Alice Goffman's Ethical Boundaries

623 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Benefits and challenges associated with expression of cultural identity

From what I have gathered when it comes to ethnography researchers deeply immerse themselves in the social worlds of their interest. Conflict Over Sociologist's Narrative Puts Spotlight on Ethnography really puts in perspective of how crucial it is to be sensitive to ethical boundaries. With that being said, I can’t say I am against Alice Goffman’s research based on what I read in this article. I understand the concerns and perspectives of those who are critiquing her research, but in her case the population she focused on, I don’t feel they would just let random people in their “world”. Goffman’s ethical boundaries where question but also a concern emerged in regards to whom should tell the stories of others? As a woman who has worked with many young black men this article hit home for me, it took a lot for me …show more content…

In all honestly, I don’t think if I was not married to a man whom identifies himself as black and white, I would have not built the relationships that I have. My foster boys often told me I no longer was Mexican when I took them in, I was now considered a black mother. I guarantee Ms. Goffman had to work hard to gain and earn the trust of her focus group. I do understand that there are concerns of her actions to conspiracy to commit murder, but I can empathize. When I had my foster boys, one got into some legal trouble and I remember the police coming and talking to me and I told them what I knew and next thing I know I am reading it in the newspaper, but my statement was completely twisted. Not long after the police returned to ask more questions, I refused to help. Granted I didn’t know much then either, but I was frustrated that they twisted what I said, and my

Show More
Related

  • Autoethnographic Research: Annotated Bibliography

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    This approach, which combines aspects of ethnography and autobiography (Ellis et al., 2011), found legitimacy based in the postmodern critique of how the mediums of scientific research - its lexicon and paradigm – constrained the findings of a study (Krizek, 1998; Kuhn, 2012) or as Richardson (2000) puts it “form and content are inseparable” (p. 923). In that way scientific research’s goal of pure objectivity is challenged as unattainable.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    1) Why does she seem like a racist herself?: She always is talking about how white people benefit so much from things they don't even realize they benefit from. Well how about all the special groups and organizations that are set up just for black people. I think she should take another look at our society before she says that white benefit so trememdously. I am not saying whites do not benefit more but she really, really drills this opinion and I disagree.

    Read More

  • “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space” by Brent Staples

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Michael Omi's In Living Color Race And American Culture

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is due to what we have been spoon fed by the media, I don 't agree or like how people of color and gender are stereotyped but this article made me much more aware of how the media still has such an enormous impact on our racial decision. Whites were portrayed in a positive way just due to color and were provided so much more then blacks, such as schooling, reading, treatment and so much

    Read More

  • Brent Staples' Describes Discrimination of Black Men Through his Writing

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...

    Read More

  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...at it means to be Black. Does that not still divide the lines of humanity based on the color of a person’s skin? I thank statements like, “race-conscious” parents teaching their children to be Black is forming prejudice. I teach my children to be kind to others not what means to be White. In interracial relationships if they have a child what should the child be taught? How to be black or white because I thank it is true, children are taught racial differences by their parents and other adults. Personally, I find most mixed racial children are the perfect skin color we all try to achieve. I am not sure I would recommend Tatum’s book to read to discourage racism even though she raises some valid points.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Verna Myers's 'Ted Talk'

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    In relation to the “Implicit association test, which measures unconscious bias,” Myers acknowledges that “Seventy percent of white people taking that test prefer white.” Not only do white people prefer someone of their race, but “Fifty percent of black people taking that test prefer white” as well. Informing us of the results from the IAT (Implicit Association Test) helps showcase that there is a clear bias among us that “we’ve been schooled in.” Myers provides this data in order to further justify that we all play a role in the “prejudices that fuel those kinds of tragic incidents” that happened to the black men mentioned in the previous paragraph. Conversely with a grandiose tone, the diversity advocate explains that the problem isn’t so much that “we see color” its “what we do when we see the color.” Verna Myers bringing this issue to light is effective in the sense that it makes her audience re-evaluate their standpoint within these specific instances. Are their prejudices a part of the problem?” Yes. Verna Myers is well aware that “we are not shooting people down in the street” nonetheless, we still contribute to the issue until we are willing to “look within and being to change

    Read More

  • Ghetto Black America

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    First I want to speak in unambiguous and unequivocal terms: I repudiate all the rappers promoting failure through their rhymes about selling drugs, abusing women, and abandoning their responsibilities as men. You are all lost and a shame upon our people. Your values are decrepit; your values are out of sync with the norms of society. It amazes me how you promote a lifestyle that only leads to incarceration, broken families, and mass ignorance yet the youth still gravitates towards your message like it's the blue print to success. A lot of our men are a shadow of what they should be. A lot our men have failed their women, failed their daughters, failed their sons and most importantly failed themselves. Not all black men are walking zombies with dicks but at times it seems that good black men are outnumbered by these buffoons. What of the black woman who gives birth to multiple children with different fathers? She has been an accessory to a culture of "baby mammas," child support experts, and extreme mismanagement of money. Black men who are noble and becoming of kings you must wrestle the reigns of your people from the lost, if you won't we will continue to succeed as individuals but fail as a people. They can do you know harm, they aren't as smart as you, nor do they live longer than you. I do not jettison teaching and educating but we are in a perilous state in which we might not have time for niceties. Black men in America are two moves away from being checkmated and when our women abandon us en mass then the final piece will be played. The white man is not to blame, our fate always was, always is and always will be in our own hands. One day, I do not know the exact minute or the hour, we stop being lions, we stop being the ligh...

