When I went to the lecture by Steven Strogatz on synchronization in nature, I was not sure what to expect. What does he mean by synchronization in nature and the world by mathematics? Would I even be able to understand the topic and discussion? I did not have to worry because Strogatz was incredibly easy to understand and broke his studies down into easy to understand chunks. Synchronization in nature is natural and like Darwin’s theory of the balance of species in nature, every input has an output to maintain a balance.

Darwin and Strogatz both provided examples for their balance in nature. Darwin cited population control techniques so as to prevent certain species from growing past a certain limit. One example he gave was deer, and their rapid breeding if left unattended by predators. Once the deer have consumed all of their food supply because of their rapid population explosion, many will die. This leaves only a certain number of deer who are able to adapt and survive while trimming the population and bringing the ecosystem back into synchronization. Strogatz talked about fireflys and their ability to flash their “lights” in synchronization with no indicator. He spoke about a possible biological chemical or transmitter that controls their pattern of flashing lights. Strogatz also spoke about how women’s menstrual cycles were altered to fall in sync of the pheromones of a women that she had never met. This gave the scientists the hint that there is possibly a signal in our biology that controls synchronization of our bodies and other species bodies unconsciously. This again leads into the theory of natural order and control of nature.

The lecture was a great opportunity provided by the school to tie in lessons learned in the classroom to real world experiences and research. By going to this lecture I was able to advance my understanding of Darwin while enriching my college experience by learning form such an esteemed professor.    

I sat down with Professor Commins my Professor for my class Middle East Up to 1750, and discussed why he chose to become a professor, history major, and historian. He was quite happy to welcome me into his office and give an insight into why and how he got to where he is today.

Professor Commins discussed is process of becoming a history major, and why he decided to become one. Going into college he was skilled at english and history, which made it easy for him to zero in on a major. When a course that he wanted to take was restricted to history majors, he declared history as his major. Unfortunately he did not get the class even after declaring as a history major! But since he still enjoyed history, he kept on the course and graduated with a bachelors in history, and after moving onto grad school.

Professor Commins explored grad school twice, before finally completing his masters. Like many, he went to work for a few years after his first stint in grad school before then finally going back to school to complete his degree. He focused in Middle Eastern and Asian history because of the emphasis in his early years on US and European history, wishing for a change. His time in grad school set him on the course to being a historian, and through fate, he became a professor and historian at Dickinson College.

Certain classes are not only fun to teach, but also exciting as a professor. Professor Commins discussed his favorite classes to teach, which include discussion based classes where every student is talking and interacting. It doesn’t matter the class size, but rather the chemistry of the students and the professor, going from topic to topic with no defined course. Instead he prefers a natural style of learning which might not always be more straightforward, but it is ten times more impactful and will resonate with the students.

I enjoyed talking to professor Commins about his journey through school, and his teaching style. I learned to not worry about the my destination in college, but rather take the road most enjoyable for me.   

Scope: I want to investigate why in a highly patriotic country like the United States, aggression is so prevalent. My focus will be mainly on the United States, and I will look at the way social media and consumerist ideology play a role in an increasingly aggressive nation. The most recent headlines tell of dishonesty and violent behavior. The frequency of shootings and of other destructive acts has increased to a daily occurrence, yet very little has been done to put an end to it. The United States is a highly nationalistic country, and while that may not necessarily be bad, the combination of its nationalism and narcissism is. The fastest growing generation in the United States is the millennial generation, who have been raised simultaneously to great technological advancements. Yet the Internet has enhanced the image of people, creating a society of self-absorption. Somehow this conceitedness has worked its way into the country’s identity. By examining that identity, and thus the values of the United States, perhaps the cause of the increased aggression will make itself known.

Analytical Questions: According to an eMarketer report in 2013, about one in four people in the United States use some type of social media regularly, and this number is rising. Social media is simply a way in which people are able to show off what they have done or are doing. It is a mechanism that promotes thoughts of only one’s self. If over a quarter of the United States’ population is encourage to think about themselves, it creates a society of callousness. How does a child’s development change in an insensitive society compared to one more compassionate? Does this result in aggressive behavior? Moreover, it isn’t as if the United States is the first patriotic country on the planet, so how does their patriotism compare to the patriotism of other countries? Furthermore, how do American values differ from other countries, and what are the results? Finally, does this make the United States more dangerous than other countries?

Originality: Historically the United States has promoted ideas such as the American Dream which are about an individual’s success. These ideas focus on one person, not on a general group of people or an entire population. These thoughts have not changed, nor has the country attempted to let go of these ideals. Narcissism, however, has led to an insensitive culture, yet this is something that has been embraced by the country. Why does a country that has so much power in the world pride itself on being callous and self-absorbed? It is as if the country is unaware of its own problems, as it is so focused on the disputes outside of its own borders. But the Unites States simply cannot attempt to solve issues in other countries if it cannot control its own problems. Especially not if the country is one of the most powerful in the world.

