Our Community Partner

For our research project, our team met up with local 4-H leader Patti Segulja, leader of the Broken Bit’s 4-H group.

4-H is a global, non-profit organization with many different programs, including performing arts clubs, debate clubs, knitting clubs, robotics clubs, ect. Broken Bit’s is a one of many horse clubs in 4-H, and is based in Snohomish County.

We met with Patti to ask some questions about her 4-H club and 4-H as a whole community, and how 4-H aims to make leaders and proactive citizens out of our youth. We were then invited to the annual 4-H tack sale in Monroe, WA at the Evergreen State fairgrounds on Friday, March 2, where horse gear is donated and sold at a cheap price to the lower-income families in the 4-H program.

A picture supplied by us by Patti – This is the Broken Bits 4-H club’s decorations at the previous Evergreen State Fair.

Gender

 

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During our interview with Patti Seguljia from the 4H organization decided to ask her about how all of the kids positively deal with and get along with all genders. Patti loved the question that I had to ask because in their organization they enjoy focusing on the younger generation and having them understand different genders and that we should all get along with them. Even though that this organization is predominately females, even though it is still just as open to boys as well. Another thing that Patti Seguljia from the 4H organization also mentioned that “Girls especially dominate the 4-H horse program because boys think riding horses is considered girly.” (P. Seguljia, personal communication, February 28th, 2018) Hearing this from Patti Seguljia was at first very interesting because I had never seen horseback riding assorted into any specific gender type. Although looking back at the stats of whether girls or boys prefer riding horses It is in fact girls. It is the type of activity that applies more to females than to males because most males prefer activates where they themselves are being active and more involved with other people as well.

 

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This discussion leads me to ask another question which was, have you tried to get more boys to join and involve themselves in 4-H? with that question, Patti Segulija from the 4H organization responded with “ Yes of course. In my club, specifically, I like to ask the dad’s in the club for help, that way, when we are out doing volunteer work or competing at local fairgrounds, boys walking by can see other male role models involved in our club.” (P. Seguljia, personal communication, February 28th, 2018) This really made me feel much better about this organization because they are even trying to get male parents to help with volunteering so that the boys that are already involved in this organization can feel much more comfortable with being there and also encourage their male friends as well to join. Overall, this organization does a wonderful job with including every type of person male or female and making sure that they are all doing what is important which is having fun with helping one another. Our community partner does a great job with dealing with gender, not only just dealing with different types of genders but actually going out of their way with making them feel accepted in the community, and would highly recommend this organization to everyone.
To talk more about how I managed to fit in not only my perspectives but other perspectives of gender. I felt that it was important to bring many other frames of references into this topic to show the differences and similarities and differences between what everyone thinks about gender and how it does relate to our research topic. The event that we went to was called a Tack sale that was held on Friday, March 2nd. We were invited to go to this event by Patti Seguljia. This event is where families that are below the poverty level that are in the 4-H community can buy horse gear, competition cloth, and much more for a really cheap price. All of this is volunteer run.

 

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At first, I wanted to talk about a quote from Amusing ourselves to death by Neil Postman “silence has been replaced by background noises”. While I was reading this, it was making me think of the many times women have tried to stand up for what they believe in because they deserve their rights. When women were working while the war was going on we only really paid attention to the fact that they were working but we didn’t even care to realize the accomplishments that they were making during the war. For example, we are to believe that men were the first to create a working computer when in reality it was really women. It is things like this that blinds us from seeing the accomplishments that women in the past have made along with women today as well. We only really see women as playing roles and taking orders. While I was looking into this matter I have discovered that the United States isn’t balanced when it comes to income which makes our economy fall and makes us turn on one another stead of being united. Gender overall is an important concept to understand so that we can learn to break these socially constructed norms and ideologies and work together and unite as a country. After discussing with 4H it is obvious that one of their goals is to break those socially constructed norms and ideologies and work on helping these young children unite and work together so that we will finally be able to fix these socially constructed roles that are clearly dividing our country and hasn’t done much good for it as well.

