Week 14: Race in U.S. History

Racism in the Justice System:

America’s capital punishment system is corrupted by racial discrimination. Race goes beyond scientific evidence and unfairly influences the legal process to a great extent. For example, the likelihood of a death sentence for a black defendant who kills a white victim is 30 to 1, when compared to a white defendant who kills a black victim. This shows how the race of both the victim and the suspect come into play. Second, are the jurors truly a “jury of peers” when the race of the jurors affects sentencing and is not representative of the general population? Certain groups, such as people of color, are unjustly excluded from the jury service based on their race.  On a capital trial jury, white males are more likely to vote in favor of the death penalty, especially if the victim is white. Forty-two percent of the people on death row are African Americans.

This issue was raised on ABC/2020: Justice and Privilege (see Week 9: Crime- Privilege & Racism), where Mr. Brown’s racial profile contributed to his harsh and unfair sentence. Thus, skin color does make a difference in how authorities and the criminal justice system react to the suspect and the determination of punishment.

Japanese Internment Camps:

In 1942, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 120,000 Japanese citizens and immigrants living on the West Coast were incarcerated in internment camps that were in poor condition.  Although President Roosevelt claimed a military necessity as a basis for this action, it was actually fueled by anti-Japanese sentiments. Americans “feared that the Japanese Americans would spy for Japan or commit acts of genocide” (Macionis, 2010, p. 373). Why then did Americans not do the same to German and Italian Americans since they were also at war with their native or ancestral countries? The truth is simple:  white ethnic Americans, who were making up an increasing number of the population at the time, did not face the same prejudice as Asian Americans. Many Americans believed in negative Japanese myths and stereotypes that made them inferior. In addition, most resented and envied the success that the Japanese had worked hard to gain. When Japanese Americans were forced to relocate to the internment camps, they lost their lucrative businesses and sold most of the possessions they owned for less than they were worth.

Native Americans:

         As Thanksgiving is soon approaching, many Americans consider this holiday a joyous one; however, the story of this holiday is not a particularly happy one for the Native Americans who were unjustly killed and forced onto reservations by many European Americans. As time has gone by, Native American stereotypes have changed. In the beginning of early European American colonization, Natives were viewed as “bloodthirsty savages” who were violent aggressors that posed a threat. This stereotype declined after they were restricted to undesired land and became less of an economic, political, and territorial threat to European Americans. Afterwards, Natives were viewed as “noble savages” who were brave and spiritual but pitied for being primitive and defeated. The former part of this stereotype, brave and spiritual, may seem positive on the surface, but upon further inspection is shown to contribute to the vicious cycle of prejudice and discrimination.

Everyday Racism:

Colorism- discrimination faced by darker skinned blacks as opposed to lighter skinned blacks. People were asked to rate intelligence of multiple people based on picture. Most people, including people of color, unknowingly gave the same person depicted with lighter skin a higher score.  Prejudice towards people of color by whites produces social inferiority, giving minorities less opportunity to improve their social standing. This perpetuates discrimination and forms a vicious cycle because these social disadvantages are interpreted as evidence that minorities do not measure up (Macionis, 2010, p. 366).

Global Gender: Iraq

Heartland Alliance is a nonprofit organization aim at advocating for human rights and responding to the human needs of endangered populations—particularly the poor, the isolated, and the displaced—by providing comprehensive services and promoting permanent solutions leading to a more just global society. It is based in Chicago but works both domestically and internationally. One of its key area is sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) because it is one of the greatest threats to a woman’s life and health and affects women throughout the world. One of its international programs, gender-based violence prevention in Iraq, interested me because of my nationality. Females in Iraq grow up in an environment where they face a significant amount of cultural and institutional violence and discrimination. One in five married Iraqi women has been a victim of physical domestic violence, while one in three has been subject to emotional violence. The practice of honor killings persists to this day for women who are perceived to have dishonored their families by acting outside their cultural gender norms (e.g., seeking a divorce, alleged or committed adultery, etc). Iraqi criminal laws overlook male violence while punishing women who deviate from cultural norms, and through laws that are either discriminatory or are harmful to women in their practice. Violence, verbal abuse, and lack of basic needs, such as food, clothing, and medical care, are inflicted upon female detainees. Conditions in the detention centers are not monitored and there is no regular trial observation and monitoring of implementation of discriminatory laws and legal procedures toward women in either the criminal justice or family court system.

