Covid, Masking and Vaccines

Using Symbolic Interaction, let's think about the shared meaning among different groups of Americans regarding mask wearing and vaccinations.  There are some Americans who have created a shared meaning around the use of masks and vaccines and this shared meaning is that these things should be avoided because of some combination of the following:

• they don't work
• they are harmful for you
• the government is using them to try to control you

These tropes have been cultivated in certain segments of the media and then reinforced through institutions like families, government, employers, etc...  This reinforces the meaning that anti-masking has come to be for these people.  And, some research shows that push back against this line of thinking can sometimes cause people to cling to these misunderstood principles even tighter.  Hopefully, an honest and critical examination using sociological theory can help students understand the issue better.

"Covid only kills a tiny percentage of people, so why should I worry?"

Sometimes people will focus on the fact that you are very unlikely to die from Covid-19 because most people, especially young and healthy people survive it.  One of the biggest graphics being passed around lately to support these tropes is this:

This simple-minded trope for arguing against masks & vaccinations ignores the effects of Covid on both the healthcare system and the patients that survive.  Many of the patients who get covid will need to be hospitalized before surviving.  As hospitals fill up with covid patients, their resources and manpower are used up leaving less for everyone else.  This is one of the important reasons that the healthcare officials talk about prevention and "flattening the curve".  Sociologist and M.D., Nicholas Christakis explains the importance of preventing covid in this tweeted graphic:

Preventing covid is NOT just to prevent it from harming YOU.  It is preventing it from overwhelming the system and spreading like a wildfire.  The goal is to keep the peak of the curve below the maximum capability of the healthcare system.  See this Vox article and the graph below:

Medium explains flattening the curve and shares this graphic:



via GIPHY

Decorated Army Veteran Dies of Treatable Illness  - August 27, 2021 in the United States

Widely reported in various news outlets, from the NY Daily News, a US Army veteran who survived 2 tours in Afghanistan died in Houston because there were no resources to give him the simple treatment he needed.  Without it however, he likely went into septic shock and died. 

“Texas is f--ed,” Dr. Kakli told the Daily News by phone. “Talk to any doctor in Texas. It’s insane.”

OurWorldinData keeps track of the number of covid patients.  Here is a graph from the last week of August 2021:

Life After Covid

But another important nuance to counter the idea that so few people who get Covid-19 die from it, is that many of those who survive the disease continue to live with effects from the disease.  Covid is still a relatively new disease so doctors do not have a full understanding of it.  However, they do know that covid patients report a host of different issues after surviving the disease.  One issue that seems apparent is that Covid-19 affects the body's ability to get enough oxygen.  Because oxygen is used throughout the body, there can be numerous effects from oxygen depletion including different organs like brain, heart, kidney and lungs which all may be damaged due to covid.  And, the recovery may entail learning to walk again, regaining strength, learning to use the stairs again and learning to think clearly.  All of this recovery might mean taking time off work, finding someone to care for the patient as they recover at home, walking around connected to an oxygen machine because you need supplemental oxygen, rearranging furniture at home so the patient doesn't trip on anything and cause a new injury, etc... The point is that yes, you are not likely to die, but you are also gambling with your long-term quality of life and the long-term quality of life for all of those you come into contact with.  

Time Magazine explains the most recent study (8/2021) of Long Covid here: 

Among those hospitalized for COVID-19, 68% reported at least one continued, COVID-19-related symptom six months after their first symptoms appeared. While this percentage decreased by the 12-month mark, it remained relatively high, at 49%. And overall, patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 self-reported being in poorer health and having lower quality of life—including mobility issues— compared to controls.  

 

The most common symptom patients reported 12 months later was fatigue or muscle weakness; other issues included sleep disturbances, changes in taste and smell, dizziness, headache and shortness of breath. Certain symptoms were actually worse at the 12-month mark than they were earlier on in the study: the proportion of patients reporting breathing problems increased slightly, from 26% to 30%, from six months to a year following their first symptoms. The patients also filled out questionnaires about their mental health, and while 23% reported feeling anxious or depressed six months after their first symptoms appeared, 30% did so at a year.

For more on the harrowing experience of surviving Covid, see this post about my own experience.

The third reason why death from Covid should not be the only matter of concern is that the more that covid spreads, the higher likelihood that it will mutate and create new and more dangerous variations. Every time a virus reproduces, it runs the possibility of mutating.  The more we allow it to do so, the greater likelihood that it becomes more deadly or resistant to the vaccinations.

If you can understand why we should be concerned about Covid spreading even if it doesn't result in death, then you can understand that it might be important to prevent it from spreading.  The 2 biggest tools that we have to prevent the spread are vaccines and masks, both of which have taken on symbolic meaning that has nothing to do with the actual science but instead has to do with one's political identity.  Here is a critical and nuanced explanation of vaccines followed by masks.

