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Friday, December 10, 2010

Reflections

Honestly, i had a limited idea of what it means to be masculine till this class. Though i like to read, i never really came across an article or journal that elaborated on the topic. All the course readings have been adequately helpful in raising my understanding about social issues and misrepresentations. My research papers which i would say without pride that i didn't impress myself enough with my source. Especially after writing on my second research, I later came to find out that I can't print my  second source because they are more Google related than the school library media center but in the nut shell I wouldn't  hesitate to say was a very great experience acquainting with the topic and the research. Last and most importantly of all, I send a lot of gratitude to the instructor Ms.Bogacka who goes out of her way to provide resources and idea guidance into vivid details to facilitate the learning process and progress of the class.

UPDATE OF PART 2 OF RESEARCH PAPER 2: Recognition of the efforts of the black man in child growth and development

SHAMOON BABA

ENG 101.0800

MAGDALENA BOGACKA

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY RESEARCH: Recognition of the effort of black men in the lives of their children

John Q. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf.
Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean. New Line Cinema.2005.Film

After years of working and living on low income wages, an intimate father’s son is face with death if his abnormally growing heart is not changed for a new one. Since the insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of the surgical transplant, he is faced with the challenge of coming up with the funds for the surgery. Not being able to forfeit the cost of the treatment, he takes charge of the surgery room to ensure the safety of his son

As world widely researched and evaluated of intimate fathers, the basic result of the kind of bond shared between the father and his family becomes unbreakable to the extent that the father/husband is ready to do everything to safe keep his family. This is a man who is very close to his son. Playing the role of father and friend.

Evidently as modern fathering is professing that a father’s involvement can be measured by what he does with and for his child is more important than co-residence. As displayed by the way Denzel and his son projected in this drama filled movie


 Conner Michael E., and Joseph L White “Demographic trends conceal father participation in black community” Black fathers: an invisible presence in America”.2006.Web
This ebook from Conner and White discusses how black men are being disregarded when it comes to fatherly roles in households.Black men are seen as incompetent for the kind of esteem they are supposed to be rated when considering father and son interactions and household work. An advocation for the acknowledgment of the contributions being made by black men in the lives of their children.


Supporting my thesis at its core, black men do very well contribute to the lives of their children and if a serious marriage, their nuclear family. In the case of his child, the black man still goes ahead to be available for his child regardless of the fact that he is not with the child's mother. data have shown, black men have high divorce and unemployment rate. A factor that shouldn't be estimated in evaluating father and son relationship since the basic point is to let the son have an  intimate knowledge of masculinity.

Though engulfed in a history of degradation and socioeconomic suffering, social scientist and researchers tend to deprive black men of some due recognitions like active fathering roles in nuclear and extended households. It might be of great importance for researchers to really broaden their scope of investigations and method of assessment on father and child relation with proper attention paid to the mannerisms of their relation and not the environment nor the literal or primitive perception.

