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This is a final paper. There are 3 sections and its approximately 10 pages essay.

All the instruction you will need its in the attached files. you have to read who am I part 1 to start writing who am I part 2.

here what I need:

Final paper instruction.docx  

Who am I Part1.docx  - you need to read who am I part 1 to write part 2 - more information is in the instructor attached.

useful instruction to write who am I. part2.JPG 

Johnson article--What can we do.pdf  

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I have attached some of the reading and writing we did through the semester to give you an idea of what we have discussed and learn.

7 reading articles.docx  - one of the essay we wrote, you just need to read it.

conversation with homeless..docx  - this was a conversation with someone who is totally different from me.

reflection-log.docx  - this was a serving learning we have to do and write about it

Take a look and let me know.


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Final paper (Who Am I? Part II/Learning Analysis). this is ONE approximately 10 page paper There are 3 parts to the paper. I will break them down below. PART I - INDIVIDUAL LEVEL Using Section II. IDENTITY CATEGORIES: GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS of the outline distributed on February 25th, you will: • Describe the impact of gender, race, and class in your life. Please describe how your identity within each of these 3 categories impacts both your 1) daily experience, and 2) your life outcomes (what kind of job you will have, how much money you will make, where you will live, who you associate with, etc). • You will begin with what you wrote in your Who Am I? Part I paper, however you will re-write based on what you’ve learned this semester as you interrogate the assumptions you had on the first day of class. Please use the readings, class discussions, videos, and other class activities to help you identify what you have learned this semester about gender, race, and class in your life. [This part of the paper will be approximately 4 pages long.] PART II - STRUCTURAL LEVEL Using Section II. AMERICAN SOCIAL STRUCTURES of the outline distributed on February 25th, you will: • Identify the 2 institutions/groups that have had the greatest impact in your life through the messages they send about who you are. Examples are: school, family, peers, the media, religious organizations, and more. • Once you identify and describe your chosen institutions/groups, please describe in detail what their messages have taught you about 1) who you are, and 2) how they have formed your worldview (the lens through which you see the world). For instance: How does your lens determine what you see and how you view others within the categories of gender, race, and class? Again, please use the readings, class discussions, videos, and other class activities to help you examine both the messages and your lens. One useful question to ask: What was invisible to me before taking this class? [This part of the paper will be approximately 4 pages long.] PART III - CHANGE • Please use the Johnson (2001) article [ATTACHED] as a springboard to talk about how you plan to move forward with the information you have learned in our class this semester. Please talk about the opportunities you have to create change in our world. Please note: We will use the Johnson article to talk about change in our final class meeting on Wednesday, May 6th. We will discuss examples of opportunities to create change. [This part of the paper will be approximately 2 pages long.] Introduction: My name is Shalan, I’m from Saudi Arabia. I’m a freshman Finance student currently partaking my second semester. Being an international student in the US has taught me a lot about gender, race and social class. Everything here is America is different from back home in Saudi Arabia. From the culture and the way of life to the behavior. The perceptions here are different because of the democracy that is vividly present here. Despite the fact that my race is not so much loved in the country due to the obvious conflicts with Muslim states, I feel at home and I love studying in this institution as segregation and discrimination is highly discouraged here by the school polices. Gender: Gender is just a name. All people are equal. The institution does not allow any form of gender discrimination. Being a male student, am just like my fellow female students. We share a lot in discussions and debates. The situation is not different from back home is Saudi Arabia. With globalization and technological advancements, the world has learned of the importance of the girl child and nowadays children are treated the same. When I first joined this school, I was a bit worried on issues of gender and I did not know how to identify myself with others. However, with the orientation, I quickly learned that we were all equal. The school management is always on the fore front in protecting personal rights and they do not condone any forms of discrimination. Thus, I appreciate all people and interact with the equally despite their gender. It’s one of my strengths. I believe that my self-identity has never at any one point been in conflict with how others identify me because of gender. Race: This being an international school, students are from different races. The natives here understand and appreciate that. We form a great community and share great ideas from all over the world. Never have I felt out of place. When I joined the institutional, I somehow felt out of place. But I quickly learned to identify myself with the other races. I realized that this was a cosmopolitan school and every one was treated with the dignity they deserved. My race has never been a subject for discussion, neither has it ever been a subject for debates. We all relate fairly well and I love interacting with other cultures to learn their way of life and compare it with mine. The students here are welcoming and warm. I believe that it is an advantage to have students from different cultures and they learn a lot from each other. I am now in my second semester and I feel like I have already learned a lot to appreciate other people’s races. My self-identity has never been in conflict with how others identify me. I feel