 

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Fair use statement:

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All material is for nonprofit educational purposes. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law

Lauren Ballard

Word Count: 812

References:

Postman, N. (2007). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness. London: Methuen.

(P. Seguljia, personal communication, February 28th, 2018)

https://4-h.org/

 

Mass Communication

Mark Chappell

Most of us learn a lot of what we know about the world around us via mass media.  How we communicate over these forms of media is known as mass communication.  Mass communication is defined by dictionary.cambridge.org as, “something such as television or the internet that means that a message, story, etc. can be communicated to a large number of people at the same time.”  Because much of what we see in the media is unfamiliar to us it is easy for the media to shape our entire idea of what something or someone is.  The media has a lot of power, or control of resources.  In this case the resource is the very information they provide.

Likely one of the most powerful forms of media these days is television.  Many people in America shape their entire basis of the world around them from what they learn on T.V.  Organizations like Fox news use this fact to their advantage by spreading negative views of immigrants, foreign countries, and politicians who oppose their agenda.  We must strive to keep our media in check, factual information must be provided regardless of it being thought of as leaning to the left or the right of the political spectrum. Postman argues that,

…whatever power television might have to undermine rational discourse, its emotional power is so great that it could arouse sentiment against the Vietnam War or against more virulent forms of racism.  These and other beneficial possibilities are not to be taken lightly.  (p. 29).

In short we should the power of television to spread more positive messages, rather than ones that reinforce negative class hatred.

Often the modern forms of media will use poorer Americans and foreigners as scapegoats for issues plaguing our country.  We see this today with the opposition towards programs such as food stamps and Medicare.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that 44% of SNAP users in Washington state are from working families.  Many studies have been done that show these types of programs to be beneficial to society as a whole, but these are often ignored in order to create a more negative idea of these programs results.  We can see examples of this same type of thing throughout our countries history.  Takaki highlights one instance where a sermon given by Reverend Theodore Parker of Boston was used to shed un-justified opinion of poor immigrants, “…some people were ‘inferior in nature, some perhaps only behind us in development’ on ‘a lower form in the great school of Providence-negroes, Indians, Mexicans, Irish, and the like.”  (p. 141).  These instances are used to justify racism and hatred towards people that were viewed as lower class.  Differences in social class, or level in the hierarchy of society, open up doors for hatred.  When the people of upper echelons of society look down upon the lower class as lazy or stupid, rather than a necessary group is when we create problems.  There will always be a need for the people that pick our fruit, cook our food, and help out at the grocery store.  We must treat these people with respect just like we do someone with more money.  In this way I think we have in way been removing the Agency, or personhood, of the poor people in our country.

Our community partner 4-h strives to assist poorer communities by providing things like recreational supplies that would otherwise be difficult to afford.  They use television advertisement as one of their main ways of gaining national support for their cause.  They also use posters and pamphlets at events to help get their name and what they doing out there.  Programs like theirs help to take down financial barriers for poorer youths.  I think these types of programs are great because they keep kids busy with a healthy activities, which help to keep them away from things like drugs and gangs.  When asked how they typically spread word about their program representative Patti Segulja states,

Snohomish county 4-H leaders give me booklets to bring with the club whenever we compete or do our community service, incase families see us and want to know more. There’s a big online community, too. Every group I know, including my own, Broken Bits, has a facebook group for all our members and alumni to plan events.

Our group assisted 4-H in setting up a tack equipment sale that had the goal of making usually expensive horse riding equipment available to poor families who otherwise could not afford it.

The media has the power to paint the picture of how many of us see the people in our communities who are not as well-off as the rest of us.  It controls how we view the ones who do the tough jobs that no one else wants to do, but are necessary in maintaining are functioning society.  As we remove more resources from poor people and bring it to the one percent, we make life for the majority of our people un-livable.  And when these types of things happen is when powerful nations collapse.  It is entirely possible that if things continue on the route they are currently that we could have a revolution take place, whether it be political or by other means.

