HISPANIC ADULT EDUCATION

During the semester I have been working online with Adult Education for Hispanics. A few years back a Mexican guy working with Utah State University in Logan started a program to teach adults basic computer skills and basic English to Hispanics with collaboration from a private university in Mexico called Tecnológico de Monterrey. The curriculum is in Spanish so that the students can understand instructions. In March 2011 I started groups with the Mexican organization that I am part of; the first group was in Tooele with 12 students. In the following months a group was established in Heber City, Park City, and finally Cottonwood Heights.

Working with adults sounds easy to do since you are dealing with people that are supposed to be responsible, but it is not that easy. There is a problem that Hispanic adults are having when it comes to learning new things; especially working with computers for some adults is a little bit frustrating.

With the Functionalism Theory basic computer and basic English education is needed for Hispanic adults since we live in a time and in a country where technology advances very rapidly. In consequence some information has to be received through the internet and, in some cases, socialization for some people can be done online. But in this case the group that I work with was very hard for them because they felt many times that they couldn’t learn due to their age, or because it was hard for them to study since they needed to work to be able to provide for their families.

Here is where the Conflict Theory also applies because some of the students didn’t feel that they could have equal education opportunities in American society and they didn’t feel that studying was going to make much difference. Talking with different people who support these classes told me that for them it was very important that Hispanic adults be able to learn the basics in computers and English so that their kids no longer have to do everything for their parents.

In the Symbolic Interactionist Theory, adults were focused on performance because, being an adult, they felt that society was expecting them to do their best. Some students told me on a couple of occasions that friends were telling them that since they were adults they should learn more quickly; but they felt pressured by those comments and some of the students decided to quit the class with the excuse that they needed to work.

There were more problems that were present during these courses making some students not to continue. Unfortunately with the Hispanic community we find issues in the different areas of our society, education, health, culture, etc. Hispanic adult education is where I will continue my focus.

Low Income Child Care Programs

Throughout the semester I have worked with various children's programs. The majority of my service has been done through the Boys and Girls Club organization where i have learned a lot about their early child care program. Many low income families cannot afford to have a parent stay home with young children, therefore the need for affordable child care assistance in crucial in society. Often single mothers or families living in poverty need a place they can leave their children that is reliable and safe. Organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club don't have the necessary funding to provide the necessary amount of care for each child attending. Volunteer efforts are extremely important to programs like this that do not have adequate funds to have the required staff.

Symbolic Interactionism examines meanings, labels and perceptions. Often children learn through example and from the people they are around often. Unfortunately the cycle of poverty affects numerous aspects of life. Low income families often have patterns of deviance, crime, lower education levels, etc... Children need necessary child care programs so that they do not go unlooked as they grow up. Often children who live in higher income homes get more attention both in school and their families. These stigmas and labels affect children from a young age and into their adult life.

Conflict theory looks at competing groups and the root cause behind societal conflict. Although children are often unaware of their situation, the affects of being rich or poor has a large effect on their life from an early age. While talking to one little girl in the class i volunteer in, i learned her father was in jail for stealing and she claimed that it was my mistake. When she told me this she made it sound like it wasn't a big deal. This showed me that children are unaware or do not fully realize of the hardships of life. That is why they need proper authority figures in their life to help guide them from cycles of abuse, neglect, and poverty.

Low-Income Families and the 3 Theories

My social problem consists of the effects that being in a low income family has on children. Between the three perspectives we can see the different views and reasons this may be a problem. This is a problem in society because it not only limits a child’s education opportunities and health care but it will also damage our society as a whole.

Starting with Conflict Theory, the theory suggesting that the root of problems stems from the idea of which group is gaining and which group is loosing, we could assume that rich versus poor is the root of our problem with low income families. The way that we distribute our resources is quite dysfunctional. For example, there are some profits that are distributed at the very highest class/corporation but that money will not continue to trickle down to the lower classes. This alleviates and benefits the richest, but not the poor. The minimum wage is also an issue. For example, the payment from one or even two jobs from both parents does not equal what the cost of living is in a given community.