appreciated just like I appreciate myself. My school mates and friends value my race and always want to hear more of what we value and what we do. I fell totally in place. Social class: There are social classes in almost every setting. Here at school, it is not explicitly defined but social classes exist. We consider the natives as being of higher social classes and the international students (like me) as being of lesser classes. Of course the school policies forbid this and this is why it is never in the public domain. No one will ever tell you that you belong to a certain social class. You just feel it within yourself. There are instances where you can clearly differentiatethe students. For instance, most of the native students drive big cars to school and they live in posh neighborhoods. They however do not discriminate against the others who cannot afford such luxuries. Social class here is not about how poor you are but how much you spend. It is about how much money you have for use rather than how much you make or you are given. If you are able to spend a lot especially on friends, then you belong to a different social class. Personally, I understand of the existence of social classes in the school and community but it has never affected my way of life. My self-identity has never been in conflict with how others identify me due to my social class. Conclusion Gender, race and social class have had much impact on my daily experiences as an international student. The culture of People in the US is quite different from our culture back in Saudi Arabia.Race has never been a great issue to me the school as being an international school, the students are used to people from different races. At the same time, social classes are a privilege of the few who define them and understand what they are. Personally I think that we being students, social class is not a priority. We read the same books and do the same exercises despite the wealth in our pockets. READING 59: What Can We Do? letters to the editor and op-ed columns can raise awareness of the issues locally, regionally, and nationally .... Use the lessons you have learned from this discussion and make a difference. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Does Cogan's description of "Capitol Hill culture" fit with your assumptions about how government works? What surprised you in her description? What didn't? 2. Does the information in Cogan's article make you feel any more comfortable about pursuing "everyday activism" on issues important to you? Why or why not? NOTES 1. American Psychological Association. (1995). Advancing psychology in the public interest: A psychologist's guide to participation in federal policy making. Washington, DC: Author. 2. Wells, W. G. (1996). Working with Congress: A practical guide for scientists and engineers. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science. 3. Lorion, R. P., & Iscoe, 1. (1996). Reshaping our views of our field. In R. P. Lorion, 1. Iscoe, P. H. DeLeon, & G. R. VandenBos (Eds.), Psychology and public policy (pp. 1-19). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Truman, D. B. (1987). The nature and functions of interest groups: The governmental process. In P. Woll (Ed.), American government: Readings and cases (pp. 255-262). Boston: Little, Brown. 4. Ceaser, J. W., Bessette, J. M., O'Toole, L. J., & Thurow, G. (1995). American government: Origins, institutions, and public policy (4th ed.). Dubuque, lA: Kendall/Hunt. 5. Nickels, 1. B. (1994). Guiding a bill through the legislative process (Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, 94-322 GOV). Washington, DC: Library of Congress. 6. Key, V. O. (1987). The nature and functions of interest groups: Pressure groups. In P. Woll (Ed.), American government: Readings and cases (pp. 266-273). Boston: Little, Brown. 7. American Psychological Association, 1995 (see note 1). Wells, 1996 (see note 2). 8. Drew, E. (1987). A day in the life of a United States Senator. In P. Woll (Ed.), American government: Readings and cases (pp. 487-497). Boston: Little, Brown. Vincent, T. A. (1990). A view from the Hill: The human element in policy making on Capitol Hill. American Psychologist, 45(1), 61-{)4. 9. American Psychological Association, 1995. 485 10. Wells, 1996. 11. Rundquist, P. S., Schneider, J., & Pauls, F. R (1m). Congressional staff An analysis of their ro~ functionS. and impacts (Congressional Research Service Report for Congress, 92-90S). Washington, DC: Library of Ccogress, 12. Redman, E. (1987). Congressional staff: The surrogates of power. In P. Woll (Ed.), American government: Readings and cases (pp. 452-461). Boston: Little, Brown. Rundquist, Scheider, & Pauls, 1992. 13. Vincent, T. A., 1990, p. 61 (see note 8). 14. Bevan, W. (1996). OIl getting in bed with a lion. In R P. Lorion, I. Iscoe, P. H. Deleon, & G. R. VandenBos (Eds.), Psychology and public policy (pp. 145-163). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Nissim-Sabat, D. (1997). Psychologists, Congress, and public policy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 28(3). 275-280. Wells, 1996 (see note 2). IS. This is the rationale for including briefing memos throughout this [discussion]. 16. For example, Wilson, D. K., Purdon, S. E., & Wallston, A. (1988). Compliance to health recommendations: A theoretical overview of message framing. Health Education Research,3,161-171. 17. American Psychological Association, 1995 (see note 1). For more information on how to write an effective letter, the reader is referred to the information brochure written by the APA titled: Calkins, B. J. (1995). Psychology in the public interest: A psychologist's guide to participation in federal policy making. Washington, DC: APA. Available at www.apa.orglppo/grassroots/sadguide.html. READING 59 What Can We Do? Becoming Part of the Solution Allan G. Johnson The challenge we face is to change patterns of exclusion, rejection, privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are everywhere in this society and have existed for hundreds (or, in the case of gender, thousands) of years. We have to begin by thinking about the trouble and the challenge in new and more productive ways .... Allan G. Johnson is a professor of sociology at Hartford College for Women. 