Fair Use Statement:

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All material is for nonprofit educational purposes. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law

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References

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://www.cbpp.org/

Definition of “mass communication” – English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/mass-communication

P. Segulja from 4-H, Personal Interview.  Feb. 28

Postman, Neil. Amusing ourselves to death: public discourse in the age of showbusiness. Methuen, 2007.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Little, Brown and Company, 1993.

 

Ethnicity

Serena Sutherland

The United States is called a blending pot of cultures, where all ethnicities intermingle and work together to form the perfect democracy. As of right now, the Europeans are still clinging onto their majority rule, but the time is coming where they, too, will become a minority. Are we ready to face this?

For our research project, our community partner was Patti Segulja, the leader of a local 4-H club Broken Bits. 4-H is a global non-profit youth development organization which has several branches, including farming clubs, knitting clubs, performing arts clubs, debate clubs, dog clubs, and clubs like the one Patti manages – 4-H horse clubs. Broken Bits resides in Snohomish County and has about 32 youth members who ride horses, compete at local shows, and go to monthly 4-H meetings to schedule community service meets, club activities, and to manage club funds. The goal of 4-H is to grow leaders.

Image Source

Our team asked Patti how ethnically diverse 4-H was, and her answer seemed a little disappointed. She responded, “It’s not that we don’t try to include more [ethnic groups], they just don’t seem to join despite how much we’d like them to…if I had to give a number, I would estimate Caucasian kids to have a solid 75-80% majority in 4-H.” (P. Segulja, personal communication, February 28, 2018). She goes on to explain how other groups of 4-H – including performing arts and robotics clubs – seem to her to be a lot more diverse than the farming and “outdoorsy” clubs, including the horse programs like the one she runs. “I think there’s sort of a mental image that comes to kids – and their parents – heads when they think of a horse club. It’s usually rich white daughter of well off families, which simply isn’t the case. It has never been the case.”

It’s true. Only recently have we developed this mental picture of the rich white class riding horses. In history, the counter-narrative of what isn’t taught is that the old American cowboys were African American, Native American and Hispanic. In fact, our word “buckaroo” came from the European inability to say the Spanish word “vaquero,” which means “a cowboy.”

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However, we weren’t taught about the ethnic vaquero’s in school. Author of A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, wrote: “A history that leaves our minorities reinforces separation, but an inclusive history bridges the divide,” (p.435). Only learning about the (false) European cowboys and those beliefs being reinforced as kids watch white families participate in the 4-H horse programs does damage to ethnic feelings of inclusiveness. Patti Segulja herself is a daughter of Croatian immigrants, married to a Chinese immigrant. She says, “when my two daughters were younger, they would run up to me and say, ‘mom, there’s another Asian girl at this [horse] show,’ and they would be so excited, because they were typically the only ones.” Patti comments how nice it is as well to see her two daughter in 4-H share common interests with other kids, sense they’re all competing out of their love of horses, and it’s reassuring to see bonds being made cross-culturally (P. Segulja, personal communication, February 28, 2018).

Image sourced kindly from Patti Segulja

There is a master narrative of a white majority in the American cowboy era is reinforced by the media who casts white actors to play our cowboys. Author Neil Postman wrote, “How television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged, (Amusing Ourselves to Death, p.92). It’s effects are still seen today, even in the age where we are so desperately trying to erase untrue and harmful stereotypes on other ethnicities.

On March 2nd, Patti Segulja invited us to meet her at the Monroe fairgrounds to help organize tack (horse gear) at the 4-H Snohomish County annual Tack Sale. While there, our team continued our discussion with Patti, asking what the tack sale was about and why it started. Patti told us horses are a pretty expensive sport to partake in, and 4-H planned an event where members of the community and 4-H families would donate their old or unused tack, to be sold at a very cheap price to 4-H kids (P. Segulja, personal communication, February 28, 2018).

