Thoughts

Put the better stuff on here from my old blog keari.tumblr.com

When asked how to solve racism, the answer I hear from a lot of white people is “don’t see color”. For one I want to point out that this is a great step from blatant racism. Being “color-blind” is much better than being color prejudice. However, thinking you are “color-blind” doesn’t necessarily correlate to lack of racist behavior such as micro-aggressions. This can be something like being especially self-conscious or cautious when a Black man enters a bus and sits next to you rather than a white one. Sure, you could argue that as humans we naturally schematize things accordingly. You might say, well gee, the reason I flinch when the Black guy sits next to me is because they are most likely to commit crimes. I want to just side note the amount of subliminal racism and micro-aggression that occur in racial profiling as well as media portrayals, but with that aside, why do Black people, and Black men in particular commit more crimes? Socioeconomic status....

It seems the world was awash with a flood of empathy arising from the Kony 2012 video released earlier last week. Sadly, that motivation for change, that inkling against bureaucratic apathy, that we, the american citizen had a voice and could change the world was eroded away with criticism. Yet it no-one criticized the criticism.  American citizens and the world alike have slouched back into political apathy, but this time feeling justified.  It is clear to me that the criticisms need to be resolved directly. I want to stress that this isn’t an attempt to say that invisible children is THE perfect charity out there, indeed it is probably not (although its efficacy is unprecedented) but rather that we shouldn’t waste all of the effort and sweat that thousands of empathetic americans like yourself to create such a beautifully successful campaign go to waste. I would even argue that the charity, although not perfect, is very good. For a simple answer, here is a response fro...

Talked to my Astronomy TA after class. She noted in discussion about how Venus’s atmosphere can be taken as a sort of warning to what Earth could (and is on the path to) become. Basically Venus has such an abundance of greenhouse gases in its atmosphere that nothing can escape, and thus it is inhabitable and crazy hot. When I talked to her after class I asked her if she thought we had reached our tipping point or not (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, tipping point essentially refers to the point of no return. Basically the Earth functions as a feedback loop so once a certain level of destruction happens, for instance if the the Earth warms to a certain degree, glaciers start melting and ocean temperatures increase which expels even more CO2 into the air then it will continue into a continuous feedback loop on its own, even without our intervention. So the essential question, is can we make it so Earth will not be destroyed or is it too late) She talked about ...

Hey you guys, I know you guys are busy and hectic with all the midterm grading, but I just wanted to present an original hypothesis/theoretical framework of mine regarding affinity spaces and participatory culture. I’ll give you the long and the short of it so that you can read as little or much as you choose. I definitely value your feedback and am just curious what you think of this. If you think it is valid, it may very well change the way we understand affinity spaces, participatory culture and education. So  the short of   it is this. My theory/hypothesis is that our short term and long term learning interests/motivations/passions are usually linked to using learning as a tool to gain social status in a group. In this context we can understand affinity spaces and participatory culture in a new way. The reason these spaces might be better learning environments is because learning in these environment directly relates to social status in the group. This can be easily ex...

(Original Work)                 Fraternity rape culture continues to be an unattended and mystical issue among universities nationwide. In the journal article “Wales Tales, Dog piles, and Beer Goggles: An Ethnographic Case Study of Fraternity Life” Rhoads reminds us that “half of all reported acquaintance rapes were committed by fraternity members and athletes” (307). Patricia Yancy Martin and Robert Hummer push further that “over 90 percent of all gang rapes on college campuses involve fraternity men” (458) While the statistics are clear the reasons are not. Elizabeth Armstrong and colleagues speculate that the use of alcohol as a scarce resource creates an environment where fraternity brothers have leverage over women and can dictate the party atmosphere (489-490). Paula Nurius and colleagues point the finger at the gap between perceived risk and actual risk at fraternity parties and ultimately women’s inab...