“American Homelessness: The Silent Crisis”
Part III Analysis and Recommendation
The face of homelessness has become a very real part of Hawaii’s community. We see them daily as we walk past those who are destitute, lying on sidewalks in stupors, the “bag lady” pushing her cart across Beretania Street, those sleeping in cars and under Nimitz bridges and Hotel Street alleys, families in tents in Ma’ili Beach or Kapi’olani Park. Nowhere is the homeless situation more dire and widespread than on the Wai’anae Coast. Here, quite simply, as reported by Honolulu Advertiser’s Rob Perez in his series on Homeless on the Wai’anae Coast, the main factor for the homelessness is the “area’s rapidly rising rents in the face of a diminishing number of affordable rentals.…the average monthly rent for a house has jumped 90 percent.” This resulted in a surge of people migrating to the only place available: beach parks.
Homelessness in America has a different face. No longer is it viewed as a “personal problem” or “bad choices” – it could affect you and I. We are all just a few steps away from it. A loss of a job for a few months is all it could take. issue. Many people in America felt that the increase in homelessness was society’s failure to provide for those unable to compete for jobs and resources. Homelessness continues to be a problem in most cities in our nation and the problem is not going to disappear.
Certainly the federal and state governments need to work collectively to come up with creative solutions to very affordable, low-income housing, now. The State of Hawaii must pass legislation to limit real estate purchases from outside of the state to deflate the price of housing here rather than wait for another situation whereby we allowed a foreign country to buy up land at inflated prices, consequently, forcing local residents out of the residential home buying arena. We all, as community members need to put pressure – the way Mitch Snyder did – on our government leaders to create more jobs and provide training by bringing in industries from out of state. We should focus more on agriculture with new kinds of crops and energy conservation. If scholarships and job training do exist for these last two items, advertise heavily on their availability. Lastly, businesses need to be more community-minded, step down from finance and throw themselves into improving the community, i.e. Robin Campaniano’s recent step down from Farmer’s Insurance to join the Omidyar’s Ulupono Initiative.
.
A poignant definition comes from an expert in the field of study of homelessness. It states:
“Homeless means more than not having a place to sleep. Being homeless means having no place to save the things that connect you to your past, losing all contact with friend and family, uprooting your children from school. It means suffering the frustration and degradation of living hand to mouth, depending on generosity of strangers or efficiency of a government agency for your survival, for your children’s survival.”(Hombs, 1990).
Friday, January 22, 2010
Final-Term Paper
References:
Social Issues in America, An Encyclopedia, Sharpe Reference, New York (pgs. 867-868)
Fantasia, Rick and Maurice Isserman. Homelessness: A Sourcebook. New York, New
York: Facts On File, 1994
Encyclopedia of American Social History, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York (pgs. 2151-2153)
Rob Perez, The Honolulu Advertiser, Homeless on the Wai’anae Coast, October 15, 2006 (pg 1)
http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/homeless.shtml
Social Issues in America, An Encyclopedia, Sharpe Reference, New York (pgs. 867-868)
Fantasia, Rick and Maurice Isserman. Homelessness: A Sourcebook. New York, New
York: Facts On File, 1994
Encyclopedia of American Social History, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York (pgs. 2151-2153)
Rob Perez, The Honolulu Advertiser, Homeless on the Wai’anae Coast, October 15, 2006 (pg 1)
http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/homeless.shtml
Final-Term Paper
“American Homelessness: The Silent Crisis”
Part II – The Causes and The Players
The 1980’s experienced a dramatic shift in the the homelessness situation. It was no longer “individual’s problem” but society began to sense the structural causes and factors that led to its proliferation, 1) Vets came home unemployed from Vietnam suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, many became to be counted among those living on the streets. 2) About a third of homeless people are diagnosed with severe mental illness and anti-psychotic drugs were developed and administered. The many patients on these drugs who were released from mental hospitals due changes to deinstitutionalization began to roam the streets. In the 1950’s more than 500,000 people were in mental institutions, the count was less than 120,000 in 1980. 3) Illegal drug usage – namely the crack cocaine - also attributed to the huge increase in homelessness. The Cuomo Commission in New York counted research of homeless people in New and reported “ through urinalysis of homeless people in New York City shelters for single individuals, that 65 percent tested positive for some form of substance abuse. Some 83 percent of those testing positive were cocaine users.” (Encyclopedia of American Social History) 4) Available and affordable low- income housing was scarce. Parents now had to make a choice between feeding their young versus shelter. They chose food. As a result more families were forced out of their homes now unable to afford payments onto the streets. Parents in low-income jobs were forced to choose between feeding and clothing their children or providing a roof over their heads, and they chose food over shelter, contributing to the increase in homeless families. 5) Importantly, lack of jobs and a way for one to support oneself and family due to the economic recession was and remains today, a major factor of homelessness. 5) Divorces were a result of pressures from the lack jobs and battered women were forced with their children to shelters. Many of these children ran off and became a new subgroup of homeless.
