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... Effects of Stigma on the Intellectually Disabled Jan e M o nag han I n recent years, many people have come forward to share their experiences with stigma. For some groups, stigma is not a large defining factor in their daily life, but for others, stigma plays an important part in shaping their identity. One group that experiences heightened levels of stigma is the intellectually disabled; often marginalized, the stigma they receive can change the way they look at themselves. The four studies in this paper examine the effects of the stigma faced by individuals with intellectual disabilities, and the paper will use these studies to try and reach a conclusion about the relationship between stigma and personal identity. Developing an identity while also trying to gain independence is examined by Jahoda et al., who studied two individuals with intellectual disabilities and their struggles to develop the identity they want. Jahoda et al., conducted interviews and took photographs and videos of individuals with intellectual disabilities as they try to establish their identities. The authors use theories of social construction and self-perception to discuss the findings (521). The literature review of several other studies shows the stigma that people with intellectual disabilities face, and their responses. The discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities was often recognized by people with such disabilities. Accounts of discrimination ranged from childhood bullying to abuse or infantiliza38 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 tion in adulthood (Jahoda et al., 522). In many cases, the intellectually disabled expressed wishes to make their own choices about their life and reject negative stereotypes and stigma (Jahoda et al., 522). Distinguishing oneself from other disabled persons and showing support for the disabled community are also discussed, as are methods of dealing with stigma. Such methods range from comparisons to people without disabilities to promoting a positive collective identity (Jahoda et al., 523). The authors used methods similar to those used by Langness and Frank to create case studies of an individuals life (524). Using a qualitative method of open interviews and recorded material over the span of 6 to 18 months, Jahoda et al., highlight the results from two participants, given pseudonyms of Gary and Sharon, who were chosen because of their contrasting experiences in dealing with stigma (525). They were interviewed over the course of six to eighteen months by themselves or with family or support service workers, and were given a disposable camera, as well as a video-camera, to document their life. Gary once lived alone but had since moved in with his father at the time of the interview. Gary was a graduate from a school for people with intellectual disabilities; his life seemed promising, but bullying at his workplace and lack of help from support services resulted in his losing his job and flat, and he turned to alcohol and Effects of Stigma on the Intellectually Disabled suicidal behaviors (Jahoda et al., 526). Gary describes his isolation and boredom: I dont know what Im going to do today, Im sick of this, he says on his video diary (Jahoda et al., 527). Gary is also trying to re-invent himself and his identity to become part of mainstream society, his nurse tells the researchers (Jahoda et al., 527). His experiences with stigma have led him to try to change himself to conform to societys standards. Sharons experiences with her limitations have also led her to negotiate an identity that fits within these limitations. An eighteen-year-old girl living with her mother, Sharon goes to school and once had a job caring for older people, but she describes her inability to perform the tasks that normal adults can. Depression, anxiety, and epilepsy have severely limited what she can do and decide; her mother also limits her freedom and Sharon knows she would not be allowed to cook or go to college alone (Jahoda et al., 529). Sharon tries to make sense of herself within these limitations: Feel stupid you cannot do nothing... Okay, I can use the microwave, I can make toast. But failing that I cannot go any further. (Jahoda et al., 530). Both cases show the attempts of the subjects to create an identity, while also grappling with their limitations. Each subject has experienced stigma, and each has tried to develop a sense of self. Comparing themselves to the rest of society, Gary and Sharon try to reject stereotypes and build an identity that is closer to larger society. Social comparison and stigma are also explored in the second study, examining the relationship between the two and self-esteem. Stigma, Social Comparison and Self-Esteem in Adults with an Intellectual Disability uses a questionnaire to measure levels of self-esteem, stigma, and social comparison in 43 adults with intellectual disabilities (Paterson et al., 166). The questionnaire uses three scales to gauge stigma, social comparison and self-esteem, with participants asked to select the option that seemed the truest to them. In the comparison scale, they were asked to finish incomplete sentences with answers concerning their similarly disabled peers and people in the larger community (Paterson et al., 169). Statistical analysis was then done to measure the results. The researchers found a positive correlation between stigma and low self-esteem; the higher the perceived stigma, the lower the self-esteem. Individuals with already low self-esteem recalled experiences with stigma, but there was no relationship between individuals with higher self-esteem and lower perception of stigma (Paterson et al., 172). In contrast, there was no relationship between social comparisons to other disabled people and perceptions of stigma, but there was one between comparisons to the community and stigma, especially in the categories dubbed social attractiveness and achievement and rank (Paterson et al., 171). Negative social comparisons and low self-esteem were positively correlated; in addition, people who identified more with other disabled people regarded themselves more able than others of the same group (Paterson et al., 173). However, no correlations between a feeling of belonging to a particular group and self-esteem were found, suggesting that perhaps people with an intellectual disability do not need to express an affinity with or sense of belonging to the community to feel good about themselves (Paterson et al., 173). The perception of stigma and responses to such stigma are also featured in Jahoda and Markovas study of the intellectually disabled as they moved from hospital to assisted housing. Coping with Social Stigma: People with Intellectual Disabilities Moving from Institutions and Family Home is a study INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 39 Effects of Stigma on the Intellectually Disabled based on the interviews of 28 people with mild intellectual disabilities, who come from two different environments: a hospital and a set of hostel-type apartments (Jahoda and Markova, 721). Interviews were carried out with all participants, focused on the topics of their experience, or perception of, stigma, and their responses to said stigma (Jahoda and Markova, 721). The researchers then analyzed the interviews, to find common themes in the way individuals described and responded to stigmatizing experiences (Jahoda and Markova, 722). The analysis of experiences with stigma revealed several common themes. In the hospital group, participants felt restricted by the staff, and resented the lack of privacy and freedom (Jahoda and Markova, 723). They also recognized the stigma associated with being from the hospital, and how that made it hard for patients to make connections (Jahoda and Markova, 723). The housing group shared many of same concerns, indicating the same wishes to be called adults instead of children and worrying that their disabilities prevented them from working jobs like normal people. (Jahoda and Markova, 724). The expressed views also influenced their self-image and the changes they believed were necessary to prevent the stigma. The hospital group linked their identities to the institution they lived in, but instead of accepting the label of patient, they rejected it. The participants wished to stop being classed as patients, since they consider themselves as ordinary (Jahoda and Markova, 722). Furthermore, upon leaving the hospital, the participants distanced themselves from their past, stating that if you start telling people, theyll start telling everybody else and all of them will start making a fool of you. (Jahoda and Markova, 725). Many also argued they should have not been there in the first place, placing themselves above other patients by 40 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 calling themselves residents or grown men. (Jahoda and Markova, 725). Residents from both groups pointed to their agency as an important part of determining their self-image. The housing group, although in a freer environment, still had to deal with the restrictions of their parents and significant others. The group would point to examples of self-sufficiency and often expressed frustration that their parents still treated them as children (Jahoda and Markova, 726). They also considered going to the day centers an affront to their capabilities and identities, and many said they were not disabled and did not need to attend them (Jahoda and Markova, 727). The two groups expressed similar views about their living situations. Both recognized and wished to escape the stigma associated with living there and viewed themselves as mostly normal. However, while they rejected the labels, the groups did not deny their disabilities, and some showed empathy for other disabled persons (Jahoda and Markova, 728). Another study that compares two groups, albeit two groups of high schoolage children, is the study by Cooney et al., which deals once again with social comparison and perceived stigma. Young People with Intellectual Disabilities Attending Mainstream and Segregated Schooling: Perceived Stigma, Social Comparison and Future Aspirations is a study that examines children, aged 15 to 17, with mild intellectual disabilities in two different school settings, measuring the differences in three categories (Cooney et al., 432). The groups were selected by the schools teachers, with 28 children from the mainstream school and 32 in segregated schooling, 60 in all (Cooney et al., 432). The study used a set of scales to measure responses. To measure social comparison, the groups were presented with descriptions of two individuals, Effects of Stigma on the Intellectually Disabled one more severely disabled, and one without a disability (Cooney et al., 435). They were then asked to complete incomplete sentences. Stigma was measured with a yes/ no questionnaire (Cooney et al., 435). To compare future aspirations, the children were asked to answer a series of questions about their wishes for the future, then rate the perceived difficulty of achieving each wish (Cooney et al., 436). Between the two groups, the mainstream school children reported more instances of stigmatized treatment, including exclusion by their non-disabled classmates (Cooney et al., 438). There were not many examples of suffering stigma reported by the segregated school group, but both groups experienced stigmatized treatment outside of school, such as name-calling (Cooney et al., 438). Both groups compared themselves favorably to both the more severely disabled and non-disabled examples; there was no difference between the two (Cooney et al., 439). Most of the participants aspired to blue-collar-type jobs; only eight children out of 28 from the mainstream school group chose professional-level jobs (Cooney et al., 439). The two groups showed little difference between the perceived difficulties of achieving their goals, although both acknowledged their intellectual limitations (Cooney et al., 440). Perceived stigma did not play a role in the groups future aspirations, and all the children maintained optimistic attitudes (Cooney et al., 440). These studies contribute to establishing that intellectually disabled people are aware of the stigma they face; in some cases, this stigma affects their self-esteem, as is the case with Paterson et al.s study of self-esteem, comparison, and stigma (172). However, stigma does not affect social comparisons as strongly as self-esteem; Cooney et al. reports no relationship between stigma and comparisons (439). Using the studies of Jahoda et al. and Jahoda and Markova, the responses of the intellectually disabled to stigma can be seen. Garys interviews show his wish to become a member of mainstream society and reject his disabled label, similar to the people moving out of the hospital in Jahoda and Markovas study (Jahoda et al., 527). These four studies reveal the variety of ways in which stigma impacts the lives, self-images, and aspirations of the intellectually disabled. As evidenced in all four studies, society must change before the intellectually disabled can freely express themselves without experiencing stigma; many of the studies suggest acceptance is crucial and that developing a sense of individualism and agency can protect against the effects of stigma. WORKS CITED Cooney, G., et al. Young People with Intellectual Disabilities Attending Mainstream and Segregated Schooling: Perceived Stigma, Social Comparison and Future Aspirations. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol. 50, no. 6, June 2006, pp. 432444. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1 111/j.1365-2788.2006.00789. Jahoda, A., and I. Markova. Coping with Social Stigma: People with Intellectual Disabilities Moving from Institutions and Family Home. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, vol. 48, no. 8, Nov. 2004, pp. 719729. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2003.00561. INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 41 Effects of Stigma on the Intellectually Disabled Jahoda, Andrew, et al. Living with Stigma and the Self-Perceptions of People with Mild Intellectual Disabilities. Journal of Social Issues, vol. 66, no. 3, Sept. 2010, pp. 521534. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111 /j.1540-4560.2010.01660. Paterson, Lucy, et al. Stigma, Social Comparison and Self-Esteem in Adults with an Intellectual Disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, vol. 25, no. 2, Mar. 2012, pp. 166176. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1468-3148.2011.00651. 42 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020  ...