486 SECTION TV: Bridging Differences Large numbers of people have sat on the sidelines and seen themselves as neither part of the problem nor the solution. Beyond this shared trait, however, they are far from homogeneous. Everyone is aware of the whites, heterosexuals, and men who intentionally act out in oppressive ways. But there is less attention to the millions of people who know inequities exist and want to be part of the solution. Their silence and invisibility allow the trouble to continue. Removing what silences them and stands in their way can tap an enormous potential of energy for change .... MYTH 1: "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY, AND IT ALWAYS WILL" If you don't make a point of studying history, it's easy to slide into the belief that things have always been the way we've known them to be. But if you look back a bit further, you find racial oppression has been a feature of human life for only a matter of centuries, and there is abundant evidence that male dominance has been around for only seven thousand years or so, which isn't very long when you consider that human beings have been on the earth for hundreds of thousands of years.' So when it comes to human social life, the smart money should be on the idea that nothing has always been this way or any other. This idea should suggest that nothing will always be this way or any other, contrary to the notion that privilege and oppression are here to stay. If the only thing we can count on is change, then it's hard to see why we should believe for a minute that any kind of social system is permanent. Reality is always in motion. Things may appear to stand still, but that's only because humans have a short attention span, dictated perhaps by the shortness of our lives. If we take the long view-the really long view-we can see that everything is in process all the time. Some would argue that everything is process, the space between one point and another, the movement from one thing toward another. What we may see as permanent end points-world capitalism, Western civilization, advanced technology, and so on-are actually temporary states on the way to other temporary states. Even ecologists, who used to talk about ecological balance, now speak of ecosystems as inherently unstable. Instead of always returning to some steady state after a period of disruption, ecosystems are, by nature, a continuing process of change from one arrangement to another. They never go back to just where they were. Social systems are also fluid. A society isn't some hulking thing that sits there forever as it is. Because a system happens only as people participate in it, it can't help being a dynamic process of creation and re-creation from one moment to the next. In something as simple as a man following the path of least resistance toward controlling conversations (and a woman letting him do it), the reality of male privilege in that moment comes into being. This is how we do male privilege, bit by bit, moment by moment. This is also how individuals can contribute to change: by choosing paths of greater resistance, as when men don't take control and women refuse their own subordination. Since people can always choose paths of greater resistance or create new ones entirely, systems can only be as stable as the flow of human choice and creativity, which certainly isn't a recipe for permanence. In the short run, systems of privilege may look unchangeable. But the relentless process of social life never produces the exact same result twice in a row, because it's impossible for everyone to participate in any system in an unvarying and uniform way. Added to this are the dynamic interactions that go on among systems-between capitalism and the state, for example, or between families and the economy-that also produce powerful and unavoidable tensions, contradictions, and other currents of change. Ultimately, systems can't help changing. Oppressive systems often seem stable because they limit people's lives and imaginations so much that they can't see beyond them. But this masks a fundamental long-term instability caused by the dynamics of oppression itself. Any system organized around one group's efforts to control and exploit another is a losing proposition, because it READING 59: WhafCan contradicts the essentially uncontrollable nature of reality and does violence to basic human needs and values. For example, as the last two centuries of feminist thought and action have begun to challenge the violence and break down the denial, patriarchy has become increasingly vulnerable. This is one reason male resistance, backlash, and defensiveness are now so intense. Many men complain about their lot, especially their inability to realize ideals of control in relation to their own lives.? women, and other men. Fear of and resentment toward women are pervasive, from worrying about being accused of sexual harassment to railing against affirmative action. No social system lasts forever, but this is especially true of oppressive systems of privilege. We can't know what will replace them, but we can be confident that they will go, that they are going at every moment. It's only a matter of how quickly, by what means, and toward what alternatives, and whether each of us will do our part to make it happen sooner rather than later and with less rather than more human suffering in the process. MYTH 2: GANDHI'S PARADOX AND THE MYTH OF NO EFFECT Whether we help change oppressive systems depends on how we handle the belief that nothing we do can make a difference, that the system is too big and powerful for us to affect it. The complaint is valid if we look at society as a whole: it's true that we aren't going to change it in our lifetime. But if changing the entire system through our own efforts is the standard against which we measure the ability to do something, then we've set ourselves up to feel powerless. It's not unreasonable to want to make a difference, but if we have to see the final result of what we do, then we can't be part of change that's too gradual and long term to allow that. We also can't be part of change that's so complex that we can't sort out our contribution from countless others that combine in ways we can never grasp. The problem of privilege and oppression requires complex and long-term change coupled We Do? 487 with short-term work to soften some of its worst consequences. This means