Homelessness was now a massively complex problem without solution
Today, the new faces of homeless are younger and better educated and visible and diverse. What is noticeable are the families, no longer just individual men. From 1984 to 1988 alone, national emergency shelters reported a 19% increase of shelter usage amongst families. Minorities also increased their shelter usage from 44% to 58%. (HUD, Report of the Secretary)
According to the Almanac of Policy Issues, homeless now account for between 700,000 to 2 million people according to estimates of the National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty. It is also interesting to note some facts based on a national report of the US conference of Mayors, of December, 2000 report that,
- single men comprise 44 percent of the homeless, single women 13 percent, families with children 36 percent, and unaccompanied minors seven percent.
- the homeless population is about 50 percent African-American, 35 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Native American and 1 percent Asian. Of these
- 44 percent did paid work during the past month.
- 21 percent received income from family members or friends.
- 66 percent of the homeless have problems with alcohol, drug abuse, or mental illness.
The shift to a highly technical economy has little room for the low-skilled and unskilled labor.
Politicians felt the pressure from the community to seriously address the problem. In 1983, the Federal Task Force on Homelessness was implemented by the Reagan administration. Homeless advocates like Mitch Snyder and Mary Ellen Hombs, members of the Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington, D.C. were responsible for creating more pressure to address solutions to the problem and as a result Congress introduced the Homeless Persons’ Survival Act and the Homeless Act in 1986. 1987 saw the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act which was crafted to address the multitude of needs of the homeless thereby putting the burden of the problem on the federal government. (Social Issues in America).
Conversely there was some of the public opinion that the homeless were homeless out of “their own choice” – after all, they were drug abusers and alcoholics and had mental or behavioral problems. One such example that haunted the Reagan administration policy was when as President in 1984 in an interview on Good Morning America he said of the homeless that they were “homeless, you might say, by choice.” The conservatives offered, basically, to help “these people” give up drinking and drugs and get treatment for their psychological problems which would get them off the streets. Another perspective came from social scientists making the correlation between the homelessness and the economic recession.
The problem of homelessness had loomed larger for all parties involved and becoming harder to wade through without any clear resolution.
Part II – The Causes and The Players
The 1980’s experienced a dramatic shift in the the homelessness situation. It was no longer “individual’s problem” but society began to sense the structural causes and factors that led to its proliferation, 1) Vets came home unemployed from Vietnam suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, many became to be counted among those living on the streets. 2) About a third of homeless people are diagnosed with severe mental illness and anti-psychotic drugs were developed and administered. The many patients on these drugs who were released from mental hospitals due changes to deinstitutionalization began to roam the streets. In the 1950’s more than 500,000 people were in mental institutions, the count was less than 120,000 in 1980. 3) Illegal drug usage – namely the crack cocaine - also attributed to the huge increase in homelessness. The Cuomo Commission in New York counted research of homeless people in New and reported “ through urinalysis of homeless people in New York City shelters for single individuals, that 65 percent tested positive for some form of substance abuse. Some 83 percent of those testing positive were cocaine users.” (Encyclopedia of American Social History) 4) Available and affordable low- income housing was scarce. Parents now had to make a choice between feeding their young versus shelter. They chose food. As a result more families were forced out of their homes now unable to afford payments onto the streets. Parents in low-income jobs were forced to choose between feeding and clothing their children or providing a roof over their heads, and they chose food over shelter, contributing to the increase in homeless families. 5) Importantly, lack of jobs and a way for one to support oneself and family due to the economic recession was and remains today, a major factor of homelessness. 5) Divorces were a result of pressures from the lack jobs and battered women were forced with their children to shelters. Many of these children ran off and became a new subgroup of homeless.
Homelessness was now a massively complex problem without solution
Today, the new faces of homeless are younger and better educated and visible and diverse. What is noticeable are the families, no longer just individual men. From 1984 to 1988 alone, national emergency shelters reported a 19% increase of shelter usage amongst families. Minorities also increased their shelter usage from 44% to 58%. (HUD, Report of the Secretary)
According to the Almanac of Policy Issues, homeless now account for between 700,000 to 2 million people according to estimates of the National Law Center on Homeless and Poverty. It is also interesting to note some facts based on a national report of the US conference of Mayors, of December, 2000 report that,
- single men comprise 44 percent of the homeless, single women 13 percent, families with children 36 percent, and unaccompanied minors seven percent.
