Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Thinking about Tensions in the Middle East

Many students are having difficulty with the war in the Middle East. While I continue to pray for peace and social justice, I want to offer students some thoughts that are both general advice but also specific to sociology.


1.  Be mindful of yourself

Try to recognize and acknowledge what you are feeling.  Give yourself the time and space to process the emotions.  Seek out some proven ways to cope with upsetting emotions.


Socialize - Don’t feel that you are alone or that you have to process this alone.  Find friends who will listen without judgment.  Try to be together - socializing in person is best if you can do it, otherwise FaceTime or call.  Your last resort should be commiserating via text or DMs.

Use resources - Loyola has mental health resources.  But you can also talk to your primary care physician and/or ask for a referral to a social worker or psychologist.  Loyola's Muslim Chaplain and Student organization and Loyola's Hillel, Jewish student group.

Get outside - get out to the lake or parks or forest preserves. Being in nature has proven benefits for human physiology and psychology.

Exercise - Get some exercise and it will help you mentally and physically.  It doesn’t have to be going to a gym, but it can be taking a brisk walk or biking or yoga.


2.  Be mindful of categories v. stereotypes

Sociology teaches about ingroups and outgroups - people have a natural affinity and trust for the groups they identify with and a tendency to mistrust and homogenize groups that they do not belong to.  Be mindful of this dynamic:

  • Israeli policy does not reflect the feelings of all Jews and not even all Israelis
  • Hamas’s terrorism does not represent all Muslims and not even all Palestinians

Without careful consideration, it is easy to stereotype entire categories - especially outgroups.  The reality is that there are very nuanced opinions about both sides of the issues within each group:  


3.  Be mindful of others’ emotions

People process emotions differently.  Some will be angry, others may have difficulty processing everything and may say or do something that seems insensitive or offensive. Take some breathes, give yourself space.  If you or someone else is feeling a sense of anger, it is probably not a good time to be confrontational.  Allow students the space to experience and express their emotions and this includes finding space for yourself too.  


Check in on other students who are Muslim or Jewish.  Let them know you care and are thinking about them.  There is very real trauma and triggering images, videos and stories of both Palestinians and Israelis.  Even more generally, for many Americans who are Muslim or Jewish, their religious in-group is a master status, which means that their religious identity shapes their experiences everywhere they go.  And that experience is tainted by hatred and violence toward those master statuses.  Islamophobia and Anti-semitism have both been highly visible and frequent since 2015.  See these links:

American Hate: Survivors Speak Out, Arjun Singh Sethi, a community activist and civil rights lawyer, chronicles the stories of individuals affected by hate. In a series of powerful, unfiltered testimonials, survivors tell their stories in their own words and describe how the bigoted rhetoric and policies of the Trump administration have intensified bullying, discrimination, and even violence toward them and their communities.
We hear from the family of Khalid Jabara, who was murdered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in August 2016 by a man who had previously harassed and threatened them because they were Arab American and from many more people impacted by the Trump administration, including Native, black, Arab, Latinx, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, undocumented, refugee, transgender, queer, and people with disabilities.
A necessary book for these times, American Hate explores this tragic moment in U.S. history by empowering survivors whose voices white supremacists and right-wing populist movements have tried to silence. It also provides ideas and practices for resistance that all of us can take to combat hate both now and in the future.
  •  From the ADL, in 2017 there was a surge of Anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S.

    Our most recent report on anti-Semitic incidents in the United States showed a significant year-to-year increase: In 2017, anti-Semitic incidents surged nearly 60 percent, according to the 2017 ADL Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. This was the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking such data in 1979. The sharp rise was due in part to a significant increase in incidents in schools and on college campuses, which nearly doubled for a second year in a row.

    In short, Americans who are Muslim and Jewish are keenly aware of the violence toward their groups and this creates a very real fear.  Try to realize that this collective trauma is impacting members of these in-groups in very emotional and visceral ways.

    4.  Be mindful of what you "know"

    Studies of social media show that increasingly, social media users inhabit a socially constructed media landscape.  That is, instead of your news consumption being all of the news, it will be constructed in ways that may both - be shaped by your own biases, and then further reinforces/confirms those biases.  One way that this occurs is that our social media feeds tend to reflect homophily or social connections of people that are like us - so we do not get to see the news that people are receiving on the other side of the issue.  The second way that that this plays out in social media feeds is that algorithms tend to find feeds that keep users engaged in the social media platform.  Often this results in feeds that find ways to outrage you and make you afraid or angry because these are primal emotions that are hard to resist. So social media algorithms send outrageous news to our feeds to engage us without filtering for truth or balance in reporting. 

    BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh explains, 

    Shayan Sardarizadeh of the BBC explained to Hanaa’ Tameez of Neiman Journalism Lab that social media posters on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, or Twitter can make significant sums of money from “engagement farming.” Posting outrageous material that engages viewers pumps up a user’s brand, making them able to command high prices from marketers.  

    Sardarizadeh notes that the Israel-Hamas war is a particularly attractive situation for engagement farmers, and rumors and fake videos are flying. 

    And nefarious agents may be using social media to not only generate clicks but to foment divisiveness and anger. This 2017 article from The Texas Tribune documents how Russian agents used social media to organize a protest and a counter protest:


    5. Be Mindful of What Others Know and Are Feeling

    Sociologists study the way people interact based on shared meaning.  The meanings that people share can have very real effects on their understanding of situations and their emotional reactions to it.  However, sometimes different groups have very different shared meaning within their in-group and this leads to a difficulty and even anger toward out-groups.  For example, in this situation there are shared meanings that some Jewish and Muslim Americans share within their in-groups that out-group members may not understand or interpret differently:

    • What Israel means to Jewish people.  After the Holocaust which killed 6 million Jewish people, many Jewish people felt that there was nowhere that they were safe.  There were refugee boats turned away from countries all over the world and the generational trauma left the survivors feeling that they could not be safe anywhere - except for the newly created state of Israel.  For many Jewish people, especially in America, criticism of Israel feels like criticism of the only safe haven that Jewish people can count on if their identity is under threat. And for Jews in Israel, they have always felt under threat since the 1950s so deterrence of such attacks is the only way to create a sense of safety.  As Yossi Klein Halevi says, "to be defeated so totally by Hamas means that we don’t have deterrence anymore. And that, by the way, is what this war is about most of all for Israel. And we all know it here. This is the war to restore the credibility of Israeli deterrence."
    • Palestinian freedom "from the River to the Sea."  This slogan has been used in different forms over the last 50+ years so it has taken on different meanings in different contexts (NPR, Guardian, NYT, JVL).  The full slogan is "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."  For many Palestinians, this is a rallying cry for freedom from oppression and unequal treatment by the Israeli government which has had some measure of control over Palestinian life for decades.  However, some Jews recall that this slogan was also co-opted by extremists and terrorists at various times throughout the last 50 years.  When they hear the slogan, it harkens them back to the extremists who think there should be no Israeli and the only freedom for Palestine will come when there is no country of Israel.  Complicated matters is Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu who called for Israel to control all the land "from the river to the sea" and whose party has been saying the phrase as part of a platform denying the possibility of a Palestinian state since the 1970s.
    • Zionism This term was created in Eastern Europe in the 1800s as the Jewish diaspora faced discrimination throughout Europe.  The idea was that people who identify as Jewish need a nation to call home and feel safe in.  It was a form of Jewish nationalism.  After the state of Israel was established, Zionism took on new meaning related to exactly what land should be considered the Jewish nation.  Should it include the Golan Heights? The Gaza Strip? The West Bank?  Some people, including those identifying as Jewish, will define Zionism as allowing self determination which includes the areas that are majority Palestinian while others see Zionism as a specific reference to Jewish loyalty and the power of a Jewish state to take all of the land from the river of Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.  This 2021 NPR report explained the complex understanding of the term long before the October 7, 2024 terrorist attacks.  And this 2019 Jewish Telegraph article explains how the term gets interpreted differently.

    These are examples of how people feel based on how they have been influenced to think about the world.  The shared meaning of different people can create misunderstanding between different groups.  Realizing that these types of misunderstandings can create visceral reactions can help us take a step back to be mindful of what others are thinking, feeling and experiencing and hopefully create greater understanding.  Choose language carefully; be distinct.  As Rabbi Heschel said, "Words create worlds."


    Resources for Teachers


    ADL - Mini Lessons about the Pyramid of Hate

    https://www.adl.org/resources/tools-and-strategies/mini-lesson-teaching-pyramid-hate




    ADL - Digital Kits for Educators:

    https://www.adl.org/anti-bias-teaching-learning-digital-kits

    (See screen shot below)


    Vox - The Words Used to Describe the Conflict Shape How People Think About the War

    https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/10/24/23930269/israel-hamas-gaza-palestine-occupation-zionism-displacement


    International Sociological Association Statement

    https://www.isa-sociology.org/en/about-isa/isa-human-rights-committee/statement-on-the-situation-in-israel-and-palestine