... The Importance of Intersectionalit y in Reporting Se xual Har a ssment The Importance of Intersectionality in Reporting Sexual Harassment C la ire M itc h e ll I n the era of the #MeToo Movement, attention has been drawn to the prevalence of sexual harassment and sexual violence against women (and some men) worldwide. This movement has exposed the fallacy that sexual transgressions are rare and only happen to particular people, namely promiscuous women. The movement initiated numerous studies on sexual harassment in a variety of settings, focusing on White women. This causes minorities to be overlooked, and while great amounts of research have gone into the effect of gender on perceiving and reporting sexual harassment, there is extremely limited information on the intersection of race and gender and its effect on perceptions and reports of sexual harassment. Additionally, generic definitions, definitions that fail to include racial discrimination or other aspects not experienced by White women, causes minorities to find it hard to label their experience, as in most cases the harassment is not solely sexual in nature but includes themes of racial discrimination. Researchers are beginning to study the intersectionality of race and gender and how it affects the decision whether to report harassment or not, be it in academic or professional settings. Sexual harassment in the workplace can cause many negative consequences 32 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 for the victim in career path and personal health. In an article featured in the Western Journal of Communication, Richardson et al. reveal that for women of color, the effects of sexual harassment are intensified as it often intersects with racial discrimination. They focus on the intersectionality of race and gender, using intersectionality as an extension of standpoint theory (249). Standpoint theories provide an analytical framework for understanding how individuals or groups view the world (Richardson et al. 450). Richardson et al. cite Black feminism as a secondary theory to use when discussing the harassment of women of color, however, many feminist theories neglect the importance of intersectionality and pit race against gender (250). This creates an incomplete depiction of the effects of sexual harassment of women of color, and thus intersectionality is the most inclusive theory to utilize. To depict the intersection of race and gender and their effects on sexual harassment, Richardson et al. took a sample of 48 women, 22 identifying as Hispanic, and 26 identifying as African American. Participants were recruited using flyers and snowball sampling, with the requirements of identifying as Hispanic or African American and having a minimum of one year of work experience. The participants were divided into six focus groups where they remained for an hour discussing their experiences. The sessions were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The transcriptions were analyzed using grounded theory, which focuses on building rather than testing theory and [...] draws its conclusions from the data (Richardson et al. 253). The analysis drew from the transcriptions reviewed by communication studies members at a university as well as members of the focus groups (Richardson et al. 253; 254). Following review and revision, the analysis underwent axial coding to find relationships within and between categories (Richardson et al. 254). The results suggest that women of color experience sexual harassment in four stages, with each stage being affected by two contextual dimensions (Richardson et al. 254), the first dimension being social constructions of race and gender, and the second being the role of the organization in which harassment occurred. In Stage One, the individual experiences the perception of sexual harassment. Many participants report that their experience of sexual harassment was combined with racial discrimination (Richardson et al. 254), which intensifies the effects of the event. Stage Two focuses on making sense of the act, which then leads the victim to a decision about how to respond. Stage Three includes the response itself, which Richardson et al. finds to be resistance through voice or silence (255). The fourth and final stage is the perception of the organizations response (i.e. punishment or lack thereof for the harasser), which directly affects the likelihood of future harassing behaviors being reported. In discussions with the respondents, respondents reveal that they were greatly aware of the intersection of race and gender and its effects on their image. One respon- dent noted, ...if you are African American or Hispanic they dont think you are as smart as the white woman (256). This false perception creates the illusion of women of color being an easy target for harassment. The women also reveal that the race of the harasser has an influence on the experience. One respondent explained, As an African American, for whatever reason, Black men feel like there is a window of okayness (260). Additionally, it is found that in cases of intra-racial sexual harassment, the victim is less likely to report the event due to the feeling of needing to uphold an alliance of race, with one African American victim stating If he was Black I would not have reported it (263). In addition to the harassers race, racial stereotypes prevented women from reporting harassment. Many minority women face stereotypes of being hot headed, explosive, and overdramatic. One respondent admitted that she would rather quit her job than fulfill the stereotype of the angry Black woman (266). The overarching theme of the study is that women of color have far more obstacles to face when reporting sexual harassment in their workplace. Quitting their job is often perceived as far easier than reporting harassment and fulfilling stereotypes or staying and continuing to face harassment. The study shows that the intersection of race and gender put women of color at a disadvantage that must be considered when comparing the sexual harassment of Caucasian women and women of color. Rates of sexual harassment of women of color are most likely far greater than statistics show because of the high rate of leaving harassment unreported. A study conducted by Fielden et al., stated organizations should not assume a direct relationship between reporting rates with incident rates (Fielden et al. 31). This study sought to find the frequency of sexual harassment in Black Asian INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 33 The Importance of Intersectionalit y in Reporting Se xual Har a ssment and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in the United Kingdom. Statistics from the United States state that 50% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment during their working lives (20). However, this statistic does not specifically consider the rates of sexual harassment experienced by minority women. Most prior studies focus on White womens experiences of sexual harassment, providing very limited statistical information regarding the experience of minorities. Fielden et al. uses snowball sampling to collect participants for the study because sexual harassment is an extremely sensitive topic. Although it is the best method for this topic, it can produce bias among respondents. Additionally, fear is certainly a factor in limiting the sample size because women may face dishonor or backlash in their ethnic communities for speaking out. This sampling method retains seventeen BAME women, two of whom had witnessed sexual harassment, with the rest directly experiencing it. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the women, and transcriptions of said interviews are then coded to find common themes. The results show numerous overlaps between themes, with interplay between ethnicity and culture (Fielden et al. 26) being noted. The transcript analysis produced three different categories by which the data can be sorted: the frequency, types, and race of the harasser; ethnic and cultural influences; and power, fear of reprisals, and reporting behavior. More than half of the women report facing harassment daily, and most are harassed by men of the same ethnic background. Most of the women feel that if they were White, they would not be targeted. One respondent posited, I dont think he would do it if I was white. He thinks he can get away with it with me (27). Another states, I think he wouldve thought twice 34 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 about touching a White girl to be honest (27). The statistic of most harassments being committed by a person of the same race as the victim can be an important factor in deciding to report harassment, but the race of the victim also plays a major role in deciding to report the incident. Many participants feel that they would have been more inclined to report [...] if they had been White (Fielden et al. 29). Many of the Asian participants cite their culture as a reason not to report it, as it can cause major backlash in their community. Additionally, reports are not always kept confidential. Many women report being publicly humiliated and feeling as though they are being punished rather than the harasser. One respondent reported that she was pretty depressed (29) following her experience, while another stated that she was on medication (29). Many others quit their jobs or stayed and watched their harasser get promoted following reports, which discouraged reporting future harassing behaviors. Fielden et al. note that this information is not generalizable, as the sample size of this study is very small. Additionally, harassment is a very individualist experience (Fielding et al. 30) because its impact differs from person to person. This individualistic aspect creates a toxicity surrounding the generic approaches to sexual harassment, because generic approaches do not consider racial and gender discriminations intertwined with the harassment. The relationship of race and culture play a major role in how it is perceived and handled, and generic approaches simply cannot encompass all the aspects and effects of the experience. The study concluded that the lines between racial and sexual harassment are blurred for women of color, thus making it impossible for their experiences to be labeled as one or the other. This shows the intersectionality of race and gender, as the two are so closely intertwined in these cases The Importance of Intersectionalit y in Reporting Se xual Har a ssment that they cannot be separated. Another issue with the labeling of experiences arises in a study conducted by Welsh et al., whose research introduced citizenship status as another potential factor. The problem studied in this research is women will not label their experience as sexual harassment, because of complications arising from the effect of race and citizenship upon womens definitions of sexual harassment (Fielden et al. 88). Most research conducted on the topic of sexual harassment is conducted on White women, causing women of color to struggle to label theirs in the same way White women do. The intersectionality of race and citizenship [is] never absent (89) in cases of sexual harassment, thus producing the terms gendered racism (89) and racialized sexual harassment (89) to better present these experiences. As stated in the preceding studies conducted by Richardson et al. and Fielden et al., women of color experience racial discrimination and sexual harassment simultaneously. Welsh et al. finds that undocumented immigrants are even greater targets for harassments because of the intersection of their race, gender, and undocumented status. Using snowball sampling and receiving help from community organizations in Toronto and Ontario, thirty-five women volunteered to partake in this study. The sample consisted of thirteen Caucasians, five African Canadians, seven Filipinas, one Asian, and two women who declined to state their race/ethnicity. The Filipinas do not have full Canadian citizenship, but the rest of the women have full citizenship. The women are split up into seven focus groups, in which the women discuss their experiences and thoughts regarding the definition of sexual harassment. This method is highly beneficial, as Welsh et al. state: By letting women define harassment, we can discover where other forms of oppression, such as racism, homophobia, lack of citizenship, disability, and classism, intersect with sexual harassment (95). The results of these discussions show that White women are more likely to label harassments as unwelcome behaviors, with some harassing behaviors even being considered tolerable. (95) Welsh at el. theorizes that this tolerance is due to their White privilege and citizenship status, as they have more opportunities to file complaints [...] over racialized and noncitizen groups (96). The minority groups refuse to define their experiences as sexual harassment because it is not solely sexual in nature or they felt as though they could not define it as such due to their status. Additionally, the minority groups are reluctant to report intra-racial harassment because they want to uphold a united racial front (98), and they feel discouraged as the legal categories of harassment state that it can be either sexual or racial, not both. Many minority women who did not have full citizenship are in the country on an employment authorization visa working as live-in caregivers, and they cite job dependency as a reason for not reporting harassing behaviors. Additionally, they fear their chances of gaining permanent residency will be harmed if they report the behavior. These findings lead to the conclusion that race and citizenship are the most prominent themes that feed into the womens definitions of sexual harassment. The minority groups linked historical issues or labeled their experiences as ambiguous, but White women defined harassment according to the legal definition, making it easier for them to report harassment. Overall, Welsh et al. conclude that deciding to report sexual harassment is not solely about race or gender but is an intersection of race, gender and citizenship. This intersectionality ties into the reporting of sexual harassment on college campuses as well. A study INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 35 The Importance of Intersectionalit y in Reporting Se xual Har a ssment conducted by Kalof et al. reveals that even in academic settings, minority women are not as likely to report or label their experience as sexual harassment, as it is not simply sexual in nature. In society, minorities are particularly vulnerable due to their minority status and lack of power (284). This vulnerability is not helped by stereotyped cultural images of minorities, with stereotypes of Hispanic women being hot-blooded [and] ill-tempered, Asian women as small [and] submissive, and Black women being highly sexed (284). Black women are especially at risk, as stereotypes of promiscuity severely objectifying them. Additionally, they possess a history of oppression and norms that prohibit them from reporting sexual harassment by men (284). Thus, Kalof et al. theorize that the intersection of race and gender plays the greatest role in whether harassing behaviors are reported. Kalof et al. selected a random sample from all daytime classes, having undergraduate students hand out surveys within classes. From these surveys, a convenience sample was selected, resulting in 525 voluntary participants, both male and female. Thirteen neglect to state their race and are dismissed as a result, resulting in a sample size of 512. Of the 512 total participants, 335 are white, and 177 are nonwhite. The small minority sample sizes cause difficulty in gaining statistical significance (296). The results show that 40% of women in the study report being sexually harassed, and 30% of the African American participants report experiencing sexual harassment. One prominent issue in reporting sexual harassment is the socialization of women of all races. Kalof et al. argue: Women are socialized to trust authority, constraining their ability (or willingness) to recognize professors behaviors as harassing (297). This reveals gender as a very important part of how women 36 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 perceive harassing behaviors, and when it intersects with race it becomes even more complicated. White women do not face racial discrimination combined with sexual harassment, and therefore find it far easier to report. However, Black women find racially based comments and references to racial stereotypes (297) to be sexually harassing in addition to racially harassing. The lack of recognition for this intertwinement of harassments creates a great obstacle for minorities when it comes to reporting these incidents. Additionally, minorities fear the loss of educational rewards, especially if the harassing behavior comes from a professor. The results of this study conclude that the intersection of race and gender is the greatest aspect that comes into play when a student decides whether to report an incident of harassment or not. The greatest common denominator in each study is that the intersection of race and gender has the greatest effect on whether an incident of harassment is reported. White women are more likely to report harassing behaviors because their experiences adhere to the legal definition closely because they are not facing racial harassment or discrimination along with sexual harassment. The findings of all studies condemn the current legal definitions in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom for being too generic to be inclusive of minority experiences. While sexual harassment is an extremely individual experience and cannot have any one perfect definition, strides can be made to be more inclusive in the definition of sexual harassment for people of all ethnicities. With a more inclusive definition, more minorities may feel comfortable in sharing their experiences, helping to resolve the issue of small sample sizes, and thus increasing the amount of research on the topic of the intersection of race and gender in reporting harassment. An increase in the number of The Importance of Intersectionalit y in Reporting Se xual Har a ssment studies could produce generalizable information, a resource that is currently nonexistent. All in all, intersectionality is abso- lutely vital in understanding why a person chooses whether to report an incidence of sexual harassment in WORKS CITED Fielden, Sandra et al. 2010. A Model of Racialized Sexual Harassment of Women in the UK Workplace. Sex Roles 62(1-2): 20-34. Kalof, Linda, et al. 2001. The Influence of Race and Gender on Student Self-Reports of Sexual Harassment by College Professors. Gender and Society 15(2): 282-302. Richardson, Brian K. and Juandalynn Taylor. 2009. Sexual Harassment at the Intersection of Race and Gender: A Theoretical Model of the Sexual Harassment Experiences of Women of Color. Western Journal of Communication 73(3): 248-272. Welsh, Sandy et al. 2006. Im Not Thinking of It as Sexual Harassment: Understanding Harassment Across Race and Citizenship. Gender and Society 20(1): 87107. INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 37  ...