- the homeless population is about 50 percent African-American, 35 percent white, 12 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Native American and 1 percent Asian. Of these
- 44 percent did paid work during the past month.
- 21 percent received income from family members or friends.
- 66 percent of the homeless have problems with alcohol, drug abuse, or mental illness.
The shift to a highly technical economy has little room for the low-skilled and unskilled labor.
Politicians felt the pressure from the community to seriously address the problem. In 1983, the Federal Task Force on Homelessness was implemented by the Reagan administration. Homeless advocates like Mitch Snyder and Mary Ellen Hombs, members of the Community for Creative Non-Violence in Washington, D.C. were responsible for creating more pressure to address solutions to the problem and as a result Congress introduced the Homeless Persons’ Survival Act and the Homeless Act in 1986. 1987 saw the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act which was crafted to address the multitude of needs of the homeless thereby putting the burden of the problem on the federal government. (Social Issues in America).
Conversely there was some of the public opinion that the homeless were homeless out of “their own choice” – after all, they were drug abusers and alcoholics and had mental or behavioral problems. One such example that haunted the Reagan administration policy was when as President in 1984 in an interview on Good Morning America he said of the homeless that they were “homeless, you might say, by choice.” The conservatives offered, basically, to help “these people” give up drinking and drugs and get treatment for their psychological problems which would get them off the streets. Another perspective came from social scientists making the correlation between the homelessness and the economic recession.
The problem of homelessness had loomed larger for all parties involved and becoming harder to wade through without any clear resolution.
Final-Term Paper
“American Homelessness: The Silent Crisis”
Part I: Background and History
This paper explores the depth of one of America’s most critical social issues – homelessness. We will examine this crisis as it affects towns and cities in the mainland United States and include Hawaii handling of its own homelessness issue.
By definition the Merriam-Webster dictionary, states that the term homelessness, is the state of “being without home or permanent place of residence”. Different situational forces help to describe this condition, i.e. a household who has been evicted from their home and accepts the help of a shelter, those experiencing tremendous poverty or is homelessness refer those “displaced temporarily because of work situations, e.g. migrant farm workers, fishermen”? (Social Issues in America )
According to Fantasia & Isserman in Homelessness: A Sourcebook, there are three very important issues to understand about the homelessness issue, The “who”, the “why” and “how they got to be homeless” and third, “the importance of why it is community that needs to awareness of the issue in order to be able to improve it”. Homelessness facts are startling and numbers are staggering of which this writer will go into depth. However, to appreciate the enormity and extent of the problem it is helpful to understand a bit of history.
Very little is documented about homelessness or at least it did not appear to be a predicament prior to the Colonial period in America in the early to mid-1700’s. Elizabethan laws at the time protected those settlers and if it was deemed necessary, they would be entitled to community housing aid. (Social Issues in America) As the country became more urbanized and commerce became a fabric of society, during the pre-industrial period of the 1790’s, municipalities no longer were responsible for aiding outsiders. By the end of the 18th century, America was experiencing a new phenomenon in the number of homeless people. The public now feared the mostly homeless and aggressive male.
The Great Depression became a massive national as a result an astounding 25% of the workforce left unemployed estimated at between 200,000 and 1.5 million people. Subsequently “Hoovervilles” , the “shantytowns” named after President Hoover, multiplied (Social Issues in America). Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the homeless situation improved with the infusion of new government programs under the New Deal administration to aid the destitute. By the beginning of World War II, however, homelessness became virtually non-existent except for skid rows. People enlisted in the war overseas and women went to work in the factories.
Part I: Background and History
This paper explores the depth of one of America’s most critical social issues – homelessness. We will examine this crisis as it affects towns and cities in the mainland United States and include Hawaii handling of its own homelessness issue.
By definition the Merriam-Webster dictionary, states that the term homelessness, is the state of “being without home or permanent place of residence”. Different situational forces help to describe this condition, i.e. a household who has been evicted from their home and accepts the help of a shelter, those experiencing tremendous poverty or is homelessness refer those “displaced temporarily because of work situations, e.g. migrant farm workers, fishermen”? (Social Issues in America )
According to Fantasia & Isserman in Homelessness: A Sourcebook, there are three very important issues to understand about the homelessness issue, The “who”, the “why” and “how they got to be homeless” and third, “the importance of why it is community that needs to awareness of the issue in order to be able to improve it”. Homelessness facts are startling and numbers are staggering of which this writer will go into depth. However, to appreciate the enormity and extent of the problem it is helpful to understand a bit of history.
