On monday I went back to the fish food bank for the last time. I have mixed feelings on it. On the one hand I am glad to be getting back to a routine, but on the other I feel like I have not helped enough. I saw over the month that I was there that more and more people started showing up for food, and earlier than before. The regulars say this is the most people they have seen in a while, I guess the economy is hitting harder than I ever thought. I think it is easy to forget what a priviledged life I lead and how it is so vastly different from other peoples situations. My sister and I are thinking about continuing helping in some way. She is a nurse so she wants to get her class involved and start a food drive for donations.

service learning

I went and did more service learning at the fish food bank yesterday morning. similar to last time we has our usual task, bag rice, put food away on shelves and break down boxes. I made sure that I watched who was waiting in line and took note of things about them, race, gender, type of clothing, did i see them drive in or walk. Most of the people there very early were white middle aged women. They were dressed in layers and as far as i could tell most of them did not drive a personal car to the food bank. Seeing these people goes against what is initially thought of as poor people. I would have thought that more minorities would be there and less members of the agent groups. Going to these places challenges me to think critically about stereotypes that i have and to overcome them.

affirmative action

As a business major with a concentration in Human Resources we learned all about affirmative action plans. Similar to our first reading for tomorrow I agree with what affirmative action does and what it is trying to accomplish. My HR book defines this practice as: "employers are urged to hire groups of people based on their race, age, gender, or national origin, to make up for historical discrimination." This definition, in my opinion helps the argument of those who disagree with affirmative action. Those people argue that they were not the people who enslaved African Americans, thus they should not have to pay for mistakes they did not make. this definition fails to mention that this is one way minorities can tip the scales to a more fair and balanced playing field on the search for jobs. As it said in the article white males face many privileges they do not want to give up, and getting better jobs is one of those. My HR book also goes on to tell us how to write an affirmative action plan, which I think is very interesting on how they decide who to hire based on the definition.

The first step is to do an availability analysis which will identify the number of protected class members (anyone but Christan white males) who are in the labor market you are hiring for.

The next step is to do a utilization analysis to see how many protected class members you already have working for you and what types of jobs they hold.

You then calculate the under utilization statistics to see if your company is a representative sample of the protected class members in the labor market. If it is not then you set a plan to hire more people of the protected classes so that you may meet your goals.

It should be noted that some government agencies actually require affirmative action plans to be submitted once a year and then reviewed to ensure that they are being followed through on.

Fish food bank

So I just got back from doing a few hours at the Fish food bank on 85Th St. The place is small first off, not what I would have expected, and there were at least 10 volunteers there, and only a few were from PLU. Food was constantly coming in, most from grocery stores that could not sell it anymore because it was about to expire, some from private parties who just wanted to help. I spend most of my time bagging potatoes, which were half rotten by the way. I was looking around it seems as though the poor get the short end of the stick. There was almost no fresh meat or veggies and everything came from a box or can and was on or past its prime. Don't get me wrong its great what they are doing, but sometimes I feel like we could be donating food that was a little fresher perhaps. It was also hard to walk through their little lobby and see the at least 100 people sitting waiting for their turn to get food. One woman was there when I arrived at 8 am, and the bank doesn't open until 11!!

However, I have to mention this one woman who was there. She, I think, was Russian(that's what it sounded like to me) but she drove up in her Escalade, holding her dooney and Burke purse ( at least $400) and proceeded to take her place in line to get free food! She was waiting there with people who were obviously extremely impoverished but did not care at all. The person who worked there said she comes all the time and they try to tell her to go but she complains until they let her take the food. It makes me mad that she can afford to buy her own food but insists on taking it from people who are starving. However, I am glad that we have a place that does this, it makes a lot of peoples lives so much better.

Thoughts on homophobia

People can be very cruel, even when they do not mean to be. I think it stems from ignorance and lack of exposure to a different way of living. My cousin, whom I am very close to, is gay. She and her partner have been in a relationship for almost ten years now and have a beautiful adopted daughter together. It pains me when she tells me stories about how when she had to go to the ER her partner was not admitted to go in with her.(this was in Virginia) I guess just because i have never knowingly harrassed a gay person does not mean that my actions have not hurt in some way. I think even supporting polticians who dont support gay marriage is the same as hurling those insults. It is sort of like the old saying, just because you pretend its not there and that it doesnt affect you does not make it go away. I want to see my cousin get married to the woman she fell in love with, and i dont want to wait years to do it either.

Sex, gender as a social construction

So I just got done reading the first article, "Night to his day". and I suppose I have always known that gender and sex were different, but hearing it from this point of view that gender was created by our society really puts it into context for me. I made me think of all the "feminine" things I do and things I avoid because they are not lady like, as my grandma would tell me. Like it says in the book, we created these roles, and we also created the power discrepancy between them. When I came across the part about transsexuals and transvestites it made me think of a film I watched last year called trantaisa. It was about a beauty pageant with transvestites as the contestants. They were trying to be like women so much it was almost unnatural. they over exaggerated every little thing a women does. It also made me think of the show real housewives of some county. Those women are what you would call stereotypical women. They stay at home with the kids, are fully supported by their husbands, shop all the time and live a life that it completely devoid of individualism. Their whole existance is that role. That would suck.

New article, "Masculinity as homophobia": I hate the term boys will be boys. It almost gives males an excuse to act like wild animals. I have a friend who has a son and she says that all the time when he becomes aggressive, she almost wants him to be aggressive so he can be manly....I like this idea that men only act manly to impress other men. Most women would tell you that acting "manly" is idiotic and pointless. They even have the example in here about how men act differntly when alone with a women then with the guys. They are afraid of being discoverd as unmanly and thus unworthy to be called male.

All of these articles are very interesting, I liked the one about transexuals, it presented that idea in a new light because it is such a unknown subject for me.