Vaccines

The first part that is interesting to me is the social construction and sociological imagination around opposition to vaccines.  The history of vaccines goes back to the American Revolution when George Washington ordered his troops to get inoculated from small pox.  He was losing more troops to small pox than to the British and so, he ordered his troops to put their country first and get vaccinated.  Although vaccinations were a patriotic duty demanded by the general, they were not without controversy.  However, vaccine science was as young as the new country was back then.  Despite the infancy of the science, vaccines were required in some schools as early as 1809!  Since then, vaccine science has come a long way.  And for decades, schools have been requiring at least 5 vaccinations!  Despite these truths, in 2021 after more than two centuries of research and more than 500,000 Americans have died of covid, there is a vehement opposition to vaccines.  Why now? The development of this particular vaccine occurred within a particularly hyper-partisan time when institutions sought ideological opposition to political opponents regardless of truth or consequences.  These institutions then give credence to these ideas simply because they are entrenched institutions in American society.  Furthermore, the hyper-partisanship has filtered down to an individual level in which individuals embrace their party affiliation and actively seek out oppositional ideas. There is shared meaning among these individual that suddenly see the covid vaccine as part of a larger representation of party affiliation.  

Masks

Besides anti-vaccination, opposition to mask wearing is also interesting using the social construction of reality and sociological imagination.  It is notable that the wearing of masks has been criticized only during this current political atmosphere and even then, it is only the wearing of masks under attack.   The medical community has been promoting the use of masks in the prevention of infection for decades.  Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have all worn masks around at-risk people for decades to prevent infection from spreading.  This has never been opposed before.  But suddenly this decades-old practice is being called into question, now, at this particular moment.  And, the specific charge of masks taking away freedom is interesting to me too.  For those who share the belief that masking means taking away freedom, why do they

 

not question the practice of wearing clothing?  No shirt, no shoes, no service has been a popular mantra for restaurants and stores for decades.  And swimming pools have required swim caps and kitchens have required hairnets for decades.  Why are masks drawing the line?  Ironically, the phrase No shirt, no shoes, no service was also a social construction created for similar political reasons!  And the idea doesn't stop at clothing.  There are myriad restrictions placed on everyday life such as:  wear a seatbelt, smoke outside away from the entrance, follow the speed limit, stop for red lights, pay taxes, follow building codes, label food expiration dates, etc... 

Most of these restrictions are designed to keep the public safe.  So why are masks being questioned?  Using the ideas of sociological imagination and social construction of reality, we can see that opposition to masking and vaccines has only been opposed at this time and in this specific way.  The meaning of opposing these has been created for both political and economic expediency by institutions, like Republicans and Fox News seeking to find political opposition to the Biden Administration.  These are widely followed institutions that, because they are so enmeshed in society, hold sway over the meaning of masks.  And that social meaning has become reified by institutions and people that parrot the tropes they have heard recently around masks and vaccines.

Examining the Research Critically

Critical examination of research is an important aspect of sociology.  That means thinking with nuance and complexity and asking questions.   Too many Americans do not engage in a critical understanding of the research behind mask wearing.  And not only is the first research below sociological, it confirms the importance of social perception in the prevention of disease spread.

From Stella Quah, a sociologist at the University of Singapore

In this research about a 2006 outbreak of a SARS virus, she found that public perception matters and how the public is educated plays a role in minimizing the risk.

A comparative analysis of the 2002-2003 infectious disease outbreak, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has affected the world over the past two decades reveals the significant role of socio-cultural beliefs and attitudes in the shaping of people's lifestyles and approaches to the control and prevention of epidemics. The main research question is: what can we learn from the SARS experience about effective prevention of HIV/AIDS? The sources of data include population figures on the development of these epidemics and findings from two sociological studies of representative samples of Singapore's multi-ethnic population. The comparative study illustrates the impact of cultural beliefs and attitudes in shaping the public image of these two different infectious diseases; the relevance of public image of the disease for effective prevention and control of epidemics.

Masks and O2 Levels

Some critics ask, "How do we know that masks are not harmful?  Do they make you breathe in your own CO2?"

Masks can sometimes be uncomfortable and hot and they might even prevent you from getting a deep breath.  However, there is a simple way to see that the mask is not hurting your ability to respirate enough oxygen.  Get a small device called a pulse oximeter that is available at any pharmacy or at any doctor's office.  It measures how much oxygen is getting into you.  The average person should be above 92 probably closer to 100. A simple experiment can show that masking does not prevent you from getting enough oxygen.  Simply put on the device and get your O2 level.  Then, with a mask on, run around or do jumping jacks and take your : level again.  You will see a similar O2 level.  

Pulseox devices are useful because if a person gets Covid-19 then you may see a drop in O2 levels even before you feel gravely ill. When your pulseox level is no longer getting to 90, you may need to get to the hospital for supplemental O2.

Masks and Germs
Another simple-minded rhetorical criticism of masks is that if you analyze masks you will find that they are dirty including germs like bacteria and pneumonia. Yes! That is because they are working! If the germs are on the outside it is because the mask prevented you from breathing in the germs.  Conversely, if the germs are on the inside, then the mask prevented you from breathing out the germs into the air around you! Additionally, this is why there are recommended guidelines for how you take the mask on and off and how you touch it. And if you want to be extra cautious, change your mask often. 

Efficacy of Masks

Some people claim that there is no evidence of masks working or that the guidelines have changed.  