Very little is documented about homelessness or at least it did not appear to be a predicament prior to the Colonial period in America in the early to mid-1700’s. Elizabethan laws at the time protected those settlers and if it was deemed necessary, they would be entitled to community housing aid. (Social Issues in America) As the country became more urbanized and commerce became a fabric of society, during the pre-industrial period of the 1790’s, municipalities no longer were responsible for aiding outsiders. By the end of the 18th century, America was experiencing a new phenomenon in the number of homeless people. The public now feared the mostly homeless and aggressive male.
The Great Depression became a massive national as a result an astounding 25% of the workforce left unemployed estimated at between 200,000 and 1.5 million people. Subsequently “Hoovervilles” , the “shantytowns” named after President Hoover, multiplied (Social Issues in America). Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the homeless situation improved with the infusion of new government programs under the New Deal administration to aid the destitute. By the beginning of World War II, however, homelessness became virtually non-existent except for skid rows. People enlisted in the war overseas and women went to work in the factories.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Review Paper #4 "Driving Miss Daisy"
“Driving Miss Daisy”
This is drama of a friendship between a 60-ish, strong-willed, independent, Jewish woman, Miss Daisy Werthan played by Jessica Tandy and Hoke Colburn, Morgan Freeman, her wise and good-natured chauffeur. The story begins in Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1940s and spans 30 years. The movie opens with Daisy involved in a driving accident. She is safe but her car ends up in the river. Subsequently, her son, played by Dan Akroyd, forbids her to drive any longer and against her wishes, hires a driver for her. Enter, Hoke Colburn. Daisy is not against blacks working as domestics for her – she employs a female cook/maid, Idella. She is furious, however, that a decision was made to hire Hoke without consulting her and as a way of sublimating this, is rude to him at every opportunity. What ensues is the development of an unlikely deep friendship between “Miss Daisy” and Hoke that crosses racial barriers and social castes.
Throughout the storyline there are examples of cultural stereotypes and social norms of the Southern whites and in Miss Daisy’s case, in her cantankerous reluctance to accept Hoke’s service first as her driver and eventual acknowledgement for he does not what she has pigeon-holed him to represent. At the start of their relationship, she stalks off to the Piggly Wiggly by herself, as he calmly follows her in the car, encouraging her to get in using every tactic he can think of. She finally relents but puts stipulations on everything. She rudely takes away the car keys when they arrive at the supermarket letting him know his place and that he is not to be trusted. Hoke does play the “yassah”, subservient driver to Miss Daisy, but he is no Uncle Tom. The examples of bigotry and racial tension first takes place on a road trip to Alabama when they are pulled over by the Alabama highway patrol/police officers. The police are immediately suspicious of the relationship when seeing a black and white woman and when after questioning realizing that they have come across not just a white woman, but a Jewish-white woman with a “nigger” driver. Miss Daisy’s stereotypical “slave owner behavior” is demonstrated in a scene while driving back home from the Alabama road trip late at night. He asks permission to stop and relieve himself but she, incredulously and selfishly, does not allow it. In her school teacher reprimand “well, you should have thought of that before we left”. It is is a turning point in the film where he makes it clear that she will no longer treat him with such disrespect.
In another scene, in another stereotypical behavior of a “Southern white slave owner” she phones her son to come to her home immediately. She wants him to witness the Hoke’s admission that he has stolen from her – that she has been counting the silverware, etc. but is missing a can of food. She never gets the chance. Hoke walks in and as she is ready to accuse him he offers an explanation before it is even asked of him saying that he borrowed a can of salmon the day prior but has returned with a replacement that morning. She just can’t seem to make him out to be the label she has attached; sneaky, shifty, lazy, etc.
There is a bit of refuting cultural stereotypes obvious in this film. Even though she is white, Miss Daisy is Jewish – a liberal-minded woman at that. She is sympathetic to Hoke because she, too, is a little bit of an outcast in her own society among Episcopalians. One day while Hoke was driving her to temple, they are turned around because her synagogue was bombed. Hoke draws a parallel to her synagogue’s attack and KKK attacks on black churches. She doesn’t want to accept this. The final irony takes when she has Hoke drive her to a Martin Luther King, Jr. fundraising event, and leaves him to sit in the car while she goes to the function to her him speak. The story ends with her deep appreciation for her “very best friend”.
