May 8: What is your issue? Why is this an issue that we should care about? In your blog post, you should cite specific research that you have done. Your blog post should be 1-2 paragraphs in length. (Period 5)
My issue is that the suicide rate of men is incredibly high. Men attempt it less than women however more suicide deaths have come from men. This is a very serious issue, men and women taking their lives due to events within their lives. Many people in one way or another are effected by suicide. Suicide is mostly caused by depression, which is a mental illness. Majority of the time it goes untreated, and that is what causes these people to take their lives. Anyone can help or stop someone who has suicidal thoughts.
So far, my partner and I have agreed that our issue is gun violence surrounnding minority populated communitites. This is an important issue to communities across the Chicago Area because a majority of murders and killings that happen in these areas are primarily gun related. More than half of the murders comitteed in the areas that we are targeting have been because of shootings. This makes not only these areas very dangerous but also very volatile s well. We have continued to look through the numerous sources that we are planning to cite in our research to see what connections can be made in order to further prove and solve why gun violence is so much higher in areas where there are more minorities populating the area.
Long story short my issue is racism.The connections between my topic of music and racism are long-winded but indeed tangible. The issue is the connotations surrounding certain genres. Extrapolating from there, we have stereotypes about who listens to what music. Then we come upon the phenomenon of "Musical Superiority", this being a term I've coined to represent the way people who listen to more classical and eclectic music look upon people who they assume listen to 'lesser' musical types. The final connection is the people who have this sense of superiority who place labels on the music listened to and also place a certain genre with a specific race. They then deem said race/music as inferior since it is not what they listen to. Or in worse case scenarios, they fall into an appropriation of other cultures. This is demeaning and presumptive. "Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high-fashion, cool or funny when the privileged take it for themselves." Even at the pivotal moments in musical and literary overcoming, those in seeming support of black people, ones with more influence "also confined them in stereotyped ideas of what "negro" literature and art should be." This is an issue we should care about because music is one of the fundamentals of socialization. It is one of the first tools both parents and teachers utilize to get messages across. These connections are then ingrained in their minds for the rest of their lives. If we allow ourselves to become complacent in what music means to us, it is just another avenue which those in power can take to announce (however subtly) their racism. The more freedom we allow when it comes to persecuting racism, the more children we shall fail by letting them be shamed by way of their musical taste. In taking back music and the meanings behind it, it is one less tool those privileged can use to oppress us.
My issue is low literacy rates in children, specifically the gap between low and high income students and their respective literacy rates. Today there are many troubling statistics that illustrate the direct relationship between income and literacy and literacy indicators. For example, the number of words heard at home pre hour by 1- and 2-year-olds learning to talk is 620 for a low-income child, 1,250 for a middle-income child, and 2,150 for a high income child. The gap is even larger for the number of words heard by age 3, at 10 million for a low-income child, 20 million for a middle-income child, and 30 million for a high-income child. These gaps in words heard can be traced back to active efforts on the part of a parent in reading to a child. These experiences with a parent translate into skills that develop later. For example, twenty-six percent of children who were read to three or four times in the last week by a family member recognized all letters of the alphabet. This is compared to 14 percent of children who were read to less frequently. The NCES1 reported that children who were read to frequently are also more likely to: count to 20, or higher than those who were not (60% vs. 44%), write their own names (54% vs. 40%), read or pretend to read (77% vs. 57%). Access to materials is often the only barrier between a child learning to read earlier. According to the Educational Testing Service, the more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher students are in reading proficiency. If the biggest barrier between students and reading proficiency is simply access to books, this is an easily solvable issue. Literacy at a young age is a good indicator of other aspects of life as well for things like juvenile courts where 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate. Literacy can also be a way out, and a way to keep a high schoolers life on track as 16 to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock children than their reading counterparts. The more we give access to reading materials, the higher literacy rates will be, which will keep kids on the right track towards a higher education and away from jails and other derailments.
