De’Aunjana’e

This is a video of me praise dancing to “Stand” by Donnie McClurkin. This dance is choreographed by me for a Fathers’ Day tribute to all the hard working ones at my church. The song is basically stating that no matter what you are going through it’s up to you to withstand the trials and tribulations. During the song Donnie McClurkin said “Don’t you fall, Don’t you bend, Don’t give up, no don’t give in”, this means to me that when faced with any problem or obstacles stand still. Additionally, this could represent when the times when individuals are put in positions of power and have a choice to make life changing decisions, those individuals should stand firm on their beliefs.

After analyzing the “Flint” photo I discovered that this was an example of the minority group. In the photo a little black boy was drinking dirty water, in which is a recent issue that has been going on in one of the poorest neighborhoods for over 5 years. I feel that the quote incorporated in this photo “Welcome to Paradise” was a mockery towards the minority group’s struggle. This also portrayed that this is the situation that Blacks will have to deal with.

The second photo “Dream Defrered” represented discrimination. Instantly after observing the photo it reminded me of the “American Dream” and how people hope to accomplish it but are not put on an even playing field to reach those goals. This also reminded me of the “privilege walk” that the entire clas participated in to make everyone aware of different things that make individuals more privileged than others. This is a prime example that depicts how the dominant group (white people) have an advantage over minority groups such as blacks, Latinos, etc. You can clearly see a Black individual being pulled back by a white hand in which represented Corporate America. The quote used in this photo “Oh the inhumanity” is a mockery towards black people. This is a clear representation of how the dominant group is aware of the treatment of the minority groups’ but ignore it. No one every turned around to help the black man they ignored him. They were fine as long as they were not affected and still prospering. We call ourselves the United States of America but when problems and inequities are brought to the forefront everyone is just worried about helping themselves.

The third photo “Injustice” represented the prejudice and institutional racism that takes place within the justice system. The judge has a quote underneath him that states “The Comic of Predictable” which coincides with the photo of the caged black men above his head, representing that the entire justice system, has a preconceived notion that all black individuals are guilty. There is an image of the judicial scale that is suppose to represent: “fair trial” in the court house but the scale is unbalanced. The side that is weighing down is the side that is behind the white women, with a white drape. This means to me that the white opinion holds more weight than other individuals opinion. In the back left corner you can see that they have enslaved only black individuals in a cage, meaning that Blacks are depicted as animals that lack control.

I am a delicious Hershey’s Cookies ‘N’ Crème bar. I am made of: sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil; and/or safflower oil); skim milk; corn syrup solids; enriched wheat flour [flour; niacin; ferrous sulfate; thiamin mononitrate; riboflavin; folic acid]; lactose (milk); contains 2% or less of: cocoa processed with alkali; whey (milk); lecithin (soy); high fructose corn syrup; chocolate; baking soda; salt; natural flavor and artificial flavor; PGPR.

According to Smart Label, PGPR is polyglycerol polyricinoleate and it is used to keep ingredients from separating which allows the cookie chunks to stay in the bar. It also comes from castor bean oil and is used majority of the time to improve processing characteristics of chocolate. According to the Hershey Company, the milk in the Hershey bars comes from dairy cooperatives that suppl fresh milk to the local plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The cocoa is brought through their Swiss trading office located in Luzern, Switzerland.

According to Affinity Magazine, Hershey’s bars are produced in a factory. The cocoa found in Hershey’s bars is bought cheaply from the Ivory Coast that is mined by children who work on measly wages if they get any. These children of Western Africa live in poverty and desperate to make money for their families. This makes the gullible enough to be trafficked be people who tell them that they will be paid well for their work. In some cases, if the relatives need money enough, they are even sold by them to the cocoa industry. This is dangerous because children must use chainsaws and climb tall trees with machetes to cut cocoa bean pods. According to Aly Diabate, a former cocoa slave “Some of the bags were taller than me. It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn’t hurry, you were beaten.” I paid $1.50 for the chocolate bar from Royal Farms.

https://smartlabel.hersheys.com/00034000002399-0011#ingredients

https://www.thehersheycompany.com/en_us/whats-inside/the-core-four.html

1) What is your own personal reaction to the Innocence Project, in general, and to at least one specific case? Are you surprised or shocked by anything on the site? 

I feel that the Innocence Project is a great way to bring awareness to many individuals’ cases who have been wrongly accused of committing different crimes.

