Post-Reading Week 8: Race, Education, and Disability

• There are a lot of factors that can intersect in a person's characteristics to be 'misdiagnosed', and some of the factors that plays the role are race and gender. In our reading by Knight, he presented that there are over-representation of African Americans in special education programs during K-12, whereas in college African Americans are under-represented. While whites that are enrolled as LD, they are most likely to get in college. I think for this topic, the power or the heirarchy is still measured, and it also depends on the social construct that individuals believed in. Furthermore, in Navarette's article about Hispanics being tested based on Standard that is written in English-Only. 
• First of all, we define normalcy as being white, able, and well-behaved student in a classroom. The teachers and the school are the ones who developed Learning Disabled, and Learning Disabled is a social construct which means it is made by people. So when they see a slight difference of the student to normalcy, they assume that the student suffers from either Learning Disabled, Emotionally Disturbed, or Mentally Retarded if they can't function as they're told to do in a classroom. I think normalcy is biased because they based it on whites being the normal and a well-behaved student being the normal setting in the class. So if the student doesn't behave well in class, he/she can be labeled as Learning Disable, and can be separated into regular classrooms and regular learning field. 
• As we discussed in class about the diagnosis of the children to be considered as Learning Disable, their are some biased action towards people of color, class, and gender. For example, teachers usually diagnosed people of color or minorities that have first language rather than English. So non-english speakers ended up in special education programs. The root of segregating people of color into a normal classroom setting is that they want to maintain power inside the classroom, and if a not well-behaved student is inside the classroom that usually breaks the power of maintaining normalcy in the regular classroom. Even though teachers are not doctors they use medical terms to show that what they're talking about is legitimate, and for them LD is seen as biological so therefore, treatable with further medication and help. 
• Race as a social construct is when we tend to believe that blacks are good athletes and not so good in academics. Social construct is basically what we belief or a theory. Another race as a social construct example is Asians are always exemplary in academic courses. In disability as a social construct, the society believed that disability is "with-in" the person or the student. So when a student is acting weird in class or slow in learning, then the teachers believed that he/she is suffering a medical condition called Learning Disabled. 
• Teachers that diagnosed students with Learning Disabled are believed to have it "with-in" them. So even though students are not suffering any mental deficiency, they are most likely to end up in the special education programs. For example, in the Hispanic article about students being tested in standardized way written in English-Only. What would Hispanic immigrants feel if they are being tested to the words or sentences that they didn't clearly understand. What would we feel if someone did the same thing. So I think their biased opinion about the problem is "with-in" the students hides their possession of power over the people of color and minorities in general. 
• Medical doctors are on the top of the hierarchy because they're are the ones declaring different kinds of sickness and medical conditions just to maintain normalcy in the society. With that factor racism, classism, and ableism is affected.
• Language barrier. If the student's first language is not english then it reflects to having a hard time understanding English. In class, working class, like having socioeconomic class wouldn't have the time to fight for their children's rights and might think that the school is there to help them. For race, people of color are being placed under special education because they believed that they're not well-behaved and they're not understanding the topic well. So i think we can look at different spheres to clearly understand how intersectionality works and ties in with disability. All in all, I really liked this unit of how disability can be also looked upon intersectionality.

Word Count: 729

Pre-Reading Week 8

• Some of the public facilities like schools don't have access for the disabled. In contrast to some of the places like here at San Francisco State, there are class room designed for disabled, so that they can also attain education. But I still feel that I needed more information about this topic because I feel like I'm not that familiarize with this topic. 
• Learning Disabled (LD) According to "Teens Health", Learning disabilities are problems that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, analyze, or store information. Their relationship to special education is that they need guidance for them to learn more or process information.
• Mentally Retarded (MR) According to Wikipedia, Mental retardation (MR) is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors. It's relationship with special education is I think the same with the Learning Disabled, they needed assistance and more attention.
• Emotionally Disturbed (ED) According to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Emotional Disturbance suffers from: An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors. 
• I think people of color are over represented in special education classes because they are discriminated? I'm not sure why are they in special education classes. But I think that in the history people of color are not given the opportunity to study with the white folks and so as part of segregation they are put in special education. 
• Race, class, and gender intersects with disability by segregating minorities and people of color. Honestly, I'm not sure how race, class, and gender intersects with disability. By segregating people of color or minorities it will change their life because they are discriminated and looked down upon. 
•  I think Connor is pointing out that a normal abled-body is always white in the social construct while disabled-bodied, working class always refers to people of color. I remember the hierarchy of power always belongs to the white folks. I agree with what Connor stated because of the structural privilege, the whites are the only one accessible for all the opportunities in United States.
•  With the standardized tests, English is the only language that they use so I thin there's going to be a language barrier and minorities who are taking the test would have a difficult time answering the questions right. The example that we did in class with Paola, when we tried answering the questions written in different languages, I felt confuse and probably because of the barrier then the people or minorities taking the test might fail and be qualified in special education.
•  Word Count: 433 

