I thought this was an awesome reading for this week. i really liked the way it seemed to empower individual, small actions and make them seem simple enough for everyday, common people to accomplish each day. I feel like our society is fascinated by quick fixes, instant change, and immediate gratification. Because of this, we expect real change to occur in an instant, and when we are doing the small things each day that lead to the big moment we often get bored because we don’t see immediate results. However, I thought this reading was awesome in providing motivation for thinking differently, more long term progress focused. Goska writes that and claims that “unnoticed” gets confused with “insignificant”. However, these little changes add up, and as written on page 71, “small acts when multiplied by millions of people can change the world”. It offers hope that yes, one person really can change the world, it just may not come in the way we expect it to. Furthermore, one person can change someone else’s world far easier than they can change the entire world. A favor for someone may go way further and mean far more for the recipient than the giver can even begin to imagine. My favorite point from this reading was on page 64 when Howard Zinn tells us “don’t look for a moment of triumph”. It may sound disheartening and a bit boring, but the best, fastest way to make progress is probably slow, boring, simple tasks each day that over time have the potential to make a significant difference in which ever area we choose.

I remembered how much differently I read the yellow wallpaper after discussing the content around it. The first time, I did not really know what to look for or how to approach the writing, but after reading it once I knew what it should’ve been about, i read it so differently. So in approaching today’s work, I wanted to read the evaluations first, to give myself context for the music video. The first thing I thought was interesting was that in her music video “formation” Beyonce and directors made such an obvious point to integrate her specific roots into the video. With Louisiana police cars, references to hurricane Katrina, and other Cajun and Texan references, it definitely set the scene for me to first thing about the deep south. Next, I am glad I read the evaluation first, as it claimed that this music video made a goal of “recentering history around black women”. I think I would have gotten this message even if i had not read the context evaluation before, but i think this had an even greater effect on me because I knew to look for it. Specifically, I found it unique that Beyonce and directors used old white slave time clothing to dress themselves, and create a change from the past, as black women were dressed as white women used to dress in the times of slavery. This video definitely put the focus on the power and authority of the black female, and with or without the context reading, it was very obvious and evident.

I had this reading for LDST 101, but seeing it for the second time read a little bit differently, especially because I already knew generally what it was about, which allowed me to pin point a few quotes and ideas more easily. I knew that this was about how women tend to be silenced by men as the men use their positions of authority as validation. For example, John was a physician, and both the wife and John cite this as a reason for the wife to listen and obey John. Next, it was pretty obvious that the wife struggled with her mental health, and the reader got to follow this journey. On pages 5, the wife writes that it was a “great effort to think straight”, obviously showing her mental health struggle, but she is silenced by John. Furthermore, John even brings in the child as extra reason and weight to have the wife comply. John asks her to behave for “his and the child’s sake” using the child as leverage for getting the wife to comply.

With all of this struggle, we see the wife’s mental health really deteriorate as she begins to see the wallpaper move and take new shapes. When she says. “I am feeling ever so much better” on page 8, this is because her mind has been so significantly distorted by being stuck figuratively and literally by the restrictions her husband places on her. This story aims to discuss some stigma around mental health, and also touches on some gender inequality and restrictions in doing so.

I thought that Harvey’s writing for today was an awesome way to lay out a few leadership concepts, and use a road map to ask the right questions in order to be a more effective leader. I found it interesting that he stated that “research cant provide answers to the puzzle of leadership” (p. 201). My first thought after this was, “how do we improve as leaders then without researching how to get better?”. I enjoyed the stories and examples used throughout the writing and definitely thought they were effective ways to communicate points. Personally, the most interesting question to ask for me was “How do we get there?”. I think often, it is so easy to get caught up in the goal and vision of a process or plan. Furthermore, in my mind leaders are people who come up with these plans or visions to get a group to a destination. However, the best leaders in my mind are the leaders who can most effectively communicate how the group can get there. In the section around the next question Harvey writes that followers “expect clarity, direction, and action”. While creating the big picture goals and plans usually get associated with effective leadership, I have become more interested in how leaders manage the day to dat emotions, feeling, and actions of their followers. How do leaders keep their followers on track without micromanaging? How do they approach a situation in which a follower simply doesn’t care? I really enjoyed this reading and thought it showed just how complex of a puzzle leadership really is.

