Slavery

Today is better than the past. In the past slavery was a large problem. It left people of color in bondage, working in plantations and farms for powerful white men who were making profits. In slavery the only cost it had was feeding the slaves poor food and purchasing the slaves themselves. Slaves were used as servants farmers and other non-ethical things. They were objects for trade, not human beings. In this time slaves were prone to disease due to horrible living conditions and infection of cuts. This caused the land owners to have to buy more slaves and pay more money than just taking care of them better. 

Racism is the thinking of ones race is superior compared to others.
-Liz

Survey Results, Part II

Hi! Heather is back! Sorry I've been gone... I've been busy with school and stuff. Today, I'm continuing what I was working on last post. Here are more interesting details about the survey that we took.

Although 67.6% of respondents claimed to be accepting to all people and 93.9% claimed never to have accidentally discriminated against others, only 14.7% feel completely safe at school, and 50% feel completely safe at home. This creates a strange conclusion: most everyone is accepting and kind to others, and yet the majority of people feel unsafe or uncomfortable being themselves. There are only a few ways to explain this. First, people are uncomfortable with themselves and their own identity. Second, there are outside factors(parents, administrators, etc.) who were not surveyed and who cause respondents to feel uncomfortable. The third and most probable of my theories is that respondents are actually not as accepting and inclusive as they believe they are being. One way this could manifest is that they are totally comfortable with what they say and do, but others interpret actions or words differently and in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable.

Another issue(that we were not able to address in this project due to lack of resources and time), is social pressures. One respondent noted that they didn't always feel included. This is interesting because the respondent has not been a victim of obvious discrimination to their knowledge, but feels somewhat uncomfortable at school and in public. 

Ultimately, this survey taught us a lot not only about the subject(s) of the survey, but about the people we were surveying. Many of them conformed to societal expectations for most of or all of the survey. Also, a few of them did not appear to care about the goals of the survey, or the project behind the survey. A link is here if you would like to take the survey and help us out a little(If we get enough data, we'll do a new round of results and conclusions). 
https://goo.gl/forms/zk9ECLGnf9DHm35f2

Sorry this was so short. Bye!
<3, Heather

More Racism Info

Racism is normally worried about by blacks than whites. It states in statistics that blacks think whites get more advantages than blacks.    

It seems as some whites or "Americans" are slightly oblivious. A poll found online is that basically all the races interact with there own kind. Such as whites with whites. Many statistics show that whites don't take racism as seriously because it doesn't apply to them. Such as while blacks who actually get hurt by this. Another statistic from a few years back state that 54% of blacks feel like they have been discriminated at some point.

As you see the drastic different percentages that are shown. The whites have more answers of no, than yes. Blacks and Hispanics on the other hand are shown to have 48% yes.
-Liz

Idk, stuff about Racism?

Racism, the thinking one's own race is superior.

Races:

Asian  

American Indian

African American

Pacific Islander

Caucasian

Latinx

_________________________________

-Liz

Survey Results, Part I

Hi All! Heather here! When Liz and I were in our research stage, we sent out a survey to some people in our school. We found the following:

• Of 35 respondents, 13 were assinged male at birth and 22 were assinged female

• Of all 35 respondents, only 2 had a different gender identity than the gender assigned at birth; one person assinged female identified as agender(no gender), and one person assigned female identified as both male and female. 

