Key Sociological Aspects of Race and Ethnicity

Key Sociological Aspects of Race and Ethnicity
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Key Sociological Aspects of Race and Ethnicity
Answer 1
I decided to watch Lori Mayo's TEDx talk video for this assignment. "Let's Get Uncomfortable: It's Time to Talk About Race" is the video's title. The video does an excellent job of explaining the disparity between the black and white races. It builds beautifully on the profoundly ingrained concepts in our society's minds about things that make people uncomfortable. Religion, money, politics, sex, and race are just a few examples of topics we tend to ignore or avoid discussing the case because we want to be comfortable (TEDx Talks, 2019). The author explains this by constructing a discussion around basic scenarios such as changing into a comfy T-shirt and pyjamas when we get home from work or looking forward to a relaxing day at home after work.
Another primary reason for selecting this video was that the speaker, Lori Mayo, is a white woman. There are very few white speakers who discuss the differences between the two races based on their skin color. Although the speaker lacks engaging power for the audience and appears slightly dull, the evidence and experiences she shares from her life based on racial disparity from her childhood to her professional career as a high school English teacher in New York City are compelling. In terms of racial differences, one can see a child's perspective and an adult's observation. She discusses her personal experiences, but she also discusses the experiences of several students she later meets in life and a few drawbacks of racial differences in education for black students.
Additionally, her discussion makes us understand that skin color is only limited to the skin. It doesn't involve any significant personality differences. Yes, the cultures might be different, but at the end of the day, the black and the white races had similar research results and even had the same thought process; for example, the blacks were just as afraid of the whites as much as the whites were from the blacks.
Answer 2
The overall goal of the TED Talk was to ensure that people understood why it is necessary to engage in uncomfortable conversations. For centuries, we have felt that an inappropriate discussion does not make it so. Some of these discussions, such as racial discrimination, have the potential to change society's attitudes toward different people.
The main point of the Talk is that the "white is better than black" mentality has been strong enough to ruin the future of black children while also polluting the minds of white children. The author recounts an incident in which a Kindergarten student claims that a white singer is superior to a black singer solely because she is white (TEDx Talks, 2019). The child says that she wishes her skin was as white as the singers. Such mentalities and differences are so deeply ingrained that even children as young as four to five years old learn about them and begin to feel inferior.
The author emphasizes the significance of understanding that even the best people can be racist. As a result, she encourages the audience to speak the truth and be open about their feelings about race. Then she advises them to be available to the idea of experiencing the discomfort that comes with these views about race. Finally, she advises them to expect and accept the lack of closure on the subject. The final point is that we like to solve problems and find solutions; however, society has been shaped in this manner for centuries, and racism is not something that one can solve overnight. The entire TED talk focuses on this social issue, why it exists, and what consequences it currently has on society instead of finding solutions to it.
Answer 3
Lori Mayo gives the TED talk. As a child, she lived in Queens and noticed that few black students enrolled in school compared to white students. She says that these were the children of some of the wealthiest black people, with fortunes equal to that of the poorest white families. Her sister and a friend were mugged when she was in fifth grade because gangs had become a problem at the time, so they moved to Long Island.
She took American history, slave history, black history I, and black history II in high school because she was interested in understanding the changes, such as relocating with her family when more blacks moved to Queens (TEDx Talks, 2019). She was also influenced by the character of her black professor, who was knowledgeable and confident enough to ask these questions.
She later worked as a high school teacher in New York City. It means she spent more time with black and white children, she was able to understand the impact of racial differences in children from a young age, and she researched several of these impacts, such as more black children graduating from high school and enrolling in college if their professor is black.
She learned about black children and their thought processes, from high school students and her daughter, an elementary school teacher, to Sheila's black female child who wished she was white because she believed "white is better."
Overall, Lori Mayo is ideal for discussing racial disparities because she knows black and white history, has seen the gap in terms of numbers between races everywhere, and because ...