Revolutions!

Revolutions occurred, historically, because the middle class, eager to obtain power and compete with the nobles, harnessed the sheer numbers of the lower classes against the upper classes and create their own order of some kind. This was the case in many modern revolutions, including those of the United States and France. Usually, these middle classes are interested in profit-maximization policies such as lower taxes, lower tariffs, a laissez-faire attitude, etc. Again, true for both American burgesses and la bourgeoisie française. 

A Global View: Australia’s Aboriginal People

Aboriginal policy has followed a very similar history to Native American policy in the United States. Both lands were explored and colonized by various European powers until the British came to dominate. This introduced diseases that neither native American nor Australian populations had immunities to. While Europeans like the French, Portuguese, and Dutch were mainly concerned about claiming land for trade purposes, British colonies were more geared towards permanent settlement, featuring women and children as well as men. These white settlers weren’t content to remain in their coastal port cities. They needed to develop agriculture to support a further growing and expanding population, in both North America and Australia. They did this by any means necessary. Natives voluntarily handing over their land, perhaps for something in exchange, adds much more legitimacy to European expansion, but most of these “fair deals” were in fact scams. Whites in both the U.S. Congress and Māori Australian Parliament used plenty of loopholes and vague wording to legally choke the natives to get what they wanted. Both the Native Americans and Aboriginal peoples were forced to relocate from their resource-rich homelands on the coasts to resource-scarce, desolate environments inland (Indian Territory and the Outback respectively). 

Ben Shapiro Takes on Institutional Racism and White Privilege

Ben Shapiro’s argument that racism can only be fought against by confronting individuals sounds awesome and romantic. I love stories in which people come together to bring down a common enemy that is absolutely evil.

However, that isn’t how the world works. There are over 7.5 billion people living on this planet, and not one of them is an evil person. Evil by definition, is the intentional and needless causing of suffering upon others. Nobody thinks of themselves as evil, but their actions may be seen as evil. 

Studying Whiteness

On the homework for Sept. 18th, I began the Critical Thinking question with, “I suppose that I am white within a social context.”, as opposed to directly stating, “I am white”. Answering that question felt rather awkward, since I don’t think or feel any identity of “whiteness”. Reading this made me wonder if members of minority groups have their minority status imprinted onto their identity in a way that the dominant group doesn’t. Of course I recognize that race exists (as a social construct only based on arbitrary physical traits). However, I do look forward to a society that only “judges [the individuals that make it up] on the content of their character”. I’m not sure if this is the same or related to, as the textbook mentioned, being “color-blind” and/or “race-neutral” and distancing myself from the very real struggles these people face. My intention is to help them and everyone to achieve that future eutopia in which race, as a concept, is something people find in history books (hologram computers?) and know existed in our minds, but can’t fully understand it the way we do today.

Becoming 'White'

I took Intro to Sociology during my first semester of undergrad. I remember the professor explaining how the Irish and Italians emigrated to the United States in the 19^th Century and “became white” in the 20^th. At this point, the concept of race as a social construct dividing people based on arbitrary physical features was extremely profound in my mind. This made me question the process of “becoming white”. I asked him why these Irish and Italians (as well as Poles, Greeks, Russians, etc.) became white if they only landed in the Americas from the 1830’s-1930's, but African-Americans, who were forced onto American plantations beginning all the way back in 1619, couldn’t. His response was something along the lines of, “the Irish and Italians could pass off as white more easily than African-Americans.” There was a pause (perhaps longer in my mind than it actually was) in which I asked the most obvious question imaginable. Whites are white; they have light skin, even if they are not northwestern European. Blacks are black; they have dark skin.

The Hispanic Dairyland

Immigrants arrive on U.S. American shores for a variety of reasons: economic opportunity, fleeing war, persecution, disaster, etc. Many of these people would and do accept what those already living here consider to be undesirable jobs, and are willing to do them for less pay than U.S. American citizens would want, much less than minimum wage. As stated in the text, this is partially out of fear for themselves or those they know being found out as illegal and deported. It also may come from desperation or a perceived better life than what they had in their country of origin.

Speaking Out: The Conversation We’re Not Having about Affirmative Action

Affirmative action is certainly a controversial subject; one that I never, before this point, formed an opinion over due to lack of knowledge or understanding of the subject. Non-minorities have distinct advantages on campus, in the workplace, etc. Minorities are disadvantaged in these areas. It would seem logical to compensate for this and give individuals of minority status more opportunity. However, that seems to goes against the idea of meritocracy we value so much in the West. The goal of both sides, in fact, is to make group status a non-factor in societal functions.