All We Need is Love

https://addicted2success.com/quotes/56-mind-blowing-albert-einstein-quotes/

It has been almost three years since the Supreme Court ruled 5-4, stating that states can no longer ban same-sex marriage. Since then, same-sex marriage has increased 23 % and LGBT marriages, 2.3 % (Dessel and Rodenborg, 2016). Despite this, “39% of Americans still oppose same-sex marriage” (as cited in Dessel and Rodenborg, 2016, p.2). This is evident as we continue to see states  deny basic human rights to the LGBT community. In fact, 200 anti-LGBT bills were introduced in the year following the Supreme Court decision ( Stack, 2016). “Twenty-nine states lack anti-discrimination laws that include sexual orientation or gender identity” ( Stack, 2016, p.1). Using religious freedom as their defense, business owners in many states are allowed to deny services to gay and lesbian companies. Many Americans were shocked when we heard about the gay couple who entered a bakery in Colorado, only to be turned away when they requested a cake for their wedding reception. The owner of the bakery refused to provide services to them, citing his religious beliefs. After being told by the Colorado Civil Right Commission that he was in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination law, the baker appealed to the Supreme Court (Ambrosino, 2017). Shockingly, it has been five years since that couple walked into that bakery, and a decision still hasn’t been made. The case was being argued in the Court in the beginning of December 2017 (Ambrosino, 2017). The plight of the LGBT community has not been helped by the current administration. Since taking office, President Trump has moved to block transgender Americans from serving in the military and his Department of Education has done away with guidance to schools on how they should accommodate transgender students. This leaves the LGBT community little hope of influencing the federal government to enact  laws to protect their civil rights. For example, the Employment Nondiscrimination Act would outlaw discrimination  based on sexual orientation in the workplace ( Dessel and Rodenborg, 2016). In addition, there is no federal law forbidding discrimination in the housing market ( Dessel and Rodenborg, 2016). Trump has essentially taken a “hands-off” approach regarding LGBT issues in schools. How schools should handle transgender restrooms has been left to the states and individual districts, thus, creating more opportunity for discrimination.

The Einstein quote above says it all! The world needs to progress;  focus on embracing our diversity rather than holding on to archaic ways of thinking.  Another quote I love from Einstein is the following: “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly” ( Brown, 2017, p.1). I would like to think that if Einstein were alive today, he would be advocating for the LGBT community. He was considered a radical at one time in his field. The world needs more “radicals” who are willing to denounce the discriminatory policies that breed prejudice and hate. All we need is love for one another.

Ambrosino, B. (2017, December 06). Analysis | Supreme Court hears wedding cake case: here’s what you need to know. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/12/05/wedding-cake-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-highly-anticipated-supreme-court-ruling/?utm_term=.0d2780f2cbd6

Brown, J.  (2017, October 03). 55 Mind-Blowing Albert Einstein Quotes. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://addicted2success.com/quotes/56-mind-blowing-albert-einstein-quotes/

Dessel, A., & Rodenborg, B. (2017). Social Workers and LGBT Policies: Attitude Predictors and Cultural Competence Course Outcomes. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 14(1), 17-31.

Stack, L. (2016, June 30). The Challenges That Remain for L.G.B.T. People After Marriage Ruling. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/01/us/the-challenges-that-remain-for-lgbt-people-after-marriage-ruling.html

 

 

 

Mainstream Media Corruption

According to the the Anti-Corruption Society, media outlets are “a well organized system of propaganda and exploitation that has been inflicted on the American population for nearly a century”.( Media, 2013 p. 1). With a goal of creating distracted, divided and obedient Americans, the media has continually supported actions and policies that are not in our best interest. But, we are smarter than that. In fact, in its annual confidence poll, ” Gallup found that Americans’ trust in the mass media ‘to report the news fully, accurately and fairly’ reached its lowest level in polling history, with only 32 percent saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media”(Bernstein, 2017, p.3).

http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/pj_2016-12-15_fake-news_0-01/

Not only do we not trust the media, it has caused much confusion for Americans, as evident from the table above. Reporting inaccurate news has become all too common, and the highlighting of sensationalized stories has dominated newscasts.  For example, when watching Good Morning America just a few short days ago, I encountered a gross inaccuracy in the death count in Santa Barbara, California. Sadly, my hometown had experienced a large, devastating mudslide in the fire-ravaged areas of Montecito. Good Morning America reported 17 dead with more than 12 missing persons. With a personal line to the head of the search and rescue team working the front line in Santa Barbara, I confirmed that the deceased only numbered 15, with only 5 unaccounted for. News media outlets fight for  viewership  and, sadly, exaggerations attract audiences. The journalist serves as the “gatekeeper”, deciding what prefabricated news will be allowed to get through ( Schudson, 1997, p.3). “News is not a report on a factual world; news is ‘a depletable consumer product that must me made fresh daily'”(Tuchman, as cited in Schudson, 1997, p.4). Even Edward Said (1978), intellectual and author of Orientalism, described media outlets as the following:  “the omnipresent CNNs and Foxs of this world, plus myriad numbers of evangelical and right- wing radio hosts, plus innumerable tabloids and even middle-brow journalists, all of them re-cycling the same unverifiable fictions and vast generalizations so as to stir up ‘America’ against the foreign devil” ( p.9) . Said recognized that many of the stereotypes regarding the citizens of the Middle East, Africa and Asia were due to unsubstantiated media coverage. Depicted as irrational, violent degenerates by Western scholars,  and popular fiction, the inhabitants of the East continue to be targets of biased media coverage. In her TedTalks presentation below, Eefa Shehzad, speaks eloquently about the misrepresentation of Middle Easterners. At only 16 years of age, this Palestinian teen cites statistics and stories exposing mainstream media’s bias. Eefa goes on to share how these indirect injustices affect her family’s safety and security.

