Funny symbols

Alot of wierd symblos pop up in my blog posts. This is because i first write all of the post in microsoft word, mainly so i can use editing tools and becaue the window is bigger. I then copy and past the text over. For some reason eblogger and word do not us the same codes from somethings, mainly quotations on apostrophes. I try to clean the post up but I do miss a few so please bear with the wierd A's and funny C like symbols. 

Race/ Ethnicity blog

Today I'€™m going to talk about illegal immigration, mainly but not limited to Latinos, mostly Mexican, looking to receive amnesty in the United States. The idea for this blog came from a video that I watched on MSNBC, Video: Bilingual signs spark controversy. The video talks about a town in New Hampshire where a city wide debate sprung up because Latinos were breaking park rules because the signs they said were not in Spanish. The reporter acknowledges that this may be a bogus excuse, but also recognizes that this does bring up a very profound issue in this country dealing with immigration.

Immigration has been a part of U.S. history since before the U.S. was a country. The first settlers from Europe for example were Puritans seeking religious freedom from the Church of England. It is written into our constitution, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."€ Ever since then there has been a steady from off immigrants entering the country from all over the world.

But why are these immigrants doing it illegally where one hundred years ago there was Ellis Island and other such facilities that helped process immigrants and even gave them $10.00 to help them out in their new country. In 1924 with the passing of the National Origins Act, the only immigrants to pass through Ellis Island were displaced persons and war refugees. This act essentially closed America’s open door and set up the grounds for the immigration debates.

Most of the immigrants to pass through Ellis Island were European, mainly Irish, German, and Italian. These people were not received well, the Irish were treated lower than the newly freed black slaves and often had to resort to gangs to survive. Meanwhile on the other coast immigrants from China trying to escape England's national forced opium abuse settled in San Francisco and began working on the railroad, also treated worse than newly freed slaves.

More recently, in New York was the "White Flight"€ and in many American suburbs "€œBlockbusting."€ The two are very similar and are essentially whites moving out of neighborhoods in the city because of minorities moving in. It would be funny if this had any correlation with the fact that the majority if the population living in suburbs are white. For more information on race in suburbs check out this Chicago Sun-Times article, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20010408/ai_n13902748

All thought out American history a trend emerges, it seems that what ever minority is at the time moving into the country and getting adjust will be viewed as a scapegoat for most of America problems. Many minorities are blamed for violence and the slowing of the economy. If history does in fact repeat itself then you could predict that in fifty years the government will have moved on from Latino and found another minority to combat.

This debate does raise a profound moral issue though, should we let just anyone into our country. I believe that mainly because it is part of our cultural history, and also because we supposedly set examples for the rest of the world that we should let people into our country. We are no where near the most crowded country in the world (which is Bangladesh, they manage to fit over 150,000,000 people into 55,000 square miles), nor are we the poorest (Malawi with a GPD of $600, the US GPD is $13.13 trillion). There have been occurrences in the past of immigration ruining our country and culture, in fact both are built on the idea of our country being a place in the world that doest judge and will grant amnesty to those seeking it. I would like to finish this blog with a cartoon, this was a video submitted into a youtube contest entitled, "MPA/MPP You Tube Public Policy Challenge: Change the World in 1 Minute"€, I think it is worth watching, and don’t worry like the title says it'€™s only minute. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxhLjizL6qY  (682).

Blog 3: Stereotypes

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2442521&page=1

 

The following link is a link to a 20/20 story that was run on stereotyping. The test was performed by Harvard psychologists and is used to show subconscious biases that people are unaware. The test involved flashing images so fast that people reacted before they had time to really think about their reactions. What was found is that most people have inherent stereotypes hardwired into their thought processes. While reading this article I had one question that kept popping up and in the end was left unanswered. Do these biases come from outside input, such as the media, or are they more innate? In the article, it is talked about how chimpanzees and other animals would attack individuals of the same race, but from different tribes or areas. The case of the chimpanzees seemed to me the most likely to point to the explanation that these biases are natural. I have seen other studies that talk about how chimpanzees while actually go out in patrols and kill other chimpanzees that they find in their territory. But the more I thought about this example the more I thought about how social chimpanzees are. They have a very intricate social structure, just like humans. So maybe these biases are then passed through generations through these social interactions. The evidence from the article that points to this is some shocking results from when the test was run on individuals from social minorities. The exact example that stood out the most was the test figure that stated that almost half of the black people tested had subconscious biased toward people of their own race. This makes sense because for years in this country, even know, minorities are continually blamed for social and economical problems.  What the test concluded was not an answer to the question though. It stated that these racial biases are in us, we just have to choose when to express them. (322)