Making horseback riding cheaper makes 4-H clubs more accessible to low-income families, and as sad as it is to say, ethnic groups are more likely to be in lower socioeconomic classes (David R. Williams, Understanding Associations between Race, Socioeconomic Status and Health: Patterns and Prospects). If Patti and other 4-H members can erase the stigma that equestrianism is too expensive of a sport for lower classed society, they can start to build up the ethnic groups willing to involve themselves and their children in the sport. The 4-H horse program not only gives kids an opportunity to better themselves physically, but socially, too. Being apart of a club and community will boost self-confidence and socialization skills, and members of the club can run for club president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, as well as involving themselves in the community through club community service events (P. Segulja, personal communication, February 28, 2018). Another motivator 4-H has given to encourage membership are the numerous scholarships for 4-H kids.  By being an active member in any 4-H program, members are eligible for a scholarship of $1000 dollars, helping ethnic and lower class kids get through college and work their way up the social ladder.

4-H aims to grow leaders, and they are trying to grow leaders of every ethnic class.

4-H Tack Sale, 2018

Written by Serena Sutherland

(WORD COUNT: 894)

Fair Use Statement:

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All material is for nonprofit educational purposes. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

References

4-H. (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://4-h.org/

Livingson, P. (2012, July 9). The History of the Vaquero. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from https://www.americancowboy.com/ranch-life-archive/history-vaquero

Postman, N. (2007). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Showbusiness. London: Methuen.

Taylor, E. (n.d.). Little Known Black History Fact: Black Cowboys. Retrieved March 5, 2018, from https://blackamericaweb.com/2012/11/19/little-known-black-history-fact-black-cowboys

Takaki, R. (2008). A different mirror a history of multicultural America. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.

Walker, J. (1877). Cowboys Roping a Bear [Painting]. Denver Art Meusem, Denver.

Williams, D. R., Priest, N., & Anderson, N. (2016, April). Understanding Associations between Race, Socioeconomic Status and Health: Patterns and Prospects. Retrieved March 10, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4817358/

 

Race

Madaleine Smith

“The concept of race is a modern concept. In the ancient world, the Greeks, Romans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims did not have racial categories. Rather people were divided according to religion, class, language, etc.”

Blacks Law Dictionary defines race as “a tribe, people, or nation, belonging or supposed to belong to the same stock or lineage”. Although when The Human Genome Project mapped out the complete human genetic coded, they proved that race could not be identified in our genes. While scientists may use this idea of “race” to help make a more practical distinction among fluid sets of genetic traits, we know that all people belong to the same hominid species, Homo Sapiens. This is Latin for “wise man” and biologically shows there is one human race. Humans can differ genetically in some ways, such as blood type and skin pigmentation, but many biologists and anthropologists believe that the categories of race or not biologically grounded because more modern humans just haven’t evolved into separate races or subspecies. Some people may think that race and ethnicity are almost the same things but actually, they are different entities. They both can be considered social constructs but they have different definitions. Race is associated with this idea that there are natural biological differences which for the most part has been largely discredited and ethnicity is usually associated with culture, language, and religion.

We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don’t share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.”
― C. JoyBell C.

As we looked around the community to find an organization that fits within the categories of race, ethnicity, social class, gender, and mass communication, we discovered a local 4-H group, Broken Bits, which is a club within the 4-H horse program. 4-H isn’t just about horses though, it also focuses on engineering clubs, debate clubs, dance clubs, knitting, swim clubs, farming, cooking etc. They believe in the power of young people, they see that every child has real influences to improve the world around us all and that they have valuable strengths. They are one of America’s largest youth development organization with empowers nearly 6 million people across the US.

“I pledge my head to clearer thinking, My heart to greater loyalty, My hands for larger service, And my health for a better living. For my club, My community, My country, And my world.” – 4-H Pledge

We worked with Patti Segulja, the club leader at Broken Bits and we were able to interview her over the phone. She offered us a chance to help set up at the 4-H Snohomish County Annual Tack (horse gear) Sale at the Monroe Fairgrounds in one of the livestock buildings on March 2nd. Patti told us that these sales are all volunteer run and it’s an amazing opportunity for lower-income families in the 4-H community to be able to buy horse gear and competition clothes for a cheaper price. Horses can be a very expensive sport to participate in and so when members of the community and other 4-H families donate gear, it can go a long way for families that have trouble paying full price for tack. We helped organize donated saddles in the livestock building and took many photos of the saddles and competition clothes.