Next we have Symbolic Interaction Theory that suggests interpretations, symbols, and meanings behind actions play a large role in social problems. For example, a perception that a teacher has (in a classroom setting for a child) of a low-income student could affect how she treats him/her. Say Betty Jo has a very well-off family, but Clara has a low-income family. Mrs. Frederickson may pay more attention and provide more help to Betty Jo because she believes that children who are from low-income families have poorer behavior and parents who don’t care, therefore, Clara has no chance to succeed. This will negatively affect outcomes because if you treat Clara as a trouble make, she will become one.

Lastly there is the Functionalist Theory, a theory that suggests if one part of society does not function correctly, the rest of society will suffer as well. Because the low-income section of society is so large in our current economy, and the employment rate is so low, it is obvious that there will be more health problems, creating a need for more health care, however health care is very limited to many people due to lack of insurance or other financial circumstances. Other issues that low income families may face are not being able to provide their child with the best education available, including the issue of teachers’ perceptions and the at home stress in the family life.

Juvenile Delinquency Structural Functionalism & Symbolic Interactionism

I would like to talk about Structural Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism and how both of these theories can be applied to Juvenile Delinquency. For instance, Structural Functionalism looks at behaviors and functions of institutions such as: family, school, religion and even government offices. Structural Functionalism also looks at what is functional and dysfunctional within a social problem therefore, they want to explain why things happen and they also look for who or what is to blame. For Example, the institutions in the case regarding juvenile delinquency would be the family, school, religion, juvenile justice facilities, and even the authorities such as the law, police, judges, case workers and etc. the functional aspect of juvenile delinquency would be that the juvenile justice facilities provide structure and stability which is something everybody needs they also help the kids to get back on the right track again. However, the dysfunctional aspects of juvenile delinquency is the family dynamic which includes broken homes or single parent families, parents who have to pay for food, electricity, gas, water, clothes in other words, parents who are working hard to get the basic neccessities and resources of life to provide for their kids and their families which is functional but yet at the same time has the potential to become a dysfunctional dynamic because then there's no time for structure and stability and kids commit truancy. Wanting to belong and be accepted can also be a functional aspect but that too also has the potential to become and serve a dyfunctional purpose because then there is peer pressure which also contributes to juvenile delinquency. Symbolic Interactionism looks for symbols and meanings within a social problem as well. For example, a Symbolic Interactionist might describe Juvenile Delinquents as "bad, good, innocent, guilty, frustrated, angry, threatening, intimidating, seeking attention, wanting a sense of belonging, seeking acceptance, looking for love, looking for advice and guidance, creative, talented, and artistic"

Low-Income Kids Need After-School Care

Low-Income school aged children in the United States need good options for adequate after-school care. When children do not have supervised after-school activities, there are numerous problems for society. To name a few problems, we deal with juvenile delinquency, children in unsafe environments, no supervised homework opportunities, gang activity, isolated children, children without peer support, and children without positive adult role models. The list of problems for unattended children goes on and on. When these issues are not addressed for our children, we as a society deal with other social issues when these children become adults.

From a conflict theory perspective, we look at the issue of the unequal distribution and control of resources. Let’s look at it from an income perspective. In most low-income working families, there are no adults at home after school to watch the children. In 2 parent homes, both parents are likely working and in 1 parent households, that parent is likely working and not at home after school to supervise the children. In some households, the parent(s) will arrive home after normal working hours of around 6pm. This is not the case in every family, but we will simply address the time between school letting out and roughly 6pm. Typically children have about 3 hours during this time on a regular school schedule. The low-income parents cannot afford after-school care for their children, so the kids are either left unattended, or if they are lucky, they can attend a free or low-cost after school program.

For middle to upper income families, the children, for the most part are not left unattended after school. In some cases, one parent is at home after school because the family may not need 2 incomes contribute to the family financial well-being. In other cases where both parents are working or in single parent middle to upper income homes, the parents are able to pay for after school care or activities to keep the children attended until after work.

