Week 10: Reflections on the Densho Website

I spent quite a bit of time exploring the Densho website. I was interested because the information was almost all new to me. I cannot remember, as a child in the 80s and 90s, ever learning about these camps throughout my elementary, middle, or high school years. I remember having in-depth units on the Holocaust and other aspects of World War II, but never do I remember hearing about this aspect of the War.

I also found this topic interesting because I actually lived in San Francisco for 5 years (1999-2004), so I have visual imagery in my head as I think about where the Chinese immigrants and Japanese immigrants lived. In San Francisco, there is Japantown, which is west of the financial district, and Chinatown, which is just north and adjacent to the financial district. I used to take the #19 bus everyday to work and it went straight through Chinatown. There is a definite distinction between Chinatown and the rest of the city - it is even marked with golden lions and a gate at the entrance of the neighborhood.

I always thought Japantown was just kind of symbolic though. There is a little archway that tells you it is there, and a couple shops, but no real housing that seems segregated, the way it is in Chinatown. This may be indicative of the fact that the Japanese were forced out of their homes and put in the internment camps and were just never able to reclaim that neighborhood when they got out.

I liked reading that Ronald Reagan was the one who finally made the formal apology and reparations to the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans who were put in those camps. At least there was closure, and the Densho website is doing an amazing job of keeping the story alive so we can all remember what can happen during times of war hysteria.

Week 9: The Social Construction of Gender

The first few pages of the assigned chapter on gender inequality explains how to distinguish between a person's "sex" and a person's "gender." While a person is born with certain physical characteristics that determine his or her sex, gender is a label society puts on each one of us. The idea is that the two genders are not as different biologically as we may have been led to believe. While reading the whole biological versus sociological debate, I was immediately reminded of an article I had read earlier this year.

The article (http://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/christina-parentingcom/gender-neutral-parenting) talks about a couple who were able to keep their child's gender a secret for 5 years. They finally had to reveal the child's gender when they enrolled "it" in school. The school would not let them leave the gender box blank on the admissions forms.

While I was searching for the exact article that I remember reading, I actually came across a couple of other recent cases just like this one. It seems like there are some parents out there willing to take the risk and see what the outcome of such an "experiment" would be.

I say, why not? No harm done, right? I mean, if or until that child is bullied in school, I think it's a really cool idea and I applaud those daring parents. I don't know if I'm progressive enough to try it, though!

Week 8: Why Should We Care about Global Inequality?

The podcast we were asked to listen to outlined a few reasons why we should care about global inequality. One of them was that the price of goods we buy here in America is affected by global events and economies.

I have an example of how the prices of goods from around the world have affected me personally. When I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, my mother used to sew my siblings and me clothes. Every Halloween, while the other children got to go to the store to buy masks and plastic-y costumes, my mom insisted on hand-sewing each one of her children a costume. When I became a mom, I decided I would do the same thing. Before my daughter's first Halloween, I headed out to the fabric store, picked out a little devil costume pattern, and bought the materials for the costume. I had to purchase a couple yards of red felt, Velcro, thread, needles, bobbins, stuffing, ribbon, and elastic. I brought the goodies home and got to work at my sewing machine. Nearly 3 labor-intensive weeks and $40 later, I had an adorable little red devil. Shortly after I finished my masterpeice (pictured below) I happened to be in a store and spot a nearly identical costume (I'm sure there were differences in quality) for only $15! I couldn't believe it. I've never made another Halloween costume to this day.

My personal experiences as a consumer in America is that things have changed drastically since I was a kid and it is mostly based on the global economy. Goods can be made cheaper in China and other developing nations. It's that simple. There are obviously positives and negatives to this fact. When my daughter was about 3 years old, there were reports that many toys that were manufactured in China had been painted with lead-based paint. I immediately went online and found a lead-testing kit and sat down one night and tested each and every one of my daughters' toys. Luckily, we weren't affected, but I do know parents who, to this day, will only buy toys made solely in the USA.

Week 7: How Much Does Class Matter?

I think class matters a lot in the U.S. today. We all probably have stories similar to the ones posted on the “People Like Us” website. I particularly identified with the girl who was an “Army Brat” and moved all around, only to end up in an affluent area where her Dad was not as elite as he was in her other neighborhoods.

But I’ve got a great example of how class can have an impact on your life – it’s actually my husband’s story. My husband grew up on Staten Island in New York City. He did not live on Todt Hill (as the fiancée in the clip on the “People Like Us” website), but he lived in a single-family home in a nice neighborhood. His father was an elementary school principal in Chinatown in Manhattan. His mother was a high school Spanish teacher. You could call his upbringing middle-middle-class. When my husband was in 8^th grade, his parents had him take a test and apply to a high school in Manhattan called Regis. Regis is an all-boys Catholic high school that is free to those who are accepted, based on their test scores. My husband got in and started taking the ferry and subway to school every day. During his senior year, he applied to some colleges and, while he was disappointed that he didn’t get into his first choice, Princeton, as many of his friends did, he ended up deciding to go to his safety school – another Ivy League college. After college, he moved around a bit, attended business school, and after many years of working in large banks around the country, he was finally named CEO of a bank.

What does this story tell us about class? Well, my husband will be the first to tell you that education is everything. And I’m not talking about the quality of the education. I’m talking LOCATION. Believe it or not, when interviewing for jobs recently, my husband was often asked about the high school he attended. The high school, people. Because the high school he attended had a good reputation, he was able to attend an Ivy League college where he met and befriended people from all over the world, from all income levels. He has maintained those friendships and, in this day and age, networking for jobs could not be more important. Having connections in high places has had a huge impact on his (and my!) life.

A couple years ago, I was talking with a former employer of mine and he told me proudly that his daughter had aced her SATs and had been accepted to the University of Maryland on a full scholarship and also to Brown (no scholarship). When I told my husband that my boss’s daughter had chosen a full ride at Maryland over paying for Brown, he couldn’t believe it. He didn’t see why anyone would value saving a buck now over the experience of attending the country’s most elite college. He just didn’t get it. His “pedigree,” if you will, has gotten him pretty far. You see, in his eyes, if you attend Brown, you get to build relationships with all sorts of amazing, smart, rich, powerful, and creative people. Throughout the rest of your life, you’ll have a connection with these people who could potentially one day help you in any number of situations.

I went to a regular, non-Ivy-League college, so I don’t have the perspective that my husband has. I think I did alright without it. But this is just one example of a guy who was born into a middle working class family and, through luck or intelligence or who-knows-what was able to rise up to the next level.