1v1 with MJ

 Here is a video of the time I played 1v1 with MJ.

Environmental Sociology

 Here is the ASA's section on Environmental Sociology.

Here is the Journal of Environmental Sociology

Chicago Gang Members: Complex Identities

 From Inquiries Journal:

Double Lives: A Qualitative Analysis of Identity Navigation in Chicago's South and West Sides

By Ava V. Levin
2021, VOL. 13 NO. 05
Abstract:

This paper draws on qualitative interviews to address internal and external identity navigation among gang members and how nonprofits address this navigation. Gang members ultimately lead double lives as they weave between gang and community life. At the same time, community members also engage with gang culture in daily life, as gang membership may be clear while gang and community life are blurred. This dual existence can breed cognitive dissonance, which gang members address through a variety of neutralization techniques that allow them to nevertheless view themselves as moral individuals. Finally, nonprofits working against gun violence should acknowledge this duality and leverage it to create more successful programs for the community.

Being (Tim)Wise about race in the US

 White Like Me.  

A documentary by Tim Wise You can watch it here on media cast..

Here is a transcript of the documentary.

About Tim Wise

Wise’s antiracism work traces back to his days as a college activist in the 1980s, fighting for divestment from (and economic sanctions against) apartheid South Africa. After graduation, he threw himself into social justice efforts full-time, as a Youth Coordinator and Associate Director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Racism and Nazism: the largest of the many groups organized in the early 1990s to defeat the political candidacies of white supremacist and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. From there, he became a community organizer in New Orleans’ public housing, and a policy analyst for a children’s advocacy group focused on combatting poverty and economic inequity. He has served as an adjunct professor at the Smith College School of Social Work, in Northampton, MA., and from 1999-2003 was an advisor to the Fisk University Race Relations Institute in Nashville, TN.

Wise attempts to answer the questions below.  What answer does he give?  What evidence does he give?

WHAT IS WHITE PRIVILEGE?

ISN’T RACISM A THING OF THE PAST?

BUT WHAT ABOUT US?  IS THERE RACISM AGAINST WHITES?

SHOULDN’T WE BE COLORBLIND?

Sources and Evidence in the video:

Tim Wise 

Author of Between Barack and a Hard Place.

Martin Gilens, Princeton University, 

Author of Why Americans Hate Welfare.

John Bracy, UMass-Amherst.
Professor John H. Bracey, Jr., has taught in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 1972. He is now serving a second stint as department chair, and is co-director of the department’s graduate certificate in African Diaspora Studies. His major academic interests are in African American social history, radical ideologies and movements, and the history of African American Women and more recently the interactions between Native Americans and African Americans, and Afro-Latinos in the United States.

Imani Perry, Princeton University.
The Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies and faculty associate in the Program in Law and Public Affairs and Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton, Perry has written and taught on a number of topics regarding race and African American culture.

Michelle Alexander, The Ohio State University.  Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. In recent years, she has taught at a number of universities, including Stanford Law School, where she was an associate professor of law and directed the Civil Rights Clinics. In 2005, she won a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of The New Jim Crow, and that same year she accepted a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University.  Author of The New Jim Crow; Mass Incarceration in an Age of Color Blindness 

Nilanjana Dasgupta, UMass-Amherst
Research in our lab shines a light on unspoken assumptions about social groups, often called implicit stereotypes or biases, and the ways in which they impact people’s evaluations of, and actions toward, others. We also examine how implicit biases influence people's self-perceptions, performance, and academic and career choices. We are particularly interested in the plasticity of implicit bias—the ways in which changes in social contexts change implicit attitudes, beliefs, and behavior.

Charles Ogletree, Harvard University.
Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law.

America has always been a work in progress.  Our history is not just a story of oppression but also a story of triumph - the story of Americans making a better society for all citizens, even those in their outgroup.  Each success did not end racism or sexism but it brought us one step closer to realizing our founding goal;  

to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity

 The history of the U.S. is as much anti-racist history as it is racist history.  

Here are some of the white allies he mentions in the documentary: 

Will Campbell - Baptist minister who walked with Little Rock nine

Jeremiah Evarts - Christian missionary who opposed Indian removal

Helen Hunt Jackson - author who wrote about and opposed the treatment of American Indians

John Fee - abolitionist minister from Kentucky

Matilda Gage

Lydia Child

Robert Flournoy?