Post-Reading Week 7: Domestic Violence

• In a traditional setting of domestic violence the women are the oppressed while the men are the oppressor. So in an intersectional analysis, LBGTQ people are not given the opportunity to declare themselves as oppress because of their beliefs and sexual orientation. Another example that plays an intersectional analysis in a domestic violence scenario during financial stability. As we've discussed in class that a woman who is financially stable and doesn't depend on their husbands income for survival are most likely to get their own house to move out while a survivor woman who depends on their partners income does not have an easy access to move out, and start a new life with her children. I think even in domestic violence intersectionality also occurs with the gender, cultures, ethnicities, sexualities, and other categories that we clarify ourselves in. 
• The Kibria article about the Vietnamese women surprised me the most, and also the Sewer article. First, with the Kibria article I didn't know how the Vietnamese family or in the Vietnamese community, that they handled domestic violence using gossip. I think for the Vietnamese community it works for them and it's also there resources similar to the domestic violence homes in San Francisco. For the Sewer article, since the basis for a traditional violence is that the man is the abuser while the women are the abused. I've also learned that there are no facilities or homes made for LBGTQ people because of the given example in class that they discriminate them in some way; giving the LGBTQ group the reason of not being sure what they're doing in a DV home.I think we don't hear about these examples more often because of the traditional basis that we depend on. We continue to follow that pattern and not assess it to change.
• The biggest barriers for Paola's client is the traumatic detailed report and the language barrier. The language barrier is the main biggest point in getting access to DV homes because some of the survivors are non-English speakers and there are no available translator to translate for them. Also, the traumatic effect that they have to write and recall the happenings when they write for the police report.
• I learned about the VAWA and the U-visa. So about the VAWA or Violence Against Women Act basically grants citizenship to immigrants who are married to a U.S. citizen. The U-visa gives grants to undocumented immigrants who are abused by their partner or in a relationship. Both the U-visa and the VAWA gives work authorization and they can eventually apply for their green card or resident status. In an intersectional analysis, undocumented immigrants obviously don't have power over their abusive partner because they've been threat of getting deported back to their country. Also, with the discussion in class, I remember that when the police comes into the house to investigate for any domestic violence they're most likely going to listen to the English speaker which tends to be the abusive partner. So language also plays a role in this intersectional analysis. 
• I think for the DV homes they should have some translators so in the application for DV homes all of the people with different race can be accommodated in a DV home. In addition to, a DV home should help indigenous people and Native Americans to because we've discussed in the Serwer article that legal services don't apply to non-natives. Also, concerning about the LGBTQ services, they should also be offered to people who depends on their partners financial stability. 
• I think intersectional analysis did help a little with the language barriers but I still think domestic violence is still around. Again with the immigrants that depends on their husbands income, Domestic violence still occurs. They are having a hard time leaving their partners because of their fear of getting deported or not having financial stability and home after they went to the DV homes. To sum it all up, I think this topic was very interesting because I'm only familiarize with physical and emotional abuse, and now I know that financial is an abuse also. So I think it's interesting to get to know where to go in case I encounter someone who experiences domestic violence.

Word Count: 707

Pre-reading Questions Week 7

• I think we study intersectionality and domestic violence because of the myths that they're not real in the society. For example, most people believe that only whites have structural privilege, while we don't see that in every aspect of our lives we have an advantage and a disadvantage. In my last blog about intersectionaly theory, I found that I have an advantage for being able, educated, and middle class, but because my race is Filipino and my gender is women then I have a disadvantage for those categories. I thought domestic violence is only seen physically and emotionally but because of the article that I read about "What is Domestic Violence?", I learned that domestic violence can happen sexually and pyschologically. Domestic violence can happen through race by human trafficking. For example, the one given in the article is that the boss would force slavery or threatening the employee and for class I think it's the same for the boss to maintain his power over his/her employees. Domestic violence by language can be emotional abuse like making fun of a person's accent or pronunciation. Domestic violence by gender can be sexual abuse in order to maintain their power over their intimate sexual partner. 
• I've never experienced domestic violence in my whole entire life. But my suggestion about the solution for people in domestic violence is get out of the relationship as soon as possible and get some help to a specialist because by experiencing domestic violence, people can get emotionally abuse and psychologically abuse. I think this is possible for most of the survivors of domestic violence but for some I think it's impossible because they might feel that people around them can judge them and not help them to recover from such violent act. I don't really know what other alternatives that the oppressed can do because I've never experienced it and most of my friends and family never experienced domestic violence.
• Violence Against Women Act is a law signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994 and it is a law that "provided $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women, imposed automatic and mandatory restitution on those convicted, and allowed civil redress in cases prosecutors chose to leave unprosecuted" based in wikipedia resource. Their objective is "to develop and implement law enforcement to combat violent crimes against women" based on policeone.com. 
• It's important to look at intersectional qualities when discussing domestic violence because they have similarities. With domestic violence we can look at different spheres like gender, race, and class just to maintain power. Same with intersectionalilty, it makes you look at different spheres when it comes to having advantages and disadvantages. 