Some people misinterpreted the questions and felt intruded. For example, one respondent replied to the question "What is your sexuality?" by stating that they were single and therefore aromantic. Several other similar incidents occurred, like people claiming that they identified as "monkey" or "kati roll" in the place of their gender. It is possible that this was caused by lack of understanding on the subject or was caused by people not taking it seriously, but it is also possible that people did not know or care and were not willing to explore the subject further. We also noted that one respondent believed that there were only two genders(male/female) and questioned our sanity in their response. (By the way, Liz and I are both totally fine.) This response may have been a lack of understanding, or just blatant disrespect for the intentions of the survey, which were to determine people's level of acceptance and support based on different variables, like their gender, race, family situation, and religion.
Additionally, this whole group similar responses for may questions. For example, almost every answer to "Are you parents accepting of you?" was affirmative, and answers to "Have you ever been teased on the basis of sex, gender, sexuality, romantic orientation, or race?" were often variations on no. Most people thought that they were accepting and accepted by their community, and yet there were still a good chunk of respondents who did not feel 100% comfortable in their own skin. This may have something to do with the fact that people often give "the right answers" instead of the true ones.
As an answer to the question "what is your romantic orientation?" 55% of respondents replied that they were heteromantic. A good many more identified their romantic orientation by the gender that they are attracted to. However, two young respondents made an excellent point: they were both 12 at the time of the survey and unsure of their romantic orientation. I found this interesting because instead of conforming to the heterosexist ideal by making the assumption that they were heteromantic, they did not select any of the options.
Interestingly, we received one reply to the question "What is your sexuality?" that got me. Someone had claimed that their sexuality was "normal." What is normal? Is it our heterosexist ideal that assumes all are heterosexual unless otherwise specified? Is it the norm in our families and cultures? And what is that for a given person? Is it what the media and society represent, that "normal" is heterosexual heteromantic cisgender and binary? Think about your pen pal from a few posts ago. Is that your "normal?"
A few questions later, when being asked about any teasing, one respondent mentioned that "sometimes my friends talk about how I'm gay when I am not." This is also very interesting because "gay" in many circumstances is used to refer to something below par, due to the negative connotation that has been associated with LGBTQ+ people. So did this person's friends mean that they were dumb, or homosexual?

I'd love to share more with you all about the fascinating results of our survey, but I have to go. 
Ciao, and see you soon!
Love, 
Heather  <3

Update Liz Edition

Heyo Liz here, same as Heather I was away on vacation during my break and couldn't update sorry! :D

-Liz 💝

Rape Statistics in the United States

Hi folks! Sorry I haven't posted lately, winter break and all... but I'm back! Today's post is on rape stats.

https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics

• ⅕ of women will be raped
• ⅓ of women will experience contact sexual violence
• 51.1% female rape victims were raped by an intimate partner and 40.8% by an acquaintance
• 91% of rape and sexual assault victims are female
• 80% of rape victims knew the perpetrator
• 8% of rapes occur when victim is at work
• Rape costs the us 127 billion dollars, which is more than any other crime
• ¼ girls will be sexually abused before 18
• 30% of women were 11-17 when first raped
• More than ⅓ women raped before 18 were raped again as adults
• 96% people who sexually abuse kids(under 18) are male, and 76.8% are adults
• 12.3% women were 10 or younger when first raped
• On average, female victims of prostitution start 12-14 years old
• 20-25% of college women experience rape or coerced sex
• 27% college women report unwanted sexual contact
• 63% rape assaults are not reported

From another study at this Link, it was found that...

• 28% of rapes were committed by a stranger
• 45% were committed by an acquaintance
• 25% were committed by a former or current spouse or other partner
• 6% were committed by more than one person, or the victim cannot remember
• 1% were committed by a relative other than the spouse
• 50% of perpetrators are 30 or older
• 25% of perpetrators are 21-30
• 9% of perpetrators are 18-20
• 15% of perpetrators are 17 or younger
• 57% of perpetrators are white
• 27% are black
• 8% are unknown ethnicity
• 6% are other ethnicity
• 1% are mixed race

Therefore, the vast majority of rapes were committed by white perpetrators aged 21 or older who were at least acquainted to the victim. Most perpetrators of rape know the victim. 

Enough of that, though. It's a sad situation, and the only thing to do is speak up. Educate people about rape; it's not(often) a random black guy walking down the street. Most victims are raped by people they know and trust. And, most importantly, it's NEVER THE VICTIM'S FAULT. No one asks to be raped. No one wants it. So please, don't assume that rape only happens because the victim "was asking for it," or because of something they did or wore. It's not okay.
Love ya'll,
Heather