Skip to main content

Welcome!




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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What do stereotypes of immigrant criminalization and mass incarceration communicate about race/gender/class?

42. “The Myth of Immigrant Criminality and the Paradox of Assimilation,” RubĂ©n G. Rumbaut and Walter Ewing Although some of you may not have access to the book, the information in that short reading is available from the American Immigration Council . In a post-9/11 climate of fear and ignorance, assumptions have flourished that immigration and criminality are associated. However, systematic evidence shows that crime is not caused or even aggravated by immigrants to the United States, regardless of their legal status. Crime rates in the nation have declined even at the same time that immigration rates have increased. Among all ethnic groups in the United States, immigrants have lower incarceration rates than those who are native-born. For all ethnic groups, incarceration rates are highest among high school dropouts, yet immigrants who are high school dropouts have lower incarceration rates than other high school dropouts. Although immigrants’ risk of incarceration increases the l...

Amplifying the Voices of Immigrant Students

We continued our discussion of intersectional education issues, this time particularly for undocumented Latinx students. Ch. 34, “Academic Resilience Among Undocumented Latino Students,” William Perez, Roberta Espinoza, Karina Ramos, Heidi M. Coronado, and Richard Cortes Undocumented Latino youth face additional risk factors and sources of stress above and beyond the challenges of biculturalism they share with documented Latino youth. Perez et al.’s study examines the role of protective resources in mediating the academic achievement of 110 undocumented Latino high school, community college, and university students across the United States. They found that even in the presence of multiple sources of psychosocial risk (high school employment, low parental education, large family size, and alienation resulting from undocumented status), personal and environmental resources increased resilience and improved academic performance. Students with lower risk factors (protected) an...

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...