 Word Count: 449

Post-Reading 6: Intersectional Theory

• Intersectional theory is when problems in the society about race, gender, sexual orientation, educational attainment, age, and ability intersects. For example, the activity that we did in class today about my gender, race, ability, class, and sexual orientation. As I fill it up with my own personality I ended up not having an disadvantage for my race because I’m Filipino; my gender because I’m a woman. In contrast to having disadvantages with those categories I also have some advantages like my class which is middle class, my ability which I’m temporarily able, and my sexual orientation because I’m straight. It’s different in other approaches because intersectional theory is not about one factor that can have an advantage or a disadvantage but it’s different for diverse people and it depends on their personal issues of what category they fit in.
• Audre Lorde is basically saying that we as a human being in the society is afraid of looking into the problems that’s why we can’t further investigate to change that. We might be afraid because it can take our opportunities away or our advantages in the society. We are reluctant to look at the differences in our society that’s why it’s hard for us to approach and change them.
• We need to look at the differences of each women in the society and we have to acknowledge those differences like what she said that “As women, we must root out internalized patterns of oppression within ourselves if we are to move beyond the most superficial aspects of social change”. So in that line that she wrote, she wants us to notice the problems and act upon those for the better and for the change of oppression with women, bisexual, or lesbian in the society.
• Moraga agrees with Lorde and in her argument she basically saying the same point of view with Lorde that if we didn’t look deeper into the importance of women of color, women, lesbians, and queer then we wouldn’t have a better understanding of the society. If white men are always with the structural privilege all the time then it’s a structural inequality for women, women of color, lesbians, and queers. She’s comparing the lesbians to being poor, being brown, and being women. I think she’s saying that might as well be women or brown or poor if I’m going to declare myself as lesbian. I agree with Moraga’s argument because I think all individuals should be given the right to work or have a professional job even though they’re different from “White Male”.
• The critiques for Occupy Movement are that they are committed to change the social issues confronting movement poor work income, sexual violence, and homelessness. Some are saying that “We should focus on blaming the white males , even though the majority of them not having to do with economic meltdown, instead of the 1%.” The agenda of Occupy movement is to make a change about women having low-paying jobs and having less opportunity than men. The agenda reflects mostly on women of color.
• Basically intersectional theory can help us understand the lives of men because we can see that GENDER is a big part of the society and while men and whites have all the privilege in the society. For example, before the Feminist movements, women are not allowed to have jobs and be in the work field except for women of color. They have to stay at home or either women of color have to work like men and have low-income. So in general, If we look at different spheres about Race, Gender, Ability, and Sexual Orientation, men are set on the easiest level when it comes to the game that we talked about in class.
• No more questions.