Conflict theory applied to this problem works because the lower socioeconomic class is perpetuated when, in part, the poor kids are creating trouble after school and getting themselves into trouble with the law or not performing well at school. Because of these issues, they, in turn also become low-income due to lack or skills, confidence or incarceration.

Through a Functionalists’ perspective, the institutions that are affected by kids being unattended are numerous. The family is affected because there is stress involved with not having enough money to survive, let alone pay for after school care. The school system also is affected because when kids do not have help with homework, they may fall behind at school and ultimately become low-achievers. The low income kids may be teased by other classmates at school (and have their self-esteem affected) because they are doing poorly at school, and also because they are not participating in the same after-school activities that the upper income kids are. Another institution affected by the unsupervised kids is law enforcement and the criminal justice system. When kids are unattended, they tend to have more opportunity to commit crimes or be mischievous. This is when law enforcement comes in and arrests the kids or addresses these deviant behaviors.

In summary, society is affected now and/or later from having kids unattended after school. A solution for this is to provide good quality after school care and/or activities for low-income kids that is either free or extremely affordable. The part of this problem that I work on is getting funding for a local Boys & Girls Club located in Sandy Utah.

Challenges faced by refugee children

I am working with refugee children for my voluteer hours through the International Rescure Commitee. When looked at the struggles they face here in America, I am able to look at them through a functionalism perspective as well as conflict theory.
The first thing to point out is that the language barrier faces by refugees affects every institution they encounter in the U.S. Not being able to fully understand or comprehend the native language causes everything to be twice as hard for them. Because they don't have a fully understanding of the language or can't speak it fully, they are automatically at a disadvantage. The American health care institution affects refugee children because there are numerous different sicknesses and diseases in the U.S. that these refugee children never faced back in their home country. Some of them they might not understand or even see that as a problem that can be fixed by the health care system. For examle, ADD is a growing issue among young boys in the U.S. If a boy from Africa comes here and is diagnosed with something that wasn't even diagnosed back in their home country, they won't even understand what it means or how it affects them. Most of all, the American doctors will not even consider that the refugee doesn't necessarily see this as a big issue or something that needs to be treated because they maybe didn't have ADD back in their country. The doctory will percieve them as being intelectually challenged instead of noticing cultural and language barriers.
Conflict theory can be looked at in the educational system with refugee children. Again, the language barriers cause the refugee child to fall behind in all of the school subjects, putting them at a lower level than the native children. The teacher may see them as intellectually challenged and may not give them as much attention as they give their "smarter" students causing even a bigger gap between the levels of refugee's learning compared to the native children's learning. This in the long run puts the native children in better academic standings for future schooling or future jobs giving the natives better and higher paying jobs while the refugees are stuck in the low level jobs.

Refugee Community Adaption in USA

Refugee community adaption depends on how long refugees have been in USA, either they have other family members who came before them or not, how much English they speak, how soon they can get a job, education,....Some studies also show that for people from war zones, it may take more time for them to trust anyone due to an abusive life they have experienced which leads them to isolation and lack of community adaption. For example, when i came to America, it took me a while to feel comfortable being in a movie theatre because being in the dark and hearing the noise reminded me of the genocide in my country. Many refugees want to eat food that they are familiar with, therefore going to American restaurants or being invited at the house of their American friends for dinner may be a problem.

Let's see how the three social theories impact refugee adaption in their communities:
SYMBOLIC INTERACTION and CONFLICT THEORY: Perception of Refugees: Depending on how much development refugees had from their home countries, coming to America may be a huge change in their lives (for example: facing more technology in USA than home) compared to non-refugees. If communities (neighbors, employers, teachers, health care providers,....) focus on saying that refugees don't have enough knowledge in technology (symbolic interactionism theory), refugees may lose many apportunities like employment and scholaships and this will lead refugees to being discouraged by the fact that there is competition between them and the dominant group which has power over them (Conflict theory), therefore refugees may end up by isolating themselves and feel like they are left behind and want only to intergrate with their fellow refugees who understand them.