This weeks reading from Hayter really reminded me a lot of a main topic I have been studying in my Justice in Civil Society class with Professor Coetsee. In this class, we have talked about annexing, redlining, white flight, and even got a little bit into some of the effects of white flight from a tax base standpoint. It was very interesting to read this with that context in mind. First, Hayter writes on page 14 that the annexation of Chesterfield “gutted black’s ability to elect council majority”. It would be so easy to say that “well the majority really does choose the elections, so whoever is chosen should be the best candidate”. However the more you think about it, the more you realize that situations like this even into the 1970s stifled the black community. The annexation of chesterfield meant that blacks had such a small percentage of total votes in such a polarized area that they really could never realistically elect a candidate that would represent them well because their votes were drowned out in a sea of additional white votes.

Hatyer also discusses a potential counter argument on page 22. he cites that Burger and company claimed that it is “is not a statutory violation as long as the post-annexation electoral system fairly recognizes the minority’s political potential.” However, what good is “potential” if the group with potential can never act upon it? “Recognizing potential” would mean granting complete and full social and political equality, which was evidently not the case. Lastly, Hayter discusses the idea that “interracial cooperation was always governed according to terms dictated by whites” (p. 8). This sheds light on the fact that throughout history, minority communities have not have the political power to stand up for themselves. While the majority groups make decisions, minority groups follow and unwillingly comply, as shown in this reading. Full citizenship would move past this and avoid issues mentioned in this writing.

This ad was my favorite from 1968 when compared to all of the rest for three reasons. One it was far different than all of the others, it was much simpler and to the point. Secondly, it did not attack another candidate. In general, I do not like attacking ads at all. I really feel like if a candidate is strong and confident, then he/ she would not need to waste time, energy, and money attacking his or her competitor. Third, I thought the ad was unique because it aligned  itself with such an iconic figure, Frank Sinatra. I know now from class, that this a type of appeal to authority: If a legend like Frank Sinatra endorses a certain president, then I am sure it would influence others to cast their vote in a similar way. It was interesting to see that even fifty years ago marketers and campaign managers knew the power of authority and really attempted to capitalize on it. This ad really did very little in terms of talking about policy or ideas,  but the fact that Frank Sinatra was in it, I am sure persuaded some potential voters in a way that other ads would not

As I read the reading this week by Dorner, I was reminded of Dr. Bezio’s podcast I listened to yesterday. Dr. Bezio discusses the way that we need to think of systems as overall processes. this was one thing that I felt like I understood and applied to my life either in sports or in school, trying to approach things from a long term perspective. However I had no clue how hard it is to do this in a poverty trap, like the simulation. For example, I really struggled to gain an initial foundation to even start to really develop some sort of solid life, even beginning with a propane stove. It was most evident when I tried to continually buy maize enhancer, but the profits did not cover the cost. If I could have purchased this, or been able to make a sizable investment in the small business fund, I could have really lived more easily. One other uncomfortable decision was that I had to refuse to pay for doctor’s fees for one of my family members in order to buy food. I had to think about the long term process, and luckily for me, my family member did not pass away, so I could eventually return to this situation. I spent about an hour and a half on the game, but really don’t think I did well enough to make a thorough assessment of the game. in general though, I was able to understand that you need money to make money. With this in mind, it is so hard to overcome a poverty trap because you literally don’t have the funds to make the investments necessary to rise up out of the situation.

