Thursday, December 17, 2009

My 2 cents

This class has really been a great learning experience for me. I came in as a Race and Ethnic studies major which I believe to be an anthropological field of study. However most of what I learn with race only pertains to the United States, so Anthropology was a breath of fresh air. It was great to look at other cultures and use the techniques of ethnography to understand things that I have been studying in the Unites States.
Another great part about this class is that it helps me immensly in Juvenile Hall. Ever since this class I have been taking great notes on the actions and institutions of the Juvenile Justice system. From these notes I am able to both track the progress of my teaching skills as well as what I am getting the incarcerated youth to study.
I cant stress how much it means to me, to fully understand other people. I know that this is a very hard task, but I think it is where much of my passion lies. Anthropology should be a required major, you can major in everything as long as you major in Anthropology as well. It would make sure that people understood how they effect other people, stumping all the ways in which people screw each other over around the globe.
All in all I love Anthropology, this is not the last you have seen of Bergen Milam

pg. 422 Exercises.

1) I would choose 3 VIP's. The first being Dave Chappelle. I think that for my day and age, he is one of the most well known racial activists, despite the fact that most people don't understand that he is a racial activist. He chose to attack racism through the lens of comedy, and he does it with such passion and creativity. He speaks of problems like internalized racism, definitions of whiteness, breaking down stereotypes, and exposing the institutionalized racism that still occurs in the United States. All of this is done through making people laugh, we may not know what we are seeing, but he is keeping peoples eyes on what is important, how race effects certain people.

I think my very important place would be the San Bernardino Juvenile Hall. This place has taught me more than University of Redlands has (no offense professor Cole). To be able to study how hundreds of thousands of children get their childhood taken away from them is an incredible experience. It's emotionally draining, as well as physically, but it is all worth it. TO be able to help a child understand that what he or she went through is not supposed to happen is something that everybody needs to experience. I know I dont know what is good for these kids, but I know that I can help them do what THEY wanna do, whatever it is.

2)I think my choice to choose Dave Chappelle is pretty telling where I'm from. I'm not from New York, but Chicago is pretty in tune with it's African American culture as well. I used to sit around with my friends and watch every new episode as I came out. However, most of my friends do not bother to analyze it in the ways that I do. I try and find his motivations, ideas or concepts that he wraps each skit around. Whenever I watch an episode I know that there is a deep meaning he is trying to convey so i try very hard to understand that.

The San Bernardino Juvenile Hall is a very interesting place for me to get attached to. Im not sure exactly why, but I do have one theory. I think that I like it so much because of the people that I grew up with in high school. I was a pretty bad kid and got into a lot of trouble, so when I see these same kids wrapped up in the bullshit that I was wrapped up in, my heart goes out. So in that sense my background has something to do with it. But it is more of a present day situation for me. It was something new that I chose to dive into.

Ethnographic study on U-Club

For my ethnographic study of food in Redlands I decided to observe people eating at the U-Club. The U-Club is the fanciest place on campus to eat so I figured peoples habits and actions would be pretty interesting there.

The first thing that I noticed was the amount of people present in the room, and how you were seated. The whole room dimly lit, and carpeted. The main eating area is set behind the waiting room and the Hostesses podium. Not very man people were there my first two times eating, a tuesday and a wednesday afternoon at 1. Parties with large amounts of peole are seated in the middle while everybody else is in small 3-4 person groups surrounding the outside of the room.

Another thing that stood out was how people spoke in U Club. everybody speaks very softly, one group even began whispering as some points. In comparison to the other eating establishments on campus this was very surprising. It is sometimes hard to hear ones own thoughts while manuevering through the 1220 rush in the commons, but in U Club everything is in good order and at a low decibal level.

Instead of the buffet line (often looked at as less classy), you order your food from a waiter, who after supplying you with a free appetizer of bread and olive spread will bring it to your table. I think that this shows how we value certain services in the United States. It would be informal for us to get up and get our own food, and more acceptable to have a waiter to take care of you.
The last thing that intrigued me was the tip. At U Club you are expected to tip the waiters, using your school lunch card! This above all is the signifier of a classy joint.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Anthropology and Work

Anthropology has been something that I continuously see myself taking part of further on in life. I I think that it is a very unique job that can and should be used in every field. One always needs an expert on the rule of the land, and all of the intertwining systems that need to be acknowledged before trying to bring change to a place, or even to fully understand a group of people.
I wasn't in class for the movie, so I'm writing more about my interests in pursuing Anthropology as a career. I am a Race and Ethnic studies major, also being a White male, I feel like anthropology is necessary for me to begin to understand the race relations and policies in our own country. We wouldn't have such great understanding of different familial structures or kin networks of we never had anthropologists jump into our own culture. There are tons of other examples oh how anthropology is important to studying race relations in all cultures.
Largely I would like to use anthropology with my work in Juvenile Hall. I volunteer every Thursday and Friday, and since taking this intro class, I have begun to improve my ethnographic skills, as well as improved my understanding of the Juvenile Hall. I imagine that I will be doing much more anthropological work in juvenile hall, and hopefully use it in my capstone when I am a senior.