FUNCTIONALISM: Language barrier (lack of English) makes refugees unable to express themselves and intergrate in the society. There are so many activities that refugees would like to attend/participate in, but the fact that they can't understand what's going on discourages them. Another problem that may influence this adaption can be the life that refugees lived back home. In some countries people don't pay much attention on being on time while in USA this is a huge deal, therefore it may take time for refugees to adapt to this new system.

Juvenile Delinquency

I'm doing my service hours at Salt Lake Peer Court and my social issue is juvenile delinquency. I want to discuss Functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism and how they can be applied to juvenile delinquency.

Functionalism deals with social roles and social institutions. Often times at Peer Court, I see that youths tend to act out when they are going through a difficult time at home. Recently, we had a case of a twelve year old being referred for disorderly conduct. He lives with his grandmother because his father is deceased and his mother is an alcoholic. The grandmother says that since his mother stopped coming to get him and his other two siblings on the weekend, he has really been acting out at school and also at home. The absence of his mother in his life is hurting him inside and causing him to behave a certain way. So, family can be one institution that affects certain behaviors. Symbolic Interactionism includes perceptions, meanings, and relationships. I feel that once youths act out or engage in illegal activities, society will perceive them as criminals. So, even if they try to do better, there is already that perception of them being criminals.

WHAT REFUGEES CAN ACHIEVE!!!!

Preventing Genocide - Gallery - Eyewitness Testimony - Clemantine Wamariya

Nichol's article response.

There LGBT communities in many African countries, but very few are known because they are afraid of coming out since they are not accepted by the society in fact in countries like Uganda LGBT people get killed by their government. Back home, I didn’t even know about LGBT because no one talked about it and if people of the same sex had sexual relationship, people were just saying that “it’s a taboo and a sin against God and there is something wrong with these people”, but no one knew that it was their identity. Just like any other minority group, LGBT members face many problems in their communities in terms of employment, social, education, family,….. and we can say that they face discrimination like other minority groups.

We found Conflict Theory in this article where homosexual people face power struggle and inequality from people who are not homosexual (those who are considered to be normal by the world). Homosexuality can prevent people from accessing opportunities like scholarships, leadership, employment because of their identity.

Symbolic Interaction: Not being accepted by the society makes homosexual people blame themselves, feel isolated and that’s why we have a big number of suicides among them. The fact that even their own families don’t accept them sometime, makes the situation worse.
Functionalism: An example of countries like Uganda where the government authorizes the law of killing LGBT people and the fact that many states in USA don’t accept marriage between same sex people, is a sign that this world is far away from accepting LGBT communities.

Members of LGBT communities and their supporters have to fight had for their freedom and acceptance and this will take educating the young generation (who can prevent this discrimination in the future), law makers,.... However, i think the main point that infuence discrimination against LGBT communities is that many people believe that LGBT members have choice and control over their identity (that they made a choice of being homosexual and that they can chose to change that identity). Either this is really a choice or not, i don't know.

Nichols' Article Response

In Nichols’ article each of the three perspectives we have been studying can be applied, Symbolic Interactionalist, Functionalist and Conflict Theory while discussing Homosexuality, particularly in high schools.

For a Symbolic Interactionist, he/she may suggest there are hidden messages throughout this issue. For example, teachers and their personal beliefs and perspectives on such ideas. Even though a teacher or professor my not express his/her personal opinion verbally, body language and behavior are clear signs of their beliefs. Deaths are also a factor for S.I. sociologists. Suicides and homocides are the main alarm that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, the issue has gone too far before able to be resolved.

The Functionalist approach in Nichols’ article relates to laws and policies and the lack of protection they provide for kids in the school systems. Bullying has become explosive and now getting to the point where suicides, filming and other forms of awareness and exposure will lead to more legislation. Another Functionalist idea is the example “left handed person in a right handed world”. Being apart of a minority group (homosexuals) is just the strict and lack of diversity that our basic society structure is.

A Conflict Theorist may bring up the issues of homosexuals being a minority. Being a minority, homosexuals typically have less resources available to them, especially in the sense of biases and racism. Two examples are employment and availability of academic scholarships.

