#sandynguyen

[jm-dones]

sandynguyen replied to your post: Everything is Interstellar and everyth...

that movie gmfu

truuuu

[racialtendencies-blog]

Discrimination Never Died

I enjoy working at a pool lifeguarding and taking my profession seriously. Many people complain and say it is an easy job, but little do they know it demands fitness, awareness, and responsibility. There is mandatory training and swimming, in order to up to date on your certification.  It is not a job that should be taken lightly because not everyone can do it. Many male and female worker work hard to get the job done at the end of the hour, as well as by the end of the day. Yet, interestingly enough both genders are still struggling with discrimination in this 21st century. Woman are seen as sex icons and are not rewarded with as much prestige and credit as men. 

When working at a job it is not fair to be treated differently from your co-workers based on what sex you are. I personally, experience some different treatment from the guys at my work. The guys were given a bigger salary doing the same job and having the same certification. If I asked questions, it would be seen as if I was going against the company. Therefore, I just accepted the situation and decided it was a problem out of my control. It is constitutionally correct to say that “we the people” (including woman) have the same and equal rights as men. Today these issues still occur, and gender discrimination in some places of the world are worse off then others. Some employees deal with complaining about getting paid less, while others are complaining they are putting in more effort then males, but are rewarded less or not as much of a salary then the men.  Majority of the time, men tend to hold higher positions and have more power and authority in society because of the security of their status holding in society. Men will more then likely hire their own race and gender to protect their own image. 

Woman with a dominant personality or higher authority position in the work force are seen as a threat to men. Still today, envious men will do whatever it takes to have more power over woman in the workforce.  Men are likely to defend their dominance to have more integrity. An example is Hilary Clinton. As a woman, she ran for office at the White House in 2008, which demonstrates how much woman has evolved in society. Instead of being a household wife or a stay at home mom, she demonstrates her knowledge, leadership, and power to her own individuality. With criticism to a woman having such high power, not everyone outside of her campaign was onboard nor okay with a woman trying to hold a term in office, however the bigger picture remains that woman are treated unequally to men in the work force.

If woman were to rule the world, life would be a lot simpler and more organized. Who am I kidding, the reality is men would throw a fit or have a cow before they ever let this happen. As an underlying action of not addressing women’s lower status, is a way for everyone to take an escape route and claim that everyone is being treated equality. Not true at all. I feel this is a way to avoid a situation, but not solve it. If we dig deeper within the matter of the issue, it’s blatantly obvious that many individuals just go along with what society thinks or what the social media sets in our mind. And that is leaving the impression that men usually are the power holders and woman are their supporters. Take for example Barrack Obama and his wife. Michelle Obama not only is a well-put together lady but she holds power in many organizations and country involvement campaigns. Yet, with all the publicity she gets it ties her to the background of her husband’s image and accomplishments. Gender discrimination for woman is not as equally represented as power for men because the media focuses our attention to women not being as powerful or as hierarchy posed as a man in society. 

The word “hegemony” has a significant meaning to dealing with the discrimination issues. A true definition that explains “hegemony” are two important parts, one being coercion and the other consent. Coercion explains the expectations and rules that are set in a marked category that sets boundaries for a specific group to follow, however its a prevention for follower to fall out of line. In a sense, power and control can be kept within the higher power. Therefore, to consent to a higher figure, it is to please and abide by rules and guidelines, yet not agreeing with the terms set. Although in the process of not creating any problems, in the back of the consenter’s mind they may not be agreeing to the terms and conditions but are going along with it. I feel “hegemony” marks woman in society as a lower status individual because in our past they are majority of the time following orders or under the control of men in history. But with the way education and more strongly intellectual woman are arising in society, the chances of this threshold can soon be a thing of the past and more like a leeway into our near future. 

(Men generally are the majority body of high position holders in a cooperation and big business that usually intel a bigger salary. Whose benefiting from this idea of gender discrimination? THIS GUY!)

