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Welcome to our course blog for COMM 330 this spring. I haven't added much because it is a supplemental site that will grow as the course continues when I post links for discussion. Please click on the page tabs to learn more about how we are using Blogger this semester.

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The "Achievement Gap"

For today's reading on the achievement gap and education debt, we will discuss the video below, as well as an article from the Everyday Feminism blog. The reading addresses that white women have benefited the most from affirmative action. Research confirms the argument that gender was a "blindspot" in the original design of affirmative action policies. Ch. 33, “From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools,” Gloria Ladson-Billings Ladson-Billings addresses the “achievement gap,” a catchphrase to describe the difference in academic performance between White, minority, and lower socio-economic status students. This gap has been found to be most significantly affected by race and ethnicity, with a brief review of some of the potential causes. Ladson-Billings suggests avoiding too much focus on the gap, because most of the solutions are short-term in nature, and instead to look at the longer standing “educational debt” akin...
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#WhyIStayed and intersectional intimate partner violence narratives

The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence compiles facts about the prevalence of DV in the United States, including these statistics . Gendered violence must be examined through a lens of intersectionality if we are to have more compassionate communication about victim/survivors, as well as abusers. We read Rosemary Clark 's 2016 essay from Feminist Media Studies about hashtag activism in the context of domestic violence. Below is a short news clip about one of the viral stories that ignited the #WhyIStayed online movement. Here or on the Scholar Discussion Board be prepared to discuss one of the following questions: 1. How is intimate partner violence an important issue for gender/race/class and feminist discussion? 2. What dominant discourses exist around DV? 3. How does hashtag activism invite intersectional feminist organizing? 4. What outcomes did #WhyIStayed lead to? Please note, this is not optional. All students are required to post a comment or...
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Controlling Images of Latinos and Native Americans

The two readings assigned for Wednesday's discussion extended earlier conversations about controlling images and media representations. Read the summaries and click on the links to read/skim and/or view the supplemental materials for your comments.  Please note, this is not optional. All students are required to post a comment or a question for each post. From Ch. 46: In life history interviews with Latino men, Vasquez-Tokos and Norton-Smith found two recurrent themes: gangs and sports. Most respondents had not been involved in either gangs or sports, but they felt forcibly constrained by these  controlling images , which had limited their educational opportunities, access to jobs, and sense of self-expression. Whereas prejudice involves negative emotions and stereotypes, controlling images are systemic and cultural instruments of power. They are not individual ideas, but rather ideological collective  representations  that offer “strategies of action” that bri...
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