Colby Wedgeworth

Ethnography Presentation

Adoption Documentary

This video was very interesting. This woman was very unlucky to have been in the situation she was at the time she was at the orphanage and was sent to America. To grow up in a completely different country where you do not look like anyone around must be hard to take in as a child. Then for her as an adult to find her family and find out she was chosen to be cast aside to save money and try to give her a better life must have been hard to deal with. Growing up away from your real family's culture can change the way your family sees you because you act completely out of the norm and different than the entire family. These things are traumatizing for orphans, in this link, an adoption site has a forum basically where people talk about their experiences. This article depicts a situation similar to that of the woman in this video.   

<http://library.adoption.com/articles/adoption-trauma-that-last-a-life-time.html >

White Privilage

I personally do not like this article or the idea of white supremacy, now or in the past. I feel these controversial topics never seem to go away and with that racism will not go away. Its no a problem solvable overnight, clearly, but it seems society is holding onto racism for some reason. our laws are all based around different genders and races and being a different gender or race still gains you more benefits or misfortune. With the eradication of these specific laws towards different genders and races we need to explore a different approach to the problem. Our current situation is not helping much and we need to get away from this alienating mindset.
This site focuses on equal opportunity and the law set to keep it in place. The world needs to learn to look at people as people and not discriminate or were just going to keep racism alive. <http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/discrimination/ethnicdisc.htm>

Mixed Blood

This article focuses on the IQ of different races. The point comes up that some people, although black or brown, do not consider themselves black. This fact is interesting and controversial. The idea of race in itself, although controversial, is based on how society sees you. Racism for example is the bashing of a certain race and the entire fight against racism is based on the idea that they are not the way society perceives them. Point of view plays a big role is racism and in designating someone a certain race. You are seen the way you are by other people in their opinions and there is no way to change that.

Just Another Job?

Domestic workers are extremely important to a certain lifestyle. More extravagant, powerful people like to live leisurely lives so they hire domestic workers to better satisfy their desired way of life. Domestic workers are generally disrespected. Cleaning after someone or doing someone's laundry just gives the idea that you are in at least some way not as good as the other person. This is not necessarily the case though, as mentioned in the end of the article, many migrant workers take up domestic work and have no choice but to take undesirable demeaning jobs because they are already seen as lower class citizens because they came from somewhere else to start fresh or they are from a nation where perhaps the woman has always stayed at home but now needs to help cover the increase in bills and all they know how to do is domestic work. These workers should be further respected and have their stereotype dropped.

Why Tourism Matters

The social impacts of tourism are intriguing to me. The article points how how frequent large numbers of tourists in a certain area can overwhelm those people and cause inflation in their society just because of the number of tourists who visit. For example perhaps, in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach generates quite a few tourists year round. Resulting form this it can be hard to find a store that is not built for tourists. You can drive down a whole strip and it will be just constant thrift shops and trinket stores. For people who are spoiled with this coastal lifestyle can find themselves in a constant flurry of people who do not know where they are going or just the large number of people is enough to drive them over the edge. Another example could be near disney world. things are aged down for the younger audience who is attracted to that theme park. Just all of the adjustments that must be made have a great affect on the people in that are. For more examples of tourism issues this site provides a good over view of the situation and provides many links to new articles involving these situations <http://www.twnside.org.sg/tour.htm>

The Mark of Cain

This video was very disturbing to me. I recently read a book in an English class that was set in a Russian gulag and the entire concept is simply grotesque. The people in these gulags are poorly fed and simply chaotic. So much murder, deceit, and drugs go through these systems and they are in a sense some extremely corrupt prisons. Guards can torture prisoners and the prisoners are already tortured just based off of their living conditions go. The social class based off the tattoos was, however, very interesting and it is cool to see how all cultural groups develop based on their conditions. For more about gulags and how stalin brought them to power i suggest visiting this site<http://gulaghistory.org/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/> it provides good background information and insight into the system.