Discussion Forum 10
For this discussion forum, you will have the opportunity to explore one of the some of the major gender issues in the world. Some of these are very disturbing and are very much part of “gender oppression.”
Research one of the the topics in the list below. In your first, post write a short paragraph on the issue and include a link to website about this issue. I think any video clips you find would be so helpful. Here is one that I often use in class (Google this organization and you will find other videos and good information):
The Girl Effect
After writing about your topic, reply to at least one other post in the class.
Be sure to review ther rubric below that describes the requirements of writing in complete sentences for discussion forums.
· Female Infanticide
· Female Genital Mutilation
· Dowry Deaths
· Honor Killings
· Employment Issues Faced by Women in the Developing World
· Vaginal Drying Practices
· AIDS and Women and Sub-Sahara Africa
· Education and Women
· Global Organizations that are working to Help Women
· War and Rape of Women in the World
· Human Rights of Women
· The Beijng Conference on Women
· Grameen Bank and Helping Women out of poverty
· Transgendered global issues (hirajas and berdache)
· Comfort Women (Japan)
· Sex trafficking of men, women, and children in the world
· Thailand and prostitution
Rubric for Evaluating/Grading this Discussion Forum:
| Requirements | You are a Survivor Excellent (3 points) | You Might Survive Good (2 points) | You re Struggling to Survive Needs Improvement (1 point) | You need a Life Raft Failed to meet requirements (0 points) |
| Followed Directions | Posted by deadline and replied to at least one classmate Wrote at least five complete sentences without spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Posted by deadline and replied to at least one classmate Wrote four complete sentences without spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Posted by deadline and did not reply to at least one classmate AND/OR Did not write in complete sentences and/or had 1 or 2 spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Did not post by deadline – 0 points Did not write in complete sentences and/or had spelling /grammatical errors in post and reply |
| Addressed Content | Thoroughly discussed the question and responded to another classmate by asking a question | Adequately discussed the question and responded to another classmate by asking a question | Attempted to discuss the question but did not thoroughly analyze and/or did not ask a question in response to a classmate | Did not attempt to discuss the question Post and/or reply did not address the question |
| Cited Materials | Cited academic materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates Citation addressed the question *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Attempted to cite materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates Citation was not clear or did not address the question *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Cited materials incorrectly or cited inadequate materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Did not cite materials in the post and reply |
Your score out of 9 possible________/9
Note about this rubric:
Unless otherwise noted in the discussion forum, you will need to first post your response to the question, film clip, and/or assignment. Your discussion post must include at least 5 sentences and must include a reference/citation to course materials (the book, websites, or films). Your reference does not need to be formally cited. For example, you can state that on p. 32 of our textbook, our author notes…the following. You do need to at least let the reader know where your information came from.
After you post, it is your responsibility to reply to at least one classmate. Your reply also needs to be in 5 sentences but does not have to include a reference or citation.
Discussion Forum 11
This is by far the most difficult discussion forum we will have in this course. Please remember this when you are posting your responses on the forum. These are not anonymous!! Also, I will be monitoring this regularly. In order to receive full credit for participating in the discussion forum you will need to not only post your response but also respond to one other person’s response. Try your best to use anthropology and/or other scientific points in your arguments rather than personal opinions.
A few years ago a movie came out called “White Men Can’t Jump”. There have also been numerous Sports Illustrated Articles on where have all the white men gone in sports. Specifically, these articles target basketball and football. The discussion always leads to some type of point that black men (most of the articles are about men) are physically more athletic than white men. There have actually been some interesting developments in recent news. Please read the notes below:
Tiger Woods Quote “Hockey is a sport for white men. Basketball is a sport for black men. Golf is a sport for white men dressed like black pimps.” Tiger Woods quotes (American Golfer, b.1975)
Jimmy the Greek Story Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder was ejected from the public eye in 1988 when, on Martin Luther King’s birthday, he said that blacks are better at sports because of slave plantation breeding techniques. “During the slave period, the slave owner would breed his big black with his big woman so that he would have a big black kid-that’s where it all started.”