First of all, the guidelines have changed because this is a new virus and researchers are learning about it every day and as it evolves.  For examples, researchers now know that it is a much more airborne virus than at first.  This means it is more likely to be spread by being breathed in.  Secondly, there was a time at the onset of the virus when the CDC in general and Dr. Fauci in particular were afraid that there was not enough medical grade masks (N95).  That is why he said that people should wear a mask but not necessarily an N95 mask.  We are beyond that point.  However, the evidence for why masks work must be culled and critically analyzed because there are many variables:  what kind of mask?  how is it being worn?  where is the location of mask wearing occurring - indoors?  outdoors? in a crowded space? how long was the mask wearer in that space? what is the level of community spread in this location?  All of these questions are important and it is difficult to measure and duplicate all of them.  However, there is much evidence that points to the efficacy of mask wearing.

Studying Mask Wearing is difficult but still conclusive

There is much evidence that masks help but again, you must understand the evidence clearly with complexity and nuance.

From Nature.com this article explains the difficulty in examining "mask-wearing". Again the importance of nuance in that phrase "mask wearing:" Who is wearing the mask? What kind of mask? How are they wearing it? What is the circumstances they are wearing it in? How much covid is present in the population? From the the article, despite these important questions that bring context to understanding what one means by "mask wearing,"

science supports using masks, with recent studies suggesting that they could save lives in different ways: research shows that they cut down the chances of both transmitting and catching the coronavirus, and some studies hint that masks might reduce the severity of infection if people do contract the disease. But being more definitive about how well they work or when to use them gets complicated.

This 2020 news report from NPR also explains that, 

most of the studies in the analysis looked at face mask use in health care, not community, settings. And they were observational, not the gold standard of science, a randomized controlled trial, which would be "very unethical in a pandemic," says Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. Still, he says the fact that there is a benefit from masks is clear.

Controlled settings show mask efficacy

So the above article explains that it is difficult to measure "mask wearing" generally, but this research shows that in a controlled setting of a hospital, with a regulated type of mask, it was indeed effective.

community mask use by well people could be beneficial, particularly for COVID-19, where transmission may be pre-symptomatic. The studies of masks as source control also suggest a benefit, and may be important during the COVID-19 pandemic in universal community face mask use as well as in health care settings. Trials in healthcare workers support the use of respirators continuously during a shift. This may prevent health worker infections and deaths from COVID-19, as aerosolisation in the hospital setting has been documented.

Uncontrolled evidence

This article explains the results of a study of an outbreak in California where masking is not required and a teacher spread Covid to half of his class.  From the article, 

Among the teacher’s 24 students, 22 were tested and 12 tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the report, written by county health officials and experts with UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz.

Four parents of children at the school were later infected in the outbreak, which involved the Delta variant, according to the report. Of the infected parents, one was unvaccinated, while three were vaccinated. Vaccinated parents in the outbreak experienced symptoms including fever, chills, cough, headache and loss of smell.

“This outbreak of COVID-19 that originated with an unvaccinated teacher highlights the importance of vaccinating school staff members who are in close indoor contact with children ineligible for vaccination,” the authors of the report wrote. “The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the Delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination.”

The scientists who wrote the report said the results show why it is so important that universal masking inside schools is widely recommended; in California, masking is required in indoor school settings.

Healthcare experts agree and provide myriad evidence that masks work

Finally the University of San Francisco provides this explanation of how masks work and the evidence supporting their efficacy.  From the explanation, 

There are several strands of evidence supporting the efficacy of masks.

One category of evidence comes from laboratory studies of respiratory droplets and the ability of various masks to block them. An experiment using high-speed video found that hundreds of droplets ranging from 20 to 500 micrometers were generated when saying a simple phrase, but that nearly all these droplets were blocked when the mouth was covered by a damp washcloth. Another study of people who had influenza or the common cold found that wearing a surgical mask significantly reduced the amount of these respiratory viruses emitted in droplets and aerosols.

But the strongest evidence in favor of masks come from studies of real-world scenarios. “The most important thing are the epidemiologic data,” said Rutherford. Because it would be unethical to assign people to not wear a mask during a pandemic, the epidemiological evidence has come from so-called “experiments of nature.”

A recent study published in Health Affairs, for example, compared the COVID-19 growth rate before and after mask mandates in 15 states and the District of Columbia. It found that mask mandates led to a slowdown in daily COVID-19 growth rate, which became more apparent over time. The first five days after a mandate, the daily growth rate slowed by 0.9 percentage-points compared to the five days prior to the mandate; at three weeks, the daily growth rate had slowed by 2 percentage-points.

 

University of North Carolina sociology professor and MD, Zeynap Tufekci, reviews the literature (Jan 2021)  around mask wearing and develops a framework for examining it as well as makes recommendations here.  In short,

• The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility 
• Public mask wearing is most effective at reducing spread of the virus when compliance is high. 
• We recommend mask wearing by infectious people (“source control”) 
• We recommend that public officials and governments strongly encourage the use of widespread face masks in public, including the use of appropriate regulation.