One point Dorner made made that I thought was interesting is on page 3, it talks about the way our ancestors had to make decisions based on the now, not reflecting as much on processes.  with this in mind, it is so hard to stay true to these processes when basic needs can’t be met. at one point in the simulation I had to decide between feeding my family or sending them to a doctor to cure malaria. Decisions like these really showed me that good intentions are not enough. It is obviously most important to stay alive, and this has to be a momentary decision, but the simulation really showed me how interconnected these types of systems are, and how important it is to have a process of decisions planned out and avoid the temptation to make the emotional decision, when it isnt the right one

This ad campaign began as the company was struggling to really attract the male audience. A washington Post article states, “research suggested women purchase as much as 70 percent of the shower gel for men in their households, but using body wash struck some men as unmanly.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/business/media/16adco.html) Studies across the hygiene industry around 2010 showed that men were less interested in a body wash and more inclined to use soap, as it is what they were used to. Old Spice wanted to take a playful, humorous approach to ensure users that they could still “smell like a man”, while using a body wash. This gets at the male ego a little bit, as they were worried whether they could still smell like a man using a body wash, but uses jokes and humor to do so.

I have always thought that Old Spice has done a very unique job of advertising. Specifically, they take a very direct, humorous way of promoting their project. Also, Old Spice capitalizes on certain generalizations and stereotypes to appeal to a specific target audience of men. However, they do it in a distinct way. Old Spice uses these stereotypes and gendered targeting in a playful way to make men more comfortable with their product, in my opinion. I also think that the fact that they say things such as “smell like a man, man” could be taken the wrong way by some people who do not appreciate this gendered segmentation of the market. As a marketing major, gendered segmentation is a touchy topic, especially in recent years. Marketers have to realize that most products should not be defined as solely for men or solely for women because realistically, most products can be used pretty equally by both segments.

However, bath soap and body wash does tend to be one of the product categories, where segmenting the market is beneficial. The way Old Spice does this though, is what makes me appreciate the ad. People take their hygiene seriously (or so they should), but I believe that the playful approach Old Spice takes helps men feel more comfortable with their product.

i thought that this was a very interesting and unique spurious correlation graph. I honestly had to spend some time to find a graph that was not something with a pretty dark/ distorted variable out of the options selected. This graph made me think of a couple things about Huff’s reading. One of the most important things I took from the Huff reading was the list of 5 questions to ask in chapter 10, “How to talk back to a statistic”. Yes, this is an absurdly similar correlation in terms of how well the graphs flow. However, when you really think about it it isn’t all that crazy. Think about how many words consist of 7 to 14 letters. Any of these could have been the word to win the National spelling bee. Additionally, I would assume that the total number of people killed by venomous spiders would be pretty small too. Here, we see that, one, the sample size is so small that this can’t be an accurate evaluation. There simply aren’t enough letters or bites to get that far away from each other’s number. Next, obviously, we have to ask Huff’s 5th question, “does it make sense?”. Here, the answer is obviously no. But when I step back and think for a second, I know that if I had seen the graph without the labels, I would’ve been shocked by the correlation between these variables. With this in mind, most variables used would have to be more believable than deaths from spiders and letters in the word to win the national spelling bee. Because of this, it’s so easy to want to believe things when they are shown in ways like this. Yes, this one happens to be true, but evaluating if something makes sense along with Huffs additional questions (Who says so? How does he know? Whats Missing? and Did someone change the subject) are absolutely essential when evaluating not only charts, but also tables, diagrams, and studies.

I was impressed at the amount of historical examples the black student activist group brought up as comparisons for what they are asking today. For example, they cited 3 different pushes to create a black student Union or alliance in 1968,1969, and 1999. From there, they showed that these groups have been formed throughout history, therefore administering to these concerns of the group should not be anything new or crazy when we think about bigger picture history. Next, I hadn’t thought about the lacking of black mental health counselors at school. If I ever have had an issue to discuss, there has been a white counselor either in the athletics department or in the general school that has been able to help. I really haven’t had to feel like I wasn’t as connected to someone like this from a race standpoint. From here, if someone wasn’t as comfortable or didn’t feel as close, I could see why it would be harder to express real concerns or worries, leading to less effective results. There were also mentions of wanting to rename Freeman Mitchell hall, and concerns about Covid stressors and academic performance, but I think the conversation around mental health, especially providing black student access to counselors of similar race is very important, as the mental health of everyone should be a concern right now, but especially those with less resources.