Gender inequality is a problem for many reasons, but our group is focusing on a small part of it: how it leads to sexism. We all already know about women earning less in the work field and female harassment, but we want to focus on something that can get easily overlooked. Gender bias and the implementation of gender roles start from even before kids are born. This implementation is most influenced on a person through their parents, then solidified through the media. When a mother is pregnant she is constantly asked what the sex of her baby is, if she is going to paint the nursery pink or blue, and if she is going to buy dolls or toy cars for the baby, all before they are even born. When the baby is born, the way they are dressed, talked to, taught, and what they see in their house influence them greatly. It is difficult for a child to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping, whether it be the expectation that boys are better than girls at math or the idea that only females can nurture children. This is a problem because it leads to subtle sexism and the continuation of men enforcing their dominance over woman.
This is a problem we should care about because subtle sexism needs to be recognized and demolished. Only four out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, and Norway. Acts of chivalry, like opening doors and paying for dates, may seem romantic, but what stereotypes are they perpetuating? Is it that men have to always cater to women? Or is it that women always need men to take care of them? We would argue the later takes more influence into the minds of our society. Small gender discrimination might not seem like a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things it is still sexism, and the advantage goes to the men of our society. The only way to stop these acts of subtle sexism, is to first recognize where gender discrimination is most prominent, then to combat these gender roles and their influence.
My issue is the gun violence in urban settings impacting youth - specifically in Chicago. This is an issue that we should care about because we are the the most racially segregated city in the U.S. (Chicago Most Segregated City In America, Despite Significant Improvements In Last Decade, Huffington Post) and “among the top three cities with the most murders since 1985(Drew Delsilver www.pewresearch.org). The issue of gunviolence emanates from root issues such as internalized racism that sprouts from the segregation of the rich and poor and the white and black. This issue is prevalent in contemporary national issues today with the popular police brutality spectacles that keep occuring throughout the country that seem to be targeted towards African-Americans. There are also the killings of people of color who happen to be transgender or who practice other unique lifestyles that a certain racial majority seems to adress through unjustified killing without judicial consequences. This issue is important because the youth are the future of America's tomorrow. If over 33% of them are growing up in a city rooted on racial stereotyping, discrimination, and stigma then the progress of the unification of the city will cease to exist due to the racism that goes beyond color and becomes the segregation of social classes, education, and income. If this continues, the gun violence created by these difference in the reality of our city will continue to persist and take the lives of many more Chicagoan youth.
My issue is that the suicide rate of men is incredibly high. Men attempt it less than women however more suicide deaths have come from men. This is a very serious issue, men and women taking their lives due to events within their lives. Many people in one way or another are effected by suicide.
ReplyDeleteSuicide is mostly caused by depression, which is a mental illness. Majority of the time it goes untreated, and that is what causes these people to take their lives. Anyone can help or stop someone who has suicidal thoughts.
So far, my partner and I have agreed that our issue is gun violence surrounnding minority populated communitites. This is an important issue to communities across the Chicago Area because a majority of murders and killings that happen in these areas are primarily gun related. More than half of the murders comitteed in the areas that we are targeting have been because of shootings. This makes not only these areas very dangerous but also very volatile s well.
ReplyDeleteWe have continued to look through the numerous sources that we are planning to cite in our research to see what connections can be made in order to further prove and solve why gun violence is so much higher in areas where there are more minorities populating the area.
Long story short my issue is racism.The connections between my topic of music and racism are long-winded but indeed tangible. The issue is the connotations surrounding certain genres. Extrapolating from there, we have stereotypes about who listens to what music. Then we come upon the phenomenon of "Musical Superiority", this being a term I've coined to represent the way people who listen to more classical and eclectic music look upon people who they assume listen to 'lesser' musical types. The final connection is the people who have this sense of superiority who place labels on the music listened to and also place a certain genre with a specific race. They then deem said race/music as inferior since it is not what they listen to. Or in worse case scenarios, they fall into an appropriation of other cultures. This is demeaning and presumptive. "Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high-fashion, cool or funny when the privileged take it for themselves." Even at the pivotal moments in musical and literary overcoming, those in seeming support of black people, ones with more influence "also confined them in stereotyped ideas of what "negro" literature and art should be."
ReplyDeleteThis is an issue we should care about because music is one of the fundamentals of socialization. It is one of the first tools both parents and teachers utilize to get messages across. These connections are then ingrained in their minds for the rest of their lives. If we allow ourselves to become complacent in what music means to us, it is just another avenue which those in power can take to announce (however subtly) their racism. The more freedom we allow when it comes to persecuting racism, the more children we shall fail by letting them be shamed by way of their musical taste. In taking back music and the meanings behind it, it is one less tool those privileged can use to oppress us.
