#10 - Gender & Sexuality

Gender and Sex are generally often misconcepted. Sex is defined as the biological distinction between females and males. Gender is defined as the socially constructed cultural expectations associated with women and men.

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#9 - Race & Ethnicity

Ethnicity is defined as a shared cultural heritage, often deriving from a common ancestry and homeland. Cultural heritage can consist of traditions, languages, celebrations, customs, and foods.  Race on the other-hand is defined as; a category of people widely percieved as sharing socially significant physical characteristics such as skin color.

Race is socially constructed- it is man-made. Why was race created? Race was created for control, driven by slavery and capitalism. Race still 'matters' today because the census is determined to see where money and resources are distributed. Once we begin to separate and divide people into different races, we are setting up a boundary for inequality.

In the article titled "Race Matters", written by Cornel West, the author spoke of the LA riots that were driven by 'race'.  I thought that the authors views for breaking down the barrier were inspiring. In the article, West states "To establish a new framework, we need to begin with a frank acknowledgment of the basic humanness and Americanness of each of us.have created rootless, dangling people with little link to the supportive networks—family, friends." I find it admirable of his seemingly simple and yet somehow unattainable ideals of basic human decency that is not as apparent in everyday life.

Blog #8 - Understanding Class

Class is defined as a group of people who share a roughly similar economic lifestyle.
Karl Marx analyzed class as being divided into two different economical divisions. Marx argued that the economy is driven based upon those who own production are are keys to valuable resources and those who do not. These two groups are known as the capitalists class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat). Marx viewed that capitalists exploited their workers in order to maximize their benefits/earnings.

Max Weber viewed class in the ideals of life chances. In Weber's view of life chances, people would have the capacity to earn money but were not considered capitalists. This view led to the creation of the 'middle class'.

The article titled "Cause of Death: Inequality" written by Alejandro Reuss, struck an odd chord within me.  It was quite shocking to read the statistics and causes of death within minorities solely based upon the stress of inequality.  While it seems understandable it just does not seem fair.