From JohnsHopkins, Proper Mask Wearing Matters,

Anytime you are wearing a mask, make sure:

It is worn consistently and appropriately. A mask that is frequently pulled down to breathe or talk, or is worn under the nose, is not effective.

The mask conforms to your face without gaps — it is important that most of the air you breathe in and out flows through the mask rather than around the mask through gaps at the sides, top or bottom.

It is made from several layers of tightly woven fabric in order to be an effective filter.

The mask has a flexible nose bridge to conform to the face and prevent fogging of eyeglasses.

It stays in place during talking and moving, so it can be worn without slipping and so it does not require you to touch it frequently.

The mask is comfortable enough to wear without adjusting it for the amount of time you need to keep it on.

Following current mask-wearing guidelines is still important as we race to stop viral transmission and get everyone vaccinated before more variants of the virus emerge and threaten the progress we have made.

"But masks don't guarantee prevention..."

A lot of what is recommended is not 100% but very few issues are zero sum or black and white.

Masking and vaccines limit but does not eliminate the likelihood of getting ill from covid.  There are lots of ways that we try to limit our risk - going inside because of risk of lightning, cooking raw meat, going to the basement during tornado warnings.  None of these are a 100% protection, but they limit the risk.  Masking is similar.  And of course, how you mask matters.  Wearing the right mask in the correct way in the right situations all matter.    This graphic from the Washington Post explains the different levels of protection:

Instant Covid's Gonna' Get You

And in a twist of irony, a leader of the TExas anti-mask movement died from Covid.  From The Hill:

The leader of an anti-mask movement in Texas has died from COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, who created the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, a group that held a rally to combat "COVID-19 tyranny," died after spending more than a month in the hospital, according to a message posted by his wife, Jessica Wallace, on a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover his hospital bills.  He initially refused to go to the hospital and get tested for the virus, instead opting to take ivermectin — an anti-parasite medication used mostly in livestock that the Food and Drug Administration recently urged people not to take to treat COVID-19 — along with high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and an inhaler.

This final anecdote helps to reinforce the shared meaning around masking and covid.  People are willing to treat themselves with a horse medication but not FDA-approved, doctor-recommended masking and vaccinations.  

REMINDER:

You can still be a conservative or vote republican, but be critical of what you believe.  Especially,

• Wear a mask properly.
• Stay 3 feet apart and honor the SHS seating.
• Tell a teacher or counselor if you are uncomfortable.

My Personal Covid Experience

 As Covid was spreading last year, my parents tried to be careful but also refused to let it halt their lives.  They are both in their 80s and they felt that they only had so much time left to live so they wanted to continue going out to eat at restaurants, visiting with friends, going to church, etc...

On Saturday, December 5th 2020, my mom stopped by my house to say hi to my kids.  Here is a picture we took before a Santa Run 5K:

That's her on the right side.  She walked 3 miles that day with friends! She went to church and went to dinner.  She was full of activity.  Four days later, she was feeling sick, like she had a cold, but the next day she was so ill she went to an urgent care center.  She had a fever of 102.  She was nauseated.  She had no appetite and had headaches.  She tried to rest at home but we bought her a pulse oximeter and it was showing decreased levels on oxygen in her system.  And so, just 10 days after the picture above, she was admitted to the hospital.  

Just a couple days after admission, she could no longer breathe without oxygen.  She was more nauseated and had a fever that would go up and down.

We Facetimed each other to stay in touch:

Look at those 2 pictures.  Ten days apart.  And this was a healthy women, who ate lots of vegetables, exercised daily, drank lots of water, did not smoke or drink alcohol too much.  She was an upbeat and optimistic person with a genuine giant smile who made everyone around her feel good.  

Now, she was alone in the hospital.  No visitors. Only a cellphone for herself.  They admitted her with what she had on her and because of the contagious nature of the disease there was no visiting, no dropping off of magazines, or change of clothes.  She had an optimistic attitude that maybe she will be home by Christmas (Dec 25).  That would give her 10 days to recover.  But, in those ten days she did not get better, she got worse.  She was receiving fluids intravenously and receiving blood transfusions and remdesivir to try to control the virus.   After spending Christmas alone in the hospital, she set a new goal for returning home: the new year.  She thought that if she couldn't make it by Christmas, well then by New Year's Day.  

But Covid continued to destroy her lungs.  Her caregivers started taking blood almost daily to look for clotting.  After spending New Year's alone in the hospital she continued to get worse.  She said that she felt like she was drowning just not in water.  When she would try to get a breath, her lungs would convulse and she would go into coughing fits that she could not control.  She was now in bed 23 hours a day, barely able to walk, only able to survive with supplemental oxygen.  Simply going to the bathroom would drain her energy/oxygen and make her feel faint.  She said that this was far worse than she thought it would be.

She had survived colon cancer that required an invasive surgery that removed her colon and large intestine and breast cancer that required a double mastectomy.

 She said that Covid was far worse than any of that.  

In the meantime, the effects of covid went far beyond her own health.  Anxious and worried about her health, it was hard to concentrate on much else.  The emotions affected me as well as my kids (her grand daughters) and dozens of other people.  While I appreciated their thoughts, I was inundated with phone calls from her friends and other family members who wanted to know how she was.  It was exhausting.  I was simultaneously trying to communicate with her doctors and manage her care while also caring for my father who was not used to being alone and caring for himself.  The ripple effects of an illness like Covid are hard to quantify.  I was trying to manage her financial affairs and pay her bills because she was not able to do any of that.  