Heartland Alliance work with Iraqi NGOs to offer gender-sensitive, direct legal, social intervention and medical services to victims of violence. The conditions of female detainees are also being monitored while laws and policies that will help improve protection for gender-based violence victims. A media campaign to increase awareness of this growing issue on gender-based violence is also underway.

Reference:

Heartland Alliance

Week 12: Child Sex Trade

The idea of human trafficking, especially those involve innocent children, repulses me to the core of my being. I cannot fathom how such a serious problem can still exist in this world today. Yet, this form of modern-day slavery is the “fastest growing criminal enterprise in the U.S.” (Johnson, 2010). According to the State Department, traffickers sexually exploit an estimated one million children every year worldwide. Not only does this global dilemma continue, it has also gotten worse overtime and affects younger and more children. As Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times reporter, points out, child trafficking continues to get worse because of three main reasons:  the collapse of communism/socialism that led to an explosion of markets including prepubescent flesh; increase in mobility making it easier for people to cross borders; and the increase in customers demanding young sexual partners who are less likely to transmit HIV/AIDs.

            There are many nonprofits that exist to help put an end to child trafficking. BAWAR, the Bay Area Women Against Rape, is an organization based in Oakland, California that is committed to teaming with police to combat child trafficking locally. FBI special agent Marty Parker declares that “Oakland is a breeding ground for child prostitution” (Johnson, 2010). BAWAR works to pluck young girls off the streets and into safe environments. Many of these children are sold by their families and have nowhere to turn for help. BAWAR serves as an advocate for these voiceless children and seeks to form a partnership with each survivor in order to help him or her regain some sense of control in his/her life. It was established in 1971 and its function centers around two basic goals:  to provide quality counseling and advocacy to survivors and to provide community education regarding sexual assault issues.

            Another notable organization is World Concern--a religion based humanitarian organization that focuses on sustainable development for the poor in Africa, Asia and the Americas. Its key aim is at preventing child trafficking by teaching children how to stay safe. Job skills are taught to children to provide them with more opportunities to work safely close to home. Teachers are brought to various underdeveloped communities to provide a basic education for children. Last but not least, children are given safety training on how to spot traffickers and avoid them.

            I believe that decreasing global and social inequality would in turn lead to a dramatic decline in human trafficking. Many victims of human trafficking come from low-income families and countries. They are helpless and have little if any power over the direction of the course of their lives. Using our sociological imagination, we can see that where we live determines the lives we lead. When will we as citizens of one of the richest nations unite to demand a change in societies where wealth continues to be distributed more and more unequally among the population in the U.S. and abroad?

                                       Works Cited

Johnson, Scott (13 November 2010). Alameda County Ramps Up Efforts to Combat Child Trafficking. 

     Contra Costa Times, p. A. 10. Retrieved from Proquest. 

Stop Child Trafficking (2010). World Concern. Retrieved from:   

       http://www.worldconcern.org/StopTrafficking.

Trafficking the Child Sex Trade in Southeast Asia (11 Feb 2006). National Public Radio. Retrieved from 

     http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5201813. 

Week 9: Crime-Privilege & Racism

According to the social-conflict analysis, deviance is related to social inequality based upon who holds prestige and power in society.  Unfortunately those who are powerless tend to be labeled deviant. This is because it is the rich and powerful that control how societies set norms and how rule breaking is defined in accordance to their interests. As the 20/20: Justice & Privilege showed, those who have power and prestige are able to resist being labeled deviant even if they do violate cultural norms and laws. Alex Wood, a wealthy white man with family connections, served only ten years probation after pleading guilty to murder. Tyron Brown also received the same sentence for armed robbery. While on probation, both men used recreational drugs; however, Mr. Wood was never punished whereas Tyron received a life sentence. This example clearly represents Karl Marx’s ideas of social inequality in bureaucratic societies where the interests of the powerful are protected.

