Black Working Poor vs. Black Middle Class

(Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) The black middle class experienced dramatic growth in the post civil-rights era. This growth raised questions about how social and cultural capital among the black middle class has helped the conditions of the black working poor. The author demonstrates through materialist and culturalist frames of the community how black middle class members of a small organization frame community failed to address the needs of the working poor. Materialist frames are rooted in day-to-day material conditions. They are informed by the lived reality of low wages, high rents, and or poor quality schools and focus on immediate change of concrete conditions. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) Culturalist frames challenge ideas and values, rather than power and people. Through a shared set of ideas and values, culturalist frames focus on symbolic meaning and abstract theories of the social world and attempt to change social meaning and personal identity. They promote specialized ideas about community and social issues and encourage expert-based social change through highly skilled, educated professionals. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) His argument is that the middle class use their skills, and other forms of human capitol to define community issues, while overlooking the interests of the working poor. Then Ginwright used a case study to affirm his theory. The case study was of a middle class community’s use Afrocentric ideology to ameliorate a working class neighborhood high school; the middle class misdiagnosed an obvious problem through culturalist framing resulting in no significant improvement in the high school. Afrocentric ideology is a modern concept in response to racist and attitudes about black people. It is a black inspired ideology that affirms blacks in a white dominated society. In the efforts to improve McClymonds High School in Oakland California a group of community advocates, The Black Front For Educational Reform (BUFFER), started coalition with working class parents and concerned citizens to transform the high school. Then BUFFER grew in size from roughly 30 local community individuals to 125 individuals from professors to attorneys. With the original BUFFERS the plan was simple, improve specific issues related to the day-to-day experiences of students, what the school lacked, but also what students at the school needed to survive. First, although many of its members shared the same ideology about the need to improve the conditions for black students at McClymonds High School, there was conflict about which strategy would best serve the needs of the students. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) The original working class members of BUFFER wanted to address the material issues such as textbook, facility structure, college prep courses, etc†¦ The new BUFFERS convinced that the problem was from lack of positive ethnic identity and racial pride. They wanted to address educational inequality by implementing an Afrocentric curriculum. This gave the idea of self-esteem issues. The Afrocentric curriculum did get approved and was implemented in the curriculum. For many students the new subject was not understood and Afrocentrism did not have any relevance to their day to day life experiences. The emphasis they placed on Afrocentric education diverted valuable resources to what could have been an effort to redress the pervasive inequality at the High. (Shawn A. Ginwright 2002) In reading the article it disclosed a serious gap in understanding of society needs between the middle class and the working poor class. Since the article was based on one case study, the results were skewed in favor of the author’s theory. The reading does not provide the benefits obtained by the high school from incorporating an Afrocentric curriculum or another case study that shows similar results. The author made an argument and used only one case study to verify his theory. The reading did provide some insight into the relationship between the two but it only provides inferred reasoning as to why there is a difference between the two. With two different social classes within the same organization, communication was really the necessity that was lacking to have a better outcome in the transformation of the high school. I would definitely recommend this read to a classmate

Business Communication Trends Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Business Communication Trends Paper - Essay Example The use of these communications is extremely important in creating strong business relationships between the business, the customer and company employees. Discussion Currently, as an Accounts Payable Manager (APM) for a real estate development company, all of the above communications and concepts are rendered. On a daily basis an APM position is required to act as the go between for the government, the company, and outsourced accountants. These daily tasks are accomplished by maintaining sources of information (i.e. policies and procedures, financial records, company information records, and incorporated accounting files) and later corresponded to expecting recipients. The ability for the APM to communicate effectively and efficiently within the organization is dire. For the most part an APM requires the availability of massive amounts of information to perform job duties. This position also has to be able to transmit information to individuals or parties that need it. Without proper job performance on behalf of the APM, the workplace environment will be deemed inadequate. This issue is derived from the acknowledgement that poor relationships in the workplace account for breakdowns in communication and inability to successfully exchange information within the organization (Smith, p. 1). Based on the ideals of workplace functions and exchanges there are several methods that can be used. An APM utilizes this method when hiring, selecting, training, evaluating, gratifying, and punishing company employees. The position also requires the APM to be readily available to respond to financial concerns for project managers and operations staff. When dealing with individuals on a more personal level in business specific communications are more suitable for utilizing personal interaction. This method is cited as person-to-person or in other words â€Å"involving direct communication or contact between persons or parties â€Å"person-to-person interview†; â€Å"per son-to-person telephone calls†Ã¢â‚¬  (Person-to-person, p. 1). The correspondence in this situation gives the APM the benefit of reading social cues, comprehending the situation, and dissecting dialect. Person-to-person communication is recommended in the case of building positive workplace relationships. According to Margaret Morford, breaking undesirable news face-to-face leaves employees to have â€Å"cultivated their respect for you because they will realize there was an easier way (voice mail or e-mail) that you refused to take,†(p. 1). In this case and equally personal cases like these physical correspondence is socially acceptable and expected. APM job responsibilities and capability to readily use technology as a form of communication is necessary to avoid unfortunate outcomes. Based on effective workplace functions there is much to be respected from the use of technology. Organizations are capable of allocating managerial duties to lower level associates and o utsourcing companies while maintaining the structure of big business with the use of today’s technologies. Using sms/mms, instant message, email, and all other available data transfer equipment (i.e. fax machines, etc.) companies are able to decentralize. More importantly these methods are less costly and present an APM with the ability to efficiently transfer any files or messages that

