Human Health and Culture at American Museum of Natural History

 I think the article was really interesting. I learned things i didn't know before. And even if its not something big it still counts. The article made me remember of my history teacher back in Dominican Republic. He explained us kinda the same situation with the picture of the two leaders side by side. In that case it was with the Native Americans and another leader of Dominican Republic (whose name i randomly forgot) and my teacher was telling us how in some art museums they tend to do this, put a picture of two leaders side by side and consequently making people think that either they were equal or they were now considered equal. In the article the case was with the Native American and the Europeans, but it still have the same effect. This really caught my attention because its something that I've been seeing for the past few years but I didnt really pay attention to that. Now i see that it has an actual meaning for the Native Americans when their leader is the one who's getting represents and compared with another leader.

Although writing a few adjectives is not necessarily hard, this activity is a real challenge. I've never really thought about characterizing myself in a fashion that reflects my identity previously at all. I used to assume that I am the only person who understands my true self. Yet, I stared at the piece of blank paper for quite a long time that I began to question myself do I really know who I am. People are complicated; I am complicated. I realized that there were contradicting thoughts raging in my mind. For example, I can be overly optimistic sometimes and gravely pessimistic sometimes. However, I cannot identify myself with either characteristic solely because I have mixed feelings very often. What made the activity more challenging was that there was a limit on the number of adjectives we could put down. How can I characterize myself with only five words, I thought, and successfully persuade my identity? My peers and I struggled through the identification process but were told to discard our adjectives one by one until there was one left. Some students quickly made their decisions, but I hesitated. The adjectives that I wrote were like bits of myself. I acknowledge their presence in myself; therefore, being told to throw my adjectives away was like throwing away part of me. I felt uneasy and wanted to retrieve the adjectives later on. This activity really serves to emphasize the effect of oppression. Oppression can be viewed from many perspectives, for example from the cultural one and the racial one. Nonetheless, this activity showed that oppression can be easily induced by "powerful" figures ( in this case, our instructors) and that the victims often feel a sense of incompleteness in their minds because some of their essential identities are being taken away.

   The article about the Tacoma Art Museum shows how important the role of a museum can be. While European artists and scholars are still the dominant contributors to museums in the present, the accuracy of works that focus on foreign subjects is questionable. An artist aims to create a beautiful piece of work. Therefore, the alternation of certain object placement or omission is necessary to provide the most attractive view possible to the audience. In this case, many of the paintings portraying Native American cultures show details that are not related to the the natives' traditions. In order to offer a description that matches the art work and also helps to convey as much truth as possible to the public, careful labeling has become an important task for museum staffs. This is the time when a museum's role as an educator and bridge for cultural communication matters the most. Labeling has to deviate from simply praising the artist's skills to adding neutral comments that defines and demonstrates background of the portrayed objects

I think this method of label writing is a very innovative, beneficial one. It doesn't erase all of the misrepresentation from the past, but it does acknowledge it. And acknowledgement of a problem is the first step in solving a problem, even though this is a problem that will take a VERY long time to go away, and might never fade away completely. This method of labeling is a very good way to educate people about different cultures. What better way to learn about true Native American culture than from a Native American? Instead of relying on images and labels written by people who don't know what they're talking about, people can learn from the source itself, and therefore won't sound ignorant or racist when they talk about the culture. The purpose of museums is to educate people, and feeding people falsified information is not education. With this method of labeling in museums, people, or at least the people who actually visit museums and read the labels, will become well informed and respectful of other cultures.

This article is a clear representation of the obvious misunderstanding that one culture has over another. The natives do not misrepresent the Europeans because they aren't trying to depict a world that is unknown. Due to lack of respect for other cultures , the Europeans use false information to construct artistic ideas about natives and aren't educated about the correct Native culture. This is an example of how previous ideas of colonialism and imperialism have effected various views on cultures that aren't our own in the long term.

I found it hardest to throw away my happiness . One aspect of my life and personality that means a lot to me is my happiness. I'm the person that always tries to cheer everyone up with a joke and is very optimistic and is always smiling. Even though it was just an exercise, I still found it hard to throw it away because my happiness makes my life fun, and I don't know where I would be without it. I'm very extroverted and for me taking away my happiness is the same as taking away my personality

I really liked this article. I can say when we discussed the conditions in the class i felt a little bit uncomfortable because of the racism that exists nowadays, which i related somehow with what's currently happening with Hispanics and Latinos and all the unfairness thats going on. I frankly like this topic not only because i can see what people's opinions are about it but because talking about it we could also change the mindset that was wrongly taught in our childhood.