Saddles at the Annual Tack Sale

 

I talked to Patti about whether or not our perceptions of race can influence how many ethnic parents tent to put their kids into 4-H. She told me that “I myself am a daughter of immigrants from Croatia, and my husband immigrated to America from China when he was 11. Our two daughters have been in 4-H ever since they could talk, and I love to see them in a group who shares common interests in horses”. But owning horses is not cheap, there are vet and farrier bills, food, grooming and general maintenance, boarding, one time or occasion spendings, and all the tack required to ride the horse. There tends to be this frame of reference that horses tend to be a “rich person” sport and this belief can sometimes prevent parents from signing up their kids into 4-H. When I asked Patti if there was a lot of cultural diversity in 4-H, she said “I can’t speak for all of the clubs, obviously, but I’ve noticed it’s still a majority of white kids at least in the 4-H horse program. I think this has to do with the notion that horseback riding is a rich sport, and so parents in the middle or lower class don’t think they can afford it, and, as much as I hate to say it, it seems the lower classes tend to be the most racially diverse. But, from what I have seen, the robotics club is the most diverse.” When looking at the chart below of the median household income in 2015, you can see that African Americans and Black people tend to have the lowest household income of $38,555 compared to someone who is white who is making around $61,319.

It can be difficult to join 4-H if there just simply isn’t enough money to pay for the materials, but this gap in income can be traced back into all the racial issues America has been dealing with since as long as people can remember. Racism is the key factor in US history, and it is the “doctrine or teaching, without scientific support, that does three things. First, it claims to find racial differences in things like character and intelligence. Second, racism asserts the superiority of one race over another or others. Finally, it seeks to maintain that dominance through a complex system of beliefs, behaviors, use of language and policies. Racism ranges from the individual to the institutional level and reflects and enforces a pervasive view, in white-dominated U.S. culture that people of color are inferior to whites” (Racism and White Privilege). Such racist beliefs include “White people are genetically better and smarter”, or “White is the superior race”. Hate crimes, segregation, discrimination, “separate but equal” and the Jim Crow laws are all examples of things in the United States that people have used to create a barrier between people of color and white people. This racism can manifest in language such as the use of slurs, or even in the Master Narrative our schools tend to teach in history classes. This notion of one race is better then the other creates something called White Privilege. White Privilege “is not something that white people necessarily do, create or enjoy on purpose. White skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society” (Racism and White Privilege).

“White privilege shapes the world in which we live — the way that we navigate and interact with one another and with the world.” (Racism and White Privilege)

White privilege generally tends to be hidden and transparent preference that can be very difficult and a complex issue to address. At a closer look at the issue, we are able to see how White Privilege can create a sense of entitlement and power that creates advantages for white peoples and pushes them up the social class ladder. Owning horses may be considered a perk or advantage of being white because they are more likely able to afford all the materials required. Although 4-H tries to take the edge off all the costs of materials, there is still some racial stereotypes present. Racial stereotypes “are automatic and exaggerated mental pictures that we hold about all member of a particular racial group” (Fredrickson). When people begin to stereotype people based only off of their race, you end up not taking in the individual differences about the person and ignoring any information that doesn’t fit the stereotype that was created about the specific racial group.

 

The two posters above help enforce the idea that horse riding tends to be a white sport while other things like the performing arts are for people of color, this is an example of a racial stereotype. In order to decrease this belief that owning a horse is only for white people, 4-H needs to create more diversity in their ads to help show that the perception about owning horses is wrong.