HoopsHype.com Columns Where have all the honkies gone? by Dennis Hans / October 30, 2002 As the National Basketball Association begins another season and unveils its latest line of sleek foreign imports, one can t help but notice that the best of the league s fair-skinned domestic models is 40 years old. Forty! Props are certainly in order for John Stockton. Before he grabbed Father Time s shorts and decked him with an elbow while the ref wasn t looking, there had never been a point guard, black or white, functioning at near-all-star level at 36, let alone 40. But the fact that this gifted geezer can still kick the booty of any other U.S.born white man in the NBA is compelling evidence of a disintegrating demographic.
Not so long ago, America produced palefaces who could run like the wind, board like a bear and shoot like The Rifleman. In fact, they shot better than The Rifleman, or at least the actor who portrayed him. Before Chuck Connors took Hollywood by storm, he averaged 4.6 points a game for the 1946-47 Boston Celtics, shooting a scattershot 24.7% from the field and 46.4% from the line. Of course, Connors only qualified for NBA work because he came along when African Americans were banned from the league. But consider some of the white players who have shined in an integrated NBA: Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Rick Barry, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Jerry Lucas, Billy Cunningham, Gail Goodrich, John Havlicek, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Walton, Dave Cowens, Bobby Jones, Dan Issel, Kiki Vandeweghe, Paul Westphal, Pete Maravich, Kevin McHale and Larry Bird. What those greats have in common is they all played back in the day. Today, if you find a white guy who can really play, you can bet your 201(k) he s from far away.
Black America s families, thank goodness, continue to produce quality NBA stars, thus preventing the U.S. from descending to the level of international laughingstock. Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter and Shaquille O Neal all will be remembered long after they hang up their sneakers. If anyone remembers Travis Knight, it will be for his girly do. In 2025, if someone smiles at the mention of Mark Madsen, chances are he s visualizing Mad Dog bustin loose in his doofus victory dance. Now that could wind up in the Hall of Fame. Isn t it just a little bit suspicious that the creme of the USA s latest Caucasian crop, Wally Szczerbiak, has a foreign-sounding name? The best of the rest, Keith Van Horn and Brad Miller, are pale imitations of their forebears— solid pros, but hardly reminiscent of Barry or Big Red. Some in today s generation don t even merit the old race-tainted compliment heady. Last season, I saw Van Horn and Fred The Mayor Hoiberg foul up something so simple as the intentionally missed free throw. Neither realized that, for the ball to be active after a miss, the shot must draw iron. They just banged the shot hard off the board, a violation that automatically gave the ball to the other team.
This plague of hoop mediocrity is not a white thing writ large. If it were, it would transcend national boundaries. But there s this 25-year-old All-Star who wears sunscreen in summer and would likely sport a championship ring if he hadn t sprained his ankle last spring: Peja Stojakovic, the pride of Yugoslavia. His Sacramento teammates include the best passing center in the game, fellow countryman Vlade Divac, and versatile Turk Hidayet Turkoglu. Another young superstar, Dallas s Dirk Nowitzki, hails from Germany. His All-Star teammate, playmaker Steve Nash, is a hot-shooting hoser who was born in South Africa and raised in the Great White North (a.k.a. Canada). What about the 21-year-old string bean who late last season stuffed Shaq twice in the same game? That s Utah s Andrei Kirilenko, Russian born and bred. Seattle s high-flying, do-everything, 21-year-old forward? Vladimir Radmanovic. You go, Yugo! Runaway 2002 Rookie of the Year? The Grizzlies silky Spaniard, pallid Pau Gasol. Best white center of the past dozen years? No, not Will Perdue. Lithe Lithuanian Arvydas Sabonis. Some say that in his lean-and-healthy prime (which, alas, he spent in Europe), Sabonis was the caliber of Shaq, Kareem and Hakeem the Dream. Get the picture? Foreign lands don t produce great white hopes. They produce players — great athletes with great skills. Not so long ago, so too did white America.
