Sex and Gender Inequality

Throughout my life growing up as a Hmong woman and within my society, it taught me that woman's were the ones staying at home and learning how to be a better house wife rather than going out into the world and exploring it. To have a discussion about the Traditional Hmong culture compared to the American Hmong culture, from past experiences and now I can tell that it is hard for some of my grandparents to understand what it means to be sexist. For example, my grandmother recently told me that when she got married to my grandfather and even though he was unfaithful to her, she did nothing but stayed home and kept everything she felt inside for the sake of her kids. She said there was nothing she could do or say since back then in her society, man had power and woman were just their followers. Hearing this from her and comparing it to the American Hmong culture I was in shock and furious! I couldn't believe that it was such a norm for the woman's that they couldn't do anything about it besides just talk about it to their family members and feel pity for themselves. From my perspective, all I knew about the Traditional culture was learning how to become a better house wife but I never really heard of stories about woman having no say in anything they wanted. Its also sad to know that they don't know how to change the situation besides putting up with everything since their society is controlled by men's making them feel useless. I believe one major down fall for the woman's is because of the disadvantages they had from migrating from Laos/Thailand to the U.S. They felt helpless for not being able to help themselves so they had to rely on their husbands. In addition, they had no idea about the resources around them that could've helped them. They didn't know the language, how to write in English, how to drive, or even how to find a stable job. Language was a great down fall because communication was one of the main keys to success. Compared to the American Hmong culture, many Hmong woman are going to college and most are even the first in their generation to go. Its just interesting to see the change that my generation of Hmong woman are going through now compared to the past. However, I am glad to be able to see and be the change of our Hmong circle because our society now is more educated to be better!

The Architecture of Inequality Part II

The photo above is famously known as Gulliver's Travels. During my Catalyst trip to Chicago, we visited the famous murals in the Latino neighborhood and came across this one. Our guide, Jose, explained to us with pride why the artist decided to do what he did. For example, in the mural you can see that the man is being held down by wires like they were being treated as prisoners and not having the freedom to do what they want. The wires not only symbolizes their freedom but also the laws that they had to abide by. Jose added on and said that when they first came into the U.S., they felt like how the Jews did back in the Holocaust due to the Star of David that they had to wear. He said their situation was similar in ways that when the Latino's wanted to go somewhere they had to carry an ID with them just to prove that they were a citizen in the U.S. Although you can't see the feet, at the end of the feet were footprints that the artist painted to show that wherever they went they had to prove their identity by stamping their finger prints onto paper as their signature, why he emphasized the prints at the feet? A question I wouldn't be able to answer myself. Moreover, the mask represented how the Latino's were as a human being, hidden. In my opinion, they felt closed out and hidden to their society, like no one heard them or cared to listen about how they felt as a citizen. Also, the pants that the man is wearing is not neat and clean but dirty and torn because of their hard work and effort to support their loved ones. Adding on, the picture was very interesting because no matter where you are or where you walked the eyes of the man would follow you. I'm not sure if the Latino's felt like they were always being watched but the eyes had a look of not pity but sadness and worries.

In addition, he explained to our group in great detail how the Latino's felt coming into the U.S. and their perspective as being the "outsiders." It was really interesting because their neighborhood was small enough that mostly everyone knew one another. When we walked the streets, Jose told us to also greet those who walked pass us so they wouldn't feel scared that we were Realtor's who were trying to buy their homes. Since our group was so big and we looked so different from them, people from all over that walked passed us would turn and look our way. There was a time when Jose was explaining to us about a mural of the neighbors and he stopped to see that some people in the neighborhood was eyeing us, I personally felt uncomfortable and thought to myself hoping that they didn't think we were Realtor's. Jose said to them in Spanish that we were students there because we wanted to learn about their culture and murals, after that they gave us reassuring smiles and welcomed us with their hello's and hand waves which made me felt more at ease and I smiled back exchanging hello's. Below are more pictures of some murals we saw.

The Architecture of Inequality

As I grew up in the United States, I've experienced many stereotypes about who I am. Throughout my middle and high school years, a lot of people I didn't know, including my Caucasion friends would ask me if I was Chinese. Interesting how most would stereotype me to one race rather than asking me what race I was. Although I was offended the first few times about it, I felt annoyed and soon started to ask myself how I would approach someone who was of different race and came down to the conclusion that I would be as curious as they were, however, I would address the question in a different manner rather than stereotyping them. As I matured and looked back on the experiences I went through with stereotypes, I also started to understand more why people thought I was Chinese. The two races had common biological traits, such as skin color, texture of hair, and shape of eyes. As quoted from David M. Newman, I didn't take the steretypes as offensive anymore unless it was intentionally from someone and if I felt a sense of uncomfortableness, then I would call them out on it.



The two photo's above are pictures of Gao Kalia Yang who is Hmong (left) and Ruby Lin who is Chinese (right), they both may have different ethnicities which is a sense of community derived from the cultural heritage shared by a category of people with common ancestry, however they share the same race.

Furthermore, growing up with the stereotypes of my race and ethnicity, I am encouraged to stand up for who I am and proudly explain to those who are willing to learn what and who the Hmong people are when others ask. When I first moved in to my dorm at Hamline, one of my roommates first question to me was, "What ethnicity/race are you?" and I answered back saying that I was Hmong. Even up to today, I am still in the process of teaching/explaining to my roommates who I am and what kind of family I grew up from. She told me one day that she thought all Hmong people were Bboy's and Bgirl's who likes to break dance since she came from a society where her Hmong friends were really into break dancing. After hearing that, I laughed and told her "not all Hmong people likes to break dance just because they did." I told her that I did a lot of different things besides dancing, such as knitting/crocheting, playing sports, singing, reading a book, hanging out with my friends and etc. She soon came to realize that we both had a lot more in common than she realized, although we both may view it or go by a situation differently, we were both about the same.