    Read More

  • The Way We Never Were Chapter Summary

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    In addition with the poor pay that african american male face, they also are discriminated in jobs. As mentioned in chapter ten, “young black men applying for entry-level jobs were rejected three times more often than were their white peers” (pg 310). This statement supports the previous quote through a wide variety of ways. By not being accepted into entry level jobs, it makes their lives very challenging by the lack of jobs that pay much a significant amount. As a result, black males who can’t get the jobs they would like turn to jobs where they know they can work. Typically, young black men turn to where they can get jobs. Some places that were they are accepted into are the minimum wage jobs. Although they can get jobs, the jobs they can get don’t get paid as much as the entry level jobs where they get declined at. With the jobs near minimum wage, it makes it very challenging for african americans to escape poverty. Our society needs to focus on viewing everyone with equality and not to be racist towards different ethnic

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Brent Staples's 'Just Walk On By'

    1392 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his article “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space”, which first appeared in the women’s magazine Ms. Magazine and later Harpers, Brent Staples explores the discrimination he faced as a black man living in Chicago and New York. In writing this piece, Brent Staples hoped to use a combination of pathos and ethos to demonstrate to the women that read Ms. Harper’s that Staples is actually the victim when the women treat him the way they do and to get these women to view him, and other black men, differently and to make them realize that they are people too. Staples use of his ethos and pathos serve well to support his position and convince others to take a new perspective. Staples uses ethos in multiple ways

    Read More

  • Summary Of Brent Staples's 'Black Men And Public Space'

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this narrative essay, Brent Staples provides a personal account of his experiences as a black man in modern society. “Black Men and Public Space” acts as a journey for the readers to follow as Staples discovers the many societal biases against him, simply because of his skin color. The essay begins when Staples was twenty-two years old, walking the streets of Chicago late in the evening, and a woman responds to his presence with fear. Being a larger black man, he learned that he would be stereotyped by others around him as a “mugger, rapist, or worse” (135).

    Read More

  • Racism And Structural Solutions Analysis

    280 Words  | 1 Pages

    This article I choice is called Racism and Structural Solutions. It’s written by Michael A. McCarthy. He talks about the racism in America and how the progress is slow in correcting it. We all understand that racism demonstrates itself in lots of ways. It sorts from detached bigotry, stereotyping, prejudice, hate-speech, assaults and murder to anti-immigrant actions, labor market segmentation, police brutality, racial profiling, unequal incarceration rates, corporate attacks on the welfare state, gerrymandering and imperialist foreign policies. Just to name a few he stated. Then it goes into more details about the inequality many African Americans face. Like people of color are more than three times likely to have subprime loans, which is

    Read More

  • David Harvey The Right To Remake Ourselves Analysis

    1219 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drawing upon Lily Song’s scholarship when she states, “…race appears a secondary issue that may have cultural and political significance but is essentially a divisive mechanism that stymies the redistributive agendas or economic programs of class-based movements (Song p. 156).” To expound on this point, black and brown communities have been placed at an economic disadvantage connected to racialized discriminatory practices that have created hyper-segregated spaces with momentous challenges. Therefore, using a ‘one size fits all’ model to combat the crises within these spaces is not practical because it ignores the explicit role that race has played in the subjugation of communities of color. For example, taking a neo-pragmatic approach to eradicating these challenges by utilizing black and brown urban planners who have a greater understanding of the racial implications faced by these disadvantaged groups is a more sensible way to avoid trivializing the historical inequalities faced by people of color. To expand further, Rashad Shabazz details how black masculinity is specifically performed through prison and carceral spaces separate from how white masculinity is executed (Shabazz). Instead of approaching the problems faced by black males that present masculinity through a lens of white masculinity, a deeper analysis could connect how prison culture and the

    Read More

  • Bill Of Rights Proposal Essay

    446 Words  | 1 Pages

    “as a result of the historic and continued discrimination, African-Americans continue to suffer debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships including but not limited to; having nearly 1,000,000 Black people incarcerated; an unemployment rate more than twice the current White unemployment rate; and an average of less than 1/16 of the wealth of White families, a disparity which has worsened, not improved over time.”

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: My Struggle In An Underserved Community

    299 Words  | 1 Pages

    As an African American woman, I have lived and worked in underserved communities and have experienced personally, the social and economic injustices grieved by underserved communities and the working poor. All of which, has increased my desires to work with such populations. A reserved person by nature, I have exposed an inner voice that I was oblivious to. I have expressed my inner voice to those living in underserved communities, who are seeking social and economic stability. I have come to classify and value the strength I have developed by the need, to survive in an underserved community. I use these as my continuous struggle against the social and economic injustices that I have experienced, as a product of an underserved community and as an African American woman. I have continued my struggle to overcome the barriers from my upbringing in an underserved community.

    Read More

More about Alice Goffman's Ethical Boundaries

Open Document