that if we're going to be part of the solution, we have to let go of the idea that change doesn't happen unless we're around to see it happen. To shake off the paralyzing myth that we cannot, individually, be effective, we have to alter how we see ourselves in relation to a long-term, complex process of change. This begins by altering how we relate to time. Many changes can come about quickly enough for us to see them happen. When 1 was in college, for example, there was little talk about gender inequality as a social problem, whereas now there are more than five hundred women's studies programs in the United States. But a goal like ending oppression takes more than this and far more time than our short lives can encompass. If we're going to see ourselves as part of that kind of change, we can't use the human life span as a significant standard against which to measure progress. To see our choices in relation to long-term change, we have to develop what might be called "time constancy," analogous to what psychologists call "object constancy." If you hold a cookie in front of very young children and then put it behind your back while they watch, they can't find the cookie because they apparently can't hold on to the image of it and where it went. They lack object constancy. In other words, if they can't see it, it might as well not even exist. After a while, children develop the mental ability to know that objects or people exist even when they're out of sight. In thinking about change and our relation to it, we need to develop a similar ability in relation to time that enables us to carry within us the knowledge, the faith> that significant change happens even though we aren't around to see it. Along with time constancy, we need to darify for ourselves how our choices matter and how they don't. Gandhi once said nothing we do as individuals matters, bUt that it's vitally important to do it anyway. This touches on a powerful paradox in the relationship between society and individuals. Imagine, for example, that social systems are trees and we are the leaves. No individual leaf on the tree 488 SECTION IV: Bridging Differences matters; whether it lives or dies has no effect on can't foresee; they don't happen unless we move, if only in our minds. As pioneers, we discover what's much of anything. But collectively, the leaves are possible only by first putting ourselves in motion, essential to the whole tree because they photosynbecause we have to move ill order to change our thesize the sugar that feeds it. Without leaves, the tree dies. position-and hence put perspective-on where So leaves matter and they don't, just as we matter we are, where we've been, and where we might go. This is how alternatives begin to appear. and we don't. What each of us does may not seem like much, because in important ways, it isn'tmuch. The myth of no effect obscures the role we can play in the long-term transformation of society, But when many people do this work together, they But the myth also blinds us to our own power in can form a critical mass that is anything but insigrelation to other people. We may cling to the belief nificant, especially in the long run. If we're going that there is nothing we can do precisely because to be part of a larger change process, we have to we subconsciously know how much power we do learn to live with this sometimes uncomfortable paradox. have and are afraid to use it because people may not like it. If we deny our power to affect people, then we A related paradox is that we have to be willing don't have to wony about taking responsibility for to travel without knowing where we're going. We how we use it or, more significant, how we don't. need faith to do what seems rightwithoutnecessarThis reluctance to acknowledge and use power ily being sure of the effect that will have. We have comes up in the simplest everyday situations, as to think like pioneers who may know the direction when a group of friends starts laughing at a racist, they want to move in or what they would like to sexist, or homophobic joke and we have to decide find, without knowing where they will wind up. whether to go along. it's just a moment among Because they are going where they've never been countless such moments that constitute the fabric before, they can't know whether they will ever arof all kinds of oppressive systems. But it's a crucial rive at anything they might consider a destination, moment, because the group's seamless response to much less the kind of place they had in mind when the joke affirms the normalcy and unproblematic they first set out. If pioneers had to know their desnature of it in a system of privilege. It takes only tination from the beginning, they would never go one person to tear the fabric of collusion and apanywhere or discover anything. parent consensus. On some level, we each know In similar ways, to seek out alternatives to we have this potential, and this knowledge can emsystems of privilege it has to be enough to move power us or scare us into silence. We can change the away from social life organized around privilege course of the moment with something as simple as and oppression and to move toward the certainty visibly not joining in the laughter, or saying "1 don't that alternatives are possible, even though we may think that's funny." We know how uncomfortable not have a clear idea of what those are or ever this can make the group feel and how they may experience them ourselves. It has to be enough to ward off their discomfort by dismissing, excluding, question how we see ourselves as people of a certain race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, for or even attacking us as bearers of bad news. Our siexample, or examine how we see capitalism and lence, then, isn't because nothing we do will matter, the scarcity and competition it produces in relation our silence is our not daring to matter. to our personal striving to better our own lives, or Our power to affect other people isn't simhow oppression works and how we participate in ply the power to make them feel uncomfortable. it Then we can open ourselves to experience what Systems shape the choices people make primarily happens next. by providing paths of least resistance. Whenever we When we dare ask core questions about who we openly choose a different path, however, we