She was not sure that she was going to live.  She was scared and sad.  But then, after an experimental treatment of powerful immunosuppressants her condition started to stabilize.  She was no longer getting worse, but she was not getting better.  Her doctors had prevented her from dying but there was not much more that they could do in the hospital.  They hoped that with some physical therapy she could strengthen her lungs.  So, after 3 and a half weeks in the hospital, her doctors were transferring her to a rehabilitation facility.  She still was not able to have any visitors.  It would be over a month where she saw no one except doctors and nurses looking at her through masks, face shields and lab coats and other PPE. However, she continued to FaceTime me and she described her room at the rehab facility where was now.  I was able to figure out what room it was from the description and after not seeing her in person for over a month and thinking that I might never see her alive again, I drove to a back alley and said hello through her window.  We cried. I still would not be able to hug her or touch her for another 10 days or so.  

Although she did not make it home for Christmas or New Years that year, she did make it home for her 80th birthday.    On January 18th, I picked her up at the rehab facility and for the first time in 42 days I was able to hug my own mother.

This was a new chapter of worry and difficulty.  She could hardly walk upstairs and she required supplemental oxygen which meant being connected to a machine via air tubes.  We were worried about her using the shower and the toilet.  And the supplemental oxygen was an explosion risk so it could not be used in the kitchen but we also were not sure that in her diminished mental state that she would remember to not use the gas stove with the oxygen on.  There were all sorts of tripping hazards like coffee tables and rugs.  In short, yes she survived, but the experience was long, stressful and still an ongoing adjustment.  And we are now 7 months passed her return home and while she has resumed much of her previous activities she is not the same.  Her body has trouble regulating its blood sugar - possibly from damage to her pancreas, her lungs are not at full capacity and may never be - she requires a conscious effort to take deep breaths, and mentally she still has trouble remembering words.  

In short, she lived, but you don't want this disease, even if you survive it and you don't want to spread it to any of your own loved ones. 

Reviewing Unit 1: The Sociological Perspective

This first unit was about how sociologists examine the world; the unique perspective that illuminates our understanding of both society and how individuals in it are influenced.

Three Paradigms

There are three paradigms that helped start sociology as a discipline.  Each paradigm has a connection to a scholar who studied the huge dramatic changes that took place during the industrial revolution.  More important than either the scholar or what he studied, are what these founding paradigms influenced sociologists to focus on.

Three Theories

Besides these three paradigms that have influenced what sociology focuses on, there are also three sociological theories that I use to help understand the sociological perspective.  These three theories are in the center of the graphic organizer because they can be applied to everything we study.

What does Durkheim's Structural-Functional paradigm focus on?

What does Marx's Conflict paradigm focus on?

What does Weber's Symbolic Interaction paradigm focus on?

What is the Social Construction of Reality?

What is the Sociological Imagination?

What is Sociological Mindfulness?

Once you understand the paradigms and theories, practice applying them to your own life.  Be sure that when you apply them, you can be specific to your own experience.

• Being a teenager (and conflicts with parents - be specific about the details in your life; i.e. what conflicts?)
• Your name  (be specific, which of your names and how does it apply spcifically to the paradigm or theory?)
• covid
• college application process

1Soc Perspective 5: Hello, My Name is Max

While students show up please read "Conventional Wisdom Tells Us...What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" from sociologists Cerulo and Ruane.

Review from last lesson:  What does Marx's conflict paradigm focus on?

Apply to the Parent-Teen Conflict article:  How might the conflict paradigm be used to examine teens?

Max Weber and Symbolic Interaction Paradigm

Max Weber's contribution to the development of sociology during the  Industrial Revolution

Max Weber (pronounced VAY-ber) studied the development of capitalism in European countries.  He found that countries that became more Protestant also became more capitalist.  This is peculiar because religion and economics seem to be separate.  But Protestants held shared meaning with each other about their wealth and finance.  They saw living within their means and investing their money as signs that they were living righteously within their Christian beliefs.  This created an economy that was based on investment.  It led to the creation and expansion of capitalism, investing profit to make even more profit.   It might seem strange for religion to be connected to the economy, but in their interaction with each other, it was real for them.  


The development of the symbolic interactionist paradigm 

Building off of Weber's work, two sociologists created a third paradigm for which sociologists view the world.   Weber showed symbolic meaning in the Protestants' lives and in their everyday interaction with other people.  Stemming from Weber's work, George Mead and other sociologists focused on the shared meaning in everyday life between people.  This paradigm became known as symbolic interaction.  It is more focused on face-to-face interaction, or small groups, as opposed to large scale institutions.  Much of our interaction with each other holds symbolic meaning to us.  The words we chose, our body language, our clothes all hold symbolic meaning for us.  They convey an identity we have to the world. 

Let's add Weber and symbolic interaction to the sociology framework graphic organizer:

How might symbolic interaction paradigm connect to names?

