sumblog 7

William Edward Burghardt or W.E.B Dubois was an American social theorist on the subject of race. He has struck a fair amount of criticism from his ideals which in a way are opposite to that of Booker T. Washington, another social theorist who had a different more positive outlook on the African American community as in he pushed for education amongst all black citizens. W.E.B Du Bois wanted young African American men to be educated however he did not believe that the system would allow for the tools of education would be provided for these young men.  In Du Bois writing he expresses two key concepts of why he believes that the Black man has and will be kept as a secondary class citizen. One of these concepts is that a figurative Veil that is placed over the eyes of young eager black men willing to work hard to achieve success. “Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness” (Du Bois 127). This veil dims the light of intelligent young eager men and society will not let them shine bright enough that the world can see their greatness. However, when a black man makes a discovery or is needed to assist in a fight alongside a white man, here, in this situation, we are equals and are willing to help our fellow man. This goes along with the second key concept of a double consciousness. To have double consciousness you need to be able to see a situation from either perspectives, or see how both parties think about the situation. Du Bois stats that we must not lead a conscience mind of a never ending severed and servant ideal, however take both the job of the servant and of the one being served. The one being served needs to look and see that even in the disorganization of the social structure we live in we all feel and have stressors and even when a person is labeled as a free man or woman it may not be just that easy.

This clip shows how people do not have a double consciousness, how white privileged individuals do not see a problem with this violation of rights, because they are not affected by it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riVjExRhSJQ

Sumblog 6

Jane Addams is one social thinker that we should all take an extensive notice on. She is at first a powerful female, which at this time in our history a women has almost no rights and it is unheard of a women being in a power position. In a changing time in American history she opened her home to many different people not just women, which is commonly advertised, she also brought in immigrants from all regions of the world, men and children included. Here she taught useful skills to these unskilled and unfamiliar people to help them succeed in society at this time. She followed a Democratic Social Ethics policy which consisted of four key elements. First, no one group is more important than any other. This applied to both men and immigrants, not just the obvious situation of oppressed women. At this time if you were white you may not actually be “white”. Groups of Irish and Italian people were discriminated because they did not look as “white” as the others from different areas such as England. They may talk differently, such as a thick Irish accent. Even though it may bring girls to their knees now-a-days, it was a sign of shame and a tell tail sign for an employer to not hire a person. Secondly, all people should be active agents in the production on society. This means that we all need to work together to reach a common goal. We all would like to live a happy and rewarding life, we all need to work to achieve that goal, why don’t we all work together and smoothly reach that common goal. Next we all, as humans, seek an opportunity for kindness. Sociologists argue that we are all naturally good, there are a few bad eggs which can influence many people, but humans are all in all nice. This element is just that, we are all naturally good and we would like to be treated with kindness and respect eg: the golden rule. Finally the fourth element of Adams social thinking is we all need personal safety of each person. The people Jane Adams was dealing with were at a very stressful time in their lives, she needed to make sure this would be a positive institution to lead to further opportunities’ of equality for all. Jane Addams wanted to show people that threw experience we can learn acceptance for our fellow human being, no matter gender, race or age.  

This is a small town clean-up project, giving people the opportunities to learn skills and to make the world a better place.

http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/5655

Sumblog 3

Emilie Durkheim is one of the most interesting sociologists to read about, because he tackles such a taboo subject of suicide. Suicide has always been a human related subject that is looked down upon in society. However, it has always been around and is not slowing down at any rate. That is what Emilie saw a relation to socioeconomics, whether it was in times of hardship or if it was in times of prosperity. This then fell into relation of how much control the people had or how little control was being held in everyday society. If there was not enough regulation then society would fall into an atomic state. Here more people where known to commit suicide. On the other hand when there was too much regulation then people fell into what is called a fatalistic state, or a helpless feeling where the only way out is to take your own life.

When looking at levels of regulation that society possesses there is also integration or how much people co-exist with one another. When you have regulations that people go threw in their own day to day, even if the norms are not spoken, and a person comes into a new place that has different cultural norms. They will not integrate as easily with others, which could cause stress which could lead to the inevitable suicide, which is what Durkheim was studying. These regulations fall into four categories, Egoistic which is like the earlier statement when a person does not fit into an area or group. Altruistic: meaning that you are so involved with your organization that you will do anything for the cause.   Anomic, here a person may not know there place in society and feel like an outsider and lost. With the last one being fatalistic, here a person is in prisoned or enslaved and they do not know any other way out of there hell then to end it all by their own hand. Durkheim took a step to study something taboo, something that is not looked highly on by society. However, with doing so we now understand a little better of why people may do what they do.