    Loyola Center for Ignation Pedagogy - Antiracism resources

    https://www.luc.edu/fcip/anti-racistpedagogy/anti-racistpedagogyresources/


    Greater Good Science Center - How to talk to kids about the war in Gaza and Israel

    https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_talk_with_kids_about_the_war_in_gaza_and_israel


    SPLC - Learning For Justice; Discussing War and Conflict Resources for Educators and Caregivers.

    https://www.learningforjustice.org/discussing-war-and-conflict-resources-for-educators-parents-and-caregivers


    The Middle East Policy Council - TeachMidEast

    https://teachmideast.org/for-educators/



    Other Resources:

    Combatants for Peace - consisting of former combatants in both communities
    *The film Disturbing the Peace was created on this movement and the Director make it available to watch for free."

    Parents Circle/Families Forum - consisting of bereaved individuals in both communities


    PEW Research 2017 assaults against Muslims are higher than 2001

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/11/15/assaults-against-muslims-in-u-s-surpass-2001-level/


    Learn More About Muslims in this Email Class

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/02/19/want-to-know-more-about-muslims-and-islam-weve-got-an-email-course-for-you/


    NIH Islamophobia and Public Health in the U.S.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5055770/

    Anti-Muslim sentiments are increasingly common globally and in the United States. The recent rise in Islamophobia calls for a public health perspective that considers the stigmatized identity of Muslim Americans and health implications of Islamophobic discrimination. Drawing on a stigma, discrimination, and health framework, I expand the dialogue on the rise of Islamophobia to a discussion of how Islamophobia affects the health of Muslim Americans. Islamophobia can negatively influence health by disrupting several systems—individual (stress reactivity and identity concealment), interpersonal (social relationships and socialization processes), and structural (institutional policies and media coverage). Islamophobia deserves attention as a source of negative health outcomes and health disparities. Future public health research should explore the multilevel and multidimensional pathways between Islamophobia and population health.


    NYT article on teaching about the war

    Teaching About the Israel-Hamas War (Gift Article)

    NYT article on teaching about the war


    VOX - All the deaths between Israel and Palestine since 2000

    https://www.vox.com/2014/7/14/5898581/chart-israel-palestine-conflict-deaths


    NPR - Palestinian Americans Feel Like No One Cares and Fear Islamophobia

    https://www.npr.org/2023/10/23/1208026655/palestinian-americans-on-the-israel-hamas-war-were-not-even-allowed-to-grieve


    The Conversation - History of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in 5 charts


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    Monday, April 22, 2024

    Final Lesson

     

    As a final conclusion to our class, I like to show the documentary I Am by Tom Shadyac.  The movie resonates with me because it addresses many aspects that our class addresses and it presents a paradigm for thinking about how to move forward in the world using the lessons from our sociology class.  And this is especially true if you felt like the inequalities that the class addressed make you pessimistic or are overwhelming.

    Available on: 



    Below are my movie notes about the most important parts of the movie and in parentheses are the parts of our class that relate to the movie.  I think this movie is a great inspirational way to sum up our class and apply to your life.  But, come back and revisit it, rewatch it and remind yourself of the lessons of our class. They will mean different things to you as you get older and more experienced.  This is true for all of the lessons of our class, so I hope you will stay one of my students and one of my teachers.  Peace and love to you,

    This documentary was created by Tom Shadyac a writer/director of many Hollywood blockbuster films: Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, Liar Liar, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty, Patch Adams, Accepted, and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.  After a serious injury, Shadyac asks, “What’s wrong with the world? And what can we do about it?”
    “Humanity is going to require a new way of thinking if it is to survive” – Albert Einstein
    Science has recently begun to prove what ancient myth and religion have always espoused: There may be such a thing as a life force.

    Lynne McTaggart, indefatigable investigative journalist, reveals a radical new biological paradigm -- that on our most fundamental level, the human mind and body are not distinct and separate from their environment but a packet of pulsating power constantly interacting with this vast energy sea.

    The Field is a highly readable scientific detective story that offers a stunning picture of an interconnected universe and a new scientific theory that makes sense of supernatural phenomena.
     


    David Suzuki author of "Sacred Balance" 
    What are the real needs that must be satisfied to live rich, fulfilling lives? This is the question David Suzuki explores in this wide-ranging study. Suzuki begins by presenting the concept of people as creatures of the Earth who depend on its gifts of air, water, soil, and sun energy. He shows how people are genetically programmed for the company of other species, and suffer enormously when we fail to live in harmony with them. And he analyzes those deep spiritual needs, rooted in nature, that are also a crucial component of a loving world. Drawing on his own experiences and those of others who have put their beliefs into action, The Sacred Balance is a powerful, passionate book with concrete suggestions for creating an ecologically sustainable, satisfying, and fair future by rediscovering and addressing humanity’s basic needs.

