Unit 2 Write Up

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School

Florida State University *

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Course

3774

Subject

Anthropology

Date

Jan 9, 2024

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docx

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I have found this second unit to be very insightful and informative. Some of my favorite topics that have been covered include racism, education, and family. I found the chapter on racism informative because of how in-depth it went into the realities of racism in the United States. Some aspects of this chapter that stuck out to me was the differentiation between prejudice and racism. Prejudice is the negative attitude a person may have towards an individual purely because of their personal feelings towards a specific group. Racism can be defined as individuals and institutions actively enacting policies to try and denigrate individuals or groups because of phenotypic characteristics or ethnic group affiliation. Another fact that stood out to me was that institutional racism has the most impact on African-American lives today. This is because institutional racism is reflected in healthcare systems, schools, and the prison system. Institutional racism is impactful on African American lives because when being treated for illness, black women are less likely to be treated because they are perceived to be “stronger” and that they can handle more pain as well as African Americans may have a harder time finding an effective education for their kids. In terms of financials, African Americans are more prone to poverty and less wealth than European Americans. Because of this, it will be harder for African Americans to find a school that will provide their kids with an effective education. Furthermore, while receiving an education, students are less likely to receive an education from their teachers. The prison system is impactful on African Americans because African Americans have been portrayed to be aggressive and dangerous criminals throughout media and television. As a result of this, White individuals adopted the attitude that Black and African American individuals were dangerous. This has resulted in the manifestation of these attitudes in recent years through police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. I found the chapter about families in this unit interesting because I am a very family-oriented person and have an interest in family relationships. While I was familiar with the structural definition of family, I was not aware of the functional definition of family. The aspect of fictive kinship also resonated with me because I grew up with a non-biological family functioning as a biological one. The historical perspectives of the African American family were something I also found something that was very important to learn. The fact that there were some two-parent households during slavery was surprising for me because, throughout my educational experiences, I learned that many families and couples got separated during slavery. I found the chapter on education the most interesting because I am interested in a career in education. I found the special education aspects of the chapter really important because I grew up in special education and previously went to school to become a special education teacher. The overrepresentation of African Americans in special education programs was a fact that was not surprising to me. I did not find it surprising because it has also been stated in previous lectures that White Psychologists administered intelligence tests to African Americans and the results of these tests reflected their racist attitudes towards Black people. Because of this, many White teachers have adopted this attitude, thus causing Black students’ education to be put at risk. For example, many White teachers today may not take it seriously when a Black student is struggling, or they may not think they are truly having enough struggle in their academics to be referred to a school psychologist. It is because of this that so many African-American students have fallen behind and are underrepresented in gifted education programs. I find these statistics concerning because I have had experience with a teacher who did not think I qualified for special education services in elementary school. It took a lot of advocacies from my parents to finally convince the school to give me the services I needed. This also continued throughout my middle school and high school years. My brothers also have been in gifted education. While I do not know much about how this process happened for them, I can say they are one of the very few students that many schools actually will take seriously when they are presented with a gifted child.

In previous lectures, we talked about how traits such as identity can be tied to identity. Growing up with a learning disability contributed to many insecurities I had as a child. I grew up going to many of my brothers’ awards ceremonies and events and I would have the occasional ceremony at the end of the year that my family would go to. The awards were always for some type of academic achievement, and I always felt left out of those events because of that. This made me feel that my brothers were smarter than me. Once I got to high school, my twin brother and I were in the same school, and people would compare us from time to time, I remember in PE I got asked “Is your brother smarter than you?” These experiences just motivated me to make a change once I got out of high school. I still remember the imposter syndrome I felt when I got into one of the top schools in the nation. Despite the fact that I transferred and changed majors, I still had no idea if I had a chance compared to the millions of students with a much better track record than I had, or so I thought. Overall, this unit was my favorite to learn about. It gave me lots of insight into family relationships, historical perspectives of the African American family, and the various dimensions of racism. These are important for people to learn about because there are different types of racism such as overt, aversive, or institutionalized. It is important for People of Color to learn about these dimensions in order to tell when they are being discriminated against. It is also important for White people to learn about these dimensions in order to prevent themselves from actively discriminating against a Person of Color. It is also important to learn about aspects such as family and education for individuals to build a sustainable family foundation and to have proper knowledge of the education system to provide their children equitable access to the right resources.

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Unit 2 Write Up

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