final draft

Shamoon Baba
Eng 101.0800
Magdalene Bogacka
December 10, 2010

Recognition of the efforts of the black man in child growth and development
              
When I was scanning through Coltrane’s Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradiction, and Dilemmas, I stumbled upon the acknowledgement of the efforts and participation of black fathers in active child growth and development. This translated to me that researchers are beginning to extend their investigations beyond the predominant race mainly the white. At the second paragraph in his variation: Levels of Predictors of Fathers’ Involvement, he states that most contemporary research on fathering covered only the middle-class white families. But researchers, likewise him, are getting the big picture of the similarity across family types. One can easily jump into conclusion to think of white men as the ones who should per se possess the “know how” to child growth and development but evidently the black man has challenged the negative image of irresponsibility by means of expressing  the phenomenal relations they have with their biological offspring as studies have shown. I therefore give a reaffirming support to the earlier point stated by Coltrane on noticed behaviors of black fathers. Gathering two backing sources to support my stance, I present the movie John Q which exhibits a profound father and son relationship. The movies will serve as visual support to my position. The second source is from a book by Michael E Conner and Joseph L White titled Black fathers: an invisible presence in America. With this, I advocate for the works of black fathers to be recognized by researchers and social scientists toward the betterment of the black community
The recognition of black fathers was not exalted or celebrated until the turning point of recent years. The core behavioral skills are expression of love and commitment to their families. These fatherly elements about black fathers are characterized in the movie John Q. Denzel Washington (John Quincy) plays the father of a little boy and a good family man. He shares love and responsibilities in the growth and development of their only child who unfortunately faces a life threatening cardiovascular issues which required 75,000 dollars to perform a heart transplanting surgery. Since the company he worked for had their health insurance policy changed and the pending policy didn’t cover such high bills, the father is faced with the challenge of raising the money to facilitate his son’s surgery or he gets released from the hospital to go home and await his death. A vivid display of what a father would do for and with a child is played perfectly by Denzel.  At the first quarter of the movies, father relates to son with deep love and guidance. Playing a “double bind” of loving and strict parenting, Denzel expresses the deep seated fatherly love for his son and his wife. This serves as an embedded behavior of typical black males that are not incorporated in the evaluation of fatherly participation and growth of child by the media or not being given the adequate support to make others copy from. It is rather unfortunate that the father in this movie had to take a violent approach to solving his son’s health problem but upon second thoughts, I find the his action- though not right-to be a tangible evidence of how deep his love runs for his son and family and what he is willing to do to ensure their safety.
Black people in general are more associated with violence and crime. This indeed makes it quite a bit of a contradiction to other ethnicities or mostly white men to recognize the fact that black fathers likewise black men with such incriminating history, should be acknowledged for in-depth participation in activities child nurturing, growth and development. Yet the contributions made by black men in the lives of their children and families in terms good fathering elements are far more than what the literally minded would perceive of them. As Conner and White have observed and stated under their subtopic: Fathers in Contemporary America: Invincible but Present. It reads that black men have risen to assume special places in their children’s lives. This as a root cause leads to black men keeping their commitment to their children’s wellbeing and safety. Be it that they reside with them or not. The irony of the situation Conner and White are explaining is: black men who live outside the home and who father and the manner in which they father are consistently ignored. To fully comprehend with fathering in the black community means active researchers and social scientist might have to see it imperative to expand their scopes and borders of their investigations. It is melancholic to know that African American men who don’t reside with their children but are enthused about fathering roles are not considered by researchers who investigate on fathering. Demographic trend concealing father participation in the black community according to Conner and White shows that most Africa American children growing up in a contemporary society do no live in the same household with their biological fathers or fathers reside with them temporarily. Only a small number of black men live with their children throughout childhood. As a degrading factor of research on fathering, black men stay active with their children’s growth although they might not have custody of the children
 My point is, black fathers, regardless that they live with their children or not but are very well concerned with their children’s growth and development are supposed to be esteemed as high as fathers who reside with their children and wives. Disputing the major misunderstanding between the negative absent father pictures of black men in fathering roles emerged from structured interviews, narrations, biographical sketches, community based observations and ethnographical investigations. Studies have also shown high level of father and child interaction among the black community as compared to other ethnicities furthermore black men do more house work than the white man.












Works Cited



Coltrane, Schott “Fathering: Paradoxes, Contradictions, and Dilemmas. Men’s Lives 8th ed. Michail S. Kimmel and Michael A. Messner. New York. Allyn &Bacon 2008. 432-449.Print
           

John Q. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf.
Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean. New Line Cinema.2005.Film



Conner Michael E., and Joseph L White “Demographic trends conceal father participation in black community” Black fathers: an invisible presence in America”.2006.Web


              

Monday, November 29, 2010

1rst draft of research paper 2

Shamoon Baba
Eng 101.0800
Magdalene Bogacka

Recognition of the efforts of the black man in child growth and development
           
Whiles scanning through Coltrane’s Fathering: Paradoxes, contradiction, and dilemmas, and stumbling upon the acknowledgment of the efforts and participation of black fathers in active child development really sent shock waves of good impressions to my attention. At one point of his reading, he makes a niche of “levels of predictors of fathers’ involvement” in which black men came top of the list of the fathers of other races who participate in child rearing and house work-more so, “Intimate fathers”. One can easily jump into conclusion to think of white men as the ones who should per se possess the “know how” to child growth and development but evidently the black man has put himself on the map with the phenomenal relations they have with their biological offspring as studies have shown. Divorce is not a blocking factor from financial contributions and commitments to the child’s growth and development. And as such, black men have rather challenged this factor amongst others like unemployment and imprisonment. I therefore give a reaffirming support to the earlier point stated by Coltrane on noticed behaviors of black fathers. Mobilizing two backing sources to support my stance, I present the movie “John Q” which exhibits a profound father and son relationship as noted too that fathers in general are more connected to their sons than daughter. The movies will serve as visual support to my position. And with the second source from a book by Michael E Conner “Black fathers: an invisible presence in America”, I advocate for the works of black fathers to be recognized by researchers and academic studies.
 It can be ultimately comprehensible that fathers who work hard –mostly low paying jobs-to provide food and shelter for their family ought to see themselves as a “good fathers” like the reading states.  This can easily be backed with simple logic of why one would spend on another if not for intimate reasons since that person is obviously not running a charity service. As this drama and tears filled movies rolls, a co-resident father (intimate) breaks his back in provision of food and shelter for him and his family. He shares love and responsibilities in the growth and development of their only child to whom unfortunately faces a life threatening surgical transplant. Since the company he worked for had their health insurance policy changed and the pending policy didn’t cover such high bills, the father is faced with the challenge of raising 75,000 dollars to facilitate his son’s surgery or he gets released to go home to await his dead. A vivid display of what a father would do for and with a child is put on show. Looking at how the father and son related like friends and when it was necessary to put his feet down, he did like a father is supposed to. Playing a “double bind” of loving and strict parenting, Denzel expresses the deep seated fatherly love for his son and husband reliability for his wife. This serves as an embedded behavior of typical black males that are not publicized by the media or not being given the adequate support to make others copy from.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