Practicality: There are definitely enough sources to back my argument. Already I have found a couple sources discussing the various aspects of my paper (i.e. aggression and self absorption, nationalism and narcissism, and the current American values). These sources have just been through a brief search on Dickinson’s Library catalog, so I am positive there will be many more. Moreover, the New York Times and other major newspapers will be a key source as I must refer to the headlines to see if the frequency of shootings remains the same.

Sources:

Caldwell, Wilber W. American narcissism: the myth of national superiority New York: Algora Publishing, 2006.

Black, Percy. “Review of The American People. A study in national character.” Psychological Bulletin 46, no. 1 (January 1949): 89-93.

Lunbeck, Elizabeth. The Americanization of Narcissism. Harvard University Press, 2014.

Davies, Paul G., Claude M. Steele, and Hazel Rose Markus. “A nation challenged: The impact of foreign threat on America’s tolerance for diversity.” Journals of Personality and Social Psychology 95, no. 2 (August 2008): 308-318.

Jahromi, Parissa. “American Identity in the USA: Youth Perspectives.” Applied Development Science 15, no. 2 (April 2011): 79-93.

Here is my FYE podcast about an event I attended on campus.

Tentative thesis
Wealth inequality effects our economy, our people, and our justice system causing so many different problems each year which is why it is the biggest problem of the 21st century.
• Scope and Value- I want to examine the effects the wealth inequality has not only on our economy but how this affects other demographic scenarios. Wealth inequality is a huge problem in today’s society and has been for a very long time. The unequal distribution of our money has caused not only problems relating to the poverty rate but I believe that much more damage has come from this issue. One of the reasons I believe that the wealth inequality is becoming larger and larger every day is due to the fact that people do not know enough about the subject. People seem to be very uneducated on this subject because it is not stressed enough in the society we live in. In an article I found about wealth inequality, Zaid Jilani does a great job interpreting what people know about this problem. “People’s idea of what they believe is the wealth difference is extremely different then what the difference actually is. In a study conducted over several months, most people believed the top twenty percent of Americans own about sixty percent of the wealth, while the middle forty percent owns about thirty percent, and then the last forty owns about ten percent of the wealth. But the actual wealth distribution is even worse than this. The top twenty percent owns about eighty percent, while the middle forty owns about eighteen percent, and the last forty owns about two percent.”2 People know that there clearly is a gap between the rich and the poor but do they know how big this gap is and why this gap is so big. This is a problem because the overall effect it has on our society. A society where, as studies show, people resort to crime only if the potential benefits of the crime outweigh the cost or consequences of committing that crime.1 Although the issue of wealth inequality has stretched all over the globe, I want to examine, more specifically, the result this has had on different neighborhoods throughout the United States of America. I believe that the United States has been greatly affected by this problem and something needs to be done about it. America is home to some of the richest people and some of the poorest and I think this will show the different results that the wealth inequality can cause. I believe focusing on some of the major cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York, could prove to be beneficial.
I researched the results that show that wealth inequality in the United States has become a serious issue and many questions arose. One question that I have is how these results directly relate to how people living in poverty are effected? I believe the issue of wealth inequality directly relates to certain issues involving the overall crime rate. This is extremely concerning to most because we are causing unwanted problems in our society because of how big the wealth inequality has become. But why should people want to change the society that has proved to be somewhat successful so far as in developing our country? We have created a strong system that seems to be okay with some in the sense that if you work hard you will succeed so why change? What went wrong with the idea of the American dream? I believe that this idea of the “American dream” has actually changed to the “American myth.” In a society where the wealth distribution is so large, it is nearly impossible for all Americans to chase this dream. What would a society be like with an “ideal” system that creates, not an even, but a mild to moderate slope on the wealth inequality scale?
• Originality- The issue involving wealth inequality has been studied since the days of Karl Marx and even before but from the sources that I have previously looked they all seem to focus on how the economy is affected. Whether that is talking about how many people live in poverty, or how this has affected the economy, or just the overall statistics of wealth inequality.. The articles would go on to talk about the everyday life of the people who were affected negatively or positively from our system. In my paper I want to focus more on the people who are affected negatively, their thoughts about the system, their lives, and also how this has affected the neighborhoods that they are forced to live in because of their income. I want to research, in depth, the different lives that these people in poverty live in comparison to the wealthy. How one group is able to live the way they want to live and achieve the “American Dream” while as for some they are stuck in a never ending battle with poverty.
• Practicality- After doing an extensive amount of research on this topic already, I believe that there will be enough information on my subject. There are many different books, databases, and articles that relate to my topic which I will be able to use. I am also in the process of looking for more primary resources just to help further back up my argument.. To articulate my point correctly I think that I will first have to lay down the facts on what wealth inequality was and what it has come to. Then, using some of my secondary resources, I will talk about the different parties that are effected the most by this problem. I will go on to talk about the different problems, such as crime, drugs, lack of education, and more, that arise from these people who are effected using different types of primary and secondary sources. Then I will need to create reasoning behind my belief on why I think these topics are directly related.