Nichols Article

This article was very interesting, personally it gave me a lot information that I didn’t know. I remember years ago when this was a totally taboo for our community. It was something that nobody wanted to talk about. Now days is different, I don’t want to say that it is accepted in our community but we are realizing that the LGBT community face a social problem. The true I don’t have much information or interaction with LGBT people but in a lot of my trainings with domestic violence we see how under represent is the LGBT community. It is the same problematic that any other minority group face. If I have to see from the point of view of my religion it could be very difficult to try to understand but if I see it from the sociological point of view it is different. I think that there is need to be informing about what the LGBT community face and how we can help. Because the problem is that when we don’t understand the interaction and the negative social consequences that a group can have we don’t change anything but if we could understand how to be part of a solution it will be easy for us and for the LGBT community to integrate in our society.

Nichols Article

The Nichols article highlights the treatment of homosexual youth and the adversity they face in various aspects of society. Social institutions such as education socialize individuals and educate them to be a part of social norms, values and expectations. Often in education there is an underlying message that homosexuality is not normal and often seen as a problem. This message affects youth who are still figuring out their social identity and confuses them if they are homosexual. Often students who are viewed as different are bullied, unfortunately this also frequently affects students who come out as gay. The fear of being bullied as well as rejection from other peers often leads kids to drop out from school, start drinking/smoking, and even commit suicide.

Conflict theory examines how labeling or perceptions can affect individuals. Labels are very harmful for teens who are still unsure of their identities. Being labeled in a negative way has serious consequences. Unfortunately homosexuality is still something that is viewed as not normal. Conflict theory attempts to challenge the status quo which i precisely what homosexuality does in society. It has become more and more acceptable but we still witness unfair treatment and high amounts of prejudice pertaining to the gay community. I personally believe that in 20 years from now we look back and think we were crazy for not allowing homosexuals to be married or have the same rights.

Nichols Article

I found this article really interesting. I thought that it presented a lot of important ideas and facts. The main point of this article is the lack of awareness and tolerance of schools and students within of diversity specifically homosexual as part of our culture. The three theories can certainly be linked to this article.
Conflict theory is competition and inequality. The author discussed homosexual being a minority and the fact that it caused a lack of resources like scholarships. Because of certain people's preference, it decreases their risk of getting resources. Symbolic Interactionism is meanings, perceptions, symbols, and relationships. The article talked about hidden messages within the curriculum and the fact teachers have the authority. Also, student's perception of safety. They don't feel safe at school because they know they can't be protected. Functionalism includes social roles and social institutions. In the article, it mentioned laws and policies not protecting homosexual kids in school. It also talked about how the lack of support from the family can lead to a paticular student dropping out and also increase his/her risk of committing suicide.

Nichols Article

I found the Nichols article highly interesting and thought that Sharon Nichols brings up an important issue about how one's sexual preferance can cause someone so much pain and how someone's own private and personal pereferance can be used against them just because they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. I found it extremely alarming when the article mentioned that many adolescents who are in school are "emotionally and socially at risk of depression, suicide, dropping out, failing, or committing crimes." I think Sharon Nichols did a brilliant job on introducing the concep0t as to why this is a social problem. I also agree with the fact that the article mentions how adolescents should not have to negotiate their homosexual identity. However, I also agree with the fact that our societal values and the media, televesion, books, movies, and magazines all contribute to the problem because sometimes they don't stress or emphasize on the important facts and issues enough they are very influential and sometimes I don't think the media always realizes this. People should not be killed and have violence committed towards them because they are homosexual and because of something that is private and personal to them. People do not only discriminate against homosexuals at school but they discriminate against homosexuals on the internet even the military the don't ask don't tell rule that you can be discharged from the military because of your sexuality. I even heard on televison from a comedian one time that some interpreters were fired because they were homosexual. I personally do not agree with these kinds of metalities and ideologies we are all humans and like Mr. Martin Luther King and our presidents have said before us in the past we all need to be treated equally. Furthermore, I believe the theory that best expalins why this social problem exists is the symbolic interactionism theory because they look for symbols and meanings within a social problem and this particular article was all about symbols and meanings and "norms".