... An E xamination of Ma ss Shootings An Examination of Mass Shootings G ra c ie S h if f le t t INTRODUCTION Mass shootings have become extremely common events that happen in the United States more often than they should. According to a The Washington Post story, Mass shootings took place roughly every six months. Between Columbine and Charleston, the pace was roughly one every two and a half months. After Charleston? One almost every six weeks (Berkowitz 2019: n.p.). The term mass shooting is often thought of as an event where at least four people are murdered, with no cooling-off periods between the murders (Berkowitz 2019: n.p.) Mass shootings can happen anywhere, including at a concert, at a church, at a school, or at a grocery store. Technically there is no universally accepted definition of a mass shooting, which makes it hard to collect accurate data across the years on how many mass shootings occur around the world. Despite the lack of reliable data, the United States is still the leading country for mass shootings, as the number of shootings in this country have gradually increased throughout the years. In fact, in 2019, the total number of reported mass shootings in the United States was the highest it had been since 2006. This has caused people in society to live in fear because no one knows when or if they are going to be the next victim of a mass shooting. The reason for the sudden increase in mass shootings is unknown, but some suggest that the explicit media coverage of mass shootings, the lack of mental health care, and/or or the lack of gun control are the leading causes. Mass shootings are often covered in news articles where the author addresses them as a social problem and tries to figure out when they started and why they are becoming more common. News agencies are looking at mass shootings through an analytical lens to tackle them as a problem, which will be explored throughout this paper. DATA AND METHODS In order to explore this social problem, a content analysis was performed on ten articles taken from The Washington Post from the time of January 2018 to December 2019. The articles were evaluated and their content was categorized into the following categories: grounds, warrants, and conclusions. According to Joel Best, a ground asserts the facts of a problem using statistics, names, and typifying examples. A warrant convinces people to take action and get something done regarding the social problem. Lastly, a conclusion states what action should be taken to address the social problem (2017: p. 32). Using these definitions, two classmates paired up to check for intercoder reliability where they double coded sections of the same two articles as grounds, warrants, or conclusions and compared their work. It was found that there was a lot of disagreement over whether certain sections should INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 27 be considered a warrant or a ground, considering several sections could potentially be argued as both, but an agreement was always reached. In addition, all conclusions that were coded were relatively the same. GROUNDS All of the ten articles analyzed consisted of mostly grounds, where they stated the facts of several mass shootings that happened around the country. When establishing grounds, most authors used statistics, numerical data, to discuss the shootings. In seven out of the 10 articles, the first couple of paragraphs included the author listing out the number of injuries and the number of deaths caused by the specific shooting they were writing about. For example, one article stated, A gunman wielding an assault-style rifle killed 20 people and wounded 26 more Saturday at a busy Walmart and shopping center not far from the Mexican border, authorities said (Rosenwald 2019: n.p.). Two separate articles used statistics in a different way to assert the facts of mass shootings. One article, discussing how the U.S leads the world in mass shootings, used the statistic, [...] The United States had significantly more mass shootings, with 90 between 1966 and 2012, compared with 202 in the rest of the world, to establish this fact (Kessler 2018: n.p.). Another article discussed why mental health was a major cause of mass shootings, so they used a statistic to point how many of the shooters had a mental illness. This article stated, [i]n a 2018 report on 63 active shooter assailants, the FBI found that 25 percent had been diagnosed with a mental illness (Wan 2019: n.p.). In fact, out of the 10 articles analyzed, 23 statistics were used in total to establish grounds. When establishing grounds, the authors also often gave a name to the social problem. They would briefly say that these large killings from gun violence are called 28 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 mass shootings, and some gave a brief description of what usually qualifies as a mass shooting. For example, one article stated, [...] Shootings since 1966 in which at least four people were killed [..] (Berkowitz 2019: n.p.). This article is offering a definition of what is widely considered a mass shooting in the United States, despite there being some argument over what is and what isnt a mass shooting. They were very vague because the term isnt described in the same way around the world; because of this, all ten articles did name the problem, but only three of them gave a description of what a mass shooting is. Lastly, the other main way that grounds were established was by using typifying examples, which are very extreme specific examples that dont usually represent the problem as a whole. In these articles, authors would use graphic stories experienced by mass shooting victims as a typifying example, but these stories were often unique and didnt apply to most victims. For example, one article states, Joseph Griffith, 40, was shot and killed while waiting at a traffic light with his wife and two children (Guarino 2019, n.p.). This is a typifying example because usually mass shootings dont occur like this. They usually happen out at a restaurant or concert, etc., where the victims have a chance of running away, while this one in particular gave the victim no chance of escape or survival. Only two articles in the sample used typifying examples; however, most of the articles listed the victims and described what they experienced first-hand but, given the nature of the problem, these would not be considered typifying examples. WARR ANTS When establishing warrants in the articles about mass shootings, all ten sought to appeal to the readers emotions to convince them to get something done and take action An E xamination of Ma ss Shootings to stop these killings. There were a total of 17 warrants present in the 10 articles. The warrants often were specifically written to make the reader feel saddened or scared so that they would want to fight against mass shootings. When trying to make the reader sad, the authors would talk about the victims that were children or the survivors who had been severely affected. For example, one article said, Thats when he saw a young girl, just 17 months old, who had been struck in the face by a bullet (Lowery 2019: n.p.). Another article said, David Anderson immediately knew he was in the middle of a mass shooting. He had lived through one last year (Zezima 2018: n.p.). These two quotes make the reader feel extreme emotions, due to the fact that the victims are going to be affected for the rest of their lives, experiencing both mental and physical scars. Warrants were also expressed by trying to scare people into fighting for change. For example, most articles talked about how mass shootings were occurring more frequently than ever, taking more and more lives in all places of the world. Others discussed how mass shootings had become so common that people are not even shocked by them anymore. One article specifically said, It is hard to name a type of place where a mass shooting hasnt occurred. Playground? Yes. Nursing home? Yes. Theater. Campground. House party. Yacht. And of course many schools, churches, and military sites (Berkowitz 2019: n.p.). By pointing out the commonness of mass shootings, the authors scare people into thinking I could be next. All of the articles that had warrants in them either tried to promote fear or sadness to inspire change. CONCLUSIONS Out of the ten articles examined, all of them had conclusions presented towards the end of the article. Four of these articles didnt call for a specific action to be taken, but they all said something along the lines that something needs to be done. The remaining six articles had specific actions they wanted people to take. More specifically, some articles called on public officials for gun control or mental health awareness. One article called for gun control by saying, I dont want prayers; I dont want thoughts; I want gun control, and I hope to God nobody else sends me any more prayers (Zezima 2018: n.p.). A separate article called for mental health care when they said, The sad truth is that in America, its easy to get a gun. Its very difficult to get mental health care (Wan 2019: n.p.). Still, another conclusion argued that mass shootings appeared to be a social contagion, a behavioral epidemic, that spikes every time other mass shooting receives a lot of media coverage. Therefore, their conclusion was to ban the extensive media coverage of mass shootings. No matter who wrote the article, they all agreed that some sort of action needed to be taken to prevent the increase of mass shootings (McArdle 2019). CONCLUSION In conclusion, the ten articles that were examined offered a wide variety of grounds, warrants, and conclusions. The common way to write grounds in these articles was to use statistics to address the facts of the mass shootings. They also often named the social problem a mass shooting, but they very rarely used typifying examples to assert grounds. When warrants were found in these articles, they often sought to bring out sadness or fear in the reader to provoke change. Although warrants were not used as often as grounds, they were convincing enough to appeal to the readers emotions and inspire change. When it came to conclusions, all of the articles agreed that something needs to be done to prevent mass INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 29 An E xamination of Ma ss Shootings shootings, and several of them also blamed gun control, media coverage, and mental health for the increase of mass shootings. Overall, the ten articles were very consistent with establishing grounds, warrants, and conclusions; however, it would have been interesting to get a larger sample size, including other news agencies, to really look at how mass shootings are constructed over a variety of news sources. REFERENCES Berkowitz, B., Blanco, A., Mayes, B. R., Auerbach, K., & Rindler, D. (2019, August 5). More and deadlier: Mass shooting trends in America. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ nation/2019/08/05/more-deadlier-mass-shooting-trends-america/?arc404=true Best, J. (2017). Social Problems (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Guarino, B., & Straub, L. (2019, September 2). Texass second mass shooting during August kills at least 7. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https:// www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/01/texass-second-massshooting-august-kills-least/ Kessler, G. (2018, September 5). Analysis | Does the U.S. lead the world in mass shootings? Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/05/does-us-lead-world-mass-shootings/ Lowery, W., & Davies, E. (2019, September 1). 5 killed, 21 injured in a mass shooting in Odessa, Tex. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www. washingtonpost.com/politics/5-killed-21-injured-after-suspect-hijacked-a-mail-truck-in-odessa-texas/2019/08/31/f659da2c-cc3c-11e9be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html McArdle, M. (2019, August 9). Opinion | How to fight mass shootings: First, lets define the problem. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/09/how-fight-mass-shootings-first-lets-define-problem/ Olen, H. (2019, July 29). Opinion | Another day, another mass shooting. When will they end? Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/07/29/another-day-another-massshooting-when-will-they-end/ Rosenwald, M. S., Knowles, H., & Moore, R. (2019, August 4). At least 20 dead in El Paso shopping center shooting as authorities investigate Texas man and manifesto. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www. washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/03/active-shooter-cielo-vistamall-area-el-paso-police-say/ Wan, W., & Bever, L. (2019, August 5). Are video games or mental illness causing Americas mass shootings? No, research shows. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ health/2019/08/05/is-mental-illness-causing-americas-mass-shootings-no-research-shows/ Williams, K., Knowles, H., Natanson, H., & Whoeiskey, P. (2019, August 5). 30 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 An E xamination of Ma ss Shootings Gunman killed sister, eight others in second deadly U.S. mass shooting in 24 hours. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/ nation/2019/08/04/nine-fatally-shot-dayton-including-suspect-dayafter-mass-shooting-texas/ Zezima, K., & Mettler, K. (2018, November 9). They survived Las Vegas. Then came a second mass shooting. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-surreal-shocklas-vegas-shooting-survivors-live-through-california-massacre/2018/11/08/681a330a-e3b3-11e8-b759-3d88a5ce9e19_story.html INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 31  ...

... Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? Interracial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? D a n ie lle F a u l T he one word no married couple wants to hear: divorce. While no one wants to think about it, divorce is always a possibility in a marriage. But what exactly makes or breaks a marriage? Is there anyway couples can prepare to avoid divorce? Despite the fact that less conservative weddings are occurring, the majority of newlyweds still marry a spouse that is of the same race. Before the late twentieth century, comparing divorce rates between interracial and traditional marriages was a challenge as interracial marriages were illegal. Over the past fifty years; however, social scientists have been able to study, analyze, and compare divorce rates amongst interracial and traditional marriages. This paper will be reviewing various articles written on the dynamics of interracial marriages, and whether or not these marriages lessen or strengthen the potential of divorce. Does racial intermarriage lead to divorce? Utah University sociology professors Nicent Kang and Nicholas Wolfinger look to establish an answer within their article: Broken Boundaries or Broken Marriages? Racial Intermarriage and Divorce in the United States. They analyze a National Survey of Family Growth taken from 1995 to 2002 and two sociological theories as the foundation for research. The National Survey of Family Growth was used for part of their research because, The National Sur20 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 vey of Family Growth uses a parametric event-history model called a sickle model. (Kang and Wolfinger 2). This sickle model helps to appropriately identify many statistics on the divorce rates of varying interracial couples compared to traditional couples. Kang and Wolfinger first express their research through one specific interracial marriage type, There is elevated divorce rates for Latino/white intermarriages, with seventy-two percent of endogamous Latino marriages remaining intact for more than fifteen years, and only fifty eight percent of Latino/white interracial marriages intact at the same period (Kang and Wolfinger 4). While the statistical evidence of marital success rate between Latino/white intermarriages supported the idea that interracial marriages lead to a higher chance of divorce, Kang and Wolfinger continued to dig deeper. Once looking at statistics for another type of interracial marriage it was concluded that, We find elevated divorce rates for Latino-white intermarriages but not for black/white intermarriages (Kang and Wolfinger 4). Because there is a group of interracial marriages that has shown to not be impacted, it left both Kang and Wolfinger to ponder, Why has one type of interracial marriage been impacted but not another? Based off of findings from the Na- Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? tional Survey of Family Growth, Black men have less conservative attitudes than white men regarding womens employment, whereas Latino men are more conservative than white men when it comes to the gender division of labor (Kang and Wolfinger 6). The differences that are displayed between the black, white, and Latinx races indicated to Kang and Wolfinger that there is faulty courtship when it comes time for the reality of marriage. These varying attitudes amongst races is inevitability affecting the divorce rates amongst interracial marriage; however, it has not been universally concluded whether or not intermarriages indeed produce a higher divorce rate. There is so much universal debate due to the fact that, Earlier studies have several limitations; most importantly studies fail to identify whether intermarried couples have uniquely high divorce rates because they do not account for first-order racial differences in divorce propensities (Kang and Wolfinger 7). By considering the methodological challenges that interracial marriages face, Kang and Wolfinger feel as though they can express the reason to why society thinks that interracial marriages lead to an increased likelihood of divorce. Kang and Wolfinger look into two of sociologys theories of divorce: Lower financial support and interpersonal attraction. These specific theories as explained by Kang and Wolfinger, Allow for a form of better understanding on the many positions that interracial marriages lead to higher potential for divorce (9). By looking into two specific theories, there is a foundation created that then allows for further sociological research to be done. Lower financial support from family and a lack of interpersonal attraction are two of the most mentioned theories used to support societys view that interracial marriages lead to a higher risk of divorce. There is lower financial family support because family members want to Pass on racial and ethnic identities, traditions, and values (Kang and Wolfinger 12). Because there is another race coming into the family, this leaves the family vulnerable to losing traditional values and practices, resulting in a decline of family acceptance and financial support for the married couple. While this theory is accurate for many interracial couples, the distaste that society has towards interracial marriages has decreased tremendously, as the National Survey of Family Growth shows, Only twenty two percent of Americans disaprove of interracial marriages (Kang and Wolfinger 13). Despite low disapproval ratings, interracial marriages still face a lot of problems from their families. Not only does a lack of family acceptance play a role in the stability of an interracial couple but so does a lack of interpersonal attraction. There are so many more homogamous marriages still today than interracial marriages because, Similarity in tastes, values, and world views enchances marital intimacy (Kang and Wolfinger 13). By looking at these two theories it is clear to see the impact that a change in the family of origin, individual characteristics, and social context plays in the overall study of this research question. The research and findings by Kang and Wolfinger really depict the importance that societal norms play on interracial marriages. At the end of their research, it was concluded that, Interracial marraige does not produce uniquely high divorce rates (Kang and Wolfinger 20). Despite the answer that Kang and Wolfinger established, many more are still curious about the effect that interracial marriage has on divorce and are curious as to if it really will last. But Will It Last?: Marital Instability Among Interracial and Same-Race Couples by Jenifer Bratter and Rosalind King looks to unravel the social stigmas that are attached to interracial marriages. SpecificalINSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 21 ly, Bratter and King looked to find an answer to their research question: Is the likelihood of divorce the same for both interracial and same-race marriages? Using research from two surveys: The Literature on Interracial Families and the National Survey of Family Growth from 1994-2002, Bratter and King help throw all statistics onto the table in order to try and finalize an answer. As of the turn of the twentieth century, Nearly six percent of all married couples were interracial compared to fewer than one percent in 1970 (Bratter & King 160). It is through this statistic that shows the changing society America is in; however, this change brought about many family challenges for these interracial couples. In the article, a survey from The Literature on Interracial Families states, Crossing racial lines still violates enduring norms of who should and should not marry whom (Bratter and Rosalind 161). It is explained early throughout the article that while statistics show an increase in intermarriage acceptance, it is nearly impossible to get a true gauge how the entire nation feels on this issue as it is everchanging. It is because of the everchanging statistics on interracial marriages that has so many sociologists curious to discover an answer as to whether or not a difference in race really can predict the success of a marriage. As explained in the article, Historical evidence on the stability of Black/White marriages is mixed (Bratter and Rosalind 163). This notion of mixed when it comes to statistical results is very common. Because all of this data is primarily based off of estimates throughout only a span of fifty years, the authors have expressed the difficulty of getting accurate research that will help support an answer. Despite difficulties of receiving accurate statistics, data from the National Survey of Family Growth suggest that there is a major risk factor with intermarriage, as it states, Marriages initiated 22 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 between 1985 and 1989, showed fifty-five percent of interracial marriages divorced by their tenth year compared to the thirty-five percent of same-race marriages (Bratter and Rosalind 165). While this data expresses that indeed, intermarriages increase the rate of divorce, this statistic being from the 1980s, has Bratter and Rosalind questioning: Is there more updated data or a more efficient way to prove this? Because Bratter and Rosalind could find more updated data while conducting research on the interracial and divorce rate matter, they instead established a more efficient way to determine rates of marital success between both same-race and interracial marriages. Using data from both the National Survey of Family Growth and The Literature on Interracial Families, the authors create multiple data charts. These data charts are more productive and reliable as they correlate to how more recent divorce statistics of interracial marriage and samerace marriages could end up. Through these charts it is clear to see, The types of differences that create the greatest risk of divorce are race, ethnicity, and gender specific (Bratter and Rosalind 169). Through these charts it is clear to see that intermarriages that never cross racial barriers, for example White/Hispanic intermarriages have little to no difference in divorce rate as that of same-race White/White marriage. After conducting a magnitude of research and creating data charts, Bratter and Rosalind determined that marriage and the success of it really comes about the experience of both partners. It is also through their research that the average length of marriage predicted for a marriage whether interracial or not is ten years. Despite the racial conflicts that intermarriages do face, there is a lot of statistical evidence that supports a mixed notion that intermarriages lead to an increase for divorce. While the notion is mixed, We find that although Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? interracial marriages overall are more vulnerable to divorce, this reflects the experience of some but not all couples (Bratter and Rosalind 170). While giving credit to the idea that intermarriages are at a higher risk of divorce, there was still not a 100% certainty through data to support the claim. Because there was no sustainable research on divorce rates between interracial and non-race marriages, Bratter and Rosalind raised the promotion of continued research on the impact that certain interracial marriages play in divorce rates. First gaining momentum in the 1960s, the racial dynamics within marriages continues to grow. Sociologist Kelly Raley and others, use the United States Census Bureaus American Community Survey from 2008-2012 to bring to light the significant difference between intermarital success rates amongst certain races in the article: The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S Marriage Patterns. Throughout this article Raley and colleagues look for an answer to: Why is there striking differences in intermarital success between certain races? Raley and others feel that they can establish an explanation to the differences in marital success between races by, Describing racial and ethnic differences in marriage formation and discuss how these gaps have evolved over time (90). Raley and others primarily focus on various dynamics within the black American marital statistics over any other race, as black Americans have had the greatest risk of divorce despite whether or not entering a same-race or interracial marriage. Despite primarily focusing on black marital data, there is also a consideration for, Contemporary family patterns for other racial and ethnic groups (Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans) (Raley et al. 91). The first aspect of contemporary differences between races is the striking differences amongst median age of races amongst first marriage. As stated by Raley and others, The median age at first marriage is roughly four years higher for black women than for white women: thirty versus twenty-six years, respectively, in 2010 (92). While four years may not seem like a huge age gap, it has shown to be statistically significant in the overall success rate of getting married. Consequently, the U.S Census Bureaus American Community Survey from 2008-2012 showed that, Unlike black American females, nine out of ten white and Asian/Pacific Islander women had ever been married by their early twenties, yet fewer than two-thirds of black women reported having been married; same race or not, by the same age (Raley et al. 92). The outlier that black Americans are in terms of marital age has also caused them to be an outlier in marital success. Interracial marriages that involve a black partner based off of the recent demographic projections through the U.S Census Bureaus American Community Survey from 2008-2012 suggests that, These racial and ethnic gaps in marriage and marital dissolution will continue to grow (Raley et al. 93). Unlike the other races mentioned in the article: Asian/ Pacific Islander, Native American, and Hispanic, none of these races have as low of an intermarriage success rate as black Americans. When comparing intermarital success rates amongst these races and black Americans, Raley and others state, By 2012, roughly seventy-three percent of other races were still intermarried by their mid-forties, compared to the fifty-two percent of black American intermarriages (95). So, why is it that statistically and historically speaking, black Americans when entering into intermarriages are at higher risk of divorce? Raley and others express that the lack of intermarital stability of black Americans is due to the higher rates and instability of, incarceration, social class, earnings, wealth, occupational INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 23 Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? and residential segregation (96). Because black Americans face so many challenges throughout society, other races inevitability face these challenges as well once crossing racial barriers in marriage. This article concluded that because of the various social boundaries black Americans face, they will continue to have higher