 Mr. Brown’s racial profile, in all likelihood, contributed to him receiving a harsher sentence.  Police officers are “more likely to arrest people of color than whites, perceiving suspects of African or Latino descent as either more dangerous or more likely to be guilty” (Macionis, 2010, p. 236). This is probably why African Americans and Latinos make up an overwhelming seventy percent of the incarcerated population (Segura, 2010). Although African American arrest rates are higher in proportion to the rate of whites, the reasons are complex. First off, many African Americans live in poverty and do not receive equal opportunities to legitimate means of achieving cultural goals such as wealth. Merton’s strain theory supports this. Thus, some members of low social standing feel the need to be innovative and use unconventional means to achieve cultural goals, such as street crimes. Second, black families differ in family patterns. They have higher rates of single parents, which in turn translates to less supervision of children. Also, the official crime rate index does not include arrests for “crime in suites” or normal violations of law such as drunk driving that people of white race tend to violate (Macionis 2010, p. 233).  All in all, when it comes to crimes skin color truly does make a difference in how authorities react to the deviant act that a person has committed in terms of punishment.

                                Works Cited

ABC 20/20:  Justice & Privilege. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJsU9qEH_b0

Macionis, J. J. (2010). Sociology (Ed. 13). Upper Saddle River,

         NJ:  Prentice Hall.

Segura, Liliana. April 2010. Retrieved from: http://www.alternet.org/rights/146550/study_settles_it:_shocking_black_&_latino_imprisonment_rates_the_result_of_racist,_punitive_impulse

Week 8: Conformity & Ethics

         

Conformity Drawing; Retrieved from http://www.artorgan.com/art/Conformity%20Drawing.php

        The past and present implications of the Milgram Study are the same. When the study was repeated 45 years later, the results revealed that people still behave about the same way. The difference in the study was that the participants were allowed to leave the experiment at any time and the voltage went only as high as 150 so as not to cause unintended stress upon the participants. An astonishing seventy percent of the participants followed the orders. The study showed that ordinary, psychologically intact people have a tendency to blindly obey authority, even at the cost of causing harm to another person. Many of the participants delivered the “shocks” did so at the command of the researcher who stated he would be responsible for any adverse affect and that they would not be held responsible. It revealed that the situation caused the participants’ behavior, not anything in their inherent individual personalities.

This also relates to how groups have the ability to influence behavior of their members by promoting conformity. Milgram originally conducted the experiment to figure out why people allowed such atrocities such as the Holocaust to occur. In modern society, similar events related to groupthink, “the tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue,” are still taking place but on a smaller scale (Macionis, 2010, p. 165). One prime example is the reason for invading Iraq in 2003. Many officials knew they did not have the evidence that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction; still, they either kept quiet about the matter or were discouraged from challenging this false belief. People often conform to others because we want to be liked and accepted by them. 

Week 6: Television and Socialization

I think television plays a huge role in the socialization process, especially in high-income countries such as the United States. In the U.S., television is a significant agent of socialization since children are exposed to it from such an early age through shows, cartoons, and/or commercials. The values and messages transmitted by the characters and images can have a lasting impact on children since school-age youngsters tend to imitate and mirror behaviors they see on television. Often, these messages contradict and challenge those taught by parents and cause children to essentially become older younger.

            One way television does this is by portraying and promoting violence. In 1982, the National Institute of Mental Health declared that there is a strong correlation between television violence and aggressive behavior much so as any other behavioral variable that has been measured (1982). This does not mean that every child who watches violent shows, movies, or commercials displayed on television will become violent; however, as a child is exposed to increasing violence, he or she is at increased risk for developing aggressive behavior or accepting aggressive attitudes. A study done by George Gerbner at the University of Pennsylvania observed the differences in behaviors before and after children watched either a violent show versus those who viewed a non-violent one. The study revealed that those children who watched the violent shows were “more likely to strike out at playmates, argue, disobey authority, and were more impatient than those children who watched non-violent programs” (Children and Televison Violence). Thus, it is important that parents know what types of programs their children view so that they can discuss the content with them. They can then discuss alternative methods to solving a problem besides violence or aggressive behavior. Parents should try and reasonably control what their children watch until they are old enough to differentiate clearly between reality and fiction.