A name isn’t just a random set of syllables.  It has meaning.  

And it can be interpreted by people differently.  Read "Conventional Wisdom Tells Us...What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" from sociologists Cerulo and Ruane.

Here is the Google Form for this lesson.  Please open it in a new window and fill it out as you continue.

1.  According to the authors of Conventional Wisdom Tells Us..., what are some examples of the different meanings that names hold?  

2.  What are some ways that Cerulo and Ruane show these meanings affect people?

For more on names and symbolic meanings, you can listen to the Freakonomics podcast episode by Wells, Katharine.  How Much Does Your Name Matter? Freakonomics Radio Podcast. April 8, 2013.

The episode draws from a Freakonomics chapter called “A Roshanda By Any Other Name”and includes a good bit of new research on the power of names. It opens with a conversation with NYU sociologist Dalton Conley and his two children, E and Yo. Their names are a bit of an experiment.  Indeed, there is some evidence that a name can influence how a child performs in school and even her career opportunities. There’s also the fact that different groups of parents — blacks and whites, for instance — have different naming preferences. Stephen Dubner talks to Harvard professor Latanya Sweeney about a mysterious discrepancy in Google ads for Instant Checkmate, a company that sells public records. Sweeney found that searching for people with distinctively black names was 25% more likely to produce an ad suggesting the person had an arrest record – regardless of whether that person had ever been arrested.  Names do, however, reveal a lot about the people doing the naming. Eric Oliver, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, talks about his new research (with co-authors Thomas Wood and Alexandra Bass) that looks at how children’s names are influenced by their parents’ political ideology.

If names do affect their bearers' chance of success, it may not always be because of the reactions they cause in other people (the "looking-glass self"), they might also be because of "implicit egotism", the positive feelings we each have about ourselves.  Brett Pelham cites the concept in explaining his finding that individuals called Virginia, Mildred, Jack and Philip proliferate in Virginia, Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Philadelphia - he believes they are drawn to live there.  

Another intriguing 2007 paper, entitled Moniker Maladies, found that people's fondness for the initials of their names could get in the way of success. Leif Nelson and Joseph Simmons analysed almost a century of baseball strikeouts and found that hitters with the initial K had a higher strike-out rate ("K" denotes a strike-out in baseball). They also found that graduate students with the initials C and D had a slightly lower grade point average than A and B students, and A and B applicants to law school were more likely to go to better colleges.

Some students will say that their parents just chose the name because they liked it.  But closer research reveals that even this is not always the case.  The Social Security Administration Baby Names Database tracks all of the names babies are given each year.  You can view that data here: SSA Baby Name Database.   
Notice that the data shows that names go in and out of style, even if we don't notice it.  For example, my parents named me Christopher, but they just thought that they liked the name.  Looking at the data, it is now evident that Christopher was the second most popular name that year! 

Additionally, a respected sociologist from Harvard named Stanley Lieberson studied trends and fashions.  He used the Social Security Names database to study how names spread in popularity similar to how fashion spreads.  His research is an example of how the social institution of family creates stability.  The naming of new babies is not simply personal; families influence each other.  Read this NY Times[iii] article about Lieberson then try your own research with the data.  If you wish to markup this reading, download it here.  Lieberson found that:

• Name choices, like clothing choices, reflect the desire to be different, but not too different.
• Names branch off of each other with similar suffixes or prefixes 
• Names reflect societal patterns like Mexican immigrants
• Names are changing more frequently than they used to reflect a stronger desire to be different.

5.  (OPTIONAL) Search the SSA Baby Name Database.  

Can you find examples of any of Lieberson's finds in the social security database?  Give a specific example.

Parent-teen conflicts and Weber's symbolic interaction paradigm

Think about the teen-parent conflict reading.  

3.  What are the meanings that the label "teen" might hold for parents?  For society?  

4.  How might the label of "teen" affect the face-to-face interactions between teens and parents, teachers, peers?   How did this meaning come about?


5. Do you understand how the sociologists view the world through a symbolic interaction perspective?  Any questions about that paradigm?

1Soc Perspective 4: Hello My Name is Karl

 As students arrive:

Please open the Google Form for today's lesson.  Please open it in a new window and answer the questions as you read along below.  

Review and apply yesterday's lesson:  

1.  What does Durkheim's structural-functional paradigm focus on?

2. Try to apply that to teens - How can you apply the structural-functional paradigm to the Parent-Teen Conflict article?  What parts of the article would a structural-functional sociologist focus on?



Karl Marx's Conflict Paradigm

The second paradigm that emerged from the changes of the industrial revolution is called conflict paradigm which developed out of the influence of Karl Marx.  He studied the inequalities in industrial Europe and how those inequalities affected individuals.  For example, Marx found that a working-class person lived an average of 25 years less than a wealthy person.  Like Durkheim, Marx concluded that his findings were not just the result of individual choices.  Instead, people were forced to work in unhealthy conditions and forced to yield to the demands of the wealthy owners of the factories.  