“When you label somebody and put them in a box, then you put the lid on the box, and you just never look inside again. I think it’s much more interesting for human beings to look at each other’s stories and see each other. Really see each other and then see themselves through other people’s stories. That’s where you start to break down stereotypes.” – Stephanie Beatriz

Patti Segulja recognizes that the majority of people who join these 4-H programs are white, she says “The robotics and performing arts clubs tend to be the most diverse programs we run while the farming and horse programs we offer mostly are filled with white children, but we are working on trying to create a more diverse community across all our programs”. She believes that common interests pull kids together where they might have stood apart before and that is one of the main messages of 4-H. Her perspective on the racial gap in the club help show the effect of racism in the United States in the past and the underlining racism still present today.

It is not only underlining racism that we can see based on her perspective but it is also how people have portrayed these groups of people. With an access to media everywhere we look, from the phones in our pockets to the radios in our cars, it has altered our frame of references and in some cases our beliefs. Neil Postman the author of Amusing Ourselves to Death said “This idea – that there is a content called “the news of the day” – was entirely created by the Telegraph (and since amplified by newer media), which made it possible to move decontextualized information over vast spaces at incredible speed. The news of the day is a figment of our technological imagination. It is quite, precisely, a media event. We attend to fragments of events from all over the world because we have multiple media whose forms are well suited to a fragmented conversation” (8). News has been changed under the media-metaphor of television and when we hear the “News of the Day”, it doesn’t immediately affect our lives but it does seem to have a novelty value. If we hear a decontextualized story about a black kid shot by a cop or a rape on an Indian reservation, we might get emotionally affected but for the most case, many of us don’t have any agency in these situations and so there isn’t anything we can do about it. Most of these stories don’t really change us and have little practical value because sometimes it only really exists in a world of media and never on our doorstep. We see these victims as people who don’t really relate to us and therefore it can create and underlining notion about a possibility of these issues not existing, this is where white privilege can come into play again. Postman suggests that our news is now compromised with no practical context and that decontextualized information is not in our control but it something that happens. As Ronald Takaki said in A Different Mirror, “The future is in our hands. The choices we make will be influenced by whether our memory of the past is the Master Narrative of American History or the narrative of “a different mirror” (435). If we want to alter these racial stereotypes and create programs that are culturally diverse and full of different perspectives and beliefs, we as a nation need to address the racial issues in the US and work together to bring awareness to what we can do to help.

Fair Use Statement:

This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All material is for nonprofit educational purposes. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of human rights, economic, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.

Word Count: 1500

References

Fredrickson, G. M. (n.d.). The Historical Origins and Development of Racism. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-02-01.htm

Lehnardt, K. (n.d.). 51 Interesting Facts about Race and Racism. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.factretriever.com/race-and-racism-facts

On Racism and White Privilege. (2017, July 27). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/on-racism-and-white-privilege

Postman, N. (1986). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Penguin Books.

(P. Segulja, personal communication, February 28th, 2018)

Race Quotes (815 quotes). (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/race

Takaki, Ronald T., 1939-2009. (1993). A different mirror : a history of multicultural America. Boston :Little, Brown & Co.,

Williams, L. (n.d.). Annual Cost of Owning a Horse and 6 Alternatives to Buying. Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://www.moneycrashers.com/cost-owning-horse-alternatives-buying/

4-H Hands-On Learning & Education Programs for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://4-h.org/

 

Social Class

Roxana Mogharrabin

In today’s world, when you pay attention to your surrounding it is not hard to notice the variation in “wealth, material possessions, power and authority, and prestige in our society” (udel.edu). Together, these variations make up a social class which in simpler words is the results of an unequal distribution of resources, power, and authority. From a humanities perspective, we can see how all the lenses we have learned about are interconnected. A person’s social class can affect their life greatly as they become limited in what they can and can’t do.