Bibliography:
Briggs, Jr. Vernon M “American-Style Capitalism and Income Disparity: The Challenge of
Social Anarchy.” Journal Of Economic Issues 32, no. 2 (1998): 473-480

Hoover, Gary A., Ryan A. Compton, and Daniel C. Giedeman. “The Impact of Economic
Freedom on the Black/White Income Gap.” American Economic Review 105, no. 5
(2015): 587-592.
Grusky, David B. “class.” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 13 October 201
Jilani, Zaid. “How Unequal We Are: The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest One Percent Of Americans.” ThinkProgress How Unequal We Are The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest One Percent Of Americans Comments. October 3, 2011. Accessed October 12, 2015.
Keister, Lisa A. and Stephanie Moller “Wealth Inequality in the United States” Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 26 (2000), pp. 63-81. Accessed October 9, 2015

McLaughlin, Lacey. “The Poverty-Crime Connection.” The Poverty-Crime Connection. October
19, 2011. Accessed October 6, 2015

Milanović, Branko. The Haves and the Have-nots: A Brief and Idiosyncratic History of Global
Inequality. New York: Basic Books, 2011.

Quadrini, Vincenzo. “growth and inequality (macro perspectives).” The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Second Edition. Eds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. 13 October 2015

Taibbi, Matt. The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. New York: Spiegal
and Grau, New 2014

Yamamoto, Daisaku. “Scales of Regional Income Disparities in the USA, 1955-2003.” Journal
of Economic Geography 8, no. 1 (2008): 79-103.

Scope:  I am looking to dissect the underlying roots and causes of police brutality from the late twentieth century to present day.  Whites discriminating and being afraid of blacks has been existent in history for an extremely long time, but the idea of police brutality is a relatively recent one and in 1991, a taxi driver named Rodney King was brutally beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department after he refused to pull his car over for speeding.  King became the face of police brutality in America and this event caused many aftermath riots, which led to people being killed and the California National Guard to be called in.  King had many quotes after this beating, one main quote being, “can’t we all just get along?”

A major reason why police brutality exists is due to the fear of something different, which leads to discrimination.  This fear causes law enforcement officers, who are predominantly white, to discriminate against these blacks in a way that has caused severe harm and possibly death.  The term police brutality is defined as excessive force used by officers where it is not legal.  The majority of this police brutality occurs in poor, black urban neighborhoods because the conditions promote crime and these urban neighborhoods are extremely segregated.  These conditions strike fear into the white officers, which cause the officers to perform illegitimate searches or in a more severe case, excessive force.

In my opinion, nothing will change unless every race or ethnicity removes their ignorance and learns about each other, such as cultures, by becoming more empathetic toward one another.  This process of destroying the ignorance of our society will begin to vanquish the fear of something different.  This will allow more blacks to be involved in political opportunities, and also in law enforcement, which will overall reduce the amount of police brutality in America.

Analytical Questions:  The starting point or question for me has to be why cannot we all get along?  If we learn to throw out this discrimination, this hatred, and this ignorance, will that be enough to stop racism and police brutality?  Why does this hatred occur in the first place?  Is America indeed moving forward with the relationships between whites and blacks or does white supremacy still exist in our country?  America is a country built off of immigrants and we seem to deny that now to people of other races because the U.S. makes it extremely difficult for foreigners to live sufficiently in the U.S.  There will be more blacks than whites because the black and population is growing rapidly, so why cannot we stop this discrimination and brutality now or else what is happening could completely reverse from all whites being in power and using excessive force to blacks holding the power and exercising excessive force on whites.

Originality:  This paper will support the numerous examples of police brutality recently in the U.S. by establishing the roots or the underlying problems of each situation, and building on the fact that fear and discrimination caused these tragic events to occur.  My paper is different from previous work because I am going to look at the domino effect of each recent case of police brutality in America and find the reasons why there was excessive force in the first place.  I aim to focus also on the ignorance of both whites and blacks, which we closely interpreted from DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk.

Practicality:  There are many secondary sources available to me on this subject, especially using the databases and books in the library.  Not only are there sources on police brutality, but also the racism and discrimination behind it.  These sources will provide specific evidence and detail to support my argument that white police officers hatred of blacks leads to excessive force, which begins with the ignorance of not knowing about the culture of blacks.  This ignorance then leads to fear on some level of something different.  I will also be able to use the recent events of police brutality and the evidence and results from these horrific cases to further support my arguments as well.  The case on Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, Freddie Gray in Baltimore, and Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in Cleveland, are just some recent examples that will support my arguments that fear and discrimination occurred for the officers, which lead to excessive force and in these cases death for the victims.