Marx's Focus   

Marx's focus led sociologists to examine who had power in society and who did not.  The natural extension of that became the effects of power on groups of individuals and how those in power gained and maintained that power.  Initially, Marx's focus was on social class, especially in Europe, but early sociologists in the U.S. like W.E.B. Dubois applied the conflict paradigm to race, while others like Alice Paul applied it to gender in the U.S.   Oftentimes, the study of inequality and the fight for equal rights led to overlapping movements such as social class and gender led by Chicago's Jane Addams and other overlapping movements such as race and gender which was led by Chicago's Ida B. Wells.  In fact, the University of Chicago was the first sociology department in North America (1892) and Chicago was a leader in sociology for the next 50 years leading to what became known as "the Chicago school" of sociology.

Open your framework chart from yesterday, and add Marx's paradigm to the lower left:

Applying conflict paradigm to names

3. Hypothesize:  What are some ways that names might create power or inequality?


Small group discussion (based on this lesson from Rabow, et al...):
4.  Has your name ever been mispronounced?  By who? When? How often?


5.  Has anyone had their name changed or taken on a  nickname because of mispronunciation?  If so, were there any benefits to the new name?  Were there any negative consequences?


Race and names
These articles provide research-based evidence of the importance of conflict perspective in examining names and power:

Emily and Greg v. Lakisha and Jamal

In a study from 2003, called Are Emily And Greg More Employable Than Lakisha and Jamal? Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan sent nearly 5,000 CVs in response to job advertisements in Chicago and Boston newspapers. The CVs were the same, but half were given fake names that sounded like they belonged to white people, like Emily Walsh or Greg Baker, and the other half were given names that sounded African American, like Lakisha Washington or Jamal Jones. The call-back rate from employers was 50% higher on the "white" names then the "black" names. The effects were noted even for federal contractors with "affirmative action" policies, and companies boasting they were "equal opportunities" employers.  The researchers inferred that employers were using first names to discriminate unfairly against black candidates, perhaps at an unconscious level. Those same prejudices might also come into play at the interviewing stage, but a black applicant called Greg Baker, who receives an invitation to an interview, has at least got his foot in the door.

Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da'Quan

There is also striking evidence of names triggering different outcomes for schoolchildren.

David Figlio, now at Northwestern University, analyzed the scores of some 55,000 children in a school district of Florida. Instead of just distinguishing between "white" and "black" names, he codified what aspects of names meant that they were more likely to belong to black children and children from low-income families. This allowed him to create a sliding scale, which went, for example, from Drew to Dwayne to Damarcus to Da'Quan. Figlio found that the further along this scale he went, the worse the school test scores and the less likely the student was to be recommended for the schools' program for "gifted" students. Strikingly, this held true for brothers within a family, and even - although the sample size was small - for twins. Figlio believes that the fault lies with the expectations of schoolteachers and administrators - at schools with more black teachers, the effects were less marked.  In separate research, Figlio used the Florida school data to show that black boys who are given names more common among girls are more likely to develop behavioral problems when they reach puberty. The problems increase significantly when there are girls in the same year group with the same name.

Both of the above is an example of how conflict sociologists view society and how inequality is created and maintained.  Read the following and look for how studying names can be viewed through a conflict paradigm.

Ethnicity, immigration and names

From American Immigrants and the Dilemma of the White Sounding Name in the Atlantic (2019),

A lot of research on immigration and names examines the subject from an economic perspective. A 2016 paper in the American Sociological Review looked at the first names given to the generation that came after the wave of immigration to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. “Native-born sons of Irish, Italian, German, and Polish immigrant fathers who were given very ethnic names ended up in occupations that earned, on average, $50 to $100 less per year than sons who were given very ‘American’ names,” the researchers wrote. “This represented 2 to 5 percent of annual earnings.” (They determined the “ethnic-ness” or “American-ness” of a name based on how frequently it was given in each immigrant and native-born population at the time.) 

Some of this effect, the researchers estimated, was due to class differences among parents (which remain a strong determinant of a child’s future job prospects), but most of it had to do with the symbolism of the name itself. Interestingly, the economic advantage that came with having a “more American” name still applied to people with surnames that clearly indicated their parents’ foreign origins. The researchers surmised that American-sounding first names, then, functioned more as a signal of “an effort to assimilate” than a means of “hiding one’s origins.” 

Immigrants in that era frequently felt pressured to change their own first name. A separate study, also from 2016, found that “at any given time between 1900 and 1930,” about 77 percent of immigrants had an American-sounding first name, and it was the norm for them to have dropped their original name within a year of entering the U.S. There were economic overtones here too: Male immigrants were more likely to change their name if they lived in counties where other immigrants had trouble getting jobs.

School and Conflict Paradigm

From PBS's, Why Getting a Student's Name Right Matters

For more info, you might want to visit the My Name, My Identity website[vi].

For students, especially the children of immigrants or those who are English-language learners, a teacher who knows their name and can pronounce it correctly signals respect and marks a critical step in helping them adjust to school.  But for many ELLs, a mispronounced name is often the first of many slights they experience in classrooms; they’re already unlikely to see educators who are like them, teachers who speak their language, or a curriculum that reflects their culture.

It can also hinder academic progress.

...the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.

• Mispronunciation can hinder academic progress, and make students feel invisible.

