Angela Davis

Both of the Angela Davis videos that i viewed on YouTube were very interesting in the sense that she tends to take an issue that society has created in to somewhat of a "backburner" issue throughout the years in order to continue the marginalization of oppressed groups by trying to encourage the idea that it has been overcome. Her main issue that I speak of is racism.
In the video, Inside USA - Angela Davis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU-PNWxhjr8), she focuses mainly on the racism and its involvement in Civil Rights and the overwhelming population of indigenous and minority communities found incarcerated within the U.S prison system. The first piece of information fromt he video that stood out to me about Angela Davis herself was the fact that at age 26, she was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, which is tended to be reserved for serial killers, rapists, and thieves. This fact alone is interesting as she was simply fighting for the rights of marginalized people which at that time, stood in the way of governmental agendas.
The main points that stood out to me within the Inside USA video include:
*The media have forgotten how to speak about racial issues - need to remind the public that the issue of racism is not, in fact, over.
*The Civil Rights movement actually enabled the government to fill prisons with people of color because they are unable to understand the nature of the situation. I found this most interesting as this would be very controversial to say about the governmental system but I found this to be quite true as i stepped back. By simply dismissing the fact that racism exists, the U.S. system can legitimize the unequal amount of minorities within its prisons.
*The nature of capitalism in this country: privatization of healthcare, privatization of prisons, and privatization of various institutions. (This portrays the theory of Marxist Feminism in which capitalism is the root of oppression)
*The amount of poeple actually not even included in the conversation of racism and Civil Rights (The Projects)
-The Projects of New Orleans, for example, could have been renovated but the new plans have no place for poor people.
*Finally, the last piece of information offered by Davis in the video about the U.S. prison system:
- U.S. has 1/4 of the total worldly prisoners
- structural ways of hiding poverty and racism
- depository for all the problems of the world
- being used for something very different than crime (such as validating racism)
- crime rate has fallen, incarceration has actually gone up (contradictory)

*In the video on YouTube of Angela Davis discussing the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's death, Davis goes further in depth with the idea of institutionalized racism. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45mEgIdxZs) Here are some of the main points that I pulled out from her speech:
- While she was out performing non-violent demostrations pertaining to the murder of Martin Luther King, the LAPD had placed high-powered machine guns on top of their main police station in an effort to prepare for any sorts of riots. (This tells me that everyone knew that the death of Martin Luther King would create a stir, almost as though it was planned as a way to dull their spirits)
-On April 5th the police broke in to her offices while she was out demostrating and placed tacks and nails in to the spaghetti they had made for later that evening. (I found this to be not only a way of displaying the negative attitude displayed against African Americans at this time but also just immature)
-Davis spoke a lot of how people focus so much on the civil rights aspect of what she refers to as the Freedom Movement, as well as only on Martin Luther King as its main leader but in fact this movement covered a variety of issues and had many prominent leaders that assisted in not always traditional ways. One example of this is Rosa Parks by her simple yet prominent demonstration on the bus.
-She also speaks more about the prison system in the U.S. and how we are number one in the world for incarcerations at approximately 2.1 million with China in second at I believe she had stated 1.5 million.

*These are just some of the issues she covered in these videos but they are the ones that stood out to me.

Gender and the Internet

The extent of the Digital Divide Gap between men and women?

Url: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/171/report_display.asp

Pew Internet and American Life Project; “How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching Up to Men in Most Measures of Online Life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections, it promotes.” Reports: Demographics, by Deborah Fallows, published on 12/28/2005.

*Women under 30 and Black women use Internet more often and widely than men.

*Men use Internet, in general, more often (log on), spend longer time period on the Internet, and are more likely to be broadband users. (access)

*Men more than women prefer online transactions. Pay bills, trade stocks/bonds.

*Men look for more variety of information.


Url: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1004775

eMarketer.com; “More Women Online;” April 9, 2007.

*In 2007, women were 51.7% of the users which has risen 12.4% since 2000.

Url: http://ldsmediatalk.com/2008/12/23/how-men-and-women-use-the-internet/

LDS Media Talk; “How Men and Women Use the Internet;” Jimmy Smith; December, 23, 2008.

*Activities where women lead on the Internet: sending email; getting maps/directions; looking for health and medical information; getting support for a medical issue or personal problem; getting religious/spiritual information.

Personal Biography

I can't really think of anything that would be interesting for someone else to read right now so i think that I will do my own little post about myself.

1. I am obsessed with the Twilight series of books. I read all four of them over this last Christmas break in the span of about two weeks and must say they are by far my favorite books to date that I have actually read.
2. I am even more obsessed with the movie and feel like a school girl when I say that I am a fan of Robert Pattinson. I love his British accent, it reminds me of my study abroad experience in Alnwick, England. I thought the cast portrayed exactly the characters I saw in my mind as I read the books.
3. I am in to being able to interpret my dreams and reading literature about such as I have very interesting dreams.
4. I am graduating in May of 2009 and I am very excited.
5. I hope to work in Public Relations for either a PR firm or for a venue doing event planning.
6. I would like to live in New York or L.A for a few years before I figure out what and where I would like to "settle down" for lack of better words.
7. As I come up with more items I will add them to this post.

What I Have Learned So Far

I have learned a lot already in the three or four short weeks that we have had class in WS 445. Here are some examples of what I have learned:

Microsoft Word:

1. How to use the Headings tool bar in order to easily organize different types of information within our assignments.
2. How to change the color, font type, etc., of the Headings we chose.
3. What the paragraph indicator is used for and how to use it.

Online:

1. Free online Web services that are similar to Microsoft Word for those that do not have the resources for Word. (Zoho offices, free and online - saves directly to the Web)
2. Portable applications: portable software that can downloaded to a flash drive.
3. How to use Permalinks: the bookmarking of certain Web sites, content, and articles in order to keep them easily accessible and obtainable by people interested.
4. How to create and use a blog.
5. How to use "Delicious" bookmarks.
6. Different ways to search through various Web sites such as non-profit organization sites.
7. What a Wiki is and how to use one.

Some examples of what I still hope to learn:

1. How to create an online video and post it.
2. How to create a Web site and make it accessible.
3. As much as I can possibly cram in to my head in the next three months before I graduate.