The case that shocked me was the case involving Jonathan Barr. He was 15 years old at the time and was accused along with two other minors of gang rape of Cateresa Matthews. Barr was interrogated outside the presence of his parents or counsel for over 5 hours straight. Even before Barr or the otherwere tried, Illinois State Police Department he found a DNA sperm sample from the rape victims body but the prosecution excluded testing the DNA source.

Throughout the years Barr and his accused counterparts requested that the DNA be tested several times but were denied by the police who claimed that they could not locate it. After that Cook County Judge Michele Simmons ordered the police to allow the defense counsel to view the evidence. The defense counsel viewed the evidence it came back the DNA belong to serial offender Willie Randolph.

2) Sociologists are often less concerned with rule violators than rule makers and enforcers. What does this statement mean, and how does it relate to the Innocence Project?  

This means that sociologists are more interested in helping solve issues from the source of an problem. By fixing an issue you should change the rules to enforce an issue because it’s more effective than focusing on the rule violaters. When dealing with Innocence Project the purpose of this program is to bring awareness to rule makers whose rules lead to the false accusation of innocence individuals.

3) What about this exoneration project would interest a “labeling theorist”?

Over this weekend I called my best friend over Facetime and that was an example of a Dyad.

This articles relate to Chapter 5 Socialization. This article talks about a show called “Toddlers & Tiaras” that airs on TLC. This show is about toddler beauty pageants who participants are normally middle to upper class citizens. In the article it talked about the large amounts of Americans that watch this show and how these pageants affect society. This show is suporting the concept of mass media to use toddler pageants to exploit the participanting upper class toddlers’ talent. Also shows like this make it seems like it okay for the upper class children to act in a disrespectful way towards their parents in order to get their way. Meanwhile the lower class tend to be a little more uncomfortable because they train there children to respect the elders and by watching this show could possibly reverse the teachings their children are taught.

Win souls for God by extending the gift of knowledge about my religion

Must carry myself in a way that sets me apart from non Christians by doing the right things even when majority of others are not.

Saxophonist

Student

Daughter

Sister

Employee

Friend

Niece

Cousin

Citizen of the United States

Christian

Praise Dancer

Sociology Major

The archetypal “Older Than Feudalism” about the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex. During the prophecy the king was told that he would be killed by his own son. The king ended up ordering for his son ,Oedipus, to be killed. Oedipus was an infant at this time and was left in the middle of the wilderness with his feet nailed to a board but was rescued. Twenty years later his son ended up meeting up with him and they got into an argument in which his son then kills him.

American Culture

Subculture: African Americans

Artifacts: “I Have A Dream Speech” and “13th Amendment that abolishes slavery”

Technologies: Cellphones

Food: Soul Food

Knowledge/Beliefs: Equality amongst us

Values: History of Ancestors

Norms: Honoring Black History Month

Language: English

Symbols: Black power fist

Attitudes: Nonchalant attitudes towards mental health

Phenomenon: HBCU Culture

Artifacts: Historical Statues

Ex. Fredrick Douglass Statue on Campus

Technologies: Social Media

Food: Fried Food (“Fried Fish Friday”), Soul Food Day

Knowledge/ Beliefs: Our institutions are best to educate African Americans

Values: Family orientated spirit where we help one another

Norms: Celebrating homecomings are a big event

Language: English

Symbols: Buildings on campus are named after historical African American figures

Conflict theory looks at society as a competition for limited resources. The main focus through conflict theory is to focus on creating social change through the application of sociological principle. Karl Marx was a social theorist and author of “The Communist Manofesto”. Marx had stated that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle”. Marx believed that saw human development as occurring due to a series of class struggles between high class, and the lower class citizens.

The underlying premise of the theory focused on the conflict between two classes. One of the classes was the “bourgeoisie” that represented the members of society that have the most wealth. The other class was the “proletariat” which included the poor working classes. Marx reflected that the “bourgeoisie” (high class/wealthy) would use their power and wealth to oppress the proletariat due to the rise of capitalism.

This conflict theory is the representation of a “pyramid” in which a few people dictates the others below them due to their control over resources, power, and terms and conditions to the large portion of society. The uneven distribution was expected to be maintained by the bourgeoisie who would control the proletariat by forcing them to accept current conditions.

These conditions have played out in today’s society during elections. For example a candidate running for a spot in office can have a better advantage over his opponent if he has more funding available.

This funding could potentially help the candidate have a better campaign by buying their way into office by bribing voters.

The U.S. society is a capitalist society which thrives off of the almighty green dollar. Whoever has the most money has more valid opinions, which is why everyone is working toward gaining more money daily.