The Link for the Crack Economy Article

Here is the Link to the article by Philippe Bourgois on the Crack Economy

www.philippebourgois.net/Nation%2095.pdf

Crack-enomics

This is a response to the article we read about the working conditions of people who sell crack.
Learning about the hours, and time that dealers spend working was a very interesting twist to the perspectives that are commonly associated with people who sell drugs. I think that it really reveals the hidden prejudice we have against these people, and shows how we use those prejudices to project an image on to people we have never allowed to speak for themselves. This article interested me for many reasons, it deals with race and class, it flips a common perspective, but mostly it speaks about a population that I am somewhat familiar with.
In high school I was friends with several people who sold drugs, and I learned a lot about the inner workings of these systems very early on in life. I understand that selling drugs and especially crack is not an easy job, and requires a lot of responsibility and stress to keep the business running. What I first noticed was how quickly people were to say that selling drugs is easy. It tells me the lack of appreciation and understand of the issues that people in poverty face. To me I don't see it at how easy it is to sell drugs, but how hard it is to get a legitimate job that is close to where you live, and pays a living wage. People would not resort to a dangerous, time consuming job like selling drugs if they could use that same motivation and get enough bang for their buck in the legal world.
I think this article did a great job at explaining the differences and similarities between a legal job and selling crack. However, it did a better job at revealing societies problems of dealing with poverty. Selling drugs is a direct product of poverty, it is something that society pushes on people. People sell drugs out of necessity, necessity for money, food and respect. It is not an issue of peoples morals, except for the politicians who turn a blind eye towards the millions of people living in poverty.

Student Initiated Study of Parties

For my first student initiated study, I chose to explore the norms of the party life, via my eldest brothers Halloween party. Partying is always portrayed as a huge part of college (great way to spend Mom's money), and as a result, there has been a long history of the culture of parties. I will be comparing and contrasting my eldest brothers party with the parties I encounter at the University Of Redlands. There are a couple variables that must be put out on the table before we proceed. First, my brother is in Graduate School and as a result, everyone of the people at his party besides me, were also graduate students. Second, it is legal for everyone at his party to be drunk, or to drink while there.
The first thing difference I noticed between the two party scenes would be the entrance of a guest. For most parties in Redlands, no one is alerted when someone enters a party, they simply walk in and blend in with the crowds of people mulling about. When someone would enter my brothers' party, the rest of the people were alerted, and that guest usually brought some sort of food or beverage with them as a gift. I think this is important because it shows the relationship of the guests with the host as well as the rest of the guests. My brothers' party was much more personal, while parties at Redlands are more open to the public and strangers to the host.
One thing I found to be similar between the two parties was the position of crowds of people. In both scenes, the largest population of people were circled around the bar, or whatever alcoholic beverages were being served. The second largest crowd of people resides outside, on the balcony or in the backyard. Both of these crowds are similar in both situations, for what I feel to be the same reason. Both of these locations serve functions, both social and physical. The bar serves as the place to acquire alcohol, but it is also the place to meet new people, to introduce yourself or to help someone you don't know with their drink. Likewise the balcony, or backyard is used as a smoking depot. Smoking, is also a social action, which helps strangers meet each other and have a conversation for as long as their cigarette burns.
The biggest shock to me, was the similarities between the two scenes. I thought going into this study that the two places would be completely different , primarily due to the maturity levels of both groups. However, this wasn't so, despite the more personal atmosphere of my brothers' party, it was nearly identical to a party I'd visit at the University of Redlands.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