I thought this was one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen. I liked it because it wasn’t your typical good guy-bad guy movie or a love story full of hearts and flowers where issues and roles are all very clear. “Driving Miss Daisy” was like life, not black and white but shades of gray that differentiate our values, our ethics and beliefs.
This is drama of a friendship between a 60-ish, strong-willed, independent, Jewish woman, Miss Daisy Werthan played by Jessica Tandy and Hoke Colburn, Morgan Freeman, her wise and good-natured chauffeur. The story begins in Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1940s and spans 30 years. The movie opens with Daisy involved in a driving accident. She is safe but her car ends up in the river. Subsequently, her son, played by Dan Akroyd, forbids her to drive any longer and against her wishes, hires a driver for her. Enter, Hoke Colburn. Daisy is not against blacks working as domestics for her – she employs a female cook/maid, Idella. She is furious, however, that a decision was made to hire Hoke without consulting her and as a way of sublimating this, is rude to him at every opportunity. What ensues is the development of an unlikely deep friendship between “Miss Daisy” and Hoke that crosses racial barriers and social castes.
Throughout the storyline there are examples of cultural stereotypes and social norms of the Southern whites and in Miss Daisy’s case, in her cantankerous reluctance to accept Hoke’s service first as her driver and eventual acknowledgement for he does not what she has pigeon-holed him to represent. At the start of their relationship, she stalks off to the Piggly Wiggly by herself, as he calmly follows her in the car, encouraging her to get in using every tactic he can think of. She finally relents but puts stipulations on everything. She rudely takes away the car keys when they arrive at the supermarket letting him know his place and that he is not to be trusted. Hoke does play the “yassah”, subservient driver to Miss Daisy, but he is no Uncle Tom. The examples of bigotry and racial tension first takes place on a road trip to Alabama when they are pulled over by the Alabama highway patrol/police officers. The police are immediately suspicious of the relationship when seeing a black and white woman and when after questioning realizing that they have come across not just a white woman, but a Jewish-white woman with a “nigger” driver. Miss Daisy’s stereotypical “slave owner behavior” is demonstrated in a scene while driving back home from the Alabama road trip late at night. He asks permission to stop and relieve himself but she, incredulously and selfishly, does not allow it. In her school teacher reprimand “well, you should have thought of that before we left”. It is is a turning point in the film where he makes it clear that she will no longer treat him with such disrespect.
In another scene, in another stereotypical behavior of a “Southern white slave owner” she phones her son to come to her home immediately. She wants him to witness the Hoke’s admission that he has stolen from her – that she has been counting the silverware, etc. but is missing a can of food. She never gets the chance. Hoke walks in and as she is ready to accuse him he offers an explanation before it is even asked of him saying that he borrowed a can of salmon the day prior but has returned with a replacement that morning. She just can’t seem to make him out to be the label she has attached; sneaky, shifty, lazy, etc.
There is a bit of refuting cultural stereotypes obvious in this film. Even though she is white, Miss Daisy is Jewish – a liberal-minded woman at that. She is sympathetic to Hoke because she, too, is a little bit of an outcast in her own society among Episcopalians. One day while Hoke was driving her to temple, they are turned around because her synagogue was bombed. Hoke draws a parallel to her synagogue’s attack and KKK attacks on black churches. She doesn’t want to accept this. The final irony takes when she has Hoke drive her to a Martin Luther King, Jr. fundraising event, and leaves him to sit in the car while she goes to the function to her him speak. The story ends with her deep appreciation for her “very best friend”.
I thought this was one of the most thought-provoking films I have ever seen. I liked it because it wasn’t your typical good guy-bad guy movie or a love story full of hearts and flowers where issues and roles are all very clear. “Driving Miss Daisy” was like life, not black and white but shades of gray that differentiate our values, our ethics and beliefs.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Week 3 - Term Paper / Cosmetic Surgery
Cosmetic Beauty
The form of popular culture of choice to write about is cosmetic beauty and how it has re-shaped the way men and women of all ages are constantly seeking perfection. You might ask “what is perfection”? In the three unrelated blogs in Sociological Images all point to the fact that looking Caucasian is the standard that one should be striving for.
When did this standard get set? Who deemed Caucasian as the “look” we should all be struggling for? Why is the Caucasian features superior to Asian, Polynesian, Black or Arab?