Grimke Sisters

Joan Mullholland - sat at the counter in Woolworth in Mississippi 

Anne Braden

Virginia Foster Durr

J. Watisse Wearing

Constance Curry

Bob and Dottie Zellner

Mab Segrest

Prom

From Sabrina Madeaux in the National Post (2018):

While teens might think they're fighting tradition and consumerism, today's proms are as conforming and expensive as ever.  As teens become more economically and politically influential, proms have come to offer an accurate reflection of their generation as it grows up.

The Surprisingly Sexist History of the Prom  from Leah Cuen of Mic (2016)

"Prom was [introduced to schools] to communicate a conservative, class-based gender script to a larger population," sociology professor Amy Best, the chair of George Mason University's Sociology and Anthropology department and the author of the book Prom Night: Youth, Schools, and Popular Culture, said in a phone interview. "To communicate what it means to be a "proper" middle-class girl, just like the debutante balls, both had narrow [gender role] expectations."

From Sociology in Focus (2013) Stratification on the Dance Floor: Prom Night in America

Prom may be a right of passage, but it is also a place where stratification is observed. In this post, Stephanie Medley-Rath explains how stratification related to race and sexual identity are reproduced on prom night... In the book, Prom Night (2000) by sociologist Amy Best, she points out how racial divides are recreated at the dance through decisions made regarding the music played during the dance and in more extreme cases, holding racially segregated proms. More recently, Morgan Freeman paid for a Mississippi high school’s first racially integrated prom as documented in the film Prom Night in Mississippi (watch the movie’s trailer below), while other communities continue to hold racially segregated proms.

Prom segregation in Georgia from 2009 NY Times.

Racially segregated proms have been held in Montgomery County — where about two-thirds of the population is white — almost every year since its schools were integrated in 1971. Such proms are, by many accounts, longstanding traditions in towns across the rural South, though in recent years a number of communities have successfully pushed for change. 

From Psychology Today, Gender, Class, & Proms: High school rites of exclusion:
Does it matter if the prom excludes certain students from participating? (2010)



In the end, my advice to students is that the day high school ends, it will become irrelevant to your life's experience, the same way that middle school feels now.  Prom will feel "so high school".  So, don't worry if something goes wrong - if your group is not getting along, or someone wears the same dress as you, or something spills on your tux, or the limo is late, don't worry about it.  It won't be a big deal in the long run.  And because of that, my advice is to not put too much pressure on what prom represents.  Just let it be a celebration of high school.



When I was younger I used to chaperone prom and I always dressed according to the theme.  Here are some pics:

Gender Lesson 5: masculinity and replicating Mahler's research

If you did not get to finish the reading,  here is an annotated version of the Mahler article.  Please read it now.

After reading the article, answer question 1 below.  Here is the Google Form for answering the questions this lesson.
1.  What is Mahler (and Kimmel)'s overall claim?



After understanding Mahler and Kimmel's claim and evidence,  we will attempt to replicate and update their qualitative research.   Their qualitative analysis of existing data on school shooters examined random school shootings in major print media outlets (Time, Newsweek, US News, USA Today, NY Times, LA Times). Below are two lists of school shootings to get started.

First, choose at least one of the random school shooters after 2001.

• Wikipedia list of school shootings since 2000 
• MotherJones data set of all mass shootings (under the "location" column, see schools) 

Second, after choosing a shooter to research, use major news outlets to gather data about some of the school shooters from 2001-present.
Make a note of the shooter's:

• gender 
• race
• state (red or blue in 2001) 
• community: urban, suburban, rural
• other qualitative info about them such as music, video games, movies, parent status, mental illness, social status/teased, et al...

You may want to use the ILC newspaper search to find info about the shooters, or Google their names.  Here are a few other websites to help you find info:
GunViolence.org
Everytown research
Mass Shooting Tracker
TheTrace compiles articles and data related to shootings at thetrace.org
NRA gun law tracker

Maps for comparing red/blue states:

Results of 2000 election.

The map above shows current laws for carrying firearms.

2.  What shooter(s) did you research?

3.  What was the shooter's race?

4.  What was the shooter's gender?

5.  What community setting did the shooting occur in?

6.  Was the shooting in a red state or blue state?

7.  What other details about the shooter were revealed?

After you have entered the data above for at least one school shooter, hypothesize whether Mahler and Kimmel's research still holds up.

