Day 6-possible theses

Today I am trying to come up with several different theses to see which one I will stick with for my final paper, here is a possible thesis:

Even though there are people out there trying to bridge the gap of cultural diversity, there is still people out there that are prejudice.

Has somewhat of the point I want to make but definitely needs some tweaking and elaboration. I need time to think of some more and see if I come up with the same point. The overall point that I am trying to hit is that no you can not have cultural diversity without prejudice.

Day 5-library time

Today I went to the library to check out the electronic version of Twenty-first century color lines:multiracial change in contemporary America and I was able to find a usable quote. I need to go back and print out a page.

Quote: "First, because contemporary social norm from upon overt expressions of prejudice, people may not be willing to report their attitudes honestly, especially if these attitudes violate social norms (Dovidio and Gaertner 1986; Jones and Sigall 1972). Second, when asked about their opinions about minority groups, people are likely to be vigilant and thoughtful in their responses whereupon they may draw a sharp distinction between their personal attitudes and societal stereotypes ( 'Society at large is prejudiced against Group X, but I am not').

I think that I would use this entire quote and incorporate it  as a block quote. I can't really break it up because then it would be all scattered and the reader would have no idea/understand the point that I was trying to get across.

Day 4-websites

1) http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/prejdisc.htm

International Online training Program on Intractable Conflict

Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado, USA

"Instead of bringing or holding people together, prejudice and discrimination push them apart....If there is no relationship people would be completely unaware of another person's or group's existence."

I think that this is a good source because it comes from the University of Colorado Boulder. It is a prestigious school. In 2008, Forbes magazine named Boulder one of the smartest cities in America; the university is in the center of the city. 

2) http://www.jstor.org/pss/467806

Patrick D. Murphy  Indiana University in Pennsylvania

"This recognition of the interrelationship of natural and cultural diversity and emphasis on the nuturing practice of cultural conservation are to be found throughout the poetry of Chants (1985), Borders (1986),  and Communion (1991), as well as in Nepantla (1993), of which she says: 'The essays are my encounters with the world' (Nepantla 9) ".

I think that this is a good source because it is basically a search engine for academic journals. It claims that it is the most reliable source out there for academic research. They claimed that they are used by millions. The funny thing is I have never heard of them .

3) http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=34321&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

"Cultural diversity is thus an asset that is indispensable for poverty reduction and the achievement of sustainable development".

I would have to say that this source is one of the most creditable since it is an organization from the United Nations. 

4) http://remember.org/guide/History.root.stereotypes.html

Holocaust Community founded in 1995 to Remember, Zachor, Sich Erinnern. Remember.org offers contributors (survivors, liberators, historians, and teachers )a place to connect and sharethe best research resources and stories through art, photography, painting, audio/video, and remembrance.

"All of us have prejudices about members of groups different from ourselves. We should, however, recognize that we are not acting fairly if we treat people differently because of these stereotypes and prejudices. Each one of us deserves to be considered a unique human being."

I think that this is a great source because it is a website dedicated to remembering the Holocaust. I feel a strong bond with this source since I am Polish and my family did have to suffer through this genocide. 

5) http://www.understandingprejudice.org/apa/english/

The article is adapted from Plous, S. (2003). The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview. In S. Plous (Ed.), Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination (pp. 3-48). New York: McGraw-Hill. 

"As commonly used in psychology, prejudice is not merely a statement of opinion or belief, but and attitude that includes feelings such as contempt, dislike or loathing"(1).

It seems like a creditable source, it says it is used for academic purposes and that they even have a researchable database. 

Day 3-examples and quotes from My Year of Meats

Examples:

-the book cover

-Jane talking about her ethnicity

-the Japanese and their view of American culture

-the whole show My American Wife

-the Japanese criteria for the show

-Jane incorporating families that did not fit into the Japanese criteria

-the way Oh and Suzuki act at the strip clubs

Quotes:

"She must be attractive, appetizing, and all-American. She is the Meat Made Manifest: ample, robust, yet never tough or hard to digest. Through her, Japanese housewives will feel the hearty sense of warmth, of comfort, of hearth and home--the traditional family values symbolized by red meat in rural America"(8).

"My name is Jane-Takagi-Little. Little was my dad, a Little from Quam, Minnesota. Takagi is my mother's name. She's Japanese. Hyphenation may be a modern response to patriarchal naming practices in some cases, but not mine. My hyphen is a thrust of pure superstition" (8-9).

