SumBlog 7

   Anna Julia Cooper looked at the sociology of race.  In her time era this was something very interesting for an African American woman to be studying.  She talked about the struggles of race, sex, and especially power.  Power was the problem, "who has it" and "how is it being used" was the main issue, white men had the power at this time and they were using it to their advantage.  But it wasn't the white men's fault, it was society in general according to her.  That they were born and raised to act the way they do and it just became their nature.
   We learned about 4 different ways people has dealt with minority groups and diversity.  The first one is pluralism, that all groups can still be themselves but still be considered equal.  Like a stew, the potato, carrots, and meat are all important to make one dish come together but they are still separate when you pull them out, they will not just "melt" together.  Next there is assimilation, where majority groups just assume that minority groups will take on their culture and forget about their own culture and roots.  Segregation is the third, which our country has seen a lot of and it still can be seen to this day in America.  Genocide is the last one, this is were an entire group, or race is completely taken out.  Hitler tried to accomplish this with the Jewish people, although he did kill millions there is still the Jewish culture to this day.
 

We have the ability to accept people for who they are and what their culture is like but to me it seems like society was born and brought up to assimilated and segregate.  As part of the white race, and born and raised in America I've heard throughout my years that other races in America need to learn English and learn our culture.  But what is our culture? Our culture is made from all of our European ancestors. America does not have one specific culture, there are things we do that are similar but nothing exactly the same.

SumBlog 6

   Charlotte Perkins Gilman talks about relationships in the household, but most importantly her own experiences in her writing "The Yellow Wall Paper".  She talks about the organization of society and how you can link economy with the sex of person, and that the man is the employer in a marriage while the woman is the employee like a business.  Or there could be a partnership in marriage but at the time of her writing, that was very rare.
   She compared a woman's life to the life of a horse, they both help produce more wealth, but have no means to create money for themselves.  That the man will always be the main component in a marriage, the center of a marriage.  How we live in a man's perspective society, an androcentric culture.
   I believe this is still on going, this androcentric culture.  Sure women have more rights than they use to but it's still the American way to have the woman at home with the children, cooking and cleaning, and the man becoming the provider.  With society changing and evolving politically women have been in the work force more and more but are still and few cents under paid than men.  I think it will be interesting to see what the future will hold for women.  Will there be equality?  Will men accept women having a higher status than them?  And will society expect a single mother working on her income alone to provide for her children?

SumBlog 5

   Harriet Martineau is a very inspiring female.  She is the first one that we have talked about in this class and is the first one that I have talked about in any of my sociology classes.  It amazes me how even with her personal difficulties and writing during Karl Marx's time, she was able to make herself heard and had very well-know writings.  I personally liked her thoughts on human happiness and how it can cause a fairness in society.  
   She also talked about our morals, how they are shared norms and values, and manners, patterns of actions based on our norms, and how society has been loosing these two objectives over time.  This can come from how men treat women, how one race treats a different race, or how one culture can treat another culture.

To me, this picture describes it all.  No matter what you look like or who you are, one should be treated equally and with respect.  Martineau was writing at a time when she was looked down upon by men and had to prove her way into the sociology world, and she did just that.