My Body

Portfolio Assignment
Chapter 6, Exercise 2

Honestly, I can't remember a time when I wasn't feeling pressures or criticisms on my body. Whether people were actually criticizing me, or whether I was just feeling societies pressures, I'm not sure, I'm not sure the differences are too great. I'm the youngest of 3 siblings, 2 brothers and 1 sister, and we constantly harassed each other at any given opportunity. No one in my family would be considered overweight, but growing up I was definitely the chubby one. My family would never say anything to make me feel bad, but I got little jokes and side remarks quite frequently.
I think that this is because my family is part of a society that values a certain set of looks. Unfortunately, we value a set of looks that is very hard to accomplish while still maintaining good health. My family valued good health higher than achieving these good looks, but still used this perspective of beauty as their orientation to looking healthy. I was ushered into soccer as a way to stay healthy and keep active, which I played all the way through high school. In high school, I learned how to appreciate my healthiness versus my body definition. However, I began working out and lifting weights in order to start shaping my body to fit our cultural norms. I think that men have it easier, and my pressures in high school were never anything that would effect my mood or happiness. I knew girls that were greatly effected by these norms, and I think men are a lot quicker to disregard a woman that is not considered "pretty".
Beauty is purely cultural, you can look at different standards of beauty within our own country as evidence. Our culture has been increasing the importance of being thin, and sometimes unhealthily thin. Delaney talks about Marilyn Monroe being a size 12, while most admired women now-a-days are around sizes 2 or 3. The media is a huge contributor to this, mostly because they primarily choose women who hold these unreasonable standards of beauty as representations of all women. I think that a lot of people can surpass our cultural importance of beauty and realize the importance of who the man or woman really is. There is a group of people in our own culture that refuse to abide by our standards of beauty, these people are confident in who they are and know where true beauty lies.

List of Technologies I used Today

1. Cell phone
2. Electric Shaver
3. Ipod
4. Nintendo Wii
5. Flat Screen TV
6. Laptop (internet)
7. Stereo
8. Mini-Fridge
9. Printer
10. Car
11. Credit Card
12. Tivo
13. Lunch Card
14. Calculator

My thoughts on technology

Portfolio #5
Technology Use

It's hard to gauge how exactly how critical technology is in my life. Right now I'm thinking it probably effects 90% of my life, at least. I think back to my early childhood, and laugh at the outdated electronics I grew up using. I remember using those really big floppy disks, to play computer games on my fathers old computer, or the very first GameBoy that was roughly the size of a brick. I keep thinking back and I never had a time in my life where I wasn't using continuously developing electronics, or other technologies. My generation is a slave to technology, and from an early age we learn to master all the technologies we incorporate into our daily routines.
I found Danah Boyd's article on the class divisions between Facebook and Myspace to be extremely interesting, and disturbing. I first joined Facebook my Sophomore year in high school. I did not want to join at first, and thought that because all my friends were doing it, then it must be something that everybody is doing, and I didn't want to be a part of any clique. However, I ended up joining Facebook and would use it daily from there until this summer. I think about how people spoke of the differences between Facebook and Myspace at my high school, and they were mostly based around trends. Myspace was known as an alternative thing, it was mostly for musicians, artists and alternative style kids (emos, goths, punks, etc.). Facebook was seen as something new and good because it could make you ultra-social, all of a sudden you could know everyones business at any point in time. I think that there are class struggles behind these divisions I saw in high school as well, and the Boyd article helped reveal that to me.
I recently deleted my Facebook, due to the following reasons. First I did not like the idea that by having a Facebook I was pretty much creating an online, photo-journal of my life, for everyone to see. I think it's creepy and dangerous to have information about you saved onto an internet database for the rest of your life. Second, I think that life is a lot more interesting when you allow your relationships to be tested by time and distance. Facebook allows you to be with your friends whenever and wherever you are, which can be beneficial, no doubt. However, It takes away the mystery and magic that existed within the relationships you had with certain people.
Technology is exponentially growing in our country, and every new generation that comes will be expected to have a greater and greater reliance on technology. American culture is all about faster and more efficient, and technology is the only that both of those increase. This greatly effects our sense of time, technology has caused us to be able to find the most minimal ways to measure time. As long as these extremely small units of time exist, we will be measured up against them, constantly trying to shave off a nano second at every corner.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Money Relations