In the first blog, a Dr. Sean Younai of Los Angeles advertises his cosmetic surgery services on the web for Asian rhinoplasty or nose surgery for those of Asian descent. The goal of the nose surgery is to make Asians appear more Caucasian. His strategy is to implement nose cartilage implants to replace “underdeveloped nasal bridges” from those in “Korea, China, Philipines, Japan, Hawaii and Malaysia”. (Thank goodness, I thought Hawaii might somehow be left off the list.) He goes on to explain that the result of the underdeveloped nasal bridge leaves the appearance of “eyes appear to be far apart” and “inadequate”. He adds other negative descriptions certainly making Asians further feel inadequate about the features they were born with as the tip of the Asian nose being “often round, wide, bulbous, and of poor definition.” He states even further that the “thickness of Asian nasal skin also contributes to the lack of nasal tip sharpness” and can be “flared and wide”. Lastly, his website describes the height of the Asian nose seeming “short”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/asian
The second blog is about another advertisement for eye tattooing positioned as “Permanent Makeup from a Las Vegas magazine. Like Los Angeles, Las Vegas hosts thousands of transient tourists and appeal to them through entertainment, beauty, star-studded utopias. The advertisements are shrewdly targeted to people who live and work in metropolitan areas like these who depend on looking beautiful to maintain their jobs and careers. The actual tattooing would be administered on an eyelid, eyebrow or to a liner around the lips for definition. The procedures are done to so that one appears “natural”. The author of the blog makes some very good points about how clever phrasing such as “non-invasive”, “simple and harmless” and “permanent makeup”, take the fear of using words that scare people, i.e. “cosmetic surgery”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/tattoo
The third blog with a how-to video on how to apply Asian eyelids with glue to achieve a Caucasian/Western look. The video features a young lady actually demonstrating for 10 minutes on how to create a double lid from her monolid. She is actually extremely adept at this procedure and her goal seems quite unselfish and ultimately wants to help other Asians achieve this look. In her little tutorial, she uses a liquid glue to create the fold in her eye and intersperses her precautions and tips throughout the video. She goes on to instruct ladies on how to apply the correct makeup, brands of makeup (Maybelline, MAC) and makeup procedures to further enhance the wide-eyed look. http://contexts.org/socimages/eyelid
All of these examples above show a pattern of cultural discrimination because each one of them overtly state that being who and what you are is not good enough. The first tells you that you are inadequate and not as good as a white person if your nose does not look like theirs. Permanent makeup, e.g. tattooing, enables you to wake up and look like you have make up on without having to actually apply it any longer to look better than you actually do normally each day. Finally, one’s eyes must look Caucasian to look beautiful and sexy. All of these new norms will allow you to compete in the game of life, to seek your dreams and feel confident doing so.
As far as examples I have noticed, I remember being in high school and watching my girlfriends (Japanese descent) manipulate their eyelids to make the “double lids” utilizing Scotch tape each morning and applying turquoise eye shadow to mask the tape. Because I went to a public school with a good portion being Japanese, I felt like the outsider. I remember one evening before going to a “canteen” (dance), I made my sister straighten my long hair with an iron just so I would be asked to dance. At least in the dark, he would think I was Japanese. There were cliques of the popular girls and guys – all Japanese. Even though my two best friends were Japanese, they never quite let me in to the group. I knew they liked me, but was never invited to hang out with the group. These are examples of social discrimination and the social distance they put between others of a non-similar background and in this case, ethnic background. Exclusion from this group is my most vivid memory of growing up as a teenager at Roosevelt High School.
The form of popular culture of choice to write about is cosmetic beauty and how it has re-shaped the way men and women of all ages are constantly seeking perfection. You might ask “what is perfection”? In the three unrelated blogs in Sociological Images all point to the fact that looking Caucasian is the standard that one should be striving for.
When did this standard get set? Who deemed Caucasian as the “look” we should all be struggling for? Why is the Caucasian features superior to Asian, Polynesian, Black or Arab?