"Here is list of IMPORTANT THINGS for My American Wife!

DESIRABLE THINGS:

1. Attractiveness, wholesomeness, warm personality

2. Delicious meat recipe (NOTE: Paork and other meats is second class meats, so please remember this easy motto: 'Pork is Possible, but Beef is Best!')

3. Attractive, docile husband

4. Attractive, obedient children

5. Attractive, wholesome lifestyle

6. Attractive, clean house

7. Attractive friends and neighbors

8. Exciting Hobbies

UNDESIRABLE THINGS:

1. Physical Imperfections

2. Obesity

3. Squalor

4. Second class peoples"  (11-12).

"NOTE IN RACE AND CLASS- The reference to "second class peoples" does not refer to race or class. Kato does not want you to think that Japanese people are racist. However, market studies to show that the average Japanese wife finds a middle-to-upper-middle-class white American woman with two and three children to be both sufficiently exotic and yet reassuringly familiar. The Agency has asked us to focus on wives within these demographic specifications for the first couple of shows, just to get things rolling" (13).

"During my Year of Meats, I made documentaries about an exotic and vanishing America for consumption on the flip side of the planet, and I learned a lot: For example, we didn't even have cows in this country until the Spanish introduced them, along with cowboys. Even tumbleweed, another symbol of the American West, is actually an exotic plant called Russian thistle, that's native not to America but to the wide-open steppes of Central Europe. All over the world, native species are migrating, if not disappearing, and in the next millennium the idea of an indigenous person or plant or culture will just seem quaint" (15).

-Jane thinks that eventually all of us will become the same.."we're all going to be brown" (15). She mentions herself. She mentions that race will become ancient history.

-When they shoot the first episode with Suzie and her family. During the game show part, we find out that Suzie's husband is having an affair. With all of the editing, the episode shows that they make up and show that they are just the wholesome American family that can work through any problem.

"In Taos, New Mexico, Suzuki and Oh stayed in a pink adobe suite with a fireplace. They got drunk and made a small, cozy fire in the hearth, and when they ran out of firewood they burned the telephone book and the Bible, then a chair and a bedpost, and finally the bedroom itself" (34).

"In Austin, Texas, after Suzuki passed out while running a bath and flooded thirteen floors of the Radisson Hotel, I asked him if baths, too, were not so common in Japan, but he shrugged. 'Of course we have baths,' he said. 'We are famous for our baths. It's just that our tubs are so much deeper' " (34).

"To the Japanese person, Walmart is awesome, the capitalist equivalent of the wide-open spaces and endless horizons of the American geographical frontier" (35).

-Joichi Ueno liked to be called John which means that he was trying to be more "American".

-John acting stupid at the strip club, saying that stripper are so happy and that Japanese women aren't like this.

-When Sloan first meets Jane, she was not what he was expecting.

-When Jane shoots the Martinez family, John gets upset because it says it is not called "My Mexican Wife" (38).

-the Beaudroux Family (65-76)

-When the crew asks Jane about guns (88-89)

-When Jane mentions Oh and Suzuki asking her about obesity (123)

-the whole idea of picking the Thayers over Miss Helen

-John being extremely racist about Miss Helen when talking to Akiko (129)

Day 2- poems on subjects

Prejudice:
Poem on Acceptance by Anon:
"The first step to human communication
is acceptance.
Each person is unique
each friendship is a brand new discovery
unlike any other.

If you are not sensitive to the
specialness of the other, he remains
undiscovered.
Most likely you remain undiscovered also."

from: http://anenglishpage.tripod.com/mayne.html#anon

Cultural Diversity:
Poem on Diversity by Hillol Ray:

Day 1- definitions and what I know

Prejudice-unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding racial, religious, or national group.
Cultural diversity- ethnic, gender, racial, and socioeconomic variety in situation, institution, or group; the coexistence of different ethnic, gender, racial, and socioeconomic groups within one social unit.

I believe that you can not have one without the other because as long as EVEN one group/people thinks that they are better than another then here will ALWAYS be prejudice about something.

Current events:
-israelis and palestinians
-all of the races versus each other in some way
-north and south koreans
-US vs Russia
-jew and muslims
-protestants and catholics
-china vs japan