divorce rates regardless of whether or not it is an interracial or same-race marriage. Unlike the first article which stated, We find elevated divorce rates for Latino-white intermarriages but not for black/ white intermarriages (Kang and Wolfinger 4). There has been a change in data as Kang and Wolfinger used data from 1992-2004 and this article brings attention to updated data from 2008-2012. This article also mentions aspects of marriage such as age of races at first marriage, how it affects marital success, and why the outliers (black Americans) face high divorce rates. While black Americans have the highest rate of divorce, other races when compared to white marital success rate are always lower. Because of low margins of intermarital success rate amongst non-white races, it is hard to not question: Is marriage for white people? Looking specifically at the relationship amongst black-white intermarriages, Elizabeth Caucutt and others in their article: Is Marriage for White People? Incarceration and the Racial Marriage Divide, use U.S census data from the 2010 economy to help answer their research question: is marriage for white people? By looking at the past decade, Caucutt and others layout the potential reasons as to why black Americans and white Americans are on such opposite sides of the marital success spectrum. Because these two races are the complete opposite of each other, when they meet in matrimony, Incarceration and employment dynamics between black and white accounts for the seventy-six percent reason for filing for divorce (Caucutt et 24 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 al. 121). Comparing how the dynamics of incarceration and employment play a role in the overall marital stability for black and white Americans, will help answer Caucutt and others research question. By first looking at the factor of incarceration in marital status, it is easier to understand why so many interracial marriages that do occur are white-black. It is also through the dynamic of incarceration that it is clear to see the statistical differences of marital success between same-race and interracial marriages of black and white races. As of 2010, Almost eleven percent of black men between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-four were incarcerated, this is almost five times as high as the incarceration rate for the white men of the same age (Caucutt and others 123). Due to these higher rates of incarceration for black males, black American females are left with a smaller pool of potential same-race husbands. Thus, there is a need to cross racial boundaries in order to marry. Because white Americans face little to no social obstacles, they are the most sought over for the black American race. However, the marital success rates of black-white have shown to be less than that of white-white or black-black. As stated by Caucutt and others, about fifty-one percent of interracial marriages amongst black-white lasted beyond three years and eighty-nine percent of same-race marriages between white-white lasted beyond that (125). It is clear to see that while incarceration pulls black women towards a white spouse, the social gaps between the two races prove to be detrimental to marital stability, thus showing that same-race stability amongst whites is statistically significant. Using the dynamic of incarceration on inter marital stability, Caucutt and others transition to the overall economic environment and how employment plays a role in the overall lack of marital stability between white-black marriages. Males, black Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? or white, fall into one of three market states, non-employed, employed, or in prison (Caucutt and others 126). Females, black or white, only have two market states which are either: non-employed or employed. Females are then responsible for playing the role of mate finding. Because white males have higher rates of employment when compared to their black male counterparts, Once again, black females look for sustainability amongst the white race (Caucutt and others 127). Because of the tradition of social instability that black Americans face, this once again serves to be the overlying problem for intermarital success rate. Caucutt and others stress the importance of, Understanding how the labor market and incarceration are affecting interracial marriages (129). It is through understanding these two social issues and dynamics that leads the potential for better marital stability for future black-white intermarriages. Having touched specifically on what leads to the decrease in marital stability between white-black intermarriages when compared to same-race marital stability, may lead to answers and further research on the dynamics and social issues that affect the stability of other interracial marriages. So, does interracial marriage lead to a higher risk of divorce? Throughout the entirety of research, there were similar and varying findings. Both articles one and two: Broken Boundaries or Broken Marriages? Racial Intermarriage and Divorce in the United States and But Will It Last?: Marital Instability Among Interracial and Same-Race Couples concluded that while there are some statistical findings that support interracial marriages are at higher risk for divorce, there simply was not enough data to gauge an established answer. However, articles three and four: The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S Marriage Patterns and Is Marriage for White People? Incarceration, Unemployment and the Racial Marriage Divide, displayed opposite findings as they both concluded that there is indeed a rise in divorce rate for interracial marriages, but specifically between blackwhite interracial marriages. Because the first two articles displayed findings based off of older statistics, the conclusion for whether or not interracial marriages have a larger divorce risk associated with it could not be determined. With the updated statistical findings of the last two articles, because there has not been a long enough time period to gauge if interracial marriages lead to higher risk for divorce, only time will tell for certain if interracial marriages, indeed are an automatic sign of divorce. WORKS CITED Bratter, Jenifer and King, Rosalind. 2008. But Will It Last?: Marital Instability Among Interracial and Same-Race Couples. Family Relations 57(2): 160-171. Caucutt, Elizabeth, et al. 2018. Is Marriage for White People? Incarceration, Unemployment, and the Racial Marriage Divide. CEPR Discussions 1(5): 120-129. Kang, Vincent and Nicholas Wolfinger. 2011. Broken Boundaries or Broken Marriages? Racial INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 25 Interr acial Marriages: An Automatic Sign for Divorce? Intermarriage and Divorce in the United States. Social Science Quarterly 92(4): 2-25. Raley, Kelly et al. The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S Marriage Patterns. American Community 25(2): 89-109. 26 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020  ...

... Hemp: The Misunderstood Crop Luke Keyser H emp is a widely misunderstood resource. One tends to immediately think of marijuana when they hear the word hemp. Because marijuana is still illegal in many states that hemp is legal in, people can easily confuse the two plants. Due to this misconception hemp and marijuana have almost become synonymous in the minds of many. To reduce misconceptions, this essay will provide an informative corrective of hemp, highlighting its history and the purposes it can serve. That is, research on both the legality of hemp and its growing practices will be presented. Additionally, the actual science behind the plant and its byproducts will be shared. The primary conclusion is that hemp is a useful natural resource with a misunderstood past. Before beginning to share about this topic, and in the spirit of full disclosure, it is important to note that the author worked on a farm growing hemp. During this experience, the crop was grown from clones to fully mature plants, to being shucked and processed. What makes hemp different from marijuana? Both plants are considered to be examples of Cannabis Sativa but they have a key biological difference. They both naturally produce tetrahydrocannabinol or (THC) as well as producing cannabidiol or (CBD). Despite this, both plants have dramatically different ratios of these components. THC is essentially the plants version of adrenaline and is also what causes a psy- choactive response when ingested. CBD is a chemical compound in the cannabis plant that has shown to have medical benefits to humans. According to hemp industry analysis Mari Kane, hemp naturally produces high CBD while maintaining low THC production. Whereas marijuana produces a low level of CBD while producing heavy amounts of THC. A brief history further explains the distinguish-meant of hemp from marijuana. From the founding of the United States to modern day, the way hemp has been viewed and considered has changed numerous times. During the colonial era, hemp was an unregulated and standard crop for farmers all over the United States. According to Mari Kane, colonial era, Thomas Jefferson, then ambassador to France, smuggled illegally obtained Chinese hemp seeds to the colonies. Those same seeds were eventually hybridized to create the famous Kentucky Hemp strain. Kane later mentions that hemp was a valued commodity from the 1800s up until the 1900s. It was not until the first half of the 20th century that hemp transformed from a cash crop to a dangerous crop. Unfortunately, Hollywood racialized the crop with the 1936 Reefer Madness, a movie that made hemp and marijuana gain a bad reputation (Kane). Although Reefer Madness aimed to put marijuana in a bad light, hemp was also affected due to the fact that they are both members of the cannabis family. Despite INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 17 Hemp: The Misunderstood Crop the campaign against marijuana and hemp, there was still advocacy for the potential benefits of the plants. In 1937, the magazine Popular Mechanics declared hemp to be the New Billion Dollar Crop because of new developments in fiber technology. While hemp was making an agricultural boom, the first proposal for a marijuana prohibition tax act was put forth. Although this tax act was protested by the American Medical Association, the National Oilseed Institute and the birdseed industry, marijuana was made illegal and hemp became heavily taxed (Kane). Along with paying a tax, farmers had to register with their prospective state as a hemp farmer. World War II brought many changes to the United States, some of which would influence the agricultural community. According to Ben Dronkers, director of the Hash, Marihuana & Hemp Museum midway through the war in 1942 there was the Hemp for Victory war campaign. This campaign made Hemp a valuable commodity for the United States military. There were posters as well as video propaganda that was put out by the Department of Agriculture. This campaign got farmers growing hemp for the military to be processed and made into cargo nets and rope. After the war when hemp was no longer needed in large volumes, there was a greater supply than demand for the crop. In 1957, the last major hemp harvest took place before the crop became no longer profitable. Years later, the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 declared that all cannabis varieties including hemp would become schedule one controlled substance. In 1997, there were re-education programs discussing the difference between hemp and marijuana in attempts to clear up the misconceptions surrounding the Cannabis strains. Starting in the first decade of the 2000s until the 2014 Farm Bill, farmers and activists in Virginia pushed to legalize the growing, pro18 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 cessing and distribution of Hemp and CBD products. Since the Farm Bill, the growing of hemp has been a legal and rapidly growing business in Virginia, along with several other states across the country. Since 2014 and prior to the criminalization of Hemp, the crop was used as a natural resource to create a variety of commodities. According to Ben Dronkers, Industrial Hemp is one of the oldest cultivated crops on earth. Hemp is known for its fibrous nature which allows some of the strongest weather resistant ropes to be made out of it. Hemp can also be used for making- paper, textiles, clothing, biofuel, animal feed, concrete, rope and much more. In his article The Forgotten History of Hemp Jack Herer, also known as The Hemperor says that ninety percent of all ships sails from at least the fifth century BC until long after the invention of steam engines in the mid to late 19th century were made from hemp (Herer). Herer also said that Logs and Bibles were generally made of hemp fiber paper from the time of Columbus in the 15 century to early 1900s in western Europe and America (Herer). In the recent years, the FDA has approved several drugs made from CBD harvested from legally grown and processed Hemp. The FDA first of these approved drugs was Epidiolex, a medication for epilepsy (Stern). As mentioned in the introduction, the author worked on a hemp farm where hemp is grown for use in medical products. After harvest, the hemp is shucked and the bio-mass sent to a processor in order to extract the CBD oil. The extracted oils and byproducts were then used to make a variety of products such as CBD drops and gummies. This paper has discussed the difference between hemp and marijuana, given an overview of some key historical events involving hemp and covered some of the many uses of the plant. Hopefully, this Hemp: The Misunderstood Crop paper has been informative and helped to clear up some of the common misconcep- tions about hemp. WORK CITED Hemp for Shipping. Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, 15 Sept. 2015, hashmuseum.com/en/collection/hemp-shipping. Herer Jack. The Forgotten History of Hemp. Earth Island Journal, vol. 5, no. 4, Fall 1990, p.35.EBSCOhost Kane, Mari. The Movement to Legalize Industrial Hemp. Marijuana, edited by Joseph Tardiff, Greenhaven Press, 2008. Contemporary Issues Companion. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. Originally published as Growing Pains, E/The Environmental Magazine. Maranon, Rick. Hemp vs. Marijuana: Whats the Difference? KOKI, 16 Jan. 2019, fox23.com/news/hemp-vs-marijuana-what-s-the-difference-/905492020/. Sanchez, Rudy. Marijuana vs. Hemp: Whats the Difference? Chicagotribune.com, Chicago Tribune, 15 Aug. 2019, chicagotribune.com/marijuana/sns-tft-whats-the-difference-marijuana-hemp-20190815-nljrmyx7hvdedhca4vhwqj4a3e-story.html. Sterns, James A. Is the Emerging U.S. Hemp industry Yet Another BoomBust Market for U.S. Farmers? Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm & Resource Issues, vol. 34, no. 3, Aug-oct2019 3rd Quarter 2019, p. 1. EBSCOhost INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 19  ...