Word Count: 633

Pre-Reading Week 6

• As we've talked about in class about white having privilege and male privilege. Peggy McIntosh's article comes back to this pre-reading homework. Back in the late 1800s only white rich man can vote so I think in the society before, women are not allowed to vote and I think they don't have as much opportunities as males do. I'm a little bit confused about 'straight white women', but my point of view about the topic is they get a little opportunity like white folks do but not as much because back then I remember discussing about male only can get education while women stays at home. Straight black men before have the same opportunities and disadvantages as the 'straight white women' do. They couldn't get educational attainment and I remember when we discussed about the census all African American males and females are considered slaves. Which then they're considered about three-fifths of a vote.
• When we make people of color bleach they're body to become white they might get the opportunity and the power to study but who would do that?! That's ridiculous. In the society, only white male have the power, unearned privilege, and the opportunity open at their hands. They are in the lowest difficulty level when it comes to having the power and doing what they wish. Probably if minorities tries to be a white person by changing their physical characteristics or their phenotype then the society wouldn't notice that they're a minority, and they might open doors for them but again as I was saying why would people of color or other minorities change their hair color, skin color, and different characteristics. 
• Yes, white women have the same needs as black women does. I think when it comes to getting educated and other opportunities like getting more job, so they can also get benefits from the government. I believed that all women have the same needs. For queer Asian men and straight Asian men I also strongly believed that queer Asian men have similar needs as a straight Asian men. They need a normal job with a normal pay as men do. They need no discrimination from the society and they also need the privilege like males privilege get. Even though women and queer men are not the norm in the society as males view it I think they should get the same opportunities as the white male folks do.
• I think people are granted only racial privilege. I remember one of Professor Elena's story about how pregnant women get the same water breaks or bathroom breaks as men. I believe that it's unjust because women especially when they're pregnant needed more bathroom breaks than males. Women most of the time doesn't have ability privilege. If all the working class people would only have racial privilege then it's going to be unfair with people who are incapable of doing a job right.
• "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference" Questions: What if there's no classification between men and women? How can we decrease the discrimination that women can only do housework and not office work or other work that men can do? 
• "La Güera" Questions: How come women have to fight for their rights to have a job? What are some explanations that women is incapable of going to school?
• "The Combahee River Collective Statement" Questions: How come African American women can't be part of the politics? Explain what is a "Black Feminists" beliefs. 

Word Count:  579

Post-Reading Week 5: Color Blind Racism

• Eduardo Bonilla-Silva refers to Color Blind Racism is "racism lite" because whites are trying to hide or erase they structural privilege with the minorities. For example, whites have a lot of disparities against minorities because "it's a natural phenomena", or because "they're just lazy and incooperative in the society or the community." One point that really hit me is that they claim "Asians got in the higher level like us, so everyone can do it too." It's basically saying that it all depends on minorities' actions and their enthusiasm to get in the level were the whites are in. Also, "racism lite" claim that we're all equal now, so all the problem about race will be gone but it's just an act, whites are still on the top on the power of hierarchy.
• Defining racist or racism means power plus privilege. So in this video that we watched in class I think it can't be racist because the girl in the video is not white, which means that she can't be racist. But with the portrayal that she did in this video she can be racist about copying how the whites act or a white girl. She's trying to prove that whites are using words that can hurt the people of color's feeling like "ghetto" and "urban", while trying to imitate how whites talking vulgarly. 
• I think whites are the ones who benefit with the colorblind racism. Adding into Wise's argument on how before 1950's and Overt Racism is practiced and now Colorblind Racism is practiced. Colorblind racism is more obvious that Overt Racism. Whites benefit from Colorblind racism because they can hide their privileges by making the society believe that it's all because of the minorities' fault and the economic disparity in the community.
• Some of the examples of using colorblind racism by whites are: "It all occurs naturally, repeating itself", "Because they're not as hard-working as we do", "Asians got it, how come you don't?", "It's because you are lazy and didn't care about your child, that's why the drop-out rates for people of color have increased over time." These are some examples of rebuttals that are happening in the society now. I think the main argument in colorblind racism is that they don't want people to advance like them because the fear of they're going to loose power when they give them the same opportunities like the whites start with. 
• Obvious indicative of CBR: At a dinner party in the suburbs, the discussion turns to the problems in urban One of the participants responds, “I don‟t want to sound racist but, it is going to be difficult to change the schools when those parents just don‟t care what their children are doing in class” This example is obvious that it tends to CBR because they're blaming the people of color that they don't care about parent-meeting and so because of that the whites tries to hide or take away their self into being targeted by people in their society. " Two students get into a fight at school. The Latino student calls the white student a „cracker‟, and gets suspended for hate speech. This was kind of confusing for me because I thought it was just straight-up racism but it's not because it's also an example of color blind racism. Whites are okay with minorities calling them names because so the people of color wouldn't see that they have the privilege of being bigots at the same time having power. 
• When people talks about diversity, it's usually a positive connotation without trying to say the word "race" in it. This is a problem because they're trying to avoid race so they won't be called a racist. 
• We study Colorblind racism because it's important for all the minorities to have equal opportunities that are actually given to them. Also, the power that relates to whites in the society. Social justice is also targeted by colorblind racism because I remember in one of the discussion we had in class, African Americans or other minorities are the ones being stopped by a police so i think that's unfair to people of color.
• I think CBR is a useful tool in understanding race because it gave me an insight on what's really happening in the society nowadays. And to understand more about the struggles of people color. 
• I feel like I'm more aware of the society now about how the claim of power is unfair to minorities and people of color. I feel more literate knowing that racism still exist in the community now.  
• Word count: 763