make are and how the world works, things happen that we it possible for others to see both the path of least READING 59: Wbat CaD We Do? resistance they're following and the possibility of choosing something else. If we choose different paths, we usually won't know if we're affecting other people, but it's safe to assume that we are. When people know that alternatives exist and witness other people choosing them, things become possible that weren't before. When we openly pass up a path of least resistance, we increase resistance for other people around that path, because now they must reconcile their choice with what they've seen us do, something they didn't have to deal with before. There's no way to predict how this will play out in the long run, but there's certainly no good reason to think it won't make a difference. The simple fact is that we affect one another all the time without knowing it. When my family moved to our house in the woods of northwestern Connecticut, one of my first pleasures was blazing walking trails through the woods. Some time later I noticed deer scat and hoofprints along the trails, and it pleased me to think they had adopted the trail I'd laid down. But then I wondered if perhaps I had followed a trail laid down by others when I cleared "my" trail. I realized that there is no way to know that anything begins or ends with me and the choices I make. It's more likely that the paths others have chosen influence the paths I choose. This suggests that the simplest way to help others make different choices is to make them myself, and to do it openly. As I shift the patterns of my own participation in systems of privilege, I make it easier for others to do so as well, and harder for them not to. Simply by setting an example-rather than trying to change them-I create the possibility of their participating in change in their own time and in their own way. In this way I can widen the circle of change without provoking the kind of defensiveness that perpetuates paths of least resistance and the oppressive systems they serve. It's important to see that in doing this kind of work, we don't have to go after people to change their minds. In fact, changing people's minds may play a relatively small part in changing societies. We won't succeed in turning diehard misogynists 489 into practicing feminists, for example, or racists into civil rights activists. At most, we can shift the odds in favor of new paths that contradict the core values that systems of privilege depend on. We can introduce so many exceptions to the paths that support privilege that the children or grandchildren of diehard racists and misogynists will start to change their perception of which paths offer the least resistance. Research on men's changing attitudes toward the male provider role, for example, shows that most of the shift occurs between generations, not within them.' This suggests that rather than trying to change people, the most important thing we can do is contribute to the slow evolution of entire cultures so that forms and values which support privilege begin to lose their "obvious" legitimacy and normalcy and new forms emerge to challenge their privileged place in social life. In science, this is how one paradigm replaces another.' For hundreds of years, for example, Europeans believed that the stars, planets, and sun revolved around Earth. But scientists such as Copernicus and Galileo found that too many of their astronomical observations were anomalies that didn't fit the prevailing paradigm: if the sun and planets revolved around the Earth, then they wouldn't move as they did. As such observations accumulated, they made it increasingly difficult to hang on to an Earth-centered paradigm. Eventually the anomalies became so numerous that Copernicus offered a new paradigm, which he declined to publish for fear of persecution as a heretic, a fate that eventually befell Galilee when he took up the cause a century later. Eventually, however, the evidence was so overwhelming that a new paradigm replaced the old one. In similar ways, we can see how systems of privilege are based on paradigms that shape how we think about difference and how we organize social life in relation to it. We can openly challenge those paradigms with evidence that they don't work and produce unacceptable consequences for everyone. We can help weaken them by openly choosing alternative paths in our everyday lives and thereby provide living anomalies that don't fit the prevailing paradigm. By 490 .. SECTION IV: Bridging Differences PERSONAL ACCOUNT ,I Parents' Underestimated Love "Coming out of the closet" to my parents has been the most liberating thing that I have done In my life because having my homosexuality discovered by my parents was my biggest fear. Although I didn't grow up in a particularly homophobic environment, innately I knew that homosexuality was different and wasn't accepted because of rigid social norms and religious doctrines. I lived in anguish of being exposed and of the consequences that would come with being the queer one. Keeping the secret from my traditional Salvadoran parents created a wedge that made it difficult for me to bond with my parents and have them participate fully in my life. I became a recluse and avoided much parental interaction to avoid questions about girlfriends. During my teenage years, girlfriends were expected from a "good and healthy" boy such as myself. I felt that my lack of interest in girls would have led to probes from my parents, and plus, I wasn't the typical macho boy who was into sports, cars, etc .... I was the "sensitive type.· To avoid any suspicion, I limited my interaction with my our example, we can contradict basic assumptions and their legitimacy over and over again. We can add our choices and oUI lives to tip the scales toward new paradigms that don't revolve around privilege and oppression. We can't tip the scales overnight or by ourselves, and in that sense we don't amount to much. But on the other side of Gandhi's paradox, it is crucial where we choose to place what poet Bonaro Overstreet called "the stubborn ounces of my weight": STUBBORN OUNCES (To One Who Doubts the Worth of Doing Anything [[You Can't Do Everything) You say the little efforts that I make will do no good; they will never prevail to tip the hovering scale where Justice hangs in balance. I don't think parents. I felt that if I opened up to them, my sexuality would be questioned and questions like "Are you gay?