... R acial Construction bet ween the U.S. and Japan Racial Construction between the U.S. and Japan A k e m i F u jii T hroughout history, societies have constructed their own racial hierarchy for a dominant group to maintain its power, wealth, and authority. Each societys racial hierarchy reflects the specificities of its culture and history. Whereas the Japanese understand race in relation to nationality, race is constructed on the basis of skin color in the U.S. Although the legacy of legalized slavery informs racism in both countries, and this history continues to have tremendously negative effects in every aspect of life. Japan and the U.S. enslaved different groups of people. Japan invaded Asian countries and forced their citizens to migrate to Japan as a labor force to support imperialism. The U.S. purchased slaves from the African continent to support colonialism. American slaves were of American heritage; their labor was exploited to sustain the profitability of plantation agriculture and U.S. economic growth. Once a racial construction is formed, minority groups are deprived of their rights systemically, and minority groups have not yet escaped from a socially designed system of racial hierarchy that can be traced back to now-historical institutionalizes slavery. In The Social Construction of Race and Minorities in Japan, Yamashiro explained how Japanese history has played a role in developing its own racism. Japan tried to establish the models of higher in12 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 dustrialization and powerful militaries from the West in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. During this period, Japanese leaders feared that a failure to engage in imperialism-as the Western countries were then doing would make Japan itself vulnerable to foreign domination. Japan built imperialism by excluding racial diversity. Historically, when Japan attempted to expand its territory, it engulfed other races: Okinawa, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Pacific Islands (148). In Japan race is not always associated with the color of skin. According to Yamashiro, the criteria to be fully recognized as Japanese are nationality, ancestry, language competence, birthplace, current residence, level of cultural literacy, and subjective identity (Yamashiro 151). Whereas the U.S. traces its construction of racial hierarchy to the import and reproduction of enslaved Africans, Japans racial hierarchy derives from its ear of imperialism. To understand how the U.S. has constructed racial hierarchy, Michele Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow explains how U.S. history has played a role in developing its own racism. The earlier settlers in the U.S. purchased slaves from the African continent. Since then, the U.S. has organized legal and political mechanisms to keep African Americans under their control. Even though slavery and Jim Crow are history, a similar amount discrimination R acial Construction bet ween the U.S. and Japan against African Americans still exists (2340). Alexander says African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form (21). Whereas the laws which once supported slavery have been abolished-just as Japanese imperialism ended decades ago, the racial hierarchies constructed to sustain and justify those practices have persisted. Yamashiro takes a look at how one specific racial minority group in Japan has been kept in the subordinate social class. The second largest minority group in Japan is Korean-Japanese. Their ancestors were encouraged or forced to migrate to Japan as a facet of Japanese imperialism. Korean descendants were born in Japan and they speak Japanese. However, they are not Japanese citizens. To be legalized as a Japanese citizen, one of their first ancestors should be born in Japan. Even if they are culturally and socially Japanese, they belong to one of minority groups in Japan (154). The deprivation of citizenship is a practice that has been used to discriminate against a specific race; it has been normalized in Japan. It has kept Korean-Japanese excluded from the Japanese mainstream and forced to remain in a subordinate social status. Since the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents the government from depriving U.S. born individuals of citizenship, American society was obliged to resort to other mechanisms to keep the descendants of African slaves in a subordinate class. According to Alexander, mass incarceration is one of examples how minority groups are mistreated. Mass incarceration targets a specific racial minority, which is a new form of legislative discrimination, but it has been normalized. Alexander describes the situation as treated here in America as a basic fact of life (Alexander 181). This social exclusion is legalized discrimination (Alexander 191). African American ex-offenders even with minor charges are subject to legalized forms of discrimination that limit or prohibit access to employment, housing, public benefits, and public accommodation (191). Alexander describes the challenge of ex-offenders: Upon release, ex-offenders are discriminated against, legally, for the rest of their lives and most will eventually return to prison. They are members of Americas new undercaste (Alexander 17). According to Alexander, people who belong to the undercaste are permanently excluded from the mainstream by law. The current criminal justice system targets African Americans in order to create an under-caste, the members of which are denied the prospect of upward social and economic mobility, as well as political rights (13). Discrimination which exists in social, political and economic life is perfectly legal like Jim Crow (192). Japan has targeted specific minority groups to exclude them from the mainstream by using social systems as regulation of citizenship in Japan. The U.S. has used mass incarceration to keep African Americans subordinate. Both strategies have succeeded in keeping minority groups in the subordinate social class. The subordination of minority groups within a racial hierarchy is reinforced by socializing members of the dominant group to feel hatred toward them. In the article of Responding to Hate in Contemporary Japan, Youngmi writes about the hate speech against Korean population in Japan, which is called Zainichi. Once people identify individuals as Zainichi, they become the target of hate speech (241). Youngmi further asserts that Zainichi have a unique status in Japan. On one hand, their ancestors were enslaved by Japan, and they themselves have been kept in a subordinate social class. On the other hand, they have received financial compensation from the government as a form of reparations after Japan lost WWII and withdrew from the INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 13 R acial Construction bet ween the U.S. and Japan Korean peninsula. Some right-wing activists claim that this compensation is a waste of taxes (248). Zainichi constantly remind the Japanese of a dark phase in their history, and thus pose a threat to the basis of national self-confidence. The past is not just the past: as part of a national history, slavery and imperialism continues to exercise powerful, negative legacies, especially in the form of persisting hatred. Likewise, slavery may have been abolished in the U.S., but its legacy is evident in the stigmatization of African Americans. Alexander points out that African Americans still experience the burdens of slavery, in that they do not have equal access to social, political and economic opportunities (141). According to Alexander, racial animus is used to control minority groups to maintain a nation (Alexander 183). Mass incarceration presents itself as a tool to fight crime, instead, it is actually a means to create a caste and is driven by hatred felt toward African Americans (183). Since it is driven by hatred, Alexander has contended that the collapse of mass incarceration will not mean the death of racial caste in America. Inevitably a new system of racialized social control will emerge (Alexander 19). It is tremendously difficult for minority groups to escape a socially-constructed loop that is designed to keep them subordinate. One discriminatory system may be abolished, but a new one will be created to replace it as long as hatred of the subordinate group persists. Such embedded and widespread hatred toward members of the subordinate group sometimes comes to the surface. Youngmi isolated specific moments when hate speech against Zainichi grew particularly common and intense, as when Zainichi secured some improvement in their social, legal, or material status. One of the most common forms of hate speech is to convince Japanese that Zainichi do not de14 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 serve the full Japanese citizenship. Youngmi also has found that the internet has a great influence on the hate speech. Right wing activists upload anti-Zainichi videos on the internet in addition to organizing rallies on the street (243). One of Korean-Japanese organizations runs Korean schools in Japan. The students are taught in Korean only and wear a traditional Korean attire as uniform (241). There is one Korean University in Japan, and they are the target of perpetual harassments from the right-wing activists (245). Often, such activists claim that these Korean schools and the Korean University are affiliated with North Korea. Since Japan is at odds with North Korea, this association stimulates further hatred against Korean-Japanese. Whenever the tension between Japan and North Korea gets worse, Korean schools are targeted (254). If school officials report harassment to the police, they risk attracting further scrutiny. Worse, they risk provoking retaliation (247). On macro level, social media has systematically reinforced hatred felt toward Zainichi. On the micro level, it has made individual Korean-Japanese feel less safe in their daily life. Mass media, too, is a powerful vehicle when it comes to reinforcing hatred of racial minorities. As Alexander reports, the evening news has repeatedly shown images of African American men in handcuffs for the past thirty years, which has the effect of sustaining support for mass incarceration (182). Alexander says political campaigns have taken advantage of the power of media, and media shapes negative public sense of perceptions of minority groups (105, 101). Since minority groups have learned society has judged them falsely based on inaccurate or distorted images disseminated by mass media, they are reluctant to interact with authorities. Alexander has reported the concern that Even though who knew they were eligible to register worried that registering to vote would somehow at- R acial Construction bet ween the U.S. and Japan tract attention to them-perhaps land them back in jail (Alexander 160). Without the right to vote, people are not full citizens (140). Whether the mechanisms are overt or embedded in institutionalized practice, Korean-Japanese and African Americans have both been deprived of their rights to participate fully in their respective societies. The absence of political rights means that individuals find themselves unable to escape from a subordinate socio-economic class. In the article of Bringing Class Back In, Kim explains the strong connection between race and social class among Korean-Japanese. By the 1950s, Korean immigrants and their children were subject to strict surveillance and legalized discrimination by the Japanese government. One of the significant example is the right to vote. Even if Korean descendants were born and raised in Japan, they are foreigners in Japan and are not granted the right to vote (875). The right to vote is one of essential civil rights, and it is one of aspects of a full citizen. Without the right to vote, people cannot participate society. Alexander also points out that the significance of vote. Disenfranchisement not only prevents minority groups from having power within the political system, but is also keeps them in a socially subordinate position (161). Alexander reports that one of ex-offender reflected, So basically Ive lost all voice or control over my government (Alexander 161). This inequality creates huge socio-economic disparities between Koreans and Japanese and between Caucasian and African Americans. The lower socio-economic status of Korean-Japanese adds to the hostility and prejudice that many Japanese feel toward them. As a result of the legalized discrimination and their historic subordination, many Korean-Japanese have been obliged to perform unpleasant, dirty, low-paying, low-quality, and antisocial jobs. Further, their precarious status has tended to result in a higher rate of unemployment, as well as greater dependency on government benefits (877). The crime rate among Koreans-Japanese was high, so they were perceived as criminals. Low income tends to accompany lower levels of education (879). Jobs and professions are thus sources not only income but also social status. Alexander has similarly identified a strong connection between job opportunities and social status in the case of the U.S. and African Americans. According to Alexander, globalization has particularly harmed inner cities (50). When job opportunities decline in inner cities, it triggers the residents to sell drugs (51). As a result of these developments, as well as racial prejudice, police expect drug dealers to be Black or people of color (123). Alexander introduces the estimate that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison (Alexander 7). As the primary victims of social and economic development that have deprived them of rights and opportunities, Blacks and other American minorities find that the bias against them is systemic. Racism reflects unconscious and/ or conscious biases that lead to value judgments that reinforce the superior status of the dominant group. Alexander contends that racism appears in two distinct guises: individual and institutional (184). Unconscious biases help Americans to comfort themselves with the belief that the system is just: they convince themselves that young African American men have freely chosen a life of crime. They do not take into account the systemic barriers that reduce the range of options available to them (184). Alexander observes that negative association tied to being Black are part of how African Americans are stigmatized (197). The greatest achievement of implicit racism is that INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 15 R acial Construction bet ween the U.S. and Japan people can be genuinely convinced that racism and racially based caste no longer exists, despite evidence to the contrary. Both unconscious and conscious biases perpetuate social distinctions. These distinctions are reinforced by both individual behavior and institutions. Systemic social stratification will keep recurring to keep minority groups in the lower social caste. Across societies and across historical eras, dominant groups have identified and denigrated racial minorities as a means to maintain their superior status. In Japan a dominant group has constructed racial hierarchy using nationality. Japan has limited citizenship to those who have Japanese ancestors. Korean-Japanese are not legal Japanese because they have ancestors who were former slaves in Japan. Japan has deprived Korean-Japanese of full citizenship, thus keeping them in the subordinate. In the U.S. a dominant group has constructed racial hierarchy using color of skin. The U.S. brought African Americans to the country as slaves, and has used various mechanisms to keep African Americans subordinate even after the abolition of slavery. Since the end of Jim Crow laws, mass incarceration emerged as a systemic way to keep African American deprived of rights. Recently, mass incarceration is one of normalized systems to lock African Americans in jail and deprive their rights after jail. Both Japan and the U.S. have selected specific minority groups and given racial stigma to control minority groups. The dominant groups in Japan and the U.S. have constructed race, thereby making dominant groups superior and minority groups inferior. Discrimination has prevented members of racialized minorities from enjoying full access to any aspect of national life. Although Japan and the U.S. have different strategies to keep minority groups in the subordinate status, minority groups have been systemically deprived their rights and full citizenship. They have found themselves trapped in a negative feedback loop that keeps them subordinate. WORKS CITED Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration the Age of Colorblindness. The New Press, 2010. Kim, Bumsoo. Bringing Class Back in: The Changing Basis of Inequality and the Korean Minority in Japan. Ethnic & Racial Studies, vol. 31, no. 5, July 2008, pp. 871898. SocINDEX, doi:10.1080/01419870701682279. Lim, Youngmi. Responding to Hate in Contemporary Japan: Fragmenting Factors Obstructing Effective Ethnic Advocacy. Social Science Japan Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, Summer 2018, pp. 239259. SocINDEX, doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyy022. Yamashiro, Jane H. The Social Construction of Race and Minorities in Japan. Sociology Compass, vol. 7, no. 2, Feb. 2013, pp. 147-161. SocINDEX, doi: 10.1111/soc4.12013. 16 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020  ...