Efficiency of Cloud Computing Data Centers Thesis

Efficiency of Cloud Computing Data Centers - Thesis Example the respective organization, whereas, cloud computing is referred to as the ‘public cloud’ since it is available for use by any individual who might need instantaneous computing capability. This innovative concept has even leaped the performance level of data centers to a new level and has reduced costs for independent developers and organizations. 2. Background Information Warr (2009) stated that cloud computing is also referred to as ‘Platform as a Service’ (PaaS) since developers use it as a platform to run their applications or even develop them from scratch without investing in the acquisition of the required operating system or server hardware. Another name that is used for this concept is ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ (IaaS); it includes the dynamic usage of CPUs, virtual servers, network, storage, systems software etc. Software as a service (SaaS) is another type of cloud computing that provides access to software to users on their need basis while the software runs on the vendor’s side of the data centers. The conventional mode of using the software requires the installation of the software on the user’s computer but this latest technology requires no such installation. Since many decades, internet users have been availing the service of uploading their documents and pictures on the internet by different services like Flickr, Snapfish etc; this concept has enabled the people to save their data ‘on the cloud’. The latest concept of cloud computing is far more usable, scalable and efficient for individual developers and organizations. 2.1 Criteria of Effective Performance Rajan (2011) provided some relevant characteristics that can be helpful to... This paper stresses that the conventional enterprise data centers have been found to possess several limitations and constraints that make their adoption difficult. Enterprise data centers constitute a limited storage capacity and much capital is needed to increase the scale of the data centers. Cloud computing data centers offer the level of scalability that facilitates almost unlimited expansion of the IT infrastructure. The cost of the cloud computing service is dependent on the usage of the requested resources therefore proves to cut costs by significant numbers. The adoption of this technology provides freedom in terms of maintenance and regular updates of the data center software and platforms. This report makes a conclusion that cloud computing data centers promote mobility since they can be accessed from anywhere on the web. Therefore, it can be concluded that cloud computing data centers prove to be effective in typical and atypical business conditions but fall short in the security area. The innovative techniques to improve the physical conditions of the data centers have benefitted the organizations, as well as the society since lesser energy is being consumed from the resources of the planet. Containerized servers, innovative data center designs, evaporative cooling, free-cooling are some of the techniques that have played their role in the reduction of PUE. The uauthor talks that the security standards of cloud computing shall be analyzed in detail for their effectiveness and the rate at which they are being adapted by the respective providers. Data encryption mechanisms shall also be studied that have been adapted by different organizations to improve the cloud comp uting services.

Business strategy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Business strategy - Case Study Example Since this affluent market segment is very important for AFJ’s success, competition with international brands becomes a matter of great concern. In addition to these, Azza Fahmy also faces competition from small jewelry retailers. This is a mostly young, newly emerging small scale production competition. Even though they are not as organized or powerful as established brands or retailers, AFJ has to keep an eye out for them because they are very innovative in their designs and very nimble in their use of various market distribution channels like social networking websites. Azza Fahmy has gone through a massive restructuring process over the last few years in order to expand and remodel itself and consequently move toward the international jewelry market. For this the company has undertaken many steps in two main transitional phases. Azza Fahmy has decided to present her company to the international market as the ‘first Egyptian luxury brand’ and firmly establish the company locally and internationally. The steps taken during AFJ;s transition have been geared towards transforming the company from a small workshop with a small number of operating craftsmen into a full blown business organization. During this process, new departments vital to the functioning of any big business organization were added to AFJ, for example Human Resource Department, Marketing Department, Managing Department and Quality Control Department. Furthermore, Azza Fahmy’s two daughters also joined the business and took up important managerial positions, transfo rming the business into a family business. During the first part of the restructuring transition, Azza Fahmy opened a new factory in 2003. The company now has around 180 employees working under it with Azza Fahmy at the helm as the founder, CEO and head designer. The second phase of the transition was when one of Azza’s daughters

Personal narrative theory research, on any personal narrative topic Research Paper