...the dropout rate for foreign-born and immigrant students remains above 30 percent, three times that of U.S.-born white students.

Carmen Fariña, a native-Spanish speaker, had a teacher who marked her absent every day for weeks because she didn’t raise her hand during roll call. The teacher assumed Fariña was being defiant, but the future New York City schools chancellor never heard her name called; the teacher had repeatedly failed to pronounce it correctly, including rolling the r’s.

Mispronouncing a student’s name essentially renders that student invisible, Fariña said Teachers Please Learn Our Names! Racial Microaggressions and the K-12 Classroom, is littered with stories of students who endured shame, anxiety, or embarrassment, and sometimes a mix of all three, when their names were called in class.

There’s the tale of a Portland, Oregon-area student with a traditional Chinese name who had her name garbled by a vice principal during an honors ceremony. Set to present the student with an award, the principal laughed at his mistake, drawing chuckles from the audience.  To avoid embarrassment, the student slumped in her seat, refusing to rise to receive the prestigious award. She later skipped her graduation.  The mispronunciation wasn’t an isolated event. Having endured years of slights, she felt the need to become invisible long before the principal’s laughter marked the tipping point.  The woman, who went on to become an educator, changed her first name to ‘Anita.’ “If someone mispronounces your name once as a high school student, you might correct them,” said Kohli, whose parents immigrated to the United States from India. “But if this has been your entire existence in education, what do you do?”  Kohli’s own brother had a teacher mispronounce his traditional South Asian name, Sharad (‘shu-rudth’) as Sharub during a ninth grade class. The teacher and the students decided it was easier to call him Shrub, and it stuck for the rest of high school. The nickname forced him to check part of his identity at the door.

While the diversity of the nation’s public school student body has exploded in the last few decades, the number of African-American, Latino, and Asian teachers hasn’t kept pace. Gonzalez, a former teacher in school districts in Kentucky and Maryland, said she often observed a ‘these people’ attitude from her mostly white female colleagues. “They approached it like, ‘It’s your fault for having a weird name,'” Gonzalez said. To some degree, Gonzalez understands the struggle students face. She grew up with a Russian surname, Yurkosky, that befuddled teachers and classmates. She said it rhymes with “her-pots-ski,” minus the “t” sound in pots. “But I did not experience all the other stuff and other ways that a person can feel discriminated against,” said Gonzalez, who is white.

Butchered names are not just a problem for English learners and immigrants; students from a number of cultural backgrounds have their names garbled or ridiculed. Hawaiian and African-American students, with names that link to their ancestry, also shared stories of how constant mispronunciations made them feel uncomfortable with their names.

• Names can even lead to direct mocking of a student:

In an extreme case, a teacher in Wayne Township, New Jersey, lost her tenure status and job in 2015 for mocking a student’s name on Facebook. Several letters in the student’s name spelled out a profane word, legal documents show. More often, the mocking is more direct and reflexive: laughing off pronunciation, asking the student to take on a nickname, or making a spectacle of their name, Kohli said. “It matters what you do when you’re in front of a child and struggling with their name,” Kohli said. “Is it framed as my inability to say someone’s name or is it framed as the student doing something to make your life more difficult?”

The episode called "Substitute Teacher" from Key and Peele is a funny take on how student names can be messed up by a teacher and how that can affect students.

Applying conflict paradigm to teens

6.  Finally,  apply conflict paradigm to the teen-parent conflict article.  What are some ways that you can analyze Coontz's Teen-Parent Conflict excerpt through Marx's lens of inequality and power?  

HW (optional):  Read "Conventional Wisdom Tells Us...What's in a Name? That which we call a Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" from Cerulo and Ruane.

Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

 HW:  Read Gang Leader for a Day Introduction by Sudhir Venkatesh

For this excerpt in a Word format you can click here.

Gang Leader For A Day is a book written for popular consumption by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Venkatesh went to the U of Chicago to study sociology. In his quest to conduct research that would help him make a name for himself, he naively put himself into harm’s way.  The excerpt below is from the book's introduction.  As you read, look for the different ways that Venkatesh tries to gather data for his research.  Also, think about what data he gathers is reliable or useful and in what ways.

NOTE: Venkatesh's original publication contained words, including racial epithets, that may be considered offensive by some today. These words were not included in a way meant to be offensive or inflammatory, but instead, the author, Venkatesh was trying to relay his conversations as accurately as possible to the reader.  Nevertheless, I have tried to redact the most offensive words in this excerpt.

For perspective, above is a picture of how the Lake Park Housing Projects looked before they were torn down.

For more info on the Chicago Housing Projects, see this multimedia presentation from UCLA about the Robert Taylor Homes.

Here is a history of high rise public housing from a UC Berkley professor.

Read this critique of Venkatesh's work and answer the question below.

For more info on Venkatesh's work:

• Gang Leader for a Day on Amazon. 
• Read an excerpt from the book and download Venkatesh reading and talking about his book from NPR. 
• Venkatesh speaking on the Colbert Report and he explains that there are important ways of doing research correctly.
• Venkatesh speaking about his book and the research he did.  
• An interview at slate.com between Venkatesh and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here).