In the first blog, a Dr. Sean Younai of Los Angeles advertises his cosmetic surgery services on the web for Asian rhinoplasty or nose surgery for those of Asian descent. The goal of the nose surgery is to make Asians appear more Caucasian. His strategy is to implement nose cartilage implants to replace “underdeveloped nasal bridges” from those in “Korea, China, Philipines, Japan, Hawaii and Malaysia”. (Thank goodness, I thought Hawaii might somehow be left off the list.) He goes on to explain that the result of the underdeveloped nasal bridge leaves the appearance of “eyes appear to be far apart” and “inadequate”. He adds other negative descriptions certainly making Asians further feel inadequate about the features they were born with as the tip of the Asian nose being “often round, wide, bulbous, and of poor definition.” He states even further that the “thickness of Asian nasal skin also contributes to the lack of nasal tip sharpness” and can be “flared and wide”. Lastly, his website describes the height of the Asian nose seeming “short”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/asian
The second blog is about another advertisement for eye tattooing positioned as “Permanent Makeup from a Las Vegas magazine. Like Los Angeles, Las Vegas hosts thousands of transient tourists and appeal to them through entertainment, beauty, star-studded utopias. The advertisements are shrewdly targeted to people who live and work in metropolitan areas like these who depend on looking beautiful to maintain their jobs and careers. The actual tattooing would be administered on an eyelid, eyebrow or to a liner around the lips for definition. The procedures are done to so that one appears “natural”. The author of the blog makes some very good points about how clever phrasing such as “non-invasive”, “simple and harmless” and “permanent makeup”, take the fear of using words that scare people, i.e. “cosmetic surgery”. http://contexts.org/socimages/tag/cosmetic-surgery/tattoo
The third blog with a how-to video on how to apply Asian eyelids with glue to achieve a Caucasian/Western look. The video features a young lady actually demonstrating for 10 minutes on how to create a double lid from her monolid. She is actually extremely adept at this procedure and her goal seems quite unselfish and ultimately wants to help other Asians achieve this look. In her little tutorial, she uses a liquid glue to create the fold in her eye and intersperses her precautions and tips throughout the video. She goes on to instruct ladies on how to apply the correct makeup, brands of makeup (Maybelline, MAC) and makeup procedures to further enhance the wide-eyed look. http://contexts.org/socimages/eyelid
All of these examples above show a pattern of cultural discrimination because each one of them overtly state that being who and what you are is not good enough. The first tells you that you are inadequate and not as good as a white person if your nose does not look like theirs. Permanent makeup, e.g. tattooing, enables you to wake up and look like you have make up on without having to actually apply it any longer to look better than you actually do normally each day. Finally, one’s eyes must look Caucasian to look beautiful and sexy. All of these new norms will allow you to compete in the game of life, to seek your dreams and feel confident doing so.
As far as examples I have noticed, I remember being in high school and watching my girlfriends (Japanese descent) manipulate their eyelids to make the “double lids” utilizing Scotch tape each morning and applying turquoise eye shadow to mask the tape. Because I went to a public school with a good portion being Japanese, I felt like the outsider. I remember one evening before going to a “canteen” (dance), I made my sister straighten my long hair with an iron just so I would be asked to dance. At least in the dark, he would think I was Japanese. There were cliques of the popular girls and guys – all Japanese. Even though my two best friends were Japanese, they never quite let me in to the group. I knew they liked me, but was never invited to hang out with the group. These are examples of social discrimination and the social distance they put between others of a non-similar background and in this case, ethnic background. Exclusion from this group is my most vivid memory of growing up as a teenager at Roosevelt High School.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Week 2 Review/Caste System
Caste System Review Paper #2
Sociology 3380AO: Cross Cultural Relations
Winter Semester 2009
Professor David T. Mayeda, PhD.
January 3, 2010
Is Caste Prejudice Still an Issue?
Story Summation
This paper focuses on a story that was published on the BBC reporting a story on June 8, 2009 on the first world-wide conference of people from different countries each experiencing discrimination because of the religions they practice and therefore are put into different caste rankings. The purpose of the conference is to share the different experiences of these “untouchables”. Though the best known caste system in the world is in India, there are many other caste systems that are well entrenched in high and low social groups in society such as Japan, Nigeria and Britain. The article goes on to state that the conference organizers estimate that at least 250 million people from caste systems who relocate in the world as immigrants are affected citing an example of a young Indian woman now living in Coventry, England making her living as a teacher. Reena Jaisiah, 29, was reared by parents of a Punjabi background in a Dalit society – the lowest rung in the Indian caste system and considered “unclean”. “
“People with a strong religious feeling always want to know what caste you are", she says. Her parents strongly suggested that she not reveal her background, but I felt inferior to children from other castes." She claims to have also experienced prejudice while at university and says she sees evidence that even today the caste system is alive and well being exhibited with younger children perpetuating class consciousness evidenced by their treatment of other students “according to their perceived place in society”.
An organizer from the International Humanist and Ethical Association. Babu Gogineni thinks that India’s political change will not resolve caste prejudice. Although the caste system was outlawed in 1976, "There are Dalit politicians in India, but nothing has changed. The answer is to educate Dalits and empower them." He goes on to state that Dalits also discriminate amongst other Dalits; in other words, there exists “a hierarchy even amongst the untouchables.” To apply it to our readings, social discrimination creates the “social distance” between Dalits.
Reena Jaisiah, however, still believes that her Dalit background still casts a shadow in her daily life. She tells of a customer - who is from the higher Brahmin caste - who is relentless about wanting to know what caste she is from. "She still refuses to take the change from my hand when I serve her."