8.  Do you think that since 2001, Mahler and Kimmel's claim is still true about who shoots up schools and why?


9.  Answer any of the following questions about this lesson.

• Does your data correlate with what the rest of the class found?
• What do you think of the findings?
• Is this data interesting/insightful?  Why/why not?
• Can you see the connection between masculinity and violence?
• Do you think that the average American would have trouble understanding the connection?  Why?
• What questions do you still have?

Finally,  try to apply the research to other random shootings besides schools.  Search the websites that you used earlier.  Again, you may want to use the ILC newspaper search to find info about the shooters, or Google their names.  Here are a few other websites to help you find info:
GunViolence.org
Everytown research
Mass Shooting Tracker
TheTrace compiles articles and data related to shootings at thetrace.org
NRA gun law tracker

Find one example of a random shooting that did not occur at a school.

10.  Does Mahler and Kimmel's research apply to NON-SCHOOL random shootings?

Tough Guise Day 2

 Today we continued watching Tough Guise about how our society socializes boys in a narrow and limited way.  

Yesterday we saw that masculinity has been portrayed in Western movies only for around the last 75 years or so.  But examining the older tropes of masculinity, it is evident that the portrayal of masculinity in movies, sports, toys and other areas have all become more extreme.

Today we will see that one reason the masculinity has become more extreme is a reaction to increasing equality for minorities - especially women and non-heterosexuals.

Begin from 37:31 A Culture in Retreat Watch Tough Guise 2 on mediacast by clicking here.

• Along with the change of society came changes in the acceptance of women as equal and changes in gay rights.  Fear of the changes in society is filtered throughout society via politics and media.  Guns are a symptom of the fear of the changes. There is a siege mentality that promotes rugged individualism and gun ownership as a way of fighting back both literally and figuratively.  Guys today are taught that violence is the only way to be really considered a man and to hold onto their manhood. 
• Because our construction of masculinity includes the idea that anything feminine is inherently NOT masculine, as the box of what is acceptible for women has gotten larger, the box for males has gotten smaller.  This includes denigrating anything that is female or gay.  And, this creates a dangerous anti-female attitude.
• Finally, he ends with the idea that we can all make little changes in how we talk and act and think. We can support movies that show honest portrayals of guys and movies that help broaden the box that guys fit into.

Race lesson 4B: the social construction of race in the US continued

Because race is a social construction, we can use our sociological imagination to see that race changes depending on where you live and also when you live.  As we saw in yesterday's lesson,  race has changed throughout the history of the United States including who is considered "white".  

Choose one of the readings below and read it to see how the definition of race and whiteness has changed.

Here are some sociology readings about how different groups have changed over time:

• My post on How Jews became white, which draws on Karen Brodkin's research.
• Arab Americans and racial identity by Kristine J. Ajrouch and Amaney Jamal
• How Italians became white; Vicious Bigotry and Reluctant Acceptance (NY Times)
• How Armenians became white.
• When the Irish weren't white.
• Hispanic Identity and Race in Chicago by Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas
• Are Asian Americans Becoming White? by Min Zhou 

All of these are examples of how race has changed over the years in America.  Who is considered white changes because there is no empirical or objective way to define race.  Race doesn't exist in any biological or empirical sense, it only exists as a social construction.



7A How does this article explain that whiteness has changed over time?

B What are the factors that have changed it?

C Is it surprising that the idea of who is white has changed so much over the years?  Which group is most surprising to hear about?  

Social Class Lesson 3c: Location

Location

The next component of social class is location.  

Google Form here.

The Median Metro Area
Examining the largest 384 metro areas in the United States,  our area, Chicago is the 3rd most populous at 9 million people.  The median metro area is #192 - it is the 2nd largest city in Arkansas; Can you name it? Can you guess how many people are in the city? The total metropolitan area?

1.  What is the size of the median metro area in the United States?

Location and where College Grads Move

WSJ data shows where college grads are likely to move after they graduate.  Recall that only about 30% of Americans get a college degree, and out of that small group, notice where most of them move to after college.

