Well Informed - Racism

Being a 23 year old white guy living in Utah, I have not had many personal or close to home experiences dealing with racism. The closest, real life experiences I have had where I witnessed racism wasn't even in the United States. My experiences deal with Romanian people having negative prejudice views against the minority gypsy population. Even though I haven't personally witnessed acts of racism in my experiences in southern Utah, I have read about many instances of police brutality and the targeting minorities in racial profiling. There are many similar patterns of behavior dealing with racism between what I saw in my experiences in Romania and what I have been seeing in the United States. 

What I have noticed in racism is that most instances of verbal or physical abuse stems from stereotypes and predetermined expectancies that people think towards others who are not like themselves. Matthew Cooke released a video about race baiting about the United States where he discusses stereotypes that were expressed in the 17th and 18th centuries concerning poor white people. The video continues discussing how poor white people and blacks were almost considered equals as far as negative stereotypes were concerned. This changed when blacks and whites were separated by legislation creating more opportunities for the poor white people to get ahead of the black people. This created a 3 tier system of society. Blacks were on the bottom, poor white people were just above them, followed by rich white people at the top. 

The separation of the people in this social ladder is (unfortunately) one of the biggest opportunities for stereotypes among the same society to occur. I say society in a demographic context, but in reality the three different tiers had societies and cultures of their own. The rich whites, having large sums of money and power of the government behind them, saw no fault in having dominion over the other classes in the form of slavery. It seemed like the power allowed the rich whites to do whatever it was that they wanted to. Matthew Cooke continues in his video and provides a great explanation about the history of slavery and how the legislation granting dominion over black individuals was abolished. Even though the laws were abolished, the stereotypes seemed to remain. Even though slavery has been illegal for years, there are still stereotypes and prejudices that are found in society today. Part of the problem is that there are still different tiers found within society, each with their own culture, opinions, and prejudices towards others who are not in the same social, or racial circle. Changing laws to accommodate minorities does not mean the same as changing behaviors, mentalities, and prejudices towards minorities. 

I brought up my experiences in Romania because the process of stereotyping minorities and different classes (or tiers in relation to the video) is as relevant in that Eastern European country as it is in the United States today. Technically speaking, the gypsy population in Romania would probably be considered a different ethnicity rather than race, but their slight differences in skin color compared to Romanians makes the two seem harmonious in implications. Regardless of whether it is a discussion about ethnicity or race, the fact still remains that there is differences in stereotypes and expectancies associated with those who are considered different.

Seeing as how this is a social media class, I think it is important to review how social media has had an effect on racism. One of the most relevant and important uses of social media, in regards to racism, is the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The history of the #BlackLivesMatter movement discusses how the movement is a call to action in uniting black people against racism. The movement started after the shooting of Trayvon Martin and has grown over time with each new case of police brutality and racial profiling. The fact that millions of individuals are able to unite as a single voice over the platform of social media is an amazing demonstration of the power of social media. 

Like I wrote earlier, I haven't really had any personal experiences dealing with racism. I can only imagine what other people, even in today's society, have to go through in regards to dealing with racism and racial profiling. Even though I haven't personally gone through problems with racism, I can identify that racism is still a problem in today's society with no future of stopping any time soon. 

Well Informed - Education

While I have found that our in-class discussions about democracy, politics, news outlets, the President, and the government are interesting, I am excited to be talking about education and learning. I do not expect us to completely deviate our class discussion from the previously mentioned topics, but bringing in teaching and education is a great idea for our class.

I was looking through some of the links found on the class blog dealing with education and learning, which was very thought provoking in regards to the future of education. The TED talk from Sugata Mitra and his experiences with children and computers was remarkable. Through my research  on education, I was brought to another TED talk by Sal Khan. Sal Khan has created an amazing opportunity for people all around the world to learn for free. He created Khan Academy, which has free resources and tutorials on a vast range of subjects that millions of people are using to further their learning and gain an education.

While Sal Khan and his Khan Academy is extraordinary, I thought the content he presented in his TED talk was fascinating. He related our current education system to a hypothetical situation about constructing a house. With the current education system, children and teenagers are tested on different subjects and they are able to pass their tests by correctly answering a majority of the tests. Regardless of whether students get 100% or 60% correct on their tests, the class continues to the next subject. The next subject usually builds upon the learning of the past tests, and students who did not completely master the information on the previous tests will have difficulty expounding upon the information that they did not get right before. This trend of incomplete learning usually makes school complicated for some students. Sal Khan related this to moving on to different parts of constructing a house before the previous foundations are not 100% completed yet. If a concrete base for a house is not properly finished and completed, it can ruin the other aspects of the house that are being built upon it.

This analogy definitely changed my perspective on how our education system is built. It is almost like our educational institutions are focused more on achieving test scores rather than the actual learning process that children and teens are going through during their time in school. To get a better understanding to what plays into the education system, I researched and found an article from NPR that discusses various questions and answers about the Common Core. I had heard of the Common Core before when dealing with learning and education, but I did not really know what it actually was. This Q&A was really helpful in learning what the Common Core is and some problems that have come about because of it.

While the Common Core might seem good on paper for legislature and government officials, I think it retracts from what educational institutions should focus on. That focus should be increasing the education and learning of each student. In reference to the Sugata Mitra TED talk, children can accomplish amazing things when it comes to learning. Children are innately curious about the world they live in and seek to reduce their uncertainties by experiencing and learning various things. Striving to allow children to learn, and let them master what they are trying to learn before moving on to newer and bigger topics, should be the pinnacle goal of our education system. Focusing on getting generally higher test scores should not be the main objective of our education system, but rather mastering information and actually increase learning should be what the students should accomplish.

I do want to address how technology and the internet can play into learning, especially since this is a social media class. I think that technology can be an amazing tool for learning and education. In fact, I almost wish that more technology would be implemented in schooling so that kids can realize that the iPads and smartphones people use can be utilized for other things besides watching movies and playing games. People using technology at their own pace for learning can be extremely beneficial for successful learning. I did a presentation in one of my previous classes where I discussed college foreign language learning. One of the studies I found was a research study about Duolingo, a free smart phone app used to learn foreign languages. The research article found that somebody who used Duolingo could learn as much as a semester of a foreign language class in college in a less amount of time. Essentially, learning the language through the free app was more effective than paying a couple hundred dollars and learning through a traditional college class. I think it is amazing that free technology and resources are available for learning, yet that learning is only recognized by paying an institution a lot of money so that a paper (diploma) can be printed which authenticates that learning. It is almost as if we are not paying money and going through school for learning, but rather we are going for diplomas that increase our credibility.