My Relationship With Money

My relationship with money is pretty sad. Currently my primary source of income comes from mooching off of my mother, quite impressive, I know. Right now, I feel that's okay though. My food is already payed for, I don't have a car, and I have no medication I need to buy, my need for money is at an all time low. The most expensive aspect of my life would be personal entertainment. If I could find a way to keep my self entertained for free, I would barely have a need for money at all.
In the past, however, I have had quite a different relationship with money. I was the first and only child to have a legal job during high school amongst my siblings. I began working at 15 for a summer camp over the summer, the next summer I worked as a landscaper in Aspen, Colorado, my junior year in high school I began working at a local pizza shop, where I worked until I left for college, finally last year I worked as a research assistant for Jennifer Tilton. These are all times in my life where I felt that I needed a source of income in order to make myself happy.
When critically looking at the reasons I first decided to join the workforce, a large theme continuously reappears. My father left my family when I was 13, and the vacuum of structure that resulted from this greatly warped my mind. I began to demand much more independence from my mother almost instantly after my father left, this coupled with the changes my body were going through led me to believe that freedom could only be reached economically. I felt that I could talk and think about being independent all I wanted, but to go out and be independent means to get a job, make money, and buy the things you want with it.
Living 2000 miles away from the place I grew up in has greatly changed my views on independence now, which in turn has changed my relationship with money. I feel that being alone and living in an environment where I am the master of my domain declares my independence, not whether or not I make money. Sure there are plenty of things I could spend money on, but I am just as comfortable, not working and not acquiring them.

Chapter 2 exercise

Portfolio Assignment
Delaney, Chapter 2, pg. 74

1. The spatial divisions that I noticed at the University of Redlands are all pretty unique to the college experience. It's not too often that you find a large open space within an urban environment that is purely designed for the entertainment of students. Open, recreational, space is something that the designer of our school must have appreciated, we have the main quad, freshman quad, fire pit and orange groves.
Apart from that, we have very defined spaces dealing with work and leisure as well, however, in some instances the two of these overlap. First of all there are certain buildings designated for "work" or studying. We have buildings like the Hall of Letters, Duke Hall, Larsen Hall, Gregory and others that are purely designed for an academic function, they are places we go to learn. We also have places like the pool, or the basement of my dorm, where we play billiards, that are designed for entertainment and leisure. There are also places where these two worlds collide, such as the lobby of Hunsaker. In the lobby on any given day you can find an arrangement of students studying, conversing or playing pool. Hunsaker would be considered a liminal space, not quite work, not quite leisure.
The final differences in spatial division that I noticed were between dorms. I live in Fairmont Hall, which is a hall designed around social justice and promoting equality. There are several other themed living environments as well, Merriam focuses on environmental science, North is a substance-free hall, Williams only accepts freshman, Grossmont is an all-girls dorm, and Johnston is living in it's own little world. These spatial divisions separate students by beliefs, or interests. Almost acting as nation states, each hall has it's own agenda.

2. There are a couple ways in which different categories of people relate to different spaces. The most obvious one to a young man like myself would be what we call "Frat Row". On campus we have a block of houses that belong to the greek life on campus. They have their own section of campus and congruently focus most of their time on the people and events that go on in that side. Fraternities and Sororities frequently throw parties, where a majority of the people that attend are also part of the same or other greek houses.
Another example of how space relates to certain groups deals with the janitorial staff at our school. They move within the back kitchens, store rooms, bathrooms and other unseen locations, they are the people behind the scenes of Redlands. They have their own groups of coworkers, work amongst themselves and from what I've been noticing the past week eat and socialize amongst themselves as well. Other staff such as professors or secretaries tend to separate themselves from these workers, both spatially and socially. However, the maintenance staff are never considered intrusive, they have the capability to enter any building on campus and not be considered out-of-place.
One last way that certain groups are spatially separated is by mobility. Our campus is designed around walking, every building on campus is within a 5 to 10 minute walk from any given location. However, our school isn't quite handicap friendly. Buildings like Hall of Letters and Duke are handicap accessible, but are on top of a huge hill that would provide turbulence for someone who has a hard time walking or is in a wheelchair. My dorm and several others that I have noticed have no handicap entrance, and would be quite impossible for someone who is in a wheelchair to navigate between floor levels. This separates those who can manipulate stairs and those who can not.

3. I think the University of Redlands specifically defines activities by space intentionally. I think that they do this in order to provide organization for the constant flow of students in and out of Redlands. By defining certain spaces with certain activities you can guarantee that every time you need to do a certain activity you can get it done at this certain place, which is great for students that constantly have an agenda they need to take care of daily. We have a fitness center that is specifically designed for exercise, I have never seen anyone studying in there, and I probably never will. We have the Chapel that is designed for prayer and worship, but also for public speakers and choir rehearsals. We have a football stadium for sporting events, and a commons for eating. All of these places have certain functions, and when looking at the architecture, one often finds these places are structurally designed for these certain activities.

