Socialization : the Ultimate Blueprint for everyday life

     Last week, I played tennis on the clay courts on 96th street on the upper west side. I've been playing tennis for close to four years now and it's an experience that I wish that I had growing up in Brooklyn. It's not like I didn't grow up with tennis courts around me. My high school had a tennis team and everything. I just wasn't exposed to it when I was a child.
     That's the thing about the socialization process. Socialization is the prices in which we learn our cultures norms, values and behaviors. We learn these skills in order to be members of society and to learn how to survive. Because of the agents of socialization like school and family, we get a entry into society very early in our lives. Through our socialization process, we learn how to use language, including reading and writing, to tue our shoes, learn manners, how to cross the street, all of the things we take for granted because we learned them so long ago. The great thing about socialization is that of we don't learn certain things at home (i.e. using chopsticks) from the other agents of socialization. A case in point is my tennis match today. I take lessons occasionally in order to become a better player and to compete when it comes to playing matches. However, practice is also anticipatory socialization- it allows you to use the skills as you move into another stage of your life and draw from your experiences.
      I play tennis with an old friend of mine from high school. He's been playing for years and loves playing on clay. I usually play on hard courts. This friend has given me pointers when we play and today I used all of the tips he gave me to defeat him. Anticipatory socialization can really work to your advantage.
      The best thing about socialization is that it is a lifelong process. I started playing tennis in my late thirties, but I continue to learn lessons that will help me as I continue to play tennis throughout my life. This friend showed me the way you clean the courts for the next players today, something I never knew before.
     Thinks about the ways socialization plays a role in your life, even today and blog it out! Until next time..

The Power of blogging...

We've been  talking about the power of blogging and getting your ideas out in the world through social media.  I want to share with you some of my favorite blogs for you to check out on your own time. 


Gawker: http://gawker.com/.           
 This site keeps me up to date on everything that's happening in the work

The Root: http://www.theroot.com/. 
The Root keeps me up to date on all of the latest news from an African American perspective.

NPR: www.npr.org.                         
NPR is one of my favorite websites.  Not really a blog, but great news.

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.
I really find this blog essential for keeping up with the latest news.


Guilty pleasures:

Bossip: www.bossip.com
I have to say that I do love Bossip. It is straight up tabloid gossip, but it makes me laugh uncontrollably sometimes.

And just so you so you see examples of the power of blogging, here are two op-ed articles I wrote recently.  So get your ideas out there and blog it out...

All hail the yellow-cab app

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/applewhite-all-hail-the-yellow-cab-app-1.5135076

New Yorkers can learn from Jason Collins' example, too

 http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/applewhite-new-yorkers-can-learn-from-jason-collins-example-too-1.5177748 

Power - Here's How to Get it!

When I was a child, I felt completely powerless.  I felt this way because I had a sense of the inequalities that existed in the world.  I remember times in my life when we did not heat or hot water, having to eat leftovers, and not having enough money to afford to participate in extracurricular activities.  I'll never forget an experience I had in the sixth grade.  Our class had the opportunity to take music lessons.  Each child's parent had to contribute to the cost of the instrument.  I knew my family did not have enough to pay for an instrument and I did not want to burden my mom about it because she was a struggling college student.  So I said nothing.  I went to the teacher and she gave me an old clarinet.  While I should have been appreciative of the gesture, I couldn't face the embarrassment of carrying around a hand -me-down instrument and so I simply stopped playing and attending music class.  I realize now that I was being prideful, but I also didn't want to be an outcast because I couldn't afford an instrument like the other kids could.  Growing up poor, kids like myself have to face tough choices like this every day. 
   Like many children, I faced many situations when I felt completely powerless.  Whether it was bullying that toook place in my neighborhood, which to me resembled living in some barbaric past, or simply from your parents having power over you, this experience is not uncommon for children while growing up. 
    What made the difference?  It was education.  While I was always considered a smart kid, I never made the connection about the ways that education can elevate your status in our society.  More importantly, I did not realize that education can be used as a tool for liberation.  It is through education that I found my voice.  I was able to articulate the feelings of powerlessness that I never had the strenth to do before.  I was lucky.  I had mentors and people who invested their time in me so that I could see beyond the indoctrination that we often experience going through the educational system in the United States and worldwide. 
     I was able to travel through education.  I was able to lift myself out of poverty through my educational opportunities.  The same can be said of my mother.  She came here as an immigrant and raised me as a single parent.  But it was through education that she was able to improve her life and thereby improve mine.
     We live in a time where the prevailing idea is that if yhou make a YouTube video or divulge your deepest darkest secrets on reality TV, you will be able to make a better life for yourself.  That's all well and good, but there's a good old fashion way of improving your lot in life and gaining power in the United States and that is through education.

