alright and people stand a decent chance of being famous then people will shut up.
The end.
79% of the population will be broke, 21% will be famous.
But that’s okay because everybody will have the chance to be famous.
Everyone will be monitored 24/7/365 and every action recorded permanently.
That’s how they will decide who gets to be famous.
It will have the intended benefit of ending crime.
(People will stop committing crime once they realize they will be caught and punished immediately. Even white-collar crime will be punished.)
The streets will also be totally clean because littering will bring immediate punishment.
At first people will bemoan the end of privacy but complaints will stop after people see how nice it is when there is no crime and the streets are clean. Plus there is the chance of being famous.
And it should be said that it won’t be horrible to be broke.
Basically the conditions will be tolerable enough so that nobody minds too much.
Everyone will be able to pay their rent and have enough to eat.
How we gonna eat? Just watch The Jetsons.
They will also require immunizations for everybody, free of charge.
Plus they are going to turn January into Equality Month. Everybody will have exactly the same amount of possessions and money for one month. It will take a lot of maneuvering but they can figure out how to do it.
So everyone will get to taste equality for 31 days.
Why January? Gotta start the New Year out right, right?
People will be rewarded with lots of cash if they demonstrate proficiency in another language.
They finally figured out that two languages are better than one.
Only one news channel will exist and it will be called HOTT News.
All the anchors and reporters and pundits and sportscasters and meteorologists will be models.
There won’t be any hate on HOTT News because it will replace all the other news channels that will lose ratings when they run out of ways to hate. (It turns out that hate has an expiration date.)
People will embrace the change because HOTT News is gonna make tolerance sexy.
Music will be pretty good too because they will ban lyrics.
So there won’t be any violent and misogynist songs.
Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of good music. It’s amazing what they can do with JAZZ.
(If you’re wondering what happens if people listen to songs with lyrics they already have, the answer is they will be punished immediately. Don’t worry, HOTT news will make censorship sexy.)
So there will be broke and famous people, no crime, clean streets, free immunizations, rent and food paid for, more multilingualism, censorship, and tolerance. It won’t be a perfect situation but it will be good enough. They finally figured out that if conditions are good enough and if beautiful people say everything is gonna be alright and people stand a decent chance of being famous then people will shut up.
The end.
Author's note: my attempt to use creative writing to glimpse the future.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
An Example of Social Location
Saw this story today on TV news in Buffalo, NY. Girls are not allowed to play football in a particular league. The director of the league cited safety reasons. I wonder if smaller boys are not allowed to play because of safety reasons? If the child wants to play, and her parents want her to play, I say give her the opportunity to play!
In any case, this is certainly an example of social location. Our locations in life (our gender, race, and social class positions, to name a few) influence what happens to us in society. Simply by virtue of being female, girls are being denied a sport opportunity. Can you say inequality?
* * * * * *
Update 12/18/2014: Another example of social location is having a social class position that affords you the possibility of hiring a "fitness concierge." If you don't know what a fitness concierge is, you can read about it in this New York Times article. I wouldn't have known there is such a thing as fitness concierge if I hadn't read the article. It's one thing (and one social location) to belong to a gym, it's another thing (and another social location) to be able to pay for a fitness concierge.
In any case, this is certainly an example of social location. Our locations in life (our gender, race, and social class positions, to name a few) influence what happens to us in society. Simply by virtue of being female, girls are being denied a sport opportunity. Can you say inequality?
* * * * * *
Update 12/18/2014: Another example of social location is having a social class position that affords you the possibility of hiring a "fitness concierge." If you don't know what a fitness concierge is, you can read about it in this New York Times article. I wouldn't have known there is such a thing as fitness concierge if I hadn't read the article. It's one thing (and one social location) to belong to a gym, it's another thing (and another social location) to be able to pay for a fitness concierge.
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