Our current administration is exacerbating the corruption in the media. Liberal media organizations are telling their versions of stories, and conservative stations are doing the same.  Trump himself has even taken to Twitter to combat the situation. In his controversial posts, he is able to reach out directly to Americans without having to rely on the media. Whether that decision is right or wrong, I can’t answer. What I do know is that Trump’s words are “coming from the horse’s mouth”, rather than being distorted by the media.

 

References

Bernstein, L. (2017, February 14). Poll: Mainstream media continues to lose the public’s trust. Retrieved January 15, 2018, from http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/main-stream-media-continue-to-lose-the-publics-trust

“Many Americans Believe that Fake New is Sowing Confusion”. Pew Research Center, (December 1-4, 2016) http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/

MEDIA. (2013, June 19). Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://anticorruptionsociety.com/media/

Said, E. (1979). Orientalism (1st Vintage Books ed.). New York: Vintage Books.

Schudson, M. (1997). The sociology of news production. Social meanings of news: A text-reader, 722.

Shehzad, E. (2014, March 12). Middle Eastern and Muslim Stereotypes in Media: Eefa Shehzad at TEDxYouth@ISBangkok [Video File] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRZQiwxB8lE

 

BIS 301 Week 1 Blog Post

Durkheim(1982) defines a social fact as “any way of acting, whether fixed or not, capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint” ( p. 7). Social facts manifest themselves in the way one acts, feels and thinks about an individual. They have power that sway one’s decision making and belief systems. Additionally, they can lead to social norms that shape who we are as individuals. For example, in our patriarchal society, a man is expected to possess certain characteristics. Men should be masculine, provide for their families, act as heads of households, and be dominant over women. As a result, men are “expected” to adhere to these attributes;”expected” by the social structure that society has created. This is a social fact. Over the years, these social norms have been challenged by diversified groups, such as the feminist movement and the gay rights’ organizations. Despite this,  Durkheim(1982) asserts, “it is never without being forced to fight against them” (p.2). This fight against the generational social norms in the United States is alive and well in the African-American community.  Oppression of African-Americans in the United States is pervasive in today’s society. In an article from CNN.com, Ryan Struyk reports that “how one sees race in the United States can depend a lot on your own background”(2017, p.1). An individual’s upbringing, environment, values and beliefs shape their unique social fact. As shown in the table below, African-American’s view of  racial equality in America varies greatly from White Americans. Both races share very different social facts and norms.

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/interactives/state-of-race-in-america/

In recent years, the shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers in , and the racially motivated killing of nine black Americans in a Charleston, South Carolina, church highlighted the reality of racial discrimination that African-Americans face each and every day. Blacks are still oppressed in the areas of education, job market, and social welfare institutions.  In his article, “Disability, Handicap, & Society”, Paul Abberley (1987) goes on to say that oppression impairs an individual, as if they are disabled.”Oppression reflects the hierarchical relations of the racial division of society (Eisenstein, as cited in Abberley, 1982, p.2). Because of White American social norms, Whites don’t recognize this “color-blind racism”. “We accept and adopt them because, since they are the work of the collectivity and one that is centuries old, they are invested with a special authority that our education has taught us to recognize and respect” ( Durkheim, 1982, p. 5). Therefore, Whites accept a broken educational system. that favors the “privileged”. In turn, the uneducated African-Americans go on to a life of menial jobs or, often times, a life of incarceration. They suffer from internalized oppression, causing them to accept their social facts. Decades of discrimination and prejudice leads many African-Americans to embrace the stereotypes and low expectations from society. Durkheim (1982) adds, “What constitutes social facts are the beliefs, tendencies and practices of the group taken collectively”(p.4). Based on the table above, collectively, African-Americans share little hope of racial equality.  With the current administration, those numbers are surely to increase.

Abberley, P. (1987). The Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disability. Disability, Handicap & Society, 2(1), 5-19. doi:10.1080/02674648766780021

Durkheim, E. (1982). What is a social fact?. In The rules of sociological method (pp. 50-59).  Palgrave, London.

Struyk, R. (2017, August 18). Blacks and whites see racism in the United States very, very differently. Retrieved January 11, 2018, from http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/politics/blacks-white-racism-united-states-polls/index.html

 

First blog post

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