Response to Malinowski reading

Portfolio Assignment #2

When I think of Myths, my first instinct is Greek mythology. I have an aunt that lives in Greece, and for every gift-giving holiday, I received some sort of book on Greek mythology. I think of mythology as folklore, or storytelling. I think that the reason why the myths were created we to teach the people in that society important life lessons. It's function is to prove by example that acting a certain way will lead you to a certain place. I always considered these myths some what universal, I thought the morals and ethics they used could be applied to everyone, and that each persons perspective could use the myth for their own purpose.
However, Malinowski begs to differ. He states that above all Myths and Magic are "cultural forces". He says that these two things can be used to analyze how people lived, their relationship with nature and the unknown, and the economic concerns of man. Malinowski says, "...We have realized that myth serves principally to establish a sociological charter, or a retrospective moral pattern of behavior." By studying myth, we can backtrack to figure out these things from civilizations that have long been assimilated into industrialized culture. Malinowski explains that myths are constantly regenerated, rewritten from generation to generation in order to keep cultural relevance.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Assignment #1 Questions

Portfolio #1
Answers to Questions:

1. I think that participation in my fieldwork was crucial for gaining the depth I found in my experience in San Bernardino Juvenile Hall. Especially in this unique environment, my participation directly effects how the class will unfold and what information will be shared. I found that the inmates give you only as much as you give them, if you are reserved and afraid to give them 100% of your devotion they pick up on it and return the same energy back to you. I think that participating helps assimilate yourself into the environment your studying, instead of being an outside observer you become one of them, actively participating in the same events they are.
By participating I was able to compare their stories versus mine, and provide that comparison for them as well. This class is for both our and their learning, by participating I allow them to learn from my experiences as well. It allows for them to gain a perspective they might not be so familiar with.

2. Having a key informant added perspective to my understanding. Jennifer Tilton has been working in Juvenile Halls for years, and having her break it down really helped in my understanding of what exactly I was observing. She helped me go from seeing this as a personal experience to analyzing the power schemes and social institutions directing our incarcerated youth. Having a key informant allowed for a critique of my behavior as well. Jen and I talked about my role as a mentor/participant/volunteer. This is important because it gets me to analyze why I act a certain way during our sessions and what are the results of that.

3. First of all, I think that a questionnaire would be met with horrible results in the population that I was working within. Most of these young women have only seen questionnaires like this in school, and most of them had horrible experiences with school. When an impersonal, formatted, question-answer questionnaire is seen by these girls, most of them would pretty much blow it off. As I stated in my notes, most of these young ladies used personal stories to illustrate their points, this isn't very possible with a questionnaire, it doesn't provide an open environment where they feel they can tell these personal experiences. By involving myself in the activities, I gained perspective on my position within the social institutions I'm studying, this also is not possible with a questionnaire.

4. A questionnaire would be great for gathering statistics within these groups. By gathering written data, you could be able to see how many people have the same feelings on certain subjects. This could be formatted into statistics about how incarcerated youth think about whatever the questionnaire is asking. It's also a more efficient way of gathering information. In a participant-observation, there are a lot of tangents and often times we stray from the topic at hand, a questionnaire makes sure you're answering questions they think are important. Honestly, I think those are the only upsides to a questionnaire, all-in-all I find them very misleading and don't capture the true beliefs of the individuals represented.