There is so much to write about the caste system, but in this particular story, the issue hones in on summarizing that not only is the caste system alive and well, but is perpetuated as people migrate throughout the world. Though people migrate they take their culture and upbringing with them and practice it outside of their home country, probably as a means of coping and observing what they understand. The article also illustrates the fact that caste systems are not limited to India, but also to nations that are highly forward thinking, financially and technologically advanced but find the need to have a discriminatory, socially-stratified society, i.e. Japan and Britain.
The caste system in India, as an example, has four main levels; Brahmin, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra. Dalit fall outside of the hierarchy and considered “untouchables”. Each level or “varna” follows explicit tenets of purity. For instance, Brahmins are considered so uncontaminated only other Brahmins are allowed to prepare food for another Brahmin. Also, one must marry within one's own varna and marriage outside of one’s caste is for the most part, forbidden. This social stratification controls and protects the power and prestige of the higher class, in this case, the different varnas.
We can draw a parallel to what is currently happening when citing ethnic stratification in the United States, specifically, Black-White relations, James M. O’Kane offers that “class differentials, not racial differentials, explain the presence and persistence of poverty in the ranks of the Urban Negro.“
As pointed out in the Parillo text in Chapter 3, “is inequality an inevitable part of society?
Sociology 3380AO: Cross Cultural Relations
Winter Semester 2009
Professor David T. Mayeda, PhD.
January 3, 2010
Is Caste Prejudice Still an Issue?
Story Summation
This paper focuses on a story that was published on the BBC reporting a story on June 8, 2009 on the first world-wide conference of people from different countries each experiencing discrimination because of the religions they practice and therefore are put into different caste rankings. The purpose of the conference is to share the different experiences of these “untouchables”. Though the best known caste system in the world is in India, there are many other caste systems that are well entrenched in high and low social groups in society such as Japan, Nigeria and Britain. The article goes on to state that the conference organizers estimate that at least 250 million people from caste systems who relocate in the world as immigrants are affected citing an example of a young Indian woman now living in Coventry, England making her living as a teacher. Reena Jaisiah, 29, was reared by parents of a Punjabi background in a Dalit society – the lowest rung in the Indian caste system and considered “unclean”. “
“People with a strong religious feeling always want to know what caste you are", she says. Her parents strongly suggested that she not reveal her background, but I felt inferior to children from other castes." She claims to have also experienced prejudice while at university and says she sees evidence that even today the caste system is alive and well being exhibited with younger children perpetuating class consciousness evidenced by their treatment of other students “according to their perceived place in society”.
An organizer from the International Humanist and Ethical Association. Babu Gogineni thinks that India’s political change will not resolve caste prejudice. Although the caste system was outlawed in 1976, "There are Dalit politicians in India, but nothing has changed. The answer is to educate Dalits and empower them." He goes on to state that Dalits also discriminate amongst other Dalits; in other words, there exists “a hierarchy even amongst the untouchables.” To apply it to our readings, social discrimination creates the “social distance” between Dalits.
Reena Jaisiah, however, still believes that her Dalit background still casts a shadow in her daily life. She tells of a customer - who is from the higher Brahmin caste - who is relentless about wanting to know what caste she is from. "She still refuses to take the change from my hand when I serve her."
There is so much to write about the caste system, but in this particular story, the issue hones in on summarizing that not only is the caste system alive and well, but is perpetuated as people migrate throughout the world. Though people migrate they take their culture and upbringing with them and practice it outside of their home country, probably as a means of coping and observing what they understand. The article also illustrates the fact that caste systems are not limited to India, but also to nations that are highly forward thinking, financially and technologically advanced but find the need to have a discriminatory, socially-stratified society, i.e. Japan and Britain.
The caste system in India, as an example, has four main levels; Brahmin, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra. Dalit fall outside of the hierarchy and considered “untouchables”. Each level or “varna” follows explicit tenets of purity. For instance, Brahmins are considered so uncontaminated only other Brahmins are allowed to prepare food for another Brahmin. Also, one must marry within one's own varna and marriage outside of one’s caste is for the most part, forbidden. This social stratification controls and protects the power and prestige of the higher class, in this case, the different varnas.
We can draw a parallel to what is currently happening when citing ethnic stratification in the United States, specifically, Black-White relations, James M. O’Kane offers that “class differentials, not racial differentials, explain the presence and persistence of poverty in the ranks of the Urban Negro.“
As pointed out in the Parillo text in Chapter 3, “is inequality an inevitable part of society?
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