PART 2 OF RESEARCH PAPER 2: Update on Annotated Bibliography

SHAMOON BABA

ENG 101.0800

MAGDALENA BOGACKA

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY RESEARCH: Recognition of the effort of black men in the lives of their children

John Q. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf.
Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean. New Line Cinema.2005.Film

After years of working and living on low income wages, an intimate father’s son is face with death if his abnormally growing heart is not changed for a new one. Since the insurance company wouldn’t cover the cost of the surgical transplant, he is faced with the challenge of coming up with the funds for the surgery. Not being able to forfeit the cost of the treatment, he takes charge of the surgery room to ensure the safety of his son

As world widely researched and evaluated of intimate fathers, the basic result of the kind of bond shared between the father and his family becomes unbreakable to the extent that the father/husband is ready to do everything to safe keep his family. This is a man who is very close to his son. Playing the role of father and friend.

Evidently as modern fathering is professing that a father’s involvement can be measured by what he does with and for his child is more important than co-residence. As displayed by the way Denzel and his son projected in this drama filled movie


 Conner Michael E., and Joseph L White “Demographic trends conceal father participation in black community” Black fathers: an invisible presence in America”.2006.Web
This ebook from Conner and White discusses how black men are being disregarded when it comes to fatherly roles in households.Black men are seen as incompetent for the kind of esteem they are supposed to be rated when considering father and son interactions and household work. An advocation for the acknowledgment of the contributions being made by black men in the lives of their children.


Supporting my thesis at its core, black men do very well contribute to the lives of their children and if a serious marriage, their nuclear family. In the case of his child, the black man still goes ahead to be available for his child regardless of the fact that he is not with the child's mother. data have shown, black men have high divorce and unemployment rate. A factor that shouldn't be estimated in evaluating father and son relationship since the basic point is to let the son have an  intimate knowledge of masculinity.

Though engulfed in a history of degradation and socioeconomic suffering, social scientist and researchers tend to deprive black men of some due recognitions like active fathering roles in nuclear and extended households. It might be of great importance for researchers to really broaden their scope of investigations and method of assessment on father and child relation with proper attention paid to the mannerisms of their relation and not the environment nor the literal or primitive perception.

Friday, November 19, 2010

quick write: Fathering Paradoxes Contradiction and Dilemmas by Scott Coltrane

  The emergence of modern families is as a resulted of comptemprary adults being so consumed by career since most marriages don't survive long enough  to sustain a family. Just as female insermination came about making it possible for women to have babies on thier own without the assistance of a man (father), the picture Coltrane has on display extends how men are really getting involved in the upbringing of children where as they want to be closer to thier children as mothers do. Though there might be cultural difference in fathering, but Coltrane makes it clear on how men want to really put out their contradictory best to raise a child; not to be too hard nor too soft but to fit in the middle as both the mother and the father in the "father".

Thursday, November 18, 2010

proposal for research # 2

I am looking to paying a close attention to Bordo’s “ Gentleman or Beast, the double bind”. With emphasis on how contradictory one is expected to behave in modern civilization. My special interest will argue about why this suggestion from Boado’s sits well with me. In my first research, I threw more light on the metro/rock sexuality in which I was trying to make a case similar to what Bordo is projecting in her.

My preliminary thesis will be “The good in double bind”. This will dive into how evolution has brought about the growth state in men combining both their soft and hard elements together to introduce a new form of idealism.

I will conjure my sources form the school library and as much as I can get from the internet. I am hoping that personal experiences will be allowed to be paragraphed into the research.