Chapter six Lucy's Story (extra credit)

Please listen to the podcast (an audiofile) on Lucy presented by the radio program, Radiolab.  Answer the questions listed below.  Respond on my blog in the comment section no later than  November 13 2012,  or you will not receive extra credit.  NO EXCEPTIONS! Answer the following questions.

1.  Please summarize the Lucy's life?  Be specifc by using examples.  Who raised her and why?  How does Lucy's story relate to Chapter 6 in the Experience Sociology book? Be specific.  What were the socializing agents in her life?  (2 paragraphs)  How is Lucy's life unique to all primates?
2.  How was Lucy's life similar to human beings?  How was it different?  How does Lucy's experiences compare to what you read in 6 in the Experience Sociology book?  How was her life different?  Use examples from both the podcast and the book. (2 paragraphs) 
3.  What happened to Lucy?  Why?  Who is responsible for what happened to Lucy and why?  How does what happened to Lucy relate to what you have learned about the socialization and what happens when we do not receive it. 

Here's the link, please listen to the entire podcast:
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/feb/19/

Some Additional Thoughts about Power

Hi folks,

     I really enjoyed our discussion on power and oppression in class on Thursday.  I hope you did too.  It made me think about a lot of things that are taking place today in the world.  I think about our conversation about the five faces of oppression and some of your questions about whether Jews face the all five forms of oppression as a group.  I would argue that if you belong to the minority group n the United States then you may face the various forms of oppression.  I thought about this because of the video that I watched of the police officers beating the orthodox Jew in his own synagogue.  Can you imagine getting beat up in your Church or place of worship?  But to me, this speaks to the various forms of oppression that Jews face.  What do you think?
     Remember, power is one of the basic tenets of society.  It is used daily on the micro, meso, and macro levels and is built into the social structure and social institutions.  This chapter discusses the various ways that power works in our society.  You have an opportunity to use the political power you possess through voting if you are able to do so.
     So many of you have done some incredible work on your blog.  I want to reward the best ones.  You will receive a link on Blackboard to vote for the best blog this week.  This is an extra credit assignment.  I selected the best three blog entries for the week.  I want you to vote on the best one using the link that is found in the announcement section of Blackboard.  After you read each blog, you must write about the blog you liked and the reasons why on my blog. You will only get credit if you both vote and write a comment on my blog.  Your comment must explain why you like the blog and how the blog relates to our unit on power, the reading and the video.  This must be done by Friday at 11:59 PM to receive credit.  Good luck!

Research and the Presidential Election -  How We Know What We Know!
     By now you have been reading the book and you probably have read a couple of readings on the importance of research and the different ways you can do it. So far in class, you've learned about surveys,  experiments, content analysis, in depth interviews.  There are so many ways that you can go about answering a question about something that is taking place in the world.
     Let's talk about the election.  There is a tremendous amount of research being generated right now about the presidential election for several reasons.  The media wants to inform the public and so they will have researchers collect information about the candidates, their beliefs, what they have done since they have been in politics, and how Americans feel about them, among other things.  This information is used to help average Americans make a decision that will affect your lives.  That's why research is so important.
     I started doing research about ten years and I'm amazed by how much I continue to learn about the research process. I love to read about different types of research that has been done.  I always wanted to do market research, but never had the chance.  Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to become a researcher.  Have you ever though about a career in research?  There are so many interesting career options you can choose from in research:  from public health, to market research, from opinion polls, and political science.  Below, I listed a couple of links to some interesting websites that use research.  The first one has to do with the 2012 Presidential Election:
 http://www.hawkpartners.com/blog/2012-09-10/research-and-elections

