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ANNA JULIA COOPER
Class, Race, Power, and Sex
Anna Julia Cooper, was a very devoted
to education. She was also very devoted to social change and how
society had impacted race, sex, class, and power. Power had a great
deal of influence in Cooper's sociological concept and theory. Copper
looks at many different things within society and how that might
shape one individual.
“As the whole is sum of all its parts,
so the character of the parts will determine the characteristics of
the whole” (Lemert, 2013).
Meaning that no one person can determine
how a whole group is looked at within society.
““But when a great burly six feet of
masculinity with sloping shoulders and unkempt beard swaggers in,
and, throwing a roll of tobacco into hone corner of his jaw, growls
out out at me (Anna Cooper) over the paper I am reading, “Here
gurl, you better git out 'n dis kyar 'fyer don't, I'll put yer
out,”-- my mental annotation is Here's an American citizen who
ha been badly trained””
(Lemert, 2013).
Meaning
that Cooper contributes bad attitudes, dis-respectfulness, and
failures not because of ones own ideas or thinking but to the
society. The society has failed them in the sense of how to interact
or do the right thing. That when something goes wrong the blame does
not go onto yourself but onto the society that you have been raised
in. Overall meaning that people are products of the society so
society is the one to blame.
Cooper
also looks at power and how that interacts and is with in society.
Power, is defined as the ability or right to control people or things
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2013). Cooper believes that power is the
root of society and comes through in race, sex, and class. Power is
often linked to majority within a society. Meaning that if you hold
the majority of a certain characteristic or property you in essence
have the power. With every majority group comes a minority group. A
minority group is a group with fewer members than the leading group
(majority). Copper gives four ways a society can deal with minority
groups.
- Pluralism
Pluralism
is a situation in which people of different social class, religion,
race, etc., are together in a society but continue to have their
different traditions and interest (Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
2013).A taco consists of meat, cheese, lettuce, and together they make up a taco. If you where to break them apart they
would still be something and not just a taco. Lettuce would be
lettuce, cheese would be cheese and so on. Each individual ingredient
still has its own identity within the taco.
Assimilation is conformity. It is when one person or group conforms to what the majority is doing. Assimilation is somewhat like peer pressure in that when someone gives into something they originally didn't wan to do.
3. Segregation
4. Genocide
Overall, I picked these picture because they have helped me understand Anna Julia Cooper's concepts in a way that I understand.
I thought that you did a great job summarizing Cooper's view of power and then highlighting the four consequences of majority groups dealing with minority groups. It was clear and easy to follow. I thought it was great that you incorporated quotations to help illustrates your points. The images that you used definitely assisted in giving a visual aspect when understanding what pluralism and assimilation are. Overall, great job. My questions for you are, what other examples can you give of assimilation, and what examples can you give of segregation and genocide? What are further consequences of these "ways to deal with minority groups"?
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