Here is U of I and Indiana U:

 

Try Accessing the data through this link (sometimes you have to be on campus to get it to work):

Where Graduates Move After College

If the link above does not work, these might:

OFF CAMPUS ACCESS DURING PANDEMIC:

You will use the same link to access, then click the "sign in" link in the corner and use the username and password below:http://www.wsj.com/highschoolUsername:   schoolaccess@wsj.comPassword:    wsj123

ON FACEBOOK:

Accessible through this facebook link:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/486893378140308/?multi_permalinks=1004035523092755&notif_id=1532189664367938&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

ON CAMPUS:

For full access to the WSJ when you're on campus, you need to use the following special link: www.wsj.com/highschool

• Once there, the fastest way for you (and your students) to find the article you're looking for is to click the search icon and enter the words  "grads database"

• The only result that pops up should be "Where Graduates Move After College" and you should all be able to access it. 

ORIGINAL STORY:
https://www.wsj.com/graphics/where-graduates-move-after-college/?mod=e2fb

Try to make your own conclusions about the data:

What does this data say about your life after college?

On a less personal level, what does this data say about the U.S. in general?

2.  Where do college grads tend to move?

3.  How do you think where college grads move affect social class in the U.S.?

Educational Attainment in America Map

Another source of evidence regarding social class, education and location is an interactive version of the map below.   The map was created by a geographer using existing data are from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey Table B15003, distributed by NHGIS. 

(Data preparation was completed in the R and Python programming languages, with heavy reliance on the arcpy site package via ArcGIS Pro and the sf R package. The map itself is hosted by Mapbox and designed with Mapbox GL JS and dimple.js.  Major features of the map are described here.)

4. Where do you see segregation by educational attainment? 

 This article by Business Insider highlights some conclusions about educational segregation based on the interactive version of the map above.

Home Price, location and social class

The price of a home depends on a lot more than the physical structure of the home.  From FRED, the average home price in the United States in 2019 was about $380K.  But the average home price varies considerably from state to state.  For example, West VA was the lowest with an average home price of $108K and California was one of the highest at $554K.  The average for Illinois was $202K.  

Location and home price:

City-data has census data by census track including the average home price (as well as income and other data).

Zillow has a real estate market overview.  Here is a link for the overview for each suburb (2021 averages):

Buffalo Grove ($330K)

Long Grove. ($623K)

Lincolnshire. ($501K)

Click here to see some houses for sale in Lake County, IL in 2014.  Which do you think are the most expensive?  Which are the least? When you see the actual prices, why do you think that is?

Time had a map showing the most economically segregated cities in America.  

This heat map from Trulia shows the median sales price for areas across Lake County.

5.  How do you think your home's value compares to the average home price?  (Remember from the wealth section above, the average American owns a home.)


Location and health

This research from Harvard shows that zipcode is a better predictor for health than genetic code.

And Clint Smith, Washington DC teacher explains in his slam poem the ways that location affects his students.  As you watch, make a list of the ways that location affects them:

Location is also related to mobility:

An online data tool called Opportunity Atlas finds a strong correlation between where people are raised and their chances of achieving the American dream.
Here is an NPR piece explaining it.
Here is the NY Times Upshot explaining it.
Opportunity Insights provides data about how neighborhoods shape residents' life chances.

This report from NPR's Planet Money details how where you grow up can affect your income later in life.

And here is a video and stats from CNN Money that show how where you grow up limits or benefits you.

Robert Wuthnow, sociologist at Princeton University explains in his book The Left Behind; Decline and Rage in Rural America that location has strongly affected how rural Americans feel and how they vote.  

Here is a 2018 interview with Professor Wuthnow from Vox.

From Princeton U. Press:

What is fueling rural America’s outrage toward the federal government? Why did rural Americans vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump? And, beyond economic and demographic decline, is there a more nuanced explanation for the growing rural-urban divide? Drawing on more than a decade of research and hundreds of interviews, Robert Wuthnow brings us into America’s small towns, farms, and rural communities to paint a rich portrait of the moral order — the interactions, loyalties, obligations, and identities—underpinning this critical segment of the nation. Wuthnow demonstrates that to truly understand rural Americans’ anger, their culture must be explored more fully. Wuthnow argues that rural America’s fury stems less from specific economic concerns than from the perception that Washington is distant from and yet threatening to the social fabric of small towns. Rural dwellers are especially troubled by Washington’s seeming lack of empathy for such small-town norms as personal responsibility, frugality, cooperation, and common sense. Wuthnow also shows that while these communities may not be as discriminatory as critics claim, racism and misogyny remain embedded in rural patterns of life.

Student Voice Survey

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey below about SOCIOLOGY.  Your answers should pertain to our class only.  

https://surveys.panoramaed.com/adlaistevenson