Going back to the beginning, gender discrimination in the work place is an issue that needs to be discussed and set in the publics' eye. “Job segregation is the linchpin in workplace inequality because the relegation of different groups to different kinds of work both facilitates and legitimates unequal treatment”, states Barbara F. Reskin and Irene Padavic. Both authors express their feelings toward the lower status woman are presented with in society, and have the same quality if not the same results of some men. Therefore, the unequal treatment is not necessary. Considering all areas of gender segregation in the work place, our future still provides opportunity for improvements and ways of change.

-Sandy Nguyen

[racialtendencies-blog]

Assimilating Whiteness

No matter who we are or what we say, everyone gets the affect of the predominantly white race. When saying the term “American” you can also make the connection that it’s the act of “assimilation” toward becoming a white person. For those that are categorized as “not-yet-white”, they too make a struggle to fit into the category of whiteness to experience the full privileges that come with being white by definition and not based on their physical appearance. When the reference of a white person is made, it is evident in society that it means to be racist to blacks, and to obtain the “white advantages”. Not only is this social status high in regards to survival of the fittest, it proves to lend an individual full access to resources and privileges. Many people can say they don’t notice a difference in today’s society and racism is not a problem anymore. But, can they also agree that if you are white in a population your social status, and economic status that includes your wealth, profession, and job isn’t the worst off in comparison to other ethnic groups? The social status of an individual also tells others in society that there are sets of behavior and attitudes you can receive from “high” to “low” standing. Considering all the acclamations referencing a “white person”, based on who is most likely to succeed, it seems the “white” race definitely has it a lot easier then other diverse races. 

 In the reader for my AAS 201 class, written by David Roediger, he states, “ Racial identities are not only Black, Latino, Asian, Native American and so on, “ Coco Fusco has written, “ they are also white. To ignore white ethnicity is to redouble its hegemony by naturalizing it” (p.329).  This can unintentionally be referencing the constitution in a way. If you consider the text, in the back of your mind it really is trying to protect the rights of people with a good message towards the nation. With the absence of whiteness” being mentioned, it simply is a naturalize understanding that with absence of the word it brings great power and mainly extends to only the “white” population predominantly. 

Many people can fight, protest, and stand up for the social equality that would equally empower every individual not mattering what race or background they come from. As many people would not like to hear the truth, sadly (possessive investment in whiteness) from the class reader written by George Lipsitz suggests the “root of whiteness is the physical conditions that shape life”. It is a mistake to think “naturally” the relationship of people will fix themselves. With that said, not only is social inequality nor economic inequality beneficial to other ethnicities, instead it proves to only empower and support more towards the “white” population being just that much more powerful. It is apparent who rules the big CEO positions, owns a majority of property, and presidents this nation, the majority make up is generally “white” population in society. In this world, not only is it likely that a race will favor their own kind, but the trend seems to be they a race will most likely protect their own. The “white” successful populations are creating policies of what defines the policies; and of course are continuing to make a defense for the “white privileges ”. 

 On a last note, we all need to consider the transition and racial formation society is headed towards. I do strongly believe that if you take a piece of the pie you have to contribute back in other ways to gain a balanced life. Because everyone is out for themselves and wanting the best of their “American Dream”, it only goes to prove that the power, wealth, struggles, and hardships should be equally distributed amongst all the races in society including the white population. We all have hopes and we all can dream to be highly respected, acknowledged, and remembered for our accomplishments. Put everything in retrospect, and now not only have we witnessed a complicated and complex situation with the social structure. The best thing that can be done at this point is continue teaching the lessons learned in hopes to not repeat mistakes in our past, and move forward by educating the intelligence in our younger generation and by leading as an example of what is right and what is not tolerable to have everyone get along. 

-Sandy Nguyen

[racialtendencies-blog]

 How does racism affect us as an individual?

