Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

Chapter 1- Sudhir is introduced to J.T. through his sociology assignment. Quickly Sudhir realizes that conventional ethnographic techniques are not going to work in this environment after he asks them "what is it like to be poor and black?" It intrigued me to see someone from a middle class suburbian environment submerged in such a culture shock. Although he was a bit naive at times, (or likes to write as if he was naive) I like to think what I would have done in his shoes.

Chapter 2- This chapter made me realize that even the educated can get involved in drug trafficking. Sudhir learns that J.T. is college educated and this probably attributes to why others look up to him as a leader. I was also surprised that he chose this line of work himself- its not as if he was forced into it from being poor. He gives the excuse that other white men were being promoted over him, but I still believe he wanted to lead part of this gang regardless.

Chapter 3- This chapter really highlights Sudhir's ignorance for me. He was hanging out with a gang but is supposedly surprised when he witnesses J.T. beating up C-Note. I just think anyone in their right mind would associate at least some violence with an organized game. Sudhir also learns the in and outs of the community. Since the police do not help them, they rely on gangs and do-it-yourself style justice. This also highlights the violence of this community.

Chapter 4- Sudhir tells J.T. that his job cannot be that hard and takes up being gang leader for a day. He quickly learns that its harder than it looks when trying to mediate disputes within the community such as the stolen money problem between Otis and Billy. I thought parts of this were pretty hilarious such as when Sudhir tries to mimic J.T.'s speech and calls a gang member a n*****. Sudhir is obviously in way over his head and learns that there is a ton of business that goes on behind the scenes. I found it interesting that Sudhir expected to not dish out any punishment to gang members like J.T. does, but that's how gang leaders earn respect.

Chapter 5- Sudhir trails Ms. Bailey to see the inner-workings of the apartment complex. I believe that despite Ms. Bailey's neutral stance, she obviously depends on the gang and even makes some money off of them policing the department. I found it strange that J.T. wouldn't just give information to Sudhir about Ms. Bailey, but rather he had to tail her himself. This shows that even J.T., one of the main leaders of the Black Kings, is afraid of Ms. Bailey to some only.

Chapter 6- Sudhir falls out of graces with the Robert Taylor community in this chapter. He gives away some financial information to Ms. Bailey and tries to rectify that by opening a writing workshop. This then backfires because the tenants think he is having sex with the all-women class. In my opinion, I believe Sudhir was in a rut. This chapter highlighted his broad range of study with a wide variety of people and this eventually turns sour. He has a good heart, well relative to what hes trying to achieve, but he still is stuck in semi-bad graces.

Chapter 7- J.T. throws a party in this chapter in which a drive by happens and two people end up being shot. J.T. was then promoted from his handling of the events. Sudhir also meets with the cops and realizes they are just as corrupt as the gang. I believe this chapter highlights how similar the group of cops that deal with Robert Taylor are to the actually gangs who inhabit it. This proves at least the gang statements about how they are corrupt and cannot be trusted.

Chapter 8- The book ends with Sudhir being invited to a party by J.T. It turns out the Robert Taylor building is being torn down so the gang is disbanding. Meanwhile, J.T. is trying to keep it all together by recruiting new members but it does not work out. Sudhir further widens the gap by saying his research is basically done. I felt bad for Sudhir that he basically had to leave the community but at the same time, he was getting too entrenched in the conflict. This highlights that everything rises and falls and even the "tight-knit" community wasn't safe from this.

Ethnography Ideas

On the concept of Ethnography ideas, I have a few that I am interested in. The first and foremost is the BAMF club for bronies. A brony is a fan of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic who is typically an adult male way outside of the intended demographic. I am very interested to see how they conduct their discussions on this form of entertainment and what subjects they converse about. The second ethnographic topic that I can see myself studying would be Aggie-sama or a sorority in Greek life. Aggie-sama would be interesting in the same way that BAMF would: I would want to see how and what they talked about. For a sorority, I would want to see what kind of community service they do outside of social events and how they initiate new members. I will pick one of these in the days to come, but I need to discuss it with my group first.

Assignment 7: Blog About Nonobvious Observation

   The videos we created involved observing the behavior of normal patrons while going to check out a movie from the 4th floor at Evans. We agreed upon the end objective, but how we got there and the end result was strictly unique to our walkthroughs. I can't speak for my teammates, but I received mixed glances and or questions when I went to go check out the movie. The first thing I noticed (well a non-obvious observation) about the people at the front desk when I walked in, was they all stared directly at my forehead. I figured they were wondering why this strange man walked into the annex wearing this piece of headgear, but none of them asked me about it... or did not get the opportunity too. In addition to facial expression and tone in conversation, there were a few passive non-obvious behaviors I noticed in simply walking by some people.
   Some non-obvious things I can account for to determine more about their expression is their tone of voice. This tone can have a large impact on what we perceive through conversation. For instance, the tone could be that of disinterest where they sound monotonous and uncaring. Another example would be loud, signifying anger perhaps. Along with tone, a little more obvious point would be the facial expression. Accompanying the disinterested tone could be wandering eyes or even a moving head. This can point out that the person is not truly focused on the conversation at hand. Correlating to the other example of anger, the person could have wide eyes with a blaring expression.
   Besides expression and tone, we can look at the non-obvious body language. When I walked past someone with my camera on my head, they would sometimes look down or look straight at me. I would bet there is some fundamental personality trait being displayed in their behavior when they look down or look at me. It could maybe should that they are more or less outgoing. This could either happen when I walk past them or when I am in the elevator and eye contact is met. Along with this behavior, I also noticed headphones and how people sometimes use them as a crutch to shield themselves from the outside world. Usually when we have our headphones in, it is a sign to the general public around us that we do not wish to be bothered. These examples are some addition non-obvious observations that in my experience, a wide array of people display.
   In conclusion, I look forward to incorporating more non-obvious observations in my ethnographic studies. Having blogged about my video experiences combined with non-obvious observations really pinpointed the grey areas that I need to be focusing on. When I highlight these grey areas in my ethnographic studies, I can conclude why people act that certain way or why a vast majority do and this will help in areas other than philosophical study.
 