In an interview with Patti Segulja, the leader of Broken Bits 4-H club we talked about how her club member’s social class affects them. 4-H, a youth developmental group with the goal of shaping leaders for the future is funded and run by volunteers. It fosters many clubs globally such as engineering clubs, dance clubs, swim clubs, cooking, farming etc. Broken Bits is the youth equine program that 4-H oversees. Because owning horses can be expensive, Patti informed us that most of her members are not able to afford their own horses, thus they lease them and sometimes horse owners lease their horses for free. This along with the tack (horse gear) sale that takes place every year allows every person that wishes to compete in horse shows, can do so.

Ultimately, wealth determines social class and together they create power. If having power means having the resources to control others, then how would a person in the lower social class ever thrive past where they are, when they are constantly being controlled by someone above them? As we learned in class, “the three wealthiest people in the United States now own more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined”. In other words, those three people are controlling more than half of the country because they have the wealth to expand their resources which will then increase their power and authority. In addition, because a person’s income can limit them from pursuing higher education and receiving degrees, they can be left to do lesser paying jobs which overall will determine their social class. Moreover, age, race and region can impact a person’s social class, but let’s focus on the race aspect. According to Gallup,” Everything else being equal, whites are more likely than nonwhites to identify with a higher social class”. If everything else is equal, then why do white identify themselves with a higher social class? perhaps it is the beliefs and values being carried over from the past.

In A different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, Ronald Takaki uses many examples to show how white people used their race to establish power and authority. During the period of slavery, the number of slaves determined a person owned determined their social class. The more slaves a person owned, the more wealth and authority they had as we know “Jefferson’s ownership of lands and slaves made him one of the wealthiest man in Virginia” (62).This illustrates how a person’s possessions (slaves were considered as possessions like land) used to define them and their importance, similar to how it is today.

Moreover, in the chapter El Norte, Takaki talks about how Texas farmers preferred having Mexican workers because whites would not do the work a Mexican worker would do, and they would certainly not live in the condition they would (298). This illustrates ethnic workers have always worked extremely hard for the money they earn, but that hard-earned money did not help them up the social class ladder because of the type of work they did. We can still see that today, there are a lot of people working to change their social class but are unable to do so simply because they are not provided the same opportunities because of their current social class that’s determined by their income, race, and the region they live in.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows about how divided the social class spectra is in the United States, and not everyone has the time to investigate it. As we have discussed before in regards to Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, most people get their information from the media and a lot of the time the media “gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any action” (68). If everyone knew how social class is created and how each category is affected, then people’s perception would change towards how they see other people in other social classes. Because we are not given information on every aspect of the situation, we are forced to create our perception and frame of reference based on ideas that only cover the surface, and don’t really lead anywhere.

To further learn about our community partner, we volunteered at the Tack sale that takes place annually on March 2, 2018. During our time there we went into more detailed conversation with Patti regrading how 4-H make the horse program affordable for kids and families in lower socioeconomic status. The annual tack sale is one the events that really helps struggling families, as they can purchase horse gear needed to participate in competitions for cheap. Sadly, it’s still a bit more difficult to win the competitions if your parents don’t have the same resources as the better off families in 4-H, who buy their kids professional show ponies and brand name saddles, as these things can sometimes influence the judge’s top pick. 4-H tries to make the horse program available to every social class, but unfortunately, the judges at competitions tend to place the most expensive rider first, which teaches kids that no matter how hard they train, they still might only fall second place to the kid with a shiny saddle. 4-H is trying to fix this issue by hand selecting judges and debriefing them on the matter and trying to make competitions fair. With the work 4-H is doing, every youth can thrive and do what they love.

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References

Bird, R., & Newport, F. (2017, February 27). What Determines How Americans Perceive Their Social Class? Retrieved March 10, 2018, from http://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/204497/determines-americans-perceive-social-class.aspx

(n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from http://udel.edu/~cmarks/What%20is%20social%20class.htm

Postman, N. (1986). Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Penguin Books.

(P. Segulja, personal communications, February 28th, 2018)

Takaki, Ronald T., 1939-2009. (1993). A different mirror : a history of multicultural America. Boston :Little, Brown & Co.

4-H Hands-On Learning & Education Programs for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2018, from https://4-h.org/