Why can t we now? Have we grown soft? Did our best talent get sidetracked by dot.com mania? Are there 6-10 dudes with unlimited ability hanging out at Starbucks rather than the local gym? What about diet? Too much junk food and too many keggers? You can t be like Mike if you eat like Shaq and drink like Barkley. What about white flight from the cities? Being the H-O-R-S-E champ of your gated community is all well and good, but it s a far cry from competin in the hood. All are factors, but surely the biggest is the disappearing family farms. Once upon a time they dotted the landscape, and farm boys grew into men who kicked butt in every major sport. They threw harder, ran faster and jumped higher, and they had a natural farm-boy strength that transferred to the playing field or court far more effectively than sterile, iron-pumped muscle. Unfortunately, yesterday s hardscrabble farm boy is today s suburban slob. A hard day for him is an all-nighter at his Play Station station. Return to the land, long tall honkies. Bale that hay, milk them cows and hammer a hoop above the barn door. Don t show your face in the big city until you ve got corn- and cattle-fed muscles and a game to go with them.
Dennis Hans s essays on basketball — including the styles, rhythms and fundamentals of free-throw shooting — have appeared online at the Sporting News, Slate and The Black World Today. His writings on other topics have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Miami Herald, among other outlets. More websites: Just try using google.com and type in the following question.
You will find numerous blogs, yahoo discussion groups and websites devoted to the topic: Are Blacks Better Athletes than Whites?
Smith College – Racial Differences in Sports
Social Science Research Council Forum
Okay, enough background on a topic that is probably not new. Interestingly, I have never heard someone argue that Canadians are physically superior to Americans and that is why they are better than us at hockey.
Well, to make a very long discussion question short…here it goes. What would an anthropologists have to say about all this? In other words, don’t give me your opinion until you at least post an answer to this question. Look back to the discussion on race and ethnicity in Chapter 12.
Also check out the PBS website on Race: The Power of an Illusion and the American Anthropological Association Statement on Race. Both of these sources will be helpful and you should reference them in your answer. Also check out the new American Anthropological Association website that is a traveling museum exhibit on race http://www.understandingrace.org/humvar/skin_01.html.
Rubric for Evaluating/Grading this Discussion Forum:
| Requirements | You are a Survivor Excellent (3 points) | You Might Survive Good (2 points) | You re Struggling to Survive Needs Improvement (1 point) | You need a Life Raft Failed to meet requirements (0 points) |
| Followed Directions | Posted by deadline and replied to at least one classmate Wrote five complete sentences without spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Posted by deadline and replied to at least one classmate Wrote four complete sentences without spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Posted by deadline and did not reply to at least one classmate AND/OR Did not write in complete sentences and/or had 1 or 2 spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply | Did not post by deadline – 0 points Did not write in complete sentences, and/or had spelling / grammatical errors in post and reply |
| Addressed Content | Thoroughly discussed the question and responded to another classmate by asking a question | Adequately discussed the question and responded to another classmate by asking a question | Attempted to discuss the question but did not thoroughly analyze and/or did not ask a question in response to a classmate | Did not attempt to discuss the question Post and/or reply did not address the question |
| Cited Materials | Cited academic materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates Citation addressed the question *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Attempted to cite materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates Citation was not clear or did not address the question *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Cited materials incorrectly or cited inadequate materials from either the internet, the textbook, class notes, and/or other classmates *MLA format is not required as long as you noted a textbook page or internet site. | Did not cite materials in the post and reply |
Your score out of 9 possible________/9
Note about this rubric:
Unless otherwise noted in the discussion forum, you will need to first post your response to the question, film clip, and/or assignment. Your discussion post must include at least 5 sentences and must include a reference/citation to course materials (the book, websites, or films). Your reference does not need to be formally cited. For example, you can state that on p. 32 of our textbook, our author notes…the following. You do need to at least let the reader know where your information came from. After you post, it is your responsibility to reply to at least one classmate.
Your reply also needs to be in 5 sentences but does not have to include a reference or citation.
HINT: There is Statement about Race on the American Anthropological Association Web page.