... Constructionist Analysis of the Tide Pod Challenge Constructionist Analysis of the Tide Pod Challenge A le x H e is te r INTRODUCTION Starting in late 2017 and moving on into early 2018, a social media challenge known as the Tide Pod Challenge emerged. The challenge encouraged participants (namely teenagers and children) to eat Tide Pods due to their colorful appearance and gummy texture. Though this seemed to be a challenge similar to previous ones such as the Cinnamon Challenge and the Warhead Challenge, it came with the risk of causing chemical burns in the mouth and throat of the participants as the outer coating of the pod dissolved once making contact with saliva, allowing the inedible ingredients inside to spill out. In the most extreme cases, this led to participants dying due to chemical poisoning. The company responsible for the Tide Pod Product, Proctor and Gamble Co., was criticized for making a cleaning product with food like qualities. The issue of the challenge itself and the appearance of Tide Pods were presented and tackled in several news articles. METHODS AND DATA In order to analyze this social problem, a content analysis was performed on ten articles reporting on this issue from January to February of 2018. The articles themselves were taken from multiple different media agencies, each with different strategies on how to deliver the same information while providing new perspectives. These articles were taken from The Student Life, The Sun, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Langley Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, UWire, Business Standard, and Daily Mail. In order to analyze each article, each report was broken down and coded into three categories: Grounds, warrants, and conclusions. Grounds describes the factual areas of the claim, warrants describe why we (as citizens) should care about the claim, and conclusions summarize what is believed to be the best response to the social problem or what responses have already been made. Also, a peer coded five of the articles in order to provide establish intercoder reliability. While our agreement on conclusions was high, we seemed to frequently disagree on whether an article was trying to make a ground or warrant. GROUNDS Many of the articles try to establish why Tide Pods became the focus of the challenge and why some people are engaging in the challenge while providing the statistics on the number of incidents reported. According to the sampled articles, the Tide Pods take on a gummy, colorful look that makes it seem like an edible, delicious snack. The Student Life mentions INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 7 Constructionist Analysis of the Tide Pod Challenge that, due to the appearance of the pods, a joke started to float around that it was a forbidden snack. The same article claims The Tide Pod challenge isnt like any of the food challenges that came before it. Tide Pods arent food, so nothing has to be done to them to make them more challenging. The challenge isnt about overcoming fear. Its about giving in to desire (Brooks, 2018). From this explanation, it seems as though the author connects the challenge to other dangerous activities that are associated with teenagers such as cliff diving as the participants are meant to overcome a fear of pain and death rather than consuming something they find repulsive. When trying to explain why people were engaging in the challenge, the Langley Times claims that there are multiple reasons such as the desire to instigate drama or the thirst for notoriety. Another explanation for the behavior is brain science that explains that teenagers are more prone to questionable or dangerous behavior due to an underdeveloped pre-frontal cortex. As an extension of the brain science explanation, the article states no wonder then, that its hard for us as adults to put ourselves in that mindset even though we were all once teenagers, too. The wiring is complete, so we cant see ourselves ever making decisions that would put our health in jeopardy for no discernible reason (Anderson, 2018). The attempt to connect the appeal of the challenge to brain science seems to try to simplify the problem rather than investigate other variables. True, the article mentions drama and notoriety as other reasons, but they are only briefly mentioned and not expanded on unlike the brain science explanation. Seven out of ten of the articles also mentioned statistics related to the reported incidents of Tide Pod ingestion. Many of the articles seem to throw the statistics out there, but choose not to expand on it. 8 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 The New York Times and The Washington Post both bring up the overall statistics for reported cases to the Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) concerning children ingesting laundry pods. However, The Washington Post was the only one that tried to break down the statistics and compare them to other issues relating to children ingesting toxic products. Not only does the article state that the trend for laundry pod exposure has decreased, but the issue of laundry pod exposure itself is not as severe as hand sanitizers, toothpaste, or deodorants. It even goes as far as to mention that the reports reflect suspicion of ingestion along with actual cases of ingestion. WARR ANTS When it comes to these articles trying to establish why people should be concerned about the issue of the Tide Pod Challenge, the main strategy seems to be describing the symptoms of those who ingest Tide Pods while emphasizing that children and teenagers are at risk of dying from the challenge, feeding into the fear of someone losing their child. Seven out of ten of the sampled articles took the time to describe the symptoms of Tide Pod ingestion. According to these articles, symptoms such as burning, vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures can be expected if someone were to break open the pod while it was in their mouth. However, the presentation of the symptoms seems to differ. One of the milder expositions of why the pods were dangerous came from The Sun, which said the substances inside these pods are highly poisonous and pose serious health risks if they are ingested. Even a small amount of the highly-concentrated liquid detergent can cause diarrhea, vomiting, and breathing difficulties. At worse, they can even lead to death (Hyatt, 2018). Here, the article does not try to capitalize the life-threatening risk of the challenge, Constructionist Analysis of the Tide Pod Challenge though it does acknowledge that death is a possibility when someone ingests Tide Pods. It could be argued that this would lean closer to a ground classification due to the lack of emotional emphasis on the symptoms of laundry detergent ingestion. On the other side of the spectrum, The New York Times puts in more description when describing the symptoms. The article describes Tide Pods as highly concentrated detergent and a variety of chemicals are inside, depending on the brand (Chokoshi, 2018). Then, the article moves on to say, what weve seen is when children or adults bite into these things that moisture-sensitive membranes basically just disintegrates and the contents explode inside your mouth... Thats when the pain sets in. The chemicals cause severe burns to the mouth, esophagus, or respiratory tract, she said, adding that some very young and very old patients with cognitive issues have been rushed to emergency rooms or even died as a result of eating the packets (Chokshi, 2018). Here, the article places a narrative so the reader can better understand how events would play out if they were to ingest a Tide Pod, creating an emotional reaction when it finally reaches the symptoms. Instead of just listing off the symptoms, it emphasizes the pain that someone experiences when they eat a pod. It moves on to suggest that those who ingest Tide Pods have to go to the emergency room and receive immediate medical care as their life is in danger. When comparing these two descriptions, it is clear that one is more focused on simply listing off the symptoms while the other is more focused on delivering the message that eating Tide Pods is dangerous and life threatening. It can be argued that The New York Times did a better job of instigating a fear of the challenge by providing a narrative and descriptive language to engage and frighten the audience. CONCLUSIONS Out of the ten articles, only three report on the PSA that Procter & Gamble Co. released on the subject while only four mentioned the measures that YouTube and Facebook have taken to remove videos of teenagers ingesting Tide Pods. As far as dealing with the issue of teens taking on dangerous challenges, almost none of the articles seem to be aware of the root problem. Instead, many either try to suggest or report on measures to rebrand the product to make it less appealing. In the Business Standard article, the author quotes from Deepak Morada who claims that the company should immediately pull the product off the retail shelves and distribution pipelines, and replace them with a product with features designed to avoid any unintended misuse. New packaging should be clearly labeled to avoid confusion (Sharma, 2018). In an article by the Daily Mails, Tide was reported to respond to the issue by adding an ingredient called denatonium benzoate, which is seen as the worlds most bitter tasting substance. The company hoped that the bitter flavor would cause children to spit the detergent out immediately and never try it again (Sheets, 2018). In both of these articles, its clear that the focus is not to discourage potentially life-threatening social media challenges, but to instead prevent people from eating Tide Pods. One of the few articles that try to deal with the dangers of social media challenges was the Langley Times, which said experts say parents should talk to their kids about why theyre feeling they need to take part in something potentially harmful. Its a conversation, they say, that can lead to a deeper discussion about decision making and online behaviors (Anderson, 2018). This conclusion does not aim to stop the Tide Pod Challenge, but instead aims to prevent dangerous challenges that could replace the aforementioned challenge once INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 9 Constructionist Analysis of the Tide Pod Challenge either its attention has been lost or enough preventions measures have been established to discourage the current challenge. CONCLUSION In conclusion, ten articles concerning the social problem of the Tide Pod Challenge were collected and analyzed. Each article attempted to summarize the social problem and present them to their audience with varying degrees of objectivity. When analyzing the grounds of each article, many were able to summarize the challenge and explain why Tide Pods became the focus of attention. Although 70% of the articles mentioned statistics relating to the reported cases of Tide Pod poisoning, only one tried to break down the statistics and provide greater context to properly educate the audience. As far as warrants are concerned, most articles used their descriptions of symptoms as emotional tools to instill fear in the audience rather than informing them of the realistic risks and concerns of the social problem. Conclusions, on the other hand, seemed less concerned with addressing the factors that lead teenagers to establishing the Tide Pod Challenge and instead focused on how to make the challenge more unappealing. As a whole, while it seems like many of these articles succeeded in introducing the concept of the Tide Pod Challenge and encouraging their audience to care about the safety of children and teenagers that were at risk, many failed to properly use their statistics and address the root problem. ARTICLES ANALYZED Business Standard 1: http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/tide-pod-crisis-shows-brands-must-reflect-true-personality-on-social-media-118021401444_1.html (Sharma, 2018) Daily Mail 2: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5373525/Tide-Pods-look-delicious-lawmakers-say.html (Sheets, 2018) The Huffington Post 3: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tide-pod-video-crackdown_ us_5a60bc03e4b062a7df0b9fe5 (Golgowski, 2018) Langley Times 4: https://www.langleytimes.com/opinion/a-challenge-to-common-sense/ (Anderson, 2018) The New York Times 5: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/20/us/tide-pod-challenge.html (Chokshi, 2018) St. Louis Post-Dispatch 6: http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/tide-pod-challenge-is-dangerousand-concerning-procter-gamble-ceo/article_bb9988b5-92c4-50adad3f-b0d907fc9fe7.html (Associated Press, 2018) The Student Life 7: http://tsl.news/life-style/7239/ (Brooks, 2018) 10 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 The Sun 8: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/5331006/tide-pod-challenge-eating-memes-safe/ (Hyatt, 2018) UWire 9: https://global-factiva-com.ezpvcc.vccs.edu:2443/redir/default.aspx?P=sa&NS=16&AID=9VIV000400&an=UWIR000020180223ee2n001a2&cat=a&ep=ASI (Nyugen, 2018) The Washington Post 10: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/16/therewere-over-10000-poison-control-calls-for-people-eating-laundrypods-last-year/?utm_term=.77b3281b95a8 (Ingraham, 2018) INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 11  ...

