The topics I am most interesting in doing my semester-long paper on are:
Overcoming sexism
Overcoming racism
Overcoming homophobia
I’m interested in these topics because they directly affect my life. The three of them are similar in the way that in this country, most people would like to believe that these are issues that have been dealt with, and we should move on. It’s interesting in the media, how we have convinced ourselves that we’ve gone full-circle on these issues, and it is OK to make assinine comments as a joke. The thing is: It’s not funny. These things are still issues, in a very subtle way. I think that’s much scarier than problems that are blatant. It’s over-looked, and we stop evolving. We settle. I’m asking mankind not to settle.
The three social computing technologies I want to use are blogs, social bookmarking, and wikis. I feel that these three sources are more open than the others, and will lead to a wider variety of sources. But there also some structure to it, so I don’t risk reading self-righteous rants, but exchanges of ideas.
I want to either focus on the US or undeveloped countries. The US obviously, because that’s what is directly affecting me. I’m interested in the undeveloped country, because it’s the polar opposite lifestyle of my own. Is oppression and ignorance universal, and man can relate to, no matter where you come from? I hope not. Also, it’d be interesting to see what aspects are more important to them in contrast to what is to me.
1 comment:
Lots of good prospects for research here.
The form of backlash you note, where saying something offensive is considered defensible as long as "it's a joke" is important. Well said.
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