Bibliography:

Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray Robertson. “Racism and Police Brutality in

America.” Journal of African American Studies 17, no. 4 (December 2013): 480. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File, EBSCOhost (accessed October 2, 2015).

Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray V. Robertson. “‘Can We All Get Along?’ Blacks’

Historical and Contemporary (In) Justice With Law Enforcement.” Western Journal of Black Studies 38, no. 2 (Summer2014 2014): 108-122. Race Relations Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed October 1, 2015).

Hays, Zachary R. Police Use of Excessive Force in Disorganized Neighborhoods. LFB

Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2011.

Holmes, Malcom D. “Minority Threat and Police Brutality: Determinants of Civil

Rights Criminal Complaints in U.S. Municipalities.” Criminology 38, no. 2. (05, 2000): 343-367.

Weatherspoon, Floyd D. African American Males and the Law: Cases and Materials.

University Press of America, 1998.

Scope: I want to examine the effects of racial prejudices on the African American population towards achieving quality primary and secondary education in the United States. As Patricia Hill Collins said, “knowledge is power”. Education is one of the most powerful tools in order to create profound social, economic, and political change within a society. After the Emancipation Proclamation blacks became “quasi slaves” that were socially and economically subordinate to white supremacy in the nineteenth century. During the mid-twentieth century the landmark court case of Brown v. Board of Education intergraded blacks into white schools systems. Although the court case overturned Plessey v. Ferguson, the initiative created major backlashes among the white community eventually leading to the privatization of schools where blacks were placed into low funded school districts with a minority of white students. A study was done in L’Heureux R. McCoy-Lewis’s book called Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban School that found the more racially diverse a school is the more likely black students will preform at a higher level. But because of the economic restrictions instilled from the Emancipation Proclamation juxtaposed with deeply rooted social prejudices African-American students are unable to receive a quality education further perpetuating poverty and homogenous thought which puts the United States at risk of failing to address crisis in the future.

Analytical Questions: From the book Transformation of African American Intelligentsia author Martin Kilson poses an overarching question about racism in America. Kilson inquires, “How do you challenge and eventually reverse the undemocratic and oppressive impact of America’s white-supremacist system on its Negro citizens?” Kilson later answers his own question and explains how through the education of black folk, African Americans will be able to rise socially and economically. My question in response is if blacks did get a quality education, to what extent would their knowledge be prohibited by the social and class structures currently in place? How would desegregation be different for inner-city schools considering it has failed multiple times? How does one quantify and qualify a “quality” education? I wonder to what extent does receiving an education depend on an individual’s socioeconomic status. In the Souls of Black Folk W.E.B Du Bois said, “The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent”. Following up on Du Bois’s commentary, to what extent does the American society actively try to inhibit African American intellectual progress?

Originality: The American education system has failed a large portion of minority students and subjects them to the “inverse American dream” where they are disadvantaged and cannot compete in the marketplace creating a lack of perspectives, and perpetuating group thinking in the long term. In psychology group thinking is a term that describes adopting the opinion of the group without question, an effect of a lack diverse perspectives. The United States cannot begin to address pressing issues for the future like water insecurity, global warming, terrorism etc. if we continue to disenfranchise a large segment of the population intellectually, socially, economically, and politically. If blacks continue to lack a quality education from the grassroots level, then poverty will continue to rise, jails will continue to overcrowd, income inequality will continue to manifest and America will fail to progress as a society. Now more than ever in the United State’s history, class and race are becoming more interrelated, however through receiving a quality education blacks have a better chance of breaking the cyclical nature of poverty and oppression in America.

Practicality:

There are a plethora of both primary and secondary sources that I can use to research more about this topic. Especially through Dickinson’s library there are an assortment of helpful researching tools like the online database. So far I have found a multitude of useful ebooks and journals that will allow me to further my research. I will also be able to get information from current events happening in the New York and Los Angles Times about racisms’ effect on the education system.

Bibliography

Bloome, Deirdre, and Bruce Western. “Cohort Change and Racial Differences in Educational and Income Mobility.” Social Forces 90, no. 2, 375-95.

Du Bois W. E. B The Souls of Black FolkGreenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, 1961.

Kilson, Martin. Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880-2012.

McCoy-Lewis R. L’Heureux “Inequality in the Promised Land: Race, Resources, and Suburban School” June 2014.

Sawhill, Isabel V. “Still the Land of Opportunity?” Spring 99, no. 135 (1990): 3-15.

Tonry, Michael H. “Punishing Race: A Continuing American Dilemma.” New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, 45-60.