· would follow. Being an academic overachiever in high school made things easier for me. Whenever the question was asked of why I didn't have a girlfriend, I had the perfect excuse, "I'm too busy with school to focus on girls ... do you want a Playboy or an honor student?" During my sophomore year in college I took a bold step and moved out of my parents' house. My move facilitated my "coming out" to my parents because the possibility of being kicked out of the house when I told them I was gay wouldn't loom over me. I didn't know if my parents would kick me out, but I couldn't run the risk of finding out. One year after moving out, I "came out," Ironically it didn't come as a surprise to my parents, and frankly it wasn't a big deall After years of living in fear of rejection and shame, my parents aocepted and reaffirmed their love and support. I underestimated the power of my parents' love. Octavia N. Espinal I ever thought they would. But I am prejudiced beyond debate In favor of my right to choose which side shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight." It is in such small and humble choices that oppression and the movement toward something better actually happen. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. In a sense, Allan Johnson's discussion highlights the paradoxes inherent in the efforts to create social change. What are those paradoxes, and how does Johnson resolve them? 2. What would Johnson's advice be to someone who wants to make a difference in society? Can it be summarized in a sentence or two? Central Argument of Lober According to Lober, human nature is not constructed by their biological genetics or structure but it is developed gradually from social experiences, environmental social processes and culture that can be dialogued as a root cause for gender discrimination in every society. Gender discrimination can be regarded as a process of socialization and perceptions created in every society about distinctions in male and female. Roles of women are described as feminine to contribute in domestic work, wearing colorful bright cloths and engaging in specific workplaces and violation of these rules attracts public attention as violation of social norms and traditions. On the contrary, Men are masculine and strong to take more control on economic growth and political affairs [Judith Lorber (1994)]. Roles of Gender The human personalities clearly reflect their social norms and culture. Unfortunately, we have not yet completely evolved from a male dominant society in which roles of men and women are predefined because of perceptions about specific gender injected in human minds by social environments. The discriminated roles of men and women in professional workplaces, educational careers, sports selections and clothing stereotyping indicate the role of civilization and community in establishing gender inequality. Religious beliefs, legislative policy making and social norms tend to strengthen the human perceptions about variations in the roles of men and women in mainstream socialization. From the early childhood, little baby girls are taught to explore specific talents and educational forums that are not ‘boyish’ in society which impacts the role of women in economy and technological advancements [Shankar Vedantam (2013)]. Women have less interest in technology and innovative businesses because they have pre-defined way of selecting their education and ambitions. Women have different roles in their interpersonal and professional relationships due to which are considered more prone to domestic violence and societal harassment. The inadequate and deficient decision making abilities and goal oriented enthusiasm in women in the professional organizations is because they are not supposed to be giving decisive inputs when it is important. The dominance of male in corporate businesses and careers puts barriers to performance and participation of female gender. Core responsibilities of women in American culture are to pay heed to their children upbringing and to provide emotional support to men and women are considered weak to take strong decisions [Lisa Miller (2014)]. Women who have children are supposed to be less competent in jobs because of their diverted attention towards upbringing of their babies whereas men with children are considered more professional and responsible with mature thinking with higher pay rates [David Leonhardt (2014)]. Men are considered to be more analytical and problem solving in terms of statistical evaluations, mathematical techniques and scientific theories and so does the professors of these subjects are rated highly by the students during student evaluation and feedback. Women instructors in colleges and schools are preferred in very few subjects such as fashion designing or cooking classes and majority of educational system is dominated by male community [Amanda Marcotte (2014)]. The dominance of men in sports, professions and educational institutions is majorly injecting the increased relaxations and luxuries to men as compared to women. This difference in roles of genders in society is majorly because of the perceptions and thinking processes of people in society where gender roles and passions are not defined according to their nature but in line with socialization. I was already familiar with the information that stereotyping in the roles of women in workplaces, sports selection and clothing is imposed upon human behaviors through social factors such as media such as news, movies and music. Literature text also develops a way to promote gender discrimination in educational courses and reading materials. However I was surprised to learn that these factors are more responsible to gender inequality as compared to natural and biological structure of the body and mind. I always thought that human desires and passions are controlled mainly by their natural body structure and needs but a detailed insight to social factors surprised me and made me revise my ideologies. Conversation with a homeless Human Attitudes, Behaviors and Perceptions are shaped by the environmental and social experiences. Apart from learning in the environment, genetic and biological factors