    Thom Hartmann author of "Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight"
    "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" details in three parts the damage being done to our biosphere, the reasons why our culture would inevitably do such damage, and how we can fix the problem.

    Elizabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary biologist, author of Gaia's Dance

    Dean Radin chief scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences

    Chris Jordan, photographer.  Artworks for change.   I Pluribus Unum project.  Turning powerful stats into art Ted Talk.




    John Francis author of Planetwalk and website



    Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, 

    Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface


    Part 1: What's Wrong With our World?

    (The Social Construction of Science and Cultural Values)

    Science is a story. It changes over time. Part of the story of science, since the Enlightenment, is that people are like machines; we are made from materials and we are mechanistic. We operate in the world under that assumption. We compartmentalize each other and our world this way.  

    (Culture and American Values)
    This way of thinking creates a separateness a competitiveness and a materialism that pervade Western society, especially the United States. 
    “Be suspicious of what you want.” -Rumi
    Native Americans noticed this way of thinking when Europeans first came to the Americas. They have a word called “wetico” which means a sort of cannibalism where one culture eats or destroys another culture’s way of life.
    "One of the stories that we have been told is that we live in a reliable, well-behaved universe that operates predictably in actions independent of each other." 

    We tell ourselves a truth and a lie.  The truth is that we need a small amount of physical things to make us happy: warmth, shelter, food, companionship.  The lie is that if that much stuff makes you happy then twice as much will make you twice as happy and ten times will make you ten times happier and so on... 

    (Masculinity and Competition)
    One myth that has been promoted that prevents us from realizing this interconnectedness is the belief that the essential nature of humans is to be competitive, instead of cooperative to dominate instead of subordinate, to seek kingdom over democracy. This is a myth promoted inaccurately by supporters of Darwin. Instead, the basis of nature is egalitarian, cooperative and democratic. 

    What we now know is that we are more than the sum of all of our parts and we are connected to much more than ourselves. Each individual is connected to all other humans, not just in the United States, but in the world. And each human in the world is connected to all living things. And all living things are connected to the non-living.

    (Socialization and the Nature-Nurture Dynamic)

    Desmond Tutu, 
    A solitary human is an impossibility.  We came into being because a community of people came together.  We depend utterly and completely on other human beings to be human.  The truth is that we are because we belong.

    Darwin mentioned, “survival of the fittest” twice and “love” 95 times. Humans evolved to cooperate. Sympathy is the strongest human instinct. We have mirror neurons that help us have sympathy. Our vagus nerve helps us to elevate us to compassion. 
    Elevation by Jonathon Haidt

    Thom Hartmann,
    We are hard-wired for a compassionate response to the troubles of others.  It's in our DNA.  We are born to be egalitarian and democratic.  We are born to respect each other, to be a community, to be our brother's keeper.  We are hard-wired for a compassionate response to the trouble of others.  



    Part 2: How can we fix it?

    (Social Class and Consumption)


    Desmond Tutu,
    Now and again when we have served others, we actually discover a deep contentment, an ecstacy that is absent from the opposite.

    Nurture affects Nature
    Heartmath Institute researching the connection between heart and brain.

    We function better in a state of love and compassion.  Positive states are good for you; they literally renew your physiology.  Anger makes us stupid. It inhibits our thinking. Our heart is our primary access point to our higher self. 

    Rumi
    “What was said to the rose to make it open was said here to me in my chest.”

    We are all connected to the same energy field.  We are not separate.  The field is the only reality.






















    Henry Stapp explanation  here.


    Einstein - Podolsky - Rosen Paradox aka "spooky action at a distance."

    Coleman Barks
    Sentience is a cause for rapture; just being here is a reason for celebration.  Grief is also a form of celebration.  The rose celebrates by falling to the ground and the clouds celebrate by weeping.

    Francis of Assisi
    It was easy to love God in all that was beautiful.  The lessons of deeper knowledge though, instructed me to embrace God in all things.

    I was with the Dalai Lama and I asked him what is the most important meditation we can do?  He said, "Critical thinking followed by action."  Understand the world and figure out how your talents can make the world a better place.  Each of us must do something that makes our heart sing because no one will want to do it with us unless we are passionate and inspired.

    Howard Zinn
    Every word you utter to another human being has an effect, but you don't know it.  Change comes about because of a million tiny acts....You can't be neutral on a moving train.