 

Assignment 5: Ethnography Readings

   The first article was very interesting because I only thought that anthropologists only wrote reports about their fieldwork. I learned that there were many different tools they can learn such as interviewing, critical analysis, and video to aid their reports. They also have to establish rapports in the community in order to gain useful information. In addition to some of the many things I learned that anthropologists do, I wanted to talk about my previous experience with this subject to clarify my background and hopefully indicate that it will prep me for my future assignment.
   I've done an ethnography study once before and I remember only barely interacting with the community there. I went to an orchestra and listened to the music while taking notes and recording some audio. These notes helped me revisit the thoughts I had that night and evaluate what the community really thought of the orchestra and why they valued it so much. I had the amazing opportunity of talking to a patron there who frequented these events and I gained valuable insight in that regard too. The second article about the origins of ethnography resonated with me in this regard because I remember doing research on the topic before hand in order to be prepared to interact with the community that I was going to witness. Not only did I observe the performance, but I also witnessed the habitat that I was present in, the manner that people acted while the orchestra was playing, and how they reacted after the performance. The reason I mention this is that I believe it gives me valuable insight and experience in the anthropology field and that it will aid me and my group on our future assignment.
   Another point that I thought was very interesting was biases. The observer must try to incorporate as little bias as possible in their report. Today however, that is a hard rule to abide as most writings cannot be free from bias. We as anthropologists must find a non-biased informant who is a part of the community and screen them with questions. Ethnography also used to be different and not so ethos based. Ethos means its based more on the intangible values and morals that permeate the community rather than just the physical aspects such as language and tools. The five criteria for ethnography are: Substantive contribution, Aesthetic merit, Reflexivity, Impact, and Expresses a Reality.
   The last thing I wanted to talk about was "Coming of Age and Samoa". This wikipedia article gave me the summary of what this book was about but I found what I read very interesting. From what I understand, it set some of the earliest precedents for anthropological research. What was truly fascinating was that she contrasted the Samoan values with that of American values at the time. She concluded that most of the anxiety of aging girls was not from growing up, but from the cultural facets surrounding them. In conclusion, I learned much more about Ethnography than I know before, and I can say I'm ready to perform another experiment of my own.

Assignment 4: Chapter 1 of Emotion Design

   "Emotion Design" opens with similar discoveries that the "Design of Everyday Things" had. A researcher put unique action-oriented design choices on an ATM in the Israeli culture and he was surprised to find that this increased usability of the machine by a large margin. In Japan, where the design originated, they favored a more simplistic design. The "Design of Everyday Things" mainly focused on good design choices with ease of use as a main factor and this paper talks about emotional design and how our emotions can appeal to our designs. While originally thought to be leftover from our animal instincts, emotions are not viewed as being strongest in humans and weakest in animals.

   Emotions can help in designs primary through incentives. In "Emotion Design", the author first touches on incentives for the user. If there is some positive item awarded to the user, they brainstorm more and are more likely to use the machine or solve the problem. On the contrary, these can also be used to frustrate the user which also conflicts with their emotions thus making them more likely to do the right thing. Humans have evolved over millions of years to solve more complex problems and develop more intense emotions.With emotions, humans can judge what is safe, dangerous, good, or bad. This affective system can also control our muscles physically with the different kind of chemicals being released and neurotransmitters being controlled.

   Humans possess three levels of processing: reflective, behavioral, and visceral. These three levels of processing interact with each other in a basic level. Animals primarily use visceral processing as they lack higher intelligence. Too much focus on one level of processing is a bad thing and can lead to poor designs. For instance, when humans are in danger, such as there being a fire in a building, they all rush to escape. The first thing they do to the door push it. They are so blindly focused on the visceral act of escaping, that they don't think to pull the door. In "Emotion Design", Designers have to take into account emotional design for all types of situations or there can be grave consequences. In "Design of Everyday Things", the primary objective was ease of use and simplicity of mapping and functions.
   Contrasting this from "Design of Everyday Things", the designs may or may not be the easiest design to use. They might use big embroidered letters and attractive designs that appeal to the users emotions that help them understand the product better. The designs in the first book mainly talked about images in the users' minds and how they formulated how to use it but in this book, the designs have to appeal to the senses first and make the user feel good in order to get objectives done. In conclusion, I really enjoyed the first chapter and can't wait to find out what the rest of the book holds. The ideas contrast very interesting with that of Donald Norman's first book.