... Maggie and Meaning in Toni Morrisons Recitatif B re t V o llm e r I n a 1983 interview with Claudia Tate, Toni Morrison confronts both reader subjectivity and opening her texts to that subjectivity. She explains that her language has to be quiet; it has to engage your participation...[it] has to have holes and spaces so that the reader can come into it. Morrisons short story Recitatif is remarkable for the deliberate gaps created by an absence of narrative resolution and the intentional holes Morrison leaves in her characterization of the protagonists Twyla and Roberta; although Morrison introduces the two girls-both left at an orphanage by their absentee mothers--with the suggestion that one is black and one is white, she never identifies which is which. Instead, Morrison engages reader participation and subjectivity in asking how we might locate characters identity in a story in which the coded language of racial difference has been erased. Morrison similarly demonstrates through the racially ambiguous character Maggie, that our fabricated notions of race exist only as categories of difference rather than as positive entities. In these ways, Recitatif asks how its characters and readers alike might negotiate questions of identity, history and trauma in the absence of false social binaries. Much in Recitatif resists deterministic reading. This foregrounding of reader subjectivity is perhaps most immediately apparent in Morrisons refusal to re- veal the race of the storys narrator Twyla or her counterpart Roberta. In her essay The Color Fetish, Morrison identifies Recitatif as her first attempt at this technique of racial erasure: rather than relying on the coded colorism that exists in American literature as the ultimate narrative shortcut, Morrison describes her choice to withhold racialized physical descriptions as an effort to annihilate and discredit the routine, easy, available color fetish. In place of rote references to complexion, Morrison employs a meticulously ambivalent system of class and social signifiers that, depending on reader subjectivity, can be read as indicating the protagonists race, but never definitively. True to Morrisons sociological commentary, the storys existing identifiers typically appear as symmetrically functioning codes...deconstruct[ing] the black / white binary to reveal the limitations of Americas rigid racial discourse (Benjamin 89). In short, efforts to parse the racial identities of Twyla, Roberta or later Maggie fall into the very conventional cliches of reading that the story has been so carefully crafted to challenge (Tally 104). Morrison goes on to explain that insofar as the technique of racial erasure exists in her novels, she theatricalize[s] the point by not only refusing to rest on racial signs but also alerting the reader to [her] strategy (Morrison, Color Fetish). In Recitatif, Morrison dramaINSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 1 Maggie and Me aning in Toni Morrison s Recitatif tizes the slippage of racial coding--and the foregrounding of reader subjectivity--via Twyla and Robertas respective reading of Maggie. Morrison demonstrates the limitations of relying on what she terms the discredited difference of race and disability through Twyla and Robertas competing, racialized readings of Maggie (Morrison, American Africanism 1674). Significantly, Twyla describes Maggie as old and sandy-colored which is the only racialized physical description of any character in the story (Morrison, Recitatif 2155). However, it is also a description marked by ambiguity: Maggie could potentially identify as black, white or of mixed heritage. Despite its indeterminacy, the independent nature of the descriptor sandy-colored also differentiates Maggie from Twyla and Roberta who have racial identity only through difference from one another, thus affirming Maggie as a positive entity existing in the space between binaries (Ioanes 118). Nevertheless, Twylas most comprehensive description of Maggie is also markedly insubstantial: she is the orphanages kitchen woman with legs like parentheses, a characterization that suggests Maggies initially parenthetical role in Twyla and Robertas story (Morrison, Recitatif 2154). As a figure of marginalization, Maggie is both represented and obscured by the metonym of her disability: as Twyla explains, I dont know if she was nice or not. I just remember her legs like parentheses and how she rocked when she walked (Morrison, Recitatif 2155). Maggies position as an object of Twylas memory reduces her to that which Twyla (and later Roberta) subjectively projects onto her--specifically, Maggies rocking which Twyla later admits to associating with her own absent, dancing mother (Morrison, Recitatif 2164). This acknowledged process of projection is crucial to interpreting Roberta and Twylas 2 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 racialized readings of Maggie amidst the school bussing debate. In reuniting as adults on opposite sides of the school desegregation debate, Twyla and Robertas competing, racialized readings of Maggie--a figure from their now-repressed childhood at the orphanage--overshadow the womens understanding of their shared trauma and their present disagreement over their childrens future. When Roberta believes Twyla has call[ed her] a bigot, Roberta shifts this charge back to Twyla by accusing Twyla of being the same little state kid who kicked a poor old black lady (Morrison, Recitatif 2163). This racialized description of Maggie is conspicuously contextualized as helping Roberta deflect Twylas accusation of racism--an accusation that Roberta infers but which Twyla never makes explicit. Similarly, Twyla reflexively overlooks Robertas accusation of violence, but is puzzled by [Roberta] telling [her] Maggie was black, concluding she actually couldnt be certain (Morrison, Recitatif 2164). In both instances, the protagonists racialized reading of Maggie subsumes more immediate questions of violence, guilt, repression and reconciliation. Not only does Twyla and Robertas puzzlement over Maggies race mirror the readers own possible insistence on identifying the race of the protagonists, it dramatizes the aggravat[ing]...tremor that breaks into discourse on race (Morris 173; Morrison, American Africanism 1676). The fact that the womens highly personalized fight manifests in the context of a picket line and the contest of signs...works as a self-referential moment, pointing us to the fact that the whole story is about reading signifiers (Morgenstern 819). That the question of Maggies race supersedes the question of Maggies trauma illustrates how the grammar of racial difference can obscure discussions of the underlying realities of subordination and violence. Twylas ten- Maggie and Me aning in Toni Morrison s Recitatif tative conclusion via negation--that Maggie wasnt pitch black...or [she] would have remembered--similarly affirms that such racial dichotomies mean only in relationship to one another, not as independent positive entities (Morrison, Recitatif 2164; Morgenstern 819). Twyla and Robertas eventual acceptance of Maggies racial ambiguity represents a newly-realized commitment to recover[ing Maggie] from the recesses of cultural memory, thus exposing the flawed ideological basis of that cultural memory--specifically the definition of identity via racial difference (Morrison, Recitatif 2165; Stanley 74). In a story in which the un-fixedness of racial binaries invite competing readings of identity markers, Morrison anticipates reader responses to Recitatif that prioritize determining the racial identities of its characters. Similarly, Twyla and Robertas oppositional reading of Maggies race dramatizes Morrisons strategy of highlighting reader subjectivity. However, Maggies association with ambiguity and trauma also places her at the unresolvable center of Recitatifs narrative. In addition to exposing the limitations of reifying discredited difference, Maggie embodies the narrative inconclusiveness that punctuates Recitatif. In this respect, Morrison forces the reader to confront the initial assumption that Maggie is parenthetical at all. Although she initially constitutes a spectral presence in Twylas narration, Maggies literal and figurative silence also demands critical interpretation from Twyla as she recalls that [t]he kids said [Maggie] had her tongue cut out, but I think she was just born that way: mute (Morris 171; Morrison, Recitatif 2154). Indeed, if Maggies limited characterization seems at first glance to indicate her objectification, Morrison continually reaffirms the need of her characters to fill in the gaps of [Maggies] minimally represented self (Sklar 151). To this end, Twyla as an adult narrator confronts the unsympathetic conclusions of her former self--that Maggies muteness also implied deafness--stating, I think we were wrong. I think [Maggie] could hear and didnt let on. And it shames me even now to think there was somebody in there after all who heard us call her those names and couldnt tell on us (Morrison, Recitatif 2155). In remembering her and Roberta calling Maggie dummy, Twyla instinctively recognizes the power of language to legitimate value for one group and to impose the role of social and corporeal inferiority on another (Stanley 78). Such reflection becomes increasingly central to Recitatif as the narrative and symbolic significance of Maggie becomes more and more apparent in each of Twyla and Robertas encounters where they continually restag[e] the repressed ideological and psychological interactions that occurred in the orchard (Stanley 80). Although Twyla is initially elliptical in referring to the trauma on the day...Maggie fell down, the subsequent investigation into Twyla and Robertas repression--the pitched battle between remembering and forgetting--emerges as the storys central narrative drive (Morrison, Recitatif 2155; Morrison, Carve Out). Through this process, Maggie comes into view not merely as a figure of marginalization or a site for projection, but as a a parenthetical element, a person really, who challenges the supposedly superfluous quality of the parenthesis itself (Benjamin 91). The consolidating, concluding question What the hell happened to Maggie? represents not only the unresolvable narrative gap at the heart of the story, but also a means of recovering personal memory and identity for the storys protagonists (Morrison, Recitatif 2164; Ioanes 118). The interrogative nature of What the hell happened to Maggie? provides a framework through which Twyla and RoINSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 3 berta learn to locate their past and present selves via a shared dialogue. In her speech Unspeakable Things Unspoken, Morrison describes the act of questioning as an egalitarianism that places us all (reader, the novels population, the narrators voice) on the same footing, and it is the question of Maggies trauma that puts Twyla, Roberta and the reader all on the same footing in considering a common past--even despite the distancing effects of race and diegesis. Even during their fight amidst the bussing debate, Twyla concedes that my sign didnt make sense without Robertas, thus confirming their mutual reliance to make meaning of their world (Morrison, Recitatif 2163). Despite the contentiousness of Twyla and Robertas adult encounters, it is only through the dialogic, the interaction, the taking of the time to address one another that the story of the exchange...represents our hope of discovering some space of possibility, of freedom (Busia 167). After their argument at the picket line, Twyla and Roberta reconvene to reflect on their shared experience at the orphanage: We were kids, Roberta. Yeah. Yeah. I know, just kids. Eight. Eight. And lonely. Scared too. (Morrison, Recitatif 2165) By locating the emotional reality of their past and current selves, Twyla and Robertas sustained dialogue illustrates the importance of investigating communal trauma even if the specific question, What the hell happened to Maggie? remains unanswered. Indeed, Recitatif emphasizes one of Morrisons primary themes, the assertion that shared emotional experiences, although often profoundly distorted by perceptions of difference, are the most accurate and solid foundation available for authen4 INSIGHTS, SPRING 2020 tic human connection (Gillespie 162). As a figure that exists in the space between distorting binaries, Maggie embodies a shared narrative that provides common ground for the protagonists to rewrite, even if they are unable to resolve their conflicting versions of history (Benjamin 91). In a story in which the language of racial difference has been erased, racially ambiguous Maggie embodies the elusive truth of a traumatic communal history. Morrisons adult protagonists initially suffer under the distancing influence of a reductive racial dichotomy by refusing to acknowledge their childhood connection and trauma. By learning to empathetically investigate Maggies silence and trauma--a violent event that links all three characters--rather than just her race, Twyla and Roberta eventually emerge as individuals defined by their shared experiences rather than their racial differences. Morrison makes clear that these are lessons not only for her characters, but also her readers; by withholding the grammar of racial contrast from her characterizations, Morrison exposes the more pressing realities of violence and social subordination. Similarly, the storys central yet irresolvable question, What the hell happened to Maggie? inspires Twyla and Roberta to overcome their repression through dialogue, thus providing an epistemic framework for a fractured society. In having her protagonists learn to negotiate identity through empathetic exchange rather than categories of difference, Morrison demonstrates the potential of recognizing our common vulnerability as a means of seeing past the distorting influence of false binaries. Maggie and Me aning in Toni Morrison s Recitatif WORKS CITED Benjamin, Shanna Greene. The Space that Race Creates: An Interstitial Analysis of Toni Morrisons Recitatif . Studies in American Fiction, vol. 40 no. 1, 2013, p. 87-106. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/ saf.2013.0004. Burton, Zisca. Blooms How to Write About Toni Morrison. Edited by Harold Bloom, Blooms Literary Criticism, 2008. Campbell, W. John. Toni Morrison: Her Life and Works. The Wonderland Press, 2003. David, Ron. Toni Morrison Explained: A Readers Road Map to the Novels. Random House, 2000. Gillespie, Carmen. Critical Companion to Toni Morrison: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. Facts on File, 2008. Ioanes, Anna. 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