High School Students More Accepting of LGBT Peers Than the School Officials Are

During the past couple of weeks, there has been some publicity about high schools and homosexuality. During the weekend of October 30, 2011, a major breakthrough occurred for gays, and mainly for gay teens; one of the first lesbian couples was crowned homecoming king and queen in the nation. The girls are seniors at Patrick Henry High School in California. They received a lot of support from their peers and teachers, and also received a lot of negative feedback. The fact that the girls were nominated and received the most votes to be the homecoming king and queen by their peers suggests that they had a significant amount of positive support.

Another homecoming incident involving a lesbian couple did not receive so much positive support, however, it did receive the attention of the ACLU. A high school in Mississippi, Itawamba Agricultural High School, canceled its prom this when school officials learned that a female student intended to attend prom with her girlfriend. In this situation, the ACLU stepped in and filed a law suit against the high school alleging that the high school officials violated the students’ first amendment right to freedom of expression.

These events show that there is a growing acceptance and tolerance of gays and possibly other minorities in high schools. The fact that the student body is leading in supporting their peers by voting the lesbian couple in as homecoming royalty shows that perhaps this younger generation of students is really learning some acceptance or even embracing diversity. Compare this situation to the situation in Mississippi where we have information that the school officials (the older generation) were the ones that perhaps were a bit homophobic…whereas, we don’t know from the CNN article what the other students’ reactions were.

In order for minority groups to be accepted by the majority group, there is some type of revolution or years, sometimes decades, of social change. We may very well be at the cusp of social change in relation to the acceptance of gays and lesbians. It may be that our high school populations are showing indicators of acceptance and are the leaders in this social change.

References:
http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-students-crowned-americas-first-lesbian-homecoming-140805984.html
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-11/living/mississippi.prom.suit_1_prom-students-aclu?_s=PM:LIVING

Internship Update

In our weekly blog posts we've been asked to reflect and share specific experiences that come up in our field work as well as comment on the articles we've been assigned to read for the week.

I wanted to share some of the fulfufilling experiences I've had working with the single refugee mothers at Catholic Community Services. I'm a Job Developement Intern and I've been assigned 6 women to tutor in ESL or Job Skills depending on their English competency. It's been Symbolic Interactionism at it's best.

I've learned so much from these strong wonderful women. I've learned as a mother myself how we view and interpret our reality has many similarities and differences. We all value our children and we know that their education is important to their success in this country. The power we feel as parents is vastly different. I have no qualms about marching into my sons school to ask questions about scheduling, curriculum, or volunteering opportunities. These women, however, are intimidated and unsure of themselves and the role they play in their childrens education. Something as simple as their child's birthdate being incorrectly listed on their identification has caused some real problems that have kept one of their children out of school for months.

As we've gotten to know each other and worked with the language barrier we are beginning to understand the meanings behind each other's actions. I don't take it personally when they've made a Dr.'s appointment on the one day I can visit their home. They've come to understand that I just can't come the next day to tutor them. I have school, work, and a family of my own to care for.

I've come to appreciate the symbols in their lives that hold special meaning to them. Most of the women I tutor cover their heads and are never comfortable with company seeing them unless they are properly covered. I make sure to dress conservatively, although I cannot bring myself to wear a dress.

We do a lot of laughing and smiling when things get confusing and even though we come from very different places of the world that laughter breaks through all the barriers. I've shared pictures of my son and I've met some of their children. I interpret their actions with their children as a fierce pride and love for them. They want their children to learn with them and I've instructed them to practice their new English skills with their children throughout the week. Their overall skill improvment has been promising.

As I've come to learn more about their complicated relationships with children, friends, and their support systems I've learned why they've adopted certain attitudes and expectations with the United States. I've learned that at first they believed that all people from the US have an abundance and can give to others continuously. As they've learned about my tight budget, financial responsibilities, and the expenses of school for me and my son they are learning that not everyone has it easy here in the U.S.

