Slavery, Freakery, Feminism, Homosexualizm, what's next?

When learning and talking about each of these three topics individually, it's hard to notice the trend but when going back through all of my notes I couldn't help but to notice this trend. In the U.S., we first started with slavery, making Blacks the minority almost as if they were not even humans, completely unequal. Once slavery began to end and blacks started to become integrated into society, still with inequalities but becoming more 'human-like', freak shows began to emerge. Freak shows were dehumanizing somewhat like Blacks during slavery, both of these notions were essentially for the entertainment/help of U.S. white citizens. Once Freaks became people with psychological problems, they were rejected by the U.S. population. Also around the same time as freak shows came feminism, this idea that women were now speaking out about inequality, almost like the slaves and freaks. Now women were fighting for their rights, fighting out against men. Once all of these problems were essentially 'solved', Homosexualism began, people fighting out against gays and lesbians. Now homosexuals had to fight for their rights, fight to be an equal part of society. Today homosexuals are still slowly gaining their rights in order for full equality. However, in society today I feel that each of these types of individuals (Blacks, Freaks, women, and homosexuals) are still trying to become completely equal to white straight males. Will all individuals in our society ever be truly equal? If not, I wonder what will come next, who else can our society point the finger at? I am definitely interested in this notion, and I personally would not be able to imagine what type of individuals will be in the light next, if any.

Religion and Class Reflection

Personally, religion is not something that is held sacred to me. In fact, every since I can remember, I have always been told that there are two thing you never talk about in: religion and politics. I was told that those are the worst things to argue about because there is never any real correct or incorrect answers. Although I do believe that it is not something that should be discussed, I do believe it is something that should be accepted. Living in America, it only makes sense that there are many different types of religions in our nation. Due to all of the diversity, I think everyone should be able to express whatever they believe however they want to do it as long as it endangers no one. The chapter talks about how being Christian is a typical religion of America but in my opinion, I think there should be no typical religion. Why should we care what others practice in the comfort of their own homes?

And for the reflection of this course, I loved this course. I consider myself to be very open minded but just like most people, I have my many strong beliefs about certain things. This class really opened up my eyes to things and showed me a lot and I am very thankful for that. I also think this class was really fun and engaging and I liked the fact that we all could speak our mind and I felt as though no one was ever judged and I think thats a hard thing to do.

What I Have Learned

Throughout the semester I have learned about the issues of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, and class to name a few, as well as how all of these things shape American culture. One important thing that I have learned is that these topics overlap heavily and to understand one you must also have an understanding of the rest. I was also introduced to the concept of the "other", something i was unfamiliar with. I learned how social construction can shape a person's life and can hinder their ability to participate in society. Overall, this class helped to teach me a lot about how our culture has become what it has and how that has impacted the people of America

Semester Reflection

This class has definitely helped me gain an incentive to work towards confronting institutionalized racism, discrimination, to blatant racism. Although we did not cover extensively about it in class, I feel that it was just enough to lay the foundations to help others work towards confronting it.

I learned about disability as discrimination to music as segregation. It would not have occurred to me that swing dance was "whitened". I always thought of it as a white thing in the 1920's...

Overall, I was satisfied with the course - I thought instead of lecturing for an hour and twenty minutes, presenting music and clips were an invigorating and welcoming approach.

Reflection on the Semester

I feel like I have learned a lot from this class and in a way that will stick in my mind rather than just forgetting it all after December. I learned that music and music videos are not just created to entertain people and make money; they can teach us a lot about society and issues in our culture. Especially rap music, which is highly debated because of the way life is portrayed in the videos and how women are used as objects. I also learned that race is a socially constructed idea, as is the term freak, and both were developed to help make sense of "the other." Another interesting part of the course was learning about the Irish and how tough life was for them when they first came to America. This course has taught me much more and these are just the first three things that came to mind, but I definitely benefited from taking American Studies.

Separation of Church and State

Campbell and Kean state that Thomas Jefferson believed that the First Amendment of the US Constitution intended for a separation of church and state. What Jefferson believed may be somewhat correct it is not entirely. One example is that same sex marriage is not recognized across American. The only reason for this seems to be that it is not intended for two men or two women to be married in the Bible which shows that religion is factoring into government when it is not meant to. However, a counter example would be the Muslim group that is trying to build a mosque at Ground Zero. So far the mosque is still going to be built even though many Americans are against it.

Religions affect on America

I believe religion is a big part of american culture many people practice religion in America. I am not very religious but when i was younger I used to be involved in religious studies as a majority of students were probably also. Kean talks about how Americas population has become very diverse with many new religions such as Judaism and Islam. The typical mans religion in the United States is the christian religion and has been since the 1800's.Evangelicalism is a interesting religious expression in America today the latest type of political conservative evangelicalism is the issue of abortion. Many people are torn on this topic and the religious aspect ties into there decisions greatly.