For example, it can make them second guess if they got hired for a job because they were qualified or if their skin color was preferable. That is not to say that having light skin is a negative characteristic or should be the blame for this problem. Instead it should be the fault of the racist ideas that society has created, and the idea that of a person with a certain skin color is considered to be more “superior” than another person. Nevertheless, if a person realizes the privileges he or she has because of his or her skin color, then it can bring more awareness to the social inequalities that exist today.

The media plays a huge role in the perseverance of racism because in the media, most of the time specific ethnic group play specific roles. If it's a movie about terrorism, it's always "Islamic" people and if there are gangsters in the movie, African Americans are most likely to play that role.

                The nail salon workers receive very low salary and experience despair from not getting opportunity to rise. Furthermore, the employers have no intend to bring any change. The employers know that they can get away with underpaying the workers since they are desperate to keep their positions. These inexperienced immigrants have a hard time to compete with others since there are limited work opportunities but a continuous incoming of job-seekers.The employers of the nail salons also view themselves as benefactors because they are willing to take in these inexperienced immigrants illegally and teach them skills. This situation reminds me of the sweat factories during, specifically, the Industrial Revolution. Many female workers worked in textile and other kind of factories as a part of the assembly in mass production for long periods of time and received little payment. They needed money desperately since there was a wide competition between urban citizens and people moving in from rural areas. Similar health hazards are shared among the nail salon workers and textile workers because they both work with stimulants that are harmful to the bodies.

parallel between the nail salon workers and how workers were treated during the Gilded Era. Many factory workers at that time were as well newly arrived immigrants that had to work for many long hours and got paid low wages. They could not unionize and stop the subjection of their bosses or else they would lose their jobs. They were seen as replaceable and not valuable. It was not easy for them to have this burden, as it is not for nail salon workers.

Many younger generations of immigrants such as Mr Ren herself did not know enough of the system that occurs within the United States. I think if the government/department commenced education about the process will allow much better statistically from earning to a better lifestyle. For short terms, a program like this will be costly however, in long term mindset, these immigrants will actually be able to contribute to the economy. But of course if these immigrants were to be acknowledged then educated this would cause a  small amount of buisnesses to fall. Since there are advantages and disadvantages of this problem, we should really start to understand and learn from the perspectives of the immigrants just like how this article is helping the readers understand this perspective.

I really enjoyed this article, I thought it was well put together and it introduced me to a world I didn't know about.  I thought it was really interesting how the manicurist world kind of mimicked some of the cultural stigmatism and racism thought we have in our everyday lives.  One part of the play that stood out to me was the part where it talked about how second floor nail salons are often better than the first floor because the workers are better payed.  I go to a second floor nail salon, so that made me feel good but it wasn't what I thought would be true.  I thought that the ones on the first floor because they have street views would be the one where workers are better payed.  I was also surprised by the fact that these women were willing to put their health at risk for their family, and I wonder if that is what I would do if I was put into this situation.  

After reading the article, I was shocked to learn of these horrendous conditions that these nail salon workers face and their background. These illegal, undocumented immigrants are coming to the United States to establish a better future for themselves and their children. In the process of doing so, they have to take on these low paying jobs that are undocumented by the government. Their employers, are taking advantage of their situation of being illegal and giving them low pay because they know, that these immigrants will take the job as long as their status isn't exposed. The less these employers pay their employees, the more money these employers have in their pockets.In the end, it's usually about money. That's most likely why many of these nail salon owners pay their workers as less as possible; so that they could profit more.  If they gave someone a government documented job, they would have to pay them minimum wage. It means that they would have to take more money out of their pockets to pay these legal workers. This connects with sweatshops throughout history. It used to be legal for children to work in sweatshops and their employers wouldn't mind children working for them, as long as they would make money. There wasn't really a set, minimum wage either so these children would get paid whatever their employer felt like paying them.

In today's society, as human beings it is inevitable that people will be judged and perceived as people they may not be. But we need to differentiate between the act of racism and being prejudice. We always seem to find a place to pour our blame onto, yet we don't realize the impact it can leave on our society. When we think of racism we naturally think of discrimination, and when we think of the act of being prejudice, being rude and ill mannered comes to mind. As individuals the understanding of being open minded is a personal preference, but vitally important to have. Living in New York, it is rare to feel like one race has an advantage over the other due to high diversity but in many other states this is not the case. We need to understand that every living man and women has equal say, equal rights, and equal opportunities. We to need open the eyes of our fellow acquaintances and show them that people with a different skin color to ours or different beliefs do not have a different level of privilege whether it is "higher" or "lower" than what we assume it to be.

One student responding to the prompt “How did students in your highschool respond to Mike Brown’s killing in Ferguson?”