    Desmond Tutu
    “There is only one way of eating an elephant; a piece at a time.  And so, you can’t do anything about global poverty, but we can do something about that guy over there. 
    Because you see, remember, The sea is really only drops of water that have come together...
    God says, "You know what? I don't have anybody else except you."
     

    Resources Going Forward

    Sociology and Careers 

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    Friday, April 19, 2024

    Meditation: Where does the real you begin?

     

    Listen for where the real you begins and the part of you shaped by society ends.

    “‘Finding yourself’ is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.” ~Emily McDowell The secret to finding yourself again - how to come alive. From April Ross at Tiny Buddha buff.ly/473eDsw,

    But who was I really? I started to think I was none of those things.

    My true self was buried under years of conditioning, wounding, and unhealthy coping mechanisms, leaving me feeling incredibly lost, anxious, and dissatisfied. Like a hamster on a wheel, I was going through the motions of life with no real purpose and no understanding of why I was doing the things I was doing.



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    SOCL 101: Final Reflection

    SOCL 101

    Salituro

    Final Reflection

     

    This paper will ask you to reflect on our class and apply your understanding of sociology to your own life.  This assignment is due by the end of the scheduled final exam period for your class.  This is a firm deadline without exception.  Be sure to write in proper prose with correct grammar and spelling. Be sure to answer each part of the reflection that I outline below. Make your writing authentic – use details and make it specific to your own life so that the essay is unique and can only be applied to your life.  Look back over our lessons on the blog to help give you ideas.  I highly recommend writing your paper in a separate app like Word or Google Docs and then pasting it into the Google Form.

     

    Part 1:

    In the syllabus, I wrote,

    Learning sociology can give students new insights about everyday life.  C. Wright Mills, an important sociologist, said that sociology will make the familiar, strange; sociology may make you feel uncomfortable and challenge your assumptions about the world.  Peter Berger, another notable sociologist, warned that "People who like to avoid shocking discoveries...should stay away from sociology."  Sociology can be an amazing class that changes your perspective about the world and more importantly about yourself.  These insights will hopefully increase student mindfulness about themselves as individuals, their interactions with others and their society in general.

     

    Now looking back at the class, what is something that we learned that made you think about your life differently or something that challenged your assumptions about the world?  What is some of the evidence we examined that contributed to your new way of thinking?  Use specific examples of how you thought before the class and how you think now – even if it is not a huge difference, explain the nuance in how you might think differently and provide an explanation of the sociological theory/research that helped you to do so.

     


    Part 2

    This course is a Tier 1 foundational social science class that intends to help students “demonstrate cultural, societal and self understanding.”  As written in the syllabus, 


    These courses examine how humans are shaped by their societies.  Students who successfully complete this class will demonstrate an understanding of the relationships among cultural, and social forces, and their impact on human behavior.

     

    With this in mind, think about what we learned about how people are shaped by social forces – especially nature and nurture, culture, family, school, peers, and social media.  Explain how you have been shaped by one or more of these social forces.  Explain authentic details and specifics that only apply to you in your explanation of the topic.  What research/readings from class adds to your understanding of how you are shaped by whichever topic you choose? Explain how the research/readings applies to your example specifically.

     


    Part 3  

    This course has a diversity learning outcome that seek to:

    ·      Recognize that human diversity is complex and variegated.

    ·      Distinguish the various factors that inform and impact individual identity formation.

    ·      Comprehend how group identities are formed in a heterogeneous society.

     

    With this in mind, choose an outgroup identity such as gender (male or female), race (Black, Asian, or Hispanic) or social class (middle class or low-income) that you do NOT identify with.  Explain how the course informed you about about this identity and what you want to take away from the course to increase your understanding of this outgroup.  How is this identity more complex and varied than you (or the average American) might realize?  What challenges do people of this identity face? Connect your answer to at least one reading or evidence that I assigned/cited in class.  How does this reading/evidence inform your understanding of the group?

     


    Part 4
    Please write a review of the course content.  What do you want to remember from the course?  What was most interesting?  What would you like to learn more about?  Do you think SOCL101 is interesting/useful? If so, why specifically? If not, why not – what could be specifically different?


    Grading

    This Essay will be grade out of 40 points.
    Parts 1-3 will be graded out of 10 points based on your ability to clearly and correctly answer the whole question and provide authentic/specific examples in your answer.
    Part 4 will be out 5 points for a meaningful and thoughtful response.
    Finally, there will be 5 points for all technical aspects including:  grammar, spelling, turning it on time.
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