            Television also has the tendency to glorify sex, causing more teenagers to engage in sexual activity at a younger age. According to a collection of data obtained in 2003, “83% of the episodes of the top twenty shows among teen views contained some sexual content, including 20% with sexual intercourse” (Teen Sexual Behavior). Sexual content and messages are marketed regularly to younger populations, which in turn affects children and adolescents beliefs about sex and their sexual activity. This may be the reason why the United States has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies. I actually remember as a child in the second grade watching the teenage show Blossom. For the first time, I heard the word ‘virgin’ and did not understand what it meant. I innocently went and asked my older brother what it meant. He immediately asked me where I had heard it from and afterwards banned me from watching that show ever again. Needless to say, he never did answer my question and I cannot recall if I ever turned to someone else for a response. Had I never watched the show, I may not have been exposed to that term until I was much older. This is just one personal example of how television can affect its viewers.

            Television also promotes gender-biased attitudes that usually portray men as the more predominant characters. Shows depict men as smart, powerful, violent, and rational, whereas women are mostly pretty, passive, and defined by their relationships with other male characters.  They tend to focus on a male character’s strength and skill but only on women’s attractiveness. Thus, television reinforces gender stereotypes that ultimately influence a child’s belief system.

I do not believe that television affects everyone to the same extent. For example, people in high-income countries have a higher percentage of households with televisions than low-income countries. Obviously, television’s influence in the latter countries is more predominant. Also, within the high and middle-income countries, “it is people with lower incomes who spend the most time watching TV as well as using their television to watch movies and to play video games” (Macionis, 2010, p. 123). This is simply because high-income families are able to afford to keep their children more active, such as enrolling their child in swimming classes or karate/ballet. 

             

Works Cited

Children and Television Violence. (2010). Retrieved from

            http://www.abelard.org/tv/tv.php/

Macionis, John (2010). Sociology (13 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:

            Pearson Education. 

National Institute of Mental Health, Television and Behavior: Ten Years of Scientific

Progress and Implications for the Eighties, Volume 1, Summary Report (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982), 6.

Teen Sexual Behvior. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.focusas.com/

            SexualBehavior.html

Week 3: Zimbardo Experiments and Stanford Prison Sentence

         The Milgram experiment tested group behavior and blind obedience to authority even when it results in injury to others. Participants were told to apply electric shocks, in increasing intensity, every time another study participant failed to answer a question correctly. The participants who applied the shock did not know that the "shocks" were not real. More than half of the participants continued to apply the shocks when told to do so by researchers. 

     The Zimbardo experiment involved the simulation of a prison setting in an attempt to study prison behavior in which 12 of the participants were randomly assigned to be "prisoners" and 12 to be "guards." Philip Zimbardo sought to answer the question, does the prison itself generate violent behavior or is it due to the types of people incarcerated? The experiment was called off early because many of the "prisoners" broke down emotionally when the "guards" became extremely humiliating and psychologically abusive towards them. Most participants found it hard to separate reality from simulation.

     These experiments are similar because they both show that the situation or environment caused the participants' behavior, not anything in their inherent individual personalities. In Milgram's experiment, normal people appeared to deliver shocks to other participants, even though they were aware it was causing harm.  In Zimbardo's experiment,  "healthy" individuals acting as "guards" and "prisoners" began to act violently towards one another. Also, both demonstrate the obedience of people when provided with social and institutional support. In prison settings, guards have the upper hand when it comes to authority and thus, the "guards" in the experiment acted accordingly. The people who delivered the "shocks" did so at the command of the researcher who stated he was responsible for any adverse affect and that they would not be held responsible. 

      Both experiments had unintended ramifications, whether real or imagined. In Zimbardo's experiment, the psychological and physical well-being of the subjects were threatened to the point that the experiment had to be cancelled. In Milgram's experiment, the participants believed the ramifications of their actions ("shocking" the other participant) would fall upon the researchers and that they would carry no responsibility for any harm caused. 

     Modern ethical standards do not support either of the experiments. In Milgram's experiment, participants were deceived and were not aware of the consequences of their actions beforehand. They truly believed they were causing suffering to another human being, which could ultimately have caused severe emotional distress. Some participants displayed this by  laughing as a means of coping when delivering shocks. In Zimbardo's experiment, participants suffered from severe emotional distress that may have had long term effects. Four days into the experiment, five of the twelve prisoners were removed after displaying signs and symptoms of acute anxiety and psychological distress. Even still, the experiments were successful because they proved what researchers sought to validate their hypothesis. 

       I found this site interesting Top 10 Unethical Psychological Experiments. The Milgram Experiment is ranked #3 and Zimbardo is #8 on this site.