I've really enjoyed being one of their many links to life here in the U.S. We've learned a lot about each other and have begun to develop trust and respect that comes from honesty, tolerance, and a willingness to learn. It's been a two way street, for sure. I value all that I've learned about how these strong women view the world, interpret their reality, and adjust their perceptions and attitudes as they learn more about living in the U.S. I too have learned how to better understand the meanings behind their actions and my own, become more aware of the world view concerning refugees, and learned to respect the symbolism in their daily lives.

Transgenders and Healthcare

A few weeks ago a lady named Pauline Park came and talked with my Gender and Social Change class about the struggles that transgender people go through to not only be able to change their sex and their name to go along with it, but also how they struggle within the healthcare system. When transgenders want to get a sex reassignment surgery (SRS) or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), they first need to to be diagnosed with gender identity disorder (GID). This "disorder" was introduced in 1974 in the Diagnositic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. And this GID can be taken even further in that to obtain the papers that claim whether someone is male or female, one has to show intent on recieving SRS. This means that the person has to be diagnosed with GID in order to claim themselves as the sex they see themselves as. And usually when one wants to get paperwork showing their legal sex designation, they usually want to legally change their name as well. This causes problems when places require an ID and the person's claimed gender does not match their picture. This can cause barriers with employment, housing, public accomidations, healthcare, and social services. So what Pauline states is that, " if the apparent ’solution’ is to go for a change of legal sex designation as well as name, and if the former change – and in some cases, effectively, the latter – requires the diagnosis of GID; then in effect, the ability to access health care as well as employment, housing, and public accommodations requires a diagnosis of GID as well."
This is interesting because this "diagnosis" of GID is something that most possibly not exist at all. It is just something that the wealthy and educated doctors at the time decided was a mental disorder that need to either be diagnosed or treated. It's kind of like the sickness we talked about in class on Monday about the slaves that got both their big toes cut off because they were diagnosed with a sickness that caused them to flee. The GID just may be a modern day version of this. What the educated wealthy doctors may see as a disorder, I dare say that all of the LGBT community and many others outside of it see as just someone who define themselves as a gender different than what they were born. It's not something that can be diagnosed and treated. Because of the GID, transexuals face many difficulties when it comes to accessing health care or getting and keeping a job or recieving housing. They face difficulties with things that the wealthy, educated, and majority do not usually have struggles with at all because they have to first be deemed menatally ill before they can recieve some of their basic rights as humans.
If you want to read the whole article, here it is:
http://www.paulinepark.com/index.php/2011/04/transgender-health-human-rights-harvard-4-20-11/
This can be looked at through the symbolic interactionism theory. Transgender people are percieved by society to be different, odd, ill, or needing help. The labels placed on them were not made by the transgendered themselves, but by those around them. It's the majority who have claimed these people ill and different. So what part of our sociolization has created these labels and perceptions? I believe that most of society has a hard time accepting things that don't fit into the norm and their way of showing their disapproval is through teasing, name calling, bullying, and at a more advanced level, denial of healthcare, housing, jobs, and many other basic human rights.

Wallace Article

The financial fact may be one of the reasons why non-whites in USA don’t put their elderly in group home because being able to afford good group homes with good care is so expensive for them, but the biggest fact is that most of non-whites have large families therefore chose to help each other and take good care of their elderly instead of sending them to cheap group homes with bad care. This is due to conflict theory where power and inequality plays the big role. The other fact is the culture of non-whites that requires people to take care of their elderly till their death. Most of immigrants (especially refugees who were forced to leave their countries) feel like USA is not their home and they always seek the pride of dying in their countries, therefore they come to America, go to school, make money and go back home before they get old and this is related to structural functionalism.

Other immigrants may not feel comfortable with food that is provided in group homes because they normally eat their traditional food and don’t like American products. There is a funny story of a Latino elderly woman who was in a group home and around 3:00pm, a staff member knocked at her and said “Marie I have a snack for you here”, but instead of snack Marie thought staff said “snake” then immediately Marie got out of her bed running. In her life it was the first time for Marie to hear the word “snack” all she knew was “snake” and she was afraid of it. This is an example of how differences among whites and no-whites can prevent each of them being comfortable in the other one’s society.