Chapter 10: Family Expenses

Below is a list of what I believe a family of four would use their money on expenses:
Food: $1680 (about $140 a month)
Clothing: $350
Health Insurance: $2688 ($224 per family member with Health Partners)
Housing: $10,200 (around $850 a month in a one level, two bedroom town home in White Bear Lake)
Electricity Bills: $1440 ($120 per month)
Car Insurance: $1200 (roughly about $300 a month for two cars)
Gas: $1620 (about $135 per month for both cars)
Day Care: $1892.04 ($157.67 per month around the metro area)
Cell Phones: $960 ($80 per month for prepaid phones)
Entertainment/Miscellaneous: $900 (around $75 a month for family time)
TOTAL FOR ONE YEAR: $22,930.04

My ideal calculations for a family of four is a bit over the governments official poverty line by $817.04. The first thing I would decrease is the car insurance for both cars. Next, since gas isn't cheap, I would drive less and/or coupon for cheaper gas for the family. Going along with couponing, I would coupon for my family so other necessity's would last longer meaning I would get more for less. The two pictures below are photos from a friend I know who coupons and saves money from buying food and/or home necessities such as detergent, medicine, diapers for baby needs and etc.

Moreover, for cell phone bills, I would get a lower phone plan that has a certain amount of minutes and text so it would be cheaper for both phones. In addition, rather than taking the 3 year old to day care, I would ask family members to help baby sit or if both parents had different shifts for their jobs then they would be able to switch off watching the toddler.

I believe from this family, you know when you're not officially poor is when you're still able to afford having family time rather than working all day and night. Also, knowing that your family is still able to shop comfortably without having to budget too much money is good because it means that you have a little extra cash to buy little things for the family and even yourself. However, they're not able to sustain such a comfortable life when they're not able to buy their own home but having to live in a town homes. Although town homes aren't bad, it would be better to own your own home so your kids would be able to play freely in their backyard. In addition, not being able to stay in one place would be hard if you have to constantly move from one house to another due to the price increase of homes or even job transfers. Depending on where you live, the poverty line may affect your child's education and growth if the society they are around is not an appropriate place to learn from. Lastly, as the child grows older, if you live in a neighborhood where the stores/jobs are running out of business then it would be harder for them to find a job around home if they want to stay around where they grew up.

Social Structure of Education

As a student, there are many ways in which I am impacted by the structure of education. Growing up, I was taught that I did good or bad in a class was by the letter grade I've received, however, in recent years I've started to question the system of why I, as a student, must be evaluated on a grade scale. I would question "What if I put a lot of effort into this one project but still get a bad grade?" then the next question that would come along with that was, "Am I not smart enough?" and along comes many more unanswered questions. From this system, I believe some teachers can tell if a student had put effort into a class project, however, take art class as an example, what if one student was better in drawing than another student, but the student who wasn't as good put in more effort? I think it would be unfair of the teacher to grade both students without seeing each of the students effort.

From the video above, it proves a good point about effort and how it is used in the real world. If a student doesn't put in any effort but still get a good grade, in the long run they may have their mind set to not putting in any effort at all and if that was to happen then in the real world they may have a lot of complications. Furthermore, it leads back to the grading system that us as students are at times too use to that we forget to compare it to the bigger picture: jobs, careers, families, friends, life, and etc. In my opinion, I view the grading system as a "system that is not in-depth enough." 

I think there can be changes to the grading system or maybe not even having the grading system at all, because when students know that they are being graded, some can do the work only for the good grades and by getting the good grades some are willing to cheat just to pass a class. By cheating, the student wouldn't learn anything about the subject but rather to just finish the work. 

Although the grading system is very helpful in determining who is intelligent and who is not, and/or which class fits best for them, the mind set of students can cheat the system in many ways. Moreover, no system is perfect but I hope the structure of education can find a way to improve the grading system and how it is used.

An interesting article on the disadvantages of the Grading System:

 http://www.ehow.com/list_5935940_disadvantages-letter-grading-system.html

Social Deviance

In Chapter 8, I enjoyed the Deterrence Theory because I believe everyone goes through it. For example, the other night, I asked my friends if they have ever seen or heard about a fight happening in college and they told me that they had a friend who fought at a community college just because someone was bothering them. In the end, the friend got expelled for starting the fight. From this incident, the friend made a rational decision without calculating their potential costs and benefits. Its interesting because from this story, it contradicts the deterrence theory in the book, that "if the costs exceed the benefits, the theory predicts that we'll decide it's not worth the risk (van den Haag, 1975)." However, as the individual grows older, they mature and learn from their mistakes to not make the same mistakes for future.

In addition, when thinking about the deterrence theory, I think back to theft and why people steal. To rob anyone or anything in general can be very risky, yet if the offender/robber gets away with it then it would be a win situation, which in return they may do it more knowing that they won't get caught for it so they would risk their chances to steal again. For example, this year at Hamline University, robbery around campus have increased. Although I am unsure if it was caused by the same person, from what I heard, none were caught so far so from their perspective they believe they would benefit from stealing without getting caught. The link below gives some stories relating to theft and how it was resolved.
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/144168415.html
After reading a few stories, you start to see a pattern that when there are no arrests in return that theft would normally increase.