Most important concept

The most important concepts I learned this semester were hegemonic masculinity and the feminist movements we talked about. Before this class I had always taught that a men should be strong and provide for his family no matter the circumstances. However, I learned that this idea doesn't play out all the time for all man because of their race, and social identity. Lastly before this class I never heard of Angela Davis at all. I did some extra research outside of class and found out that she is a key put to a civil rights movement for woman of color with her radical ideas and standing up for freedom and justice for people of color. Her book gave me a new understanding of how the woman suffrage movement began and is still a struggle for women and minorities.

Biggest Takeaway

There are two topics that we talked about throughout this semester that are most important as they are issues that are not discussed or brought to mainstream attention on the norm.  The first is men's lives and masculinities. We here about feminism and civil rights but an issue that is downplayed is expectations that the male population faces.  Hegemonic masculinity is the dominant form or expectation of masculinity that men are expected to live up to.  We think of men as strong, confident, and can provide for family.  This brought to my attention that what if men don't live up to these standards? Are they seen as wimpy and unsuccessful? Sometimes I think unrightfully so. I disagreed with a few issues the author brought up like the fact that women are used as a currency in masculinity but not the focal point of male ideals when proving themselves.  This may be true in some regards but disregards women in general which goes to show that this author doesn't see men and women as equals.

The second topic that was an important take away from this class was the Chicano movement. As a society we discuss African American rights, Native American rights, and even initial discrimination of immigrants from Europe and Asia. However, Chicano's seem to be skimmed over in mainstream issues along with migrants from Mexico.  The border theory brings this issue to attention as we must think about geographical lines that separate cultural borders as well as hybrid spaces.  It's important to think about all of these issues that we face and question everything we see in mainstream media and society.  Many people are forgotten or shoved in a little box that forms their groups' stereotypes, which forgets important aspects  of every individual.

The most important theme from class...
To me one of the most interesting topics from class was covered early in Whiteness of a Different Color, by Matthew Jacobsen. It discussed the assimilation period for european ethnic groups which were not of Anglo heritage. This was interesting to me because i had never really thought about that process. The text showed that each ethnic group went through a process of stratification initially, denying them of the freedoms the went to America for. It was also interesting how the process of assimilation was completed for each european group, with the entries of other ethnic groups (Hispanics,Asian-Americans, etc). The repeated process of denying new immigrants an easy transition into american society is a blight on our nations history which probably isnt talked about enough.

Most Important Concept

To me the most important concept that we learned this semester was a new term for me. Racial lumping and the entire Asian Panethnicity issue was really interesting to me. I felt that during that unit I learned completely new information that I knew nothing about previously. Racial lumping was a topic that was discussed a lot throughout Espiritu's book. I had never heard the term before, but after learning about the term I realized it was something that I do without knowing I was doing it. It opened my mind to realize that racial lumping is something that bothers those who are racially lumped. The entire Asian American Panethnicity book was interesting to me because it was something I had never been taught about before. So to me that book and unit was the most important thing that I learned in this class. And then one concept from that unit; racial lumping, would be the most important concept that I have learned. Although I must add, I found a new concept throughout every unit we went through this semester and I found a way to gain new information through each new book and unit during this semester.

Most Important Concept

We have covered a lot of topics this semester, but personally, the most important concept I learned was the idea of racial lumping. This idea struck me because I have been racially lumped before and I didn't even realize that there was a word for it! The fact that most Asian-Americans, as well as Latin-Americans, face this kind of discrimination is very unfortunate, but if we continue to learn about different cultures within different races, and begin to differentiate between ethnicities, racial lumping may not necessarily become obsolete, but it will start to decrease.

What is the most important concept I learned in this class?

This is a tough question to answer since we have covered so much ground in so many topics. If I had to pick a subject in this class, it would be a tie on our sections on masculinity and cartoons. It was very interesting reading Michael Kimmel's book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History, because the history, hows, and whys in manhood today don't seem to have a clear cut definition to them. This made it interesting in learning in the different types of masculinity and how certain ethnicity's deal with being a man as well. Christopher Lehman's book, The Colored Cartoon, was also very interesting. All of the information presented in that book was new to me. I had no idea just how big the roles of blackface and African Americans played in early American cartoons, especially since I remember seeing so many re-runs of the classics. Now I have a complexity different perspective on these shows and can see them in a new way.

Important Concept

I think that the most important concept from this class, for me, would be from our unit on Women's Movements and Feminine Identities. It's always interesting to learn about what women in history did to make things the way they are today; it's crazy to think about how things would be had those moments in history not happened. That being said, I really enjoyed reading Women, Race, and Class by Davis. It gave me more information than I previously had about these Feminine Movements throughout history.