Article and Poverty

After reading the articles, I wanted to introduce a new idea. I have discussed multiple times in my posts the idea of isolation and domestic violence. I think this could directly relate to health and minorities. For some Latino families, it is possible that they have moved to the United States from somewhere else. Sometimes in domestic violence situations, there is the idea of isolation and moving the woman out of her comfort zone where she does not know language, resourceful information, etc. By not properly acculturating, which typically persecutors try to avoid and to continue the isolation, women can easily become depressed or gain other mental and physical health issues. This obviously is a dominant effect towards health in our country. Domestic violence does not discriminate, but being that there is a correlation between health and minorities, I would assume domestic violence does play a role in this concept that Latinos may have poorer health.

On a separate note, today in class we discussed the difference of absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is the actual resources that one has, such as income or education. Whereas relative poverty is one’s poverty in relation to other people. For example, if everyone in a community makes a dollar a day, you could have a better outcome in certain situations because your relative poverty is lower. Or, in the US if you make $20,000 per year, and you live in an area where that is the average income, you will also be in a better situation with lower relative poverty than if you made $20,000 and lived in a place where everyone $100,000 the relative poverty would be very high and create a negative effect on society, creating conflict-“the haves and haves not”, being conflict theory.

Health and Minority Populations

This article is very interesting since during this month as a Latinos some organizations are asking us to get more involve in health issues.

Just like the article describes about acculturation is one of the issues among the Latino community. For some Americans they expect every culture to assimilate the system, unfortunately for some of us is not easy. Since there are a lot factors that affects our health, first the kind of food we are use to eat in our countries is very different, the way the health systems is in this country is totally different for example in some Latino countries medical service is free for most of the population as well most of the medicines if you qualified for; another factor for health issues among Latinos is depression, etc.

Culturally the care for elderly is different from the US since Latino countries have a very difficult time to pay for others to do it and not only that but family take cares of their own family including elderly.

The American health system is sometimes hard to navigate, I had bad experiences and it didn’t matter that I have an American husband I couldn’t get health care when I really needed, I was devastated and I didn’t want to continue looking for help since Medicaid didn’t want to help me and it was very expensive my treatment. After a few months on trying to understand the system I was able to get the care I needed but some Latinos prefer not to do it and if they do it sometimes is late.

Assimilation - Better for Latinos re their health?

The article "Acculturation and Latino Health in the U.S." addresses health care of U.S. Latinos in association with their level of acculturation or assimiliation into society. In our society, we know that WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) in general expect that other cultures and groups assimilate into their society. This is simply a historical fact of the United States. It appears that this article is clearly written by Conflict Theorists.

Essentially, the majority group believes that other cultures must adapt their tastes, expecations, belief systems, values, etc. to their own in order to thrive in society. Minority groups who choose not to assimilate fully are not expected to thrive according in the existing societal structure.

The research results found that Lainos who had acculturated the most in U.S. society had a mixed bag of health issues: some positive and MOST negative. The negative effects of health behaviors included substance abuse, diet, low birthweith and premature births. Of course, the birth problems could be correlated with substance abuse and poor diet.

The positive health outcomes for Latinos who were most acculturated into U.S. society were that they had access to insurance coverage, had access to health care, and used more preventive health services.

Of course, as with most studies, the results are not clear and the subject matter is complex. One could assume from reading the study & conclusions that because there are more negative health effects from acculturation by Latinos, that the group may want to reconsider assimilation. I thought that the overall message of this research article was that "Assimilation by Latinos into U.S. society is bad for their health". We have to remember to appreciate research, but also understand that one factor may not necessarily lead to the result of the measured factor. They may not really be correlated.

Anyhow, I still believe in conflict theory at play here simply by nature of the research measuring levels of assimilation and expecting varying levels of healt effects. I think the researchers expected to find more positive health effects with higher levels of assimilation.