Blog 2: media

http://www.outfoxed.org/

This is the website for the book and movie "Out Foxed: Rupert Murdoch's war on journalism." The whole movie can't be watched but there are clips that can, and should, be viewed. The goal of Out Foxed is to spread awareness about some of the things done at Fox news that are from a journalistic, and on many levels a cultural point of view, very unethical. The problem with all this is that the news is something that people trust and consider the only truthful thing on television. It has been shown in the past that a lot of people can be controlled, or at the least manipulated, by things the see or hear in the news. The most obvious example of this is propaganda, which according to Webster’s dictionary is; Ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause; also : a public action having such an effect. Â  Propaganda can be found in every culture on Earth, the only differences being the messages and the intensity. Some can be harmless, such as an advertisement for gum on a billboard, while others can be very powerful, such as the massive "Mission Accomplished" banner in red, white, and blue on the aircraft carrier where President Bush gave his victory speech back in 2003 on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Last I checked we were still at war, so frankly I don’t know what mission he was referring to. But it got the point across, or at least the idea. With the massive sign, the rows of planes and the broadcasting on every news channel in the nation, the President really made it seem like we had won the day. Propaganda can also be very extreme. Nazi propaganda was able to convince officers in its military that the Jewish population was sub-human and needed to be eradicated. Another example is Iraq’s Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the minister of information, who announced as U.S. tanks were rumbling by in the background of his video address that, “The infidels are committing mass suicide by the hundreds at the gates of Baghdad. God is grilling their stomachs in hell." There’s no evidence that people believed him but the fact that he would address the country like that shows that either, it was just an act of desperation, or it actually works. The idea of propaganda and its implications are chilling and, at least in my mind, conjure up images of George Orwell’s 1984 where the government completely controls the thoughts and actions of its people. George Bush and his cabinet along with Fox news are no where near the totalitarians of fiction writings, but it is a scary thought when you think about the power they have to influence people and their decisions. (464)

 

 

 

Culture and Identity

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3724082.stm

This article is from the BBC and it is reporting on the current state of the Shia-Sunni fighting in the Punjab region of Pakistan. 

I chose this article not because of the political identity of the fighting, but the religious backgrounds of the two groups. I also chose 

it because unlike other articles that just talked about the fighting, this article actually gave some insight into the reasons, both cultural

and political, behind the fighting. I thought this a very well written and informative article, even though it was not very in-depth at all 

it got the main points across.

To sum up parts of the article, the Shia Muslims are a group that believes in matrydom and the idea of "waiting for deliverance". 

The Shia Muslims are a minority in the Islamic faith, the majority of Muslims are Sunni. Sunni Muslims do not hold the same 

standards as the Shai and up until the 1980s the two groups did not violently oppose one another. 

I find the conflict between these two cultures very facinating: the two groups worship the same God, Allah, and they both 

recognize the prophet Muhammad. Yet the two groups are still locked in violent sectarian conflict. Perhaps the idea of cultural

identity can be adressed here. Both groups belong to the culture of Islam, but on an almost sub-cultural level their differences 

are extremely varried. This conflict also is an example of how cultural ideas are passed down from generation to generation. 

The article talks of how the schism between the two groups dates back AD661 when Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet was 

murdered and his opponent was given control of the prophet's administration. 

The Shia believe the Ali should have been giving power, and the Sunnis were in favor of his oppoent. This age-old feud has 

been passed down for over 1,500 years, through cultural practices and identities and now has culminated in the violence that

is seen throughout the Muiddle East.