I am Poem example

Portfolio Assignment #1

Portfolio Assignment #1
Debriefing Notes

I chose to do my participant observation at the Juvenile Hall that I volunteer at every Friday. On September 25th, me and two female volunteers led a creative writing class in Unit 1 of the San Bernardino Juvenile Hall, the female unit. The two female volunteers were the main facilitators of the lesson and I was more or less an observer. They structured the class so that we would read a poem about personal identity, discuss it, write an "I Am Poem", then one last reflective writing on the whole topic of the day.
I woke up this Friday morning feeling a little nervous, it was my first time entering Juvenile Hall since spring semester. My previous experiences volunteering have taught me that you need to enter these types of environments with the most positivity that you can muster up, so I was really focusing on having a productive session. I entered the Juvenile Hall complex with the two other volunteers, and after signing in with security and briefing with the head teacher of the Juvenile Hall we proceeded to the classroom we were going to work in. Most of the guards were very nice, however few introduced themselves, and two gave us, volunteers, some annoyed looks. Despite some of their ill feelings they all fully cooperated with our needs and demands for the class.
I opened the door to a classroom of 14 brown and black teenage women. I was immediately flooded a wave of emotion and information. First of all, I had been expecting to work with young men, since they hold a larger population, and partially because of my instinctive ideas of what someone in juvenile hall looks like (i.e. male, person of color etc.). The classroom smelled of Lysol disinfectant spray, and the desks creaked as the young women sat up straight and gripped the front of their desks with two hands. Juvenile Hall is loaded with rules and protocol that both the faculty and the inmates are well educated in. These rules range from sitting at attention and grabbing the front of their desk whenever someone of authority enter the room, to walking with their hands clasped behind their back to refraining from using profanity. These rules are related to a point system, in which each inmate are given certain amounts of points, which allow them to certain liberties and privileges. When an inmate breaks a rule, depending on how the authoritative figure interprets the severity, a certain amount of points are taken away, prohibiting them from certain activities or material goods. Inmates and teachers/authority figures know each others boundaries, some young women knew which rules their teacher would allow them to break (i.e. profanity), and how far they could push the boundaries. Teachers in turn know which students they can rely on to pass out pencils, or do other tasks and chores, there is obviously a social structure between students and authority. Some inmates were interpreters between the two groups.
Before we read the poem, each of the volunteers said something about themselves, I was very particular with that I said because I was one of the only white people in the room, as well as being the only male besides the teacher. I refrained from trying to explain my complicated reasons for volunteering and instead told them that I was simply here to "kick it" and hang out with them. The were quite warm to this remark and seemed to approve the way I carried myself and spoke. We read a poem about personal identity, which received mixed reviews from the young women. I noticed that when we asked for a volunteer to read, several hand went up. In the boys unit that I worked in last year this was rare, and it usually took a little time to get them to loosen up. We asked them to choose lines that stood out to them and explain why they were significant. 3 girls chose to speak, and all of the lines they chose had to do with self change. After we read the poem we wrote our own poems to a certain format given to us. I read mine first, choosing to disregard the format I wrote about who i was and where I came from. All the girls clapped when I finished speaking. The young women also disregarded the format, one girl chose to write a page long rap about who she was.
Often times during our discussions the girls would recount personal experiences in order to explain a point. I thought this was interesting, they were very open about some very personal events in their life. After 45 minutes of activities and discussion we spent the last 15 to 25 minutes writing our last reflection for the class. When I looked around, every girl except for 1 was writing. The one girl that wasn't writing had a very annoyed look and seemed to not want to be there. Most of the girls were very cooperative with the group, and contributed positively. Congruently the girls were very nice with all of us too, while maintaining their own air of confidence. They never spared us from whatever it was they were thinking at the time.
The leader of our volunteer group, Professor Jennifer Tilton, was my key informant, she was present that day and a couple days later we had a meeting to describe what we had observed. We examined the different levels of what our class was doing, and the meaning behind our interactions within Juvenile Hall. She explained the balance of emotion and social investigation that results from our volunteer sessions. While we are providing a creative, productive environment for the inmates to express themselves, we are also getting them to think critically of their own lives, and place themselves within a social structure. We spoke about my position as a volunteer, and the battle of being a mentor versus a friend or an authoritative figure. I declared my insecurities of being an authoritative figure and she explained the importance of some sense of authority. All together we are giving the inmates in Juvenile hall new alternatives. We are listening to a voice that has been silenced and disregarded, and in turn these inmates are being able to express their ideas and emotions to an attentive audience.

Song About Me

I feel like this song is very representative of where my mind is right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx23fTR0Ojk

Introduction

Whats Good?

My name is Bergen Milam, born in San Antonio, Texas, but Chicago raised. I'm a 5 foot 11 inch vegetarian that loves Tabasco hot sauce and idolizes the Simpsons. I don't think I'd be able to stay sane for long without my stereo, and I have a passionate love for Hip-Hop in particular. Coupling my love with Hip-Hop is my past time as a painter, I've been painting graffiti for the past 6 years and have been painting canvas for the last 3. I decided to take Intro to Cultural Anthropology because I am a Race and Ethnic Studies major and feel that these things correlate very well. I've always been a "people watcher" and by that I mean I've always had a blast watching how people interact in certain environments, which probably sparked my interest in Anthropology (I also love Seinfeld).

I really enjoy the class so far, I think it's really increased my capability of analyzing the social structures that have been haunting my life since I first became aware of them my senior year in High School. It's very humbling to learn that everything we think is normal isn't considered such everywhere. Anthropology reinforces my beliefs relating to race and gender, both being social constructs, governing nearly every aspect of our lives. I'm very excited to see how this class changes my life.