Personal narrative theory , on any personal narrative topic such as prostate cancer - Research Paper Example After a few weeks, my aunt started noticing something strange; John’s movements weren’t like normal children. For example, he wasn’t able to hold up his head properly and even his suckling abilities were hampered and strained. The day we received the sad news is still vivid in all our memories; John had cerebral palsy (CP). Cerebral palsy is â€Å"an umbrella term for a group of disorders affecting body movement, balance, and posture† (Cerebral Palsy e-medicine-health). John basically had brain paralysis and couldn’t properly control his motor activities due to â€Å"abnormalities in parts of [his] brain that control muscle movements† (NINDS Cerebral Palsy). Because of this, John had trouble with moving and turning his head, holding it upright and suckling (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). My aunt had to mostly feed him milk with a spoon, since he wasn’t getting sufficient nutrition just by suckling. After a while, when John was about 6 months, we noticed that his body would be very stiff, his legs and arms becoming tense and hard. The doctors further informed us that he had the most common type of CP, known as spastic CP. It is where a muscle involuntarily contracts and the child is unable to relax it (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). At times like these, with John only a helpless baby, my aunt carried him around trying to relieve the tension in his muscles. She would often cry, not sure of what to do and blaming herself for his condition. We all tried to console her and let her know that it was never her fault. Through out the following months we all tried to be as knowledgeable as possible about CP in order to be there for our aunt. There are many things that we can’t control especially during pregnancy. Nothing was ever picked up on the routine ultrasounds and John was not even born prematurely. Abnormal brain development in the uterus, genetic disorders, blood clots, and a variety of other factors could ’ve contributed to John’s condition (Alvarez, Norberto). There wasn’t any way that my aunt could’ve predicted, controlled or prevented any of these things from happening. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. We celebrated John’s 1st birthday. It was an occasion marked with both happiness and tears. Though John was growing physically in height and his teeth had come in, he still laid there unable to sit up, support his neck or even turn on his own. After a year of stressful doctor visits, my aunt finally decided to see a specialist dealing in children with CP. She took John to see a developmental pediatrician in order to determine his progress and growth compared to other kids his age (Cerebral Palsy KidsHealth.org). Following John’s development closely for a few weeks, the specialist started him on physiotherapy exercises in order to keep his muscles loose and prevent his joint’s from stiffening (Cerebral Palsy Treatments and Therapies). Everyday my aunt would dedicate hours of physical exercise for John, such as, stretching and folding his legs, rotating his shoulder joints, flexing his fingers, and helping him to support his head. In the beginning John often cried all through out the exercise routines causing my aunt more pain and anguish. However, day by day he became used to it. I would help sometimes by holding down his body in order to prevent his spine from arching too much. John was a very special child for all of us and we all wanted him and my aunt to be as happy as possible. After a few months of

Yoani Sanchez and the Power of Internet Blogging Research Paper

Yoani Sanchez and the Power of Internet Blogging - Research Paper Example Due process has often been denied on many instances, and, as a result, many feel that Cuban laws are unethical and oppressive. Despite all these, Cubans have lacked a voice to fight for them. Many have been afraid to come out in the open and oppose the constant oppression and violation of human rights by the government. People have feared the consequences of opposing the violations against their rights because those who speak out against such oppression are mostly the ones who suffer the most since the government does not want to be opposed or criticized (Sweig 47). Yoani Maria Sanchez Cordero has been acting as a voice for the voiceless in Cuba. She has been standing up for the rights of the many oppressed Cubans who have been afraid to question the current regime over the common human rights violations. Sanchez has been using the internet as her main tool in fighting the oppression being netted out by the government. This paper will critically analyze the power of internet blogging as used by Yoani Sanchez in creating a window into the harsh realities of oppression that have been facing the people of Cuba. Yoani Maria Sanchez Cordero is a renowned Cuban blogger with international recognition and global awards for her efforts in criticizing the current rot in the Cuban government. Sanchez has been lauded for the creation of Generation Y. She has been using her words as a voice for the oppressed. Sanchez has been using the internet to inform the rest of the world about the sad state of affairs in Cuba. She has been instrumental in informing the international community about the injustices and arbitrary punishments that have been facing the people of Cuba (Henken 1). Her aim of exposing these injustices via the internet has been to let the world see what innocent Cubans have to go through every single day of their

Two smillier articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two smillier articles - Essay Example One of the components is the transforming growth factor, also known as TGF B-1. This is an immunosuppressive cytokine that is in the heart, meaning that it is a main protein that functions with relation to helping to fight immunity. It has been found that individuals who have a higher concentration of TGF B-1 in the heart also create atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries. Those who have regular coronary artery disease are not as likely to have the plasma concentration of TGF B-1. Those with both degenerative heart valves and regular coronary valves have a lower amount of TGF B-1, as well as a higher distribution amount of the cytokine throughout the body (Attaran et al, 2010). . The article used (Attaran et al, 2010), conducted a study to determine why those with atherosclerosis of coronary arteries create this specific dysfunction, as opposed to a regular coronary artery disease. 158 patients were studied who were undergoing treatment for coronary artery disease for the first time and which were required to have valve surgery. To conduct this survey, the enzyme inhibitors to the heart were stopped. After this was complete for a period of time, the blood from the heart was collected to determine how the plasma functioned within the heart. Enzyme linked chemicals were used to detect the amount of TGF B-1 that was in each patient’s blood. The results were then compared to the amount of TGF B-1 that was in the normal population and from those who had normal functioning of the heart (Attaran et al, 2010). There were several associations found between the dysfunction of atherosclerosis of coronary arteries and TGF B-1. It was found that those with atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries also suffered from hypertension and myocardial infarction in the past. It was also found that the mean concentration for TGF B-1 was lower than the normal population