My issue is low literacy rates in children, specifically the gap between low and high income students and their respective literacy rates. Today there are many troubling statistics that illustrate the direct relationship between income and literacy and literacy indicators. For example, the number of words heard at home pre hour by 1- and 2-year-olds learning to talk is 620 for a low-income child, 1,250 for a middle-income child, and 2,150 for a high income child. The gap is even larger for the number of words heard by age 3, at 10 million for a low-income child, 20 million for a middle-income child, and 30 million for a high-income child. These gaps in words heard can be traced back to active efforts on the part of a parent in reading to a child. These experiences with a parent translate into skills that develop later. For example, twenty-six percent of children who were read to three or four times in the last week by a family member recognized all letters of the alphabet. This is compared to 14 percent of children who were read to less frequently. The NCES1 reported that children who were read to frequently are also more likely to: count to 20, or higher than those who were not (60% vs. 44%), write their own names (54% vs. 40%), read or pretend to read (77% vs. 57%). Access to materials is often the only barrier between a child learning to read earlier. According to the Educational Testing Service, the more types of reading materials there are in the home, the higher students are in reading proficiency. If the biggest barrier between students and reading proficiency is simply access to books, this is an easily solvable issue. Literacy at a young age is a good indicator of other aspects of life as well for things like juvenile courts where 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate. Literacy can also be a way out, and a way to keep a high schoolers life on track as 16 to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock children than their reading counterparts. The more we give access to reading materials, the higher literacy rates will be, which will keep kids on the right track towards a higher education and away from jails and other derailments.
ReplyDeleteGender inequality is a problem for many reasons, but our group is focusing on a small part of it: how it leads to sexism. We all already know about women earning less in the work field and female harassment, but we want to focus on something that can get easily overlooked. Gender bias and the implementation of gender roles start from even before kids are born. This implementation is most influenced on a person through their parents, then solidified through the media. When a mother is pregnant she is constantly asked what the sex of her baby is, if she is going to paint the nursery pink or blue, and if she is going to buy dolls or toy cars for the baby, all before they are even born. When the baby is born, the way they are dressed, talked to, taught, and what they see in their house influence them greatly. It is difficult for a child to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping, whether it be the expectation that boys are better than girls at math or the idea that only females can nurture children. This is a problem because it leads to subtle sexism and the continuation of men enforcing their dominance over woman.
ReplyDeleteThis is a problem we should care about because subtle sexism needs to be recognized and demolished. Only four out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, and Norway. Acts of chivalry, like opening doors and paying for dates, may seem romantic, but what stereotypes are they perpetuating? Is it that men have to always cater to women? Or is it that women always need men to take care of them? We would argue the later takes more influence into the minds of our society. Small gender discrimination might not seem like a big deal, but in the grand scheme of things it is still sexism, and the advantage goes to the men of our society. The only way to stop these acts of subtle sexism, is to first recognize where gender discrimination is most prominent, then to combat these gender roles and their influence.
My issue is the gun violence in urban settings impacting youth - specifically in Chicago. This is an issue that we should care about because we are the the most racially segregated city in the U.S. (Chicago Most Segregated City In America, Despite Significant Improvements In Last Decade, Huffington Post) and “among the top three cities with the most murders since 1985(Drew Delsilver www.pewresearch.org). The issue of gunviolence emanates from root issues such as internalized racism that sprouts from the segregation of the rich and poor and the white and black. This issue is prevalent in contemporary national issues today with the popular police brutality spectacles that keep occuring throughout the country that seem to be targeted towards African-Americans. There are also the killings of people of color who happen to be transgender or who practice other unique lifestyles that a certain racial majority seems to adress through unjustified killing without judicial consequences. This issue is important because the youth are the future of America's tomorrow. If over 33% of them are growing up in a city rooted on racial stereotyping, discrimination, and stigma then the progress of the unification of the city will cease to exist due to the racism that goes beyond color and becomes the segregation of social classes, education, and income. If this continues, the gun violence created by these difference in the reality of our city will continue to persist and take the lives of many more Chicagoan youth.
ReplyDelete