American sociologists

Reflection Paper Throughout my role as a student and volunteer I learned that community uplift is the most important goal of African American studies. Civic engagement in a community is necessary for the growth of the inhabitants and their well-being. Foremost, my experience in volunteering for my community encouraged me to view specific social issues differently. These social issues include, the importance of positive role models, an abundance of academic/ personal resources, and the…

Therefore, it would be completely obscene to infer that these components could dictate our precious America in any way. However, research conducted by organizations such as The Sentencing Project and renown sociologists like Angela Davis provide for a strong rebuttal. This essay will argue that the American justice system is dictated by the Prison Industrial Complex, racism, and classism. In Angela Davis’ Masked Racism (1998), she argues that “prisons do not disappear problems, they disappear…

Through Chapter 2, “Of the Dawn of Freedom”, from the novel The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B Du Bois, American sociologist, formulates an argument regarding racial segregation of African Americans and ineffective legal systems in the United States during the 19th/20th Century. By analyzing and stating commonalities and assumptions found within the famous piece of writing, one can immerse themselves into the abstract claims which Du Bois centers the entirety of his essay around. Moreover, through…

During her transformation into an “American girl” Fang Sui Yong was forced to navigate through an onslaught of unfamiliar expectations, foreign words, and strange, new sights and people, all hurling at her a million miles per second. Her journey was complex and in order to be thoroughly analyzed, one must view it through the lense of the sociological imagination which C. Wright Mills defines as "an awareness of the relationship between a person's behavior and experience and the wider culture…

Treatment The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a true story based on Henrietta Lacks, who was a patient at John Hopkins in the 1950’s. Treatment of African Americans in the 1950’s was very cruel and inhuman in the medical field and was fueled by racial stigmas and socioeconomic status. In the 1950’s African Americans were also targeted because of their socioeconomic status and ethnicity to participate in medical research such as the very cruel Tuskegee syphilis experiment.…

President Lyndon B. Johnson to analyze the sources and reasons of civil disturbances throughout the 60’s including the Watts Riots. This report revealed that society after the riots was disturbing as post riot programs did not help alleviate African-Americans, only exacerbating racial tensions and equipping police with better weapons to combat the rioters. The report also stated, “in several cities, increasing polarization is evident, with continuing breakdown of inter-racial communication, and…

country and represent the American value system are constantly changing, due to the diversity of the American population. How we as individuals define diversity and what we see as being diverse has a lot to do with how we interpret ourselves and those around us. In the world we live in today as young Americans, we, as students have been exposed to an innumerable amount of situations that expose us to the diversity that is, in this day in age, what can be called American culture. Diversity has…

and academic performance. When reminding students of their race, it tends to hurt their capability. In the article, “How a Self-Fulfilling Stereotype Can Drag Down Performance,” states “Dozens of field experiments have found that reminding African-American and Latinos about their race before administering academic tests, or telling them that the…

Oral History and Historical Memory Lynching: Injustice or Justified-Depending on Perspective Sometimes, individual oral historical memory and historical events depicted in history as facts are different, depending on whose perspective is being studied. Thoughts on truth, by Per Robert Evans says that, “There are three sides to every story… My side, your side, and the truth, and no one believes they are lying… Memories serve each one differently.” I believe that this is also true in telling the…

against discriminative behavior. We saw this hypothesis in action during the era of the civil rights movement. It was made illegal for places in America to discriminate against a person based on their race. Places soon became desegregated and African Americans started to become a part of everyday society in…