SumBlog#7: Veil and Double Consciousness

This week in class I read about an African American named W.E.B. Du Bois, a Harvard graduate and co- founder of the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Du Bois was a great advocate for equal rights not only for African Americans but for all members of minority groups , including a huge push for women's rights. He believed that he lived in a land were all people ought to be treated equally despite the ongoings on the past. He believed that education was the single most important factor in the ability to reach his goal of overall equality. He was not seemingly critical of white people in general but much like fellow African American sociologist Anna Julia Cooper, he believed that the "system" was to be blamed for the continuation of discrimination of blacks. He saw that although slavery had ended, African Americans were still not viewed as equal citizens.  “The bright ideals of the past, physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands, all these in turn have waxed and waned” (Du Bois). Essentially as one problem was fixed another problem arose in its place, forever looming over the minds and hearts of black people everywhere. It reminds me of the idea about stepping up one rung of the ladder only to be knocked down two. Even though blacks acquired the same rights as whites, they were not able to exercise those rights to their full potential. Upon reading a short passage by DuBois in class,
I learned about two concepts that were his major key elements discussed in his sociology, those being the terms veil and double consciousness. The term veil is meant to describe how blacks can live among whites yet see the world much differently than whites due to their double consciousness meaning that although they are  Black Americans, they see themselves as being black and American a in two separate entities. They see themselves as being first black and secondly American. DuBois depiction of the term veil, illustrates how white people have developed certain stereotypes regarding blacks as a result of their generalized interactions with them which unfortunately seemed to viewed in a negative light (due to the old world way of thinking, thank you Southern states). This sometimes in turn created a self-fulfilling prophecy in which blacks started to actually believe that they were inferior to whites, allowing such believes to thrive. A theory that in many cases still holds true today, when a person ( no matter their race) is constantly fed information and treated in a certain manner, they soon start to believe that it just must be true and they then act accordingly. They do this because they think, "what is the use of trying to better myself when I will just be heavily criticized by others. They are always thinking about how others view them versus how they view themselves. Once again this brings about that Double Consciousness in which they develop a public persona and a private person, a very confusing state if you ask me. I found it very interesting that DuBois was such an advocate for all minority groups, as well as for women, instead of just focusing on his particular race, for me he embodied the essence of equality for all. The picture I chose depicts DuBois vision of equality for all.

SumBlog#6 Jane Addams

Last week my class read about a woman named Jane Addams that took action against what she personally viewed as a form of inequality, that being the lack of literary and art education for people that were less fortunate than herself. Her focus was derived from her interest in the area of public sociology and cultural relativism stemming from the influx of immigrants that were arriving in her city. In the year 1889, along with another woman named Ellen Gates Starr, Addams opened Chicago's first settlement house named the Hull-House, where people of all statuses could gather and learn about topics that were literally "foreign" to them. What was so interesting about the Hull-House was that it was Jane Addams' actual home and she allowed people to assemble there and learn about subjects ranging from debating political theories in America's government to providing the residents of Hull-House with the necessary skills that their new surroundings required of them such as cooking, sewing and most importantly learning the English language. It was very much like an exchange program, where the residents that she invited into Hull-House would pay back her generosity by contributing in helpful ways toward the efforts of her neighborly engagements in different areas of Hull-House such as the nursery, the kitchen and kindergarten school for the children. The entire goal of Hull-House was to provide help to those people , mostly immigrants with no other place to turn, become more integrated into their newly found American society. This was quite typical of Addams' methodology as she believed in getting down to her subject's level and learning first hand from them. She was not one that was satisfied with simply observing them from afar as many other male sociologists, that we have covered in class, common practices were at that time. Instead her founding core principle was that of social ethics, or better explained as "morality" towards fellow people in society. She was concerned that there had become a disconnect between people within society and realized that they only way to really understand this would be to literally live with them and view the world through their eyes. Addams believed in four key elements that complimented her foundation those elements included: No one group of people were more important than any other, all people were active agents( meaning , everyone counted regardless of status), she believed that people seek opportunity for kindliness towards their fellow man and lastly that personal safety of all members of a social democracy is tied to the personal safety of each. Where did she learn this approach? She learned the concept of social ethics by once again , "getting her hands dirty" and witnessing first hand that through education that respects an individual's own experience that much can be learned about people that are different from herself. She delved into and experienced diverse social interactions by joining them side by side and abolishing the concept of inequality within the walls of Hull-House. She found that by sharing stories with others, that somehow that helped preserve the memories of where the people had come from , yet all the while still striving to find their place in their "new land" because she recognized that the majority culture had more power and she wanted them to stand a chance in life. Jane Addams gained insight from her subjects by personally interacting with them in a "neighborly" fashion so as to cultivate genuine relationships with them, therefore granting her a better understanding of their ways of life. She was able to to this through a methodology that she referred to as "Personal Experience over Theory". Addams even earned the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts in the field of social work in the year 1931. I think if I was a sociologist, I would very much like to use Addams' approach because it seems very effective in the learning process as well as invoking a feeling of helpful well-being and good citizenship. I believe that I would personally enjoy working along side of people that I was interested in studying because I would be able to determine the actualities of their lives, versus using a theoretical approach that illustrates what could happen. I much prefer hearing it "straight from the horse's mouth" rather than interpreting my findings. I chose the multimedia image featured below because I feel as though it was representative to what Addams' plight of social ethics by helping others was all about. These were her blood related grandchildren, but you would never know it because she was so giving of herself for the greater good of society, she wanted everyone to have a chance to have a good life.

Sum Blog #4: Harriet Martineau

For class this week , we finally learned about a female sociologist by the name of Harriet Martineau. She was an education woman from England whose family was from "comfortable means" during the 1800's. I say that we finally heard about a woman in the field of Sociology because although women have done a lot to contribute to the realm of Sociology, there have only been the rare or occasional mention of them in any book related to the foundations of Sociology. Obviously, women did not have the same rights that women of today possess so any work that Harriet contributed was viewed as not that compelling in the eyes of the founding men of Sociology.  Harriet is only mentioned in a few brief pages among the entire chapters written about the men of Sociology which seems unfair considering that she was a pioneer in writing the first text book on sociological research methods titled How to Observe Morals and Manners in the year 1838. By "morals", she meant the collective ideas and/or the prescribed behaviors of people within a society and by "manners" she was referring to the patterns of actions and associations that people engage themselves within. Martineau deemed that the most important law of Social Law was that of "Human Happiness", essentially how you judge the fairness of society. She studied this because she reserved the subject matter of her study to be that of social life within a society and that it ought to be studied and developed in a disciplined and systematic manner. The role that she took on for herself in regards to her being a sociologist was that of public educator. She wanted everyone to possess the knowledge of her findings, not just the rich and prestigious , which was the typical audience for research findings in the fields of Sociology.  She of course was not the only woman whose work went unaccredited, this was the norm for a lot of women that "played with the big boys", although their work was important it was usually dismissed by men in the field because it was a common belief that women should essentially be seen and not heard much like children. As a woman myself it was refreshing to read about Harriet Martineau and her struggles of hearing loss and poverty caused by a failed business venture and yet she was still able to overcome those hurdles to have her work and research being recognized as her role as the founding "Mother of Sociology". She is a true inspiration for women still today.
The image that I chose definitely sums up the mentality that men possessed back then and unfortunately sometimes still today.... ridiculous I know!