also primarily control the personality traits within individuals. Human nature promotes the sense of communicating with each other to share information and mental thoughts with each other to live in harmony and to help in evolution of human race. Considering the importance of conversation, I experienced a meeting with a homeless person who perceived the worldview on various subjects differently from me which taught me many lessons about diversification in values, beliefs and human attributes. Similarities in Experiences After introductory formalities and investigation of upbringing background of the homeless, I shifted to explore personal experienced events, beliefs, and various ideologies about life of the person in a friendly manner. The homeless had a very clear view about technologically advanced and modern world that it is causing further unrest in human race by providing an intense sense of competition and race to earn more money. Businesses concerned about increasing their operational productivity regardless of the harms caused by the environmental pollution by the waste material of these large industries. He further discussed that his workplace management is focused to increase their capital and they are least concerned about the harm they cause to nature and stress they cause due to extra burden on their employees. I had the similar ideology about the mental rest that he described during the conversation that humans must not worried about the higher class luxuries carved by humans. Enough food to eat, a house to live and peace of mind are three main objectives a man must achieve because increased economic conditions come with increased desires and wished. He said that a family is the most precious thing a person could ever have and he must strive with full strength to achieving a balance in professional and personal life spending considerable time with the family members. According to that person, religious, gender and political differences have no place in human lives and the concept of one love for all humanity must be installed and accepted with open heart by every individual because it will expand the space to restructure social norms shaped due to capitalist media that injects their opinions on everyone. These are few ideologies and perception I share with this man especially about maintaining a balance in career and family. Differences in Opinions I talked to him about the political leaders he supported in the past and those he supports currently. In the response, he looked at me with a very sarcastic smile and explained that the political leaders have nothing to do with the interests of poor and underprivileged class. The only role of politics is to uproot hatred in humans and they bring wars to nations to meet political objectives. He had once tried to reach a political leader in his local area but the person did not listen to his concerns enthusiastically. I had complete different views about politics because I believed in the participation in political activities proactively because we are the one who give right to leaders to rule over us and impose their policies. We decide political class so we must be concerned about their selection and functioning so to help the improvements in the corrupt system rather lying back and cursing them. The homeless person, I conversed with, illustrated his mountaineering expeditions he used to engage in every year in Himalayas every year where he exposed himself to the extreme cold conditions with less water and food on the mountains with high death rate in order to challenge his abilities and core of human experiences of survival. I did not agree with his views on mountaineering because I thought giving away your life on mountains like this is not worth it. One should go out and praise the existence of natural beauty but it must be in limits. He said when he left home, he had to face very difficulties to establish himself financially and when he had achieved his goal of economic establishment, he felt a sense of contentment and accomplishment which he would never forget which is why he keeps exposing himself to extreme adventures to learn more about his own personality because it is the worst and challenging time in the life of humans when they learn exponentially more. Learning during the Conversation I learned about my partner in conversation that he had a very hard time leaving his home due to some reasons he did not share and it had impacted greatly in the formulation of his personality traits. He was a very adventurous person with most of his views against the social norms and political establishment in the community because of his hardships during the time when he was trying to establish himself and no governmental or public support assisted him to gain his objectives. He believed in the importance of family in human life and the mental peace family support brought with it. The person was a very emotionally stable individual after facing hard times with no moral or emotional support. His personality was very extrovert and friendly in nature because of his various meetings and dealing with professionals and individuals in workplace as well as daily routines in the community place he lived in. All the motivation he had to gather to achieve excellence in his work or to pursue newer mountaineering projects was intrinsic type of motivation which was driven due to internal instincts due to zero family support. He had more respect for human relationships than money or commercialized surroundings around him. After meeting with the homeless conversational partner of mine, I had discovered a whole new dimension of myself. I felt that the positive attitude for social acceptance is only possible by communicating with other people and sharing views and ideas with others opens up newer perspectives towards thinking about life. It also taught me how diversified and relative human beliefs and ideas are and it is the beauty of co-existence of these distinctive beliefs that makes a system reliable and critically thinkable. The similarities in the views made me believe that I am not the only one who has these views and I am not the only one with this story but every one shares some attributes with others in some way and the disagreements are part of human lives and they must be negotiated with an approach to learn something