The other link is to the NY1 website.  It is a news channel in NYC that I watch practically everyday.  The report that I am sending the link to is a public opinion poll of what New Yorkers believe NYC will be like in twenty years.  This specific report is about NYC sports teams in the next 20 years and the likelihood that they will win a championship, among other things:
20/20 Vision Report:
http://www.ny1.com/content/170369/20-20-vision--optimism-abounds-for-new-york-sports-fans
Data from survey (public opinion poll):
http://content.ny1.com/downloads/2020maristsportspollresults.jpg

I am also attaching the data so that you can see what the research looks like before it goes out to the public.  Check it out and if you want to comment, blog it out!

Who am I?

I am a first generation American of parents from Trinidad & Tobago. I lived in NYC practically my entire life but I was born in Maryland. My mother was a school teac her for nearly 25 years in the NYC Department of Education. Although I never really thought that I was exceptionally bright or anything, I was fortunate because I grew up in a household that was rich in books. My mom nurtured my love for books. I remember as a young kid going to the grocery store with my mom and running to the book aisle and selecting books that I wanted my mom to buy for me.  I believe that it was this intense love of books, and the worlds that existed in them that made me who I am today.

When I was in high school I was an average student. I still possessed my love of books, but I was aimless for a good part of that time. I was not extremely athletic, but I was a very tall boy for my age. I made friends fairly easily and I think that this is what got me through the boredom of teenage life. When I was 17 and in the eleventh grade, I was doing dismally in school, specifically in physics and pre-calculus.  My mom attended a parent teacher conference with me. At 17, I thought I was quit clever and was able to prevent my mom from seeing my report card for a couple of quarters. However, because she was a school teacher, to try to keep parent teachers conferences from her was like trying to keep the tide from the shore. Eventually it all comes crashing in.  It was my computer science teacher, Sheldon Pasquale, who bore the same name as me, who told my mom that I was quite good at being social, but I held no true talent for computer science, which is something that I figured out my first semester in the major. Later that year, my guidance counselor suggested that I go to a community college.  That guidance counselor stirred something deep inside me that I wouldn't truly understand until a few years later.

  Two things happened to me that changed my life.  The first was the statement from my guidance counselor. While I do believe that she was correct that I was underachieving at my high school, I disagreed with her assessment of where I should attend college.  I understood her as saying that I couldn't attend a four year college. The worst thing you can ever do is tell me I can't do something.  While I was an underachiever, I believe that it was because I just didn't know enough about what I wanted to do in the world and had little guidance on how to truly find myself.  I knew that the world held something for me, but I just hadn't found it yet. But her statements to me started a fire that I could never put out from that point: to find what was right for me in the worked on my own terns. The second thing that happened was that I took my first sociology course and with that my world changed.  My professor told stories of a world that I didn't quite understand but I wanted to know. It was stories of a world that I lived in and saw so many things that were contradictory to my experiences. When I was a freshman in college, so many things were happening in the world.  There was the Rodney King beating, the L.A. riots and the first Iraq War, OJ Simpson happened shortly afterwards.  However I was able to understand all of the things that were happening to and around me through sociology.

I think it’s interesting that I became a professor at a community college years later.  I am so grateful to teach here among students who probably grew up like I did in New York.  I have witnessed so many talented, special students since starting at this college three years ago and it is a privilege to teach here.  If it hadn’t been for that guidance counselor, I would probably be somewhere else.  She helped me to find what I loved! I want you to remember that they’ll always be someone around to tell you what you can’t do, you just have to tell yourself that you can!

 I hope that sociology will do the same for you.  Happy blogging this semester and let’s talk again.  If you have questions or comments, blog it out!