Race is an arbitrary concept to comprehend. No matter how we perceive the idea as an individual it still has an affect on us either by being a bystander to racism, or a victim to the concept. In helping to define the word “race”, the in-class text reader states “Racial membership have ranged from simple observations of skin complexion to elaborate and precise measurement of skull size, shape of face, and facial features, and body stature”, is stated in the AAS 201 Race, Racism, and Critical Thinking. In all theory, does this really define the complexity of race?I strongly believe race is too broad of a word to say it describes only physical characteristics of an individual. I was most intrigued in class a few days ago, when I found out the common used word of “race” has a deeper meaning then what I thought it meant. Instead, I was a bit surprised to find out I did not know it was not only used to describe what a person looks like. Yet, the referenced word really describes everything about a person. For example, a persons race can be as in depth as giving background to another individuals’: ancestry, language, literature, cultural practices and beliefs, geographical location, and even their own phenotype. Race as an idea is hard to come by, but with the correct and proper knowledge of how it can be offensive a difference can be made.

Racism should be taken SERIOUSLY.

Racism is not a joke. Although many people may believe it is not as big of a deal as it has been in our previous past; those people are either in denial or they are choosing to ignore a problem that does exist. So instead of dealing with a situation does that make it correct to purposely avoid? That’s up to every individual to be honest. Not going to lie, I have been a part of sharing racist jokes among my friends. I wouldn’t take it as far as saying I’m a racist to a far extent. However, when I’m in the company of my friends some derogatory or discrimination jokes to do come out. But depending on where we are, and exactly what improvises these statements determines when they are said. I have been in the situation where I might say a racial joke to my own culture. Not going to lie, but even against my own race. I can remember myself and some of my other Asian girl friends making fun of the stereotype that Asian-drivers are probably the worst driver, and don’t know the difference from an automatic setting and a driving with a gas pedal instead of a mutual transition from the breaks and the gas pedal. For example, when stopping a car, my friends will slam on the breaks and laugh saying that they just did and “Asian stop”. I do take offense to it, but at that point I have realized it’s a social habit I don’t want to encourage so I’ll say knock it off. But when this happens too frequently, there is a point where I remind myself I’m proud to be Vietnamese-American and it is not funny, and in certain situations I have to just let it go and be the bigger person; so it doesn’t give the offensive person a reaction to keep going on. It is important to pick and choose your battles, and that is why I choose to not lose sleep over something so little. The existence of racism is pretty hard to endure by many, yet with the respect and integrity people hope to have from others, they too can hopefully do the same by treating others the way they hope to be respected.

As a society, can our race be racial formed?

It is difficult to say who or what potentially can affect a person’s emotions based off of what or how you or another individual perceives another person of a different background. No matter what, the evolution of man will always be on going, as with time itself, so will the views and social conflicts that surround the idea of racial differences and the racial formation. The importance of racial formation helps mold a better representation to the meaning of the word “race”. Racial formation was a topic that really caught my interest. It was developed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant. At the beginning of a class lecture, I was under the influence that I understood the main idea of what a race is. But to my surprise, it was confusing to find out that I learned there is an important relationship between race and a racial formation Racial formation is a terminology that can be broken into two main focuses of a cultural representation and social structuring. Cultural representation is partially a definition to racial formation, in the sense that it can relate to a specific categorized group of people. A good example to this is people talking negatively badly about right hand writers. And on the other hand social structuring ties in because it is addressing a rule to this specified group of people. Creating a public policy against right-handed people is an example to social structure that reinstates the importance of racial formation and how it relates to referring to a race. This discourse of race is at a constant changing point. Basically, racial formation exudes the idea that as time changes so will the general populations knowledge and ideas of another races will as well.

What changes can we apply to our lives?

As students in college, we have to seriously consider what impact we have on our future generations perspective on the race issues. In order to be a positive inspiration, for those of us that are well educated, we have to pass on our knowledge by leading by example. It is sad to say by the 21st century our society still struggles with the differences of others appearances and physical characteristics. If there is anyone that can really make a difference, I believe the change has to start within us. Just by being more aware of what is said and a lot more careful with choosing words it’s a start to changing the persona others can conflict on us. It is a lot easier to describe another person blatantly, however if we choose to take the time to describe another individual better. It can make the difference of being welcoming and more respectful to another person as a human being. I hope this has helped inspired some people because I never realized how much cruel and downgrading words could really impact others. 

-Sandy Nguyen