from it. I had the privilege to volunteer for eight hours in the Shepherd’s Table which was initiated in 1983 as a soup kitchen and had the basic mission to provide food to the hungry homeless people in the neighborhood area but due to its excellent services to the community, it gained friendly help from the society and people from around the corner including shopping markets, food retailers, property dealers, religious congregants, and governmental official sources. This help from the community came in the form of donations, food equipment, training professionals for the workers that transformed the whole mission of the Shepherd’s Table into becoming multipurpose community center that now provides health facilities, shelter facilities, drug awareness, counseling and psychological grooming facilities to the homeless people to contribute positively in the services of humanity. I went to the nearest Shepherd’s Table unit and told the staff that I wanted to volunteer for eight hours and they happily agreed to it and allowed me to help in cleaning the dining room and kitchen, helping marginally with cooking food, and placing the food in its place. I felt very uncomfortable in the beginning because I had never volunteered in such cleaning work before but as the time passed I started to feel more comfortable with the staff and the homeless people coming for food. I started to interact with people within the staff and the shelter less people coming in for help. There were two chefs in the staff that had the responsibilities of cooking and distributing the food and both were very friendly to me and they encouraged me for taking part in social sector. The chefs told me about the evolutionary success behind the idea of the Shepherd’s Table that most of the people care about the homeless and want to help them but they need trustworthy organizations that can find deserving homeless people and identify them and people will happily help these organizations with transparent systems and motivational missions and working capacities. I interacted with the chefs during my services to cook food and when I settled the food in its place, I had the brightest opportunity to meet homeless people directly that had come to this place for help. The staff of the Shepherd’s Table was very friendly to the homeless and served them food as if they were serving to their family with utmost respect and sincerity. The homeless people seemed like having no trouble or complaint about being so poor and homeless because they did not care much about being rich as they had built their own social life with few people around them and settled their daily life schedules in a way that they did not get enough time to think about their troubles much. The discussions on the dining table were mainly about the quality and taste of the food with small jokes wandering around on each other’s personalities. The Kitchen staff told me that super markets and food retailers sent them enough food in donations to help all hungry people in the community. The Shepherd’s Table has professional teaching staff in their units that taught basic living antiquates to the homeless and trained them to apply for a job to improve their lifestyles and financial conditions. The Shepherd’s Table stayed open during the weekends and public holidays because the food and basic lifestyle needs of the poor are associated with this non-profit organization. When I conversed with the homeless, most of them told me that although they were having a very difficult life but they had found pleasure living the way they were and they showed no concern for finding a job and making their future lives and financial statements secure. They had the view that if we think that life is all about making money and securing financial status in the society, then we all would be making a big mistake. Money had very low value for these priceless people. I personally think that our lives should not be very focused on earning money and stabilizing our economic status but the concept of spreading love for humanity and living in unity with brotherhood ties is what lasts forever with peaceful impacts. These homeless people and Kitchen’s staff also had the same ideology with no concerns towards finding themselves a job and taking part in economic competition but their main inspiration was to help others and live in harmony. Another thing they had in common with me is the extrovert and social nature in their personalities because almost everyone amongst the homeless had this habit of saying things onto the faces of others rather keeping emotional things hidden within their hearts. They had this great habit of speaking up and discussing things in detail that helped them in strengthening their ties and social bonds with each other. The one thing that completely differs between their lives and mine is the awareness to political and national things happening around and the policies and opportunities in the society that had the potential to changing or impacting our lives. These people had absolutely no idea of what bills is Congress passing or the dynamically growing poverty in the country because all they cared about was their social lives and they were passing their days by eating food and sleeping and then eating again. These people considered the government to be a playing kit for the rich that had no reason to help poor class and the contribution of the poor in the politics and mainstream media cannot help the country because it has always been like this and it will stay like this where governments will only lend hand to rich and put poor lives in more misery upon which I would not agree with them. I believe that it is the contribution of general public in politics and governmental affairs that has the potential of leading things towards betterment. I have learned the value of serving others and I have found it very satisfying to be helping others without the expectation of receiving anything in return of this service. The daily life stress can be relieved by helping others and by voluntarily working in the social sector. The conversation with homeless and underprivileged class opens up perspectives to evaluate such as the minimized value of economics and money in daily lives and the maximized value of friendship and humanity.
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