Englis Removalist Essay Essay Example for Free

Englis Removalist Essay Essay Engaging texts lead us to think about significant issues within society. Discuss with reference to your prescribed test and of at least ONE other related text. Significant issues within society are effectively explored through engaging texts. The two-act play ‘The Removalists† written by David Williamsons explores significant issues within society in Australia in the seventies. The significant issues discovered throughout â€Å"The Removalists† include abuse of power and corruption. Similarly the empowering film â€Å"Shawshank Redemption† directed by Frank Darabount, also explores issues within society. Unlike David Williamsons â€Å"The Removalists†, â€Å"Shawshank Redemption† explores similar issues within society in America, in the 1940s. A significant issue within society is corruption. Corruption was conveyed throughout the play â€Å"The Removalists†. This is evident when Simmonds states â€Å"We can’t handle anything big because there is only the two of us. We can handle anything small, but then again it’s hardly worth the effort if it’s small†. Even though Simmonds says this area is the geographical centre of crime, which portrays his contradicting statements. Since the sub-branch does not handle anything big or handle anything small, it indicates the corruption within the force. The character Simmonds again reflects corruption throughout the play when he says â€Å"I have never made and arrest in all my twenty three years in the force, Ross† Simmonds uses irony as Simmonds mentioned that this city has the greatest crime rate, and Simmonds is yet to make an arrest in all his time in the force. Through the character Simmonds, corruption is effectively explored throughout The Removalists. In a similar fashion, the social issue of corruption is evident throughout the film Shawshank Redemption. Corruption was evident in the beginning of the movie as throughout Shawshank items were being traded through the currenc y of cigarettes. The fast-paced panning motions were used to show that the trading was illegal but still completed with all the prisoners and some guards. Another way corruption is evident throughout Shawshank Redemption is through the character Andy as he stimulates a large part of corruption throughout Shawshank. â€Å"All I ask for is three beers a piece for each of my co-workers†. Since Andy is doing illegal work for the police Andy asks in a polite tone for something in return for the work he has done. Corruption is also evident when Norton asks another inmate â€Å"would you be able to testify before the judge?† Norton’s asks him in a friendly tone and a low volume so  Norton could let the inmate think he was his friend. The inmate told the truth, which led to the inmate being intentionally killed. This demonstrates in a similar fashion to The Removalists how the social issue of corruption is evident in Shawshank Redemption. The social issue of the abuse of power is evide nt throughout The Removalists. This is evident when Simmonds â€Å"bends down and hoist’s Fiona’s skirt up a little† and say’s â€Å"take a close-up one on her thigh†. Simmonds actions and words portray his abuse of power within the police force to pick on troubled Fiona. The alluring tone Simmonds’s used towards Ross to take a picture of Fiona’s thigh indicated his plan was to try and use his authority and power he has to seduce Fiona. The social issue of the abuse of power is again evident through the character Simmonds. When Simmonds arrests Kenny, Simmonds abuses his power by repeatedly punches Kenny. Simmonds uses force against Kenny when Kenny undermines him. â€Å"Pity about Kate. Sergeant. You would’ve been in like Flynn† Simmonds resorts to violence because he believes that he has the right to, because he doesn’t follow the rulebook. â€Å"Stuff the rule book up your arse†. Through the character Simmonds the social issue of the abuse of power is evident in The Removalists. Similarly, the social issue of the abuse of power is evident throughout Shawshank Redemption. The abuse of power is evident through the warden, Norton. â€Å"Nothing stops! Nothing! Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards† The high modality and commanding tone Norton uses is to remind Andy that he is still the boss, and that Andy is under Norton’s thumb. It also portrays the abuse of power as Norton who abuses his power as the warden in Shawshank by controlling Andy for his tax frauds. The issue of the abuse of power is again evident through Norton. â€Å"There’s going to be a book barbeque at the back if you say anything†. Norton threatens Andy to keep quiet or his six years of work in the prison to get the library will turn into ashes. Norton’s commanding tone to a beaten up Andy was to further intimidate and threaten him. The two acts committed by Norton towards Norton displays the social issue of the abuse of power throughout Shawshank Redemption. Through engaging texts significant issues within society are explored effectively. The texts â€Å"The Removalists† and â€Å"Shawshank Redemption† effectively explore and reflect the significant issues within society.

The five levels of employee motivation

The five levels of employee motivation Title Impact of economic stability on the employees motivational levels and sustainability Aim The aim of this research is to find the strategies and theories of motivation for economic stability and sustainability of Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd employees and explore the effectual ways by examining the factors that employees made their decisions for their development. Introduction Motivation amplifies as employees or team members take pleasure in one another and struggle not to let each other down. For motivating employees organizations must always work to support employees for their sustainability and for their financial growth. Satisfied and happy employees about their work are motivated to work better in an organization. Other factors also play a vital role in motivating employees then pay rates. Therefore management must do best to make available an environment of work which increases employee satisfaction even if the market is in uncertain conditions. Then economic instabilities would never affect organizations employees bank. The Hawthorne study proves this point after conducting a research on the employee productivity and its effects on working environment (William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor, 2009). Motivation leads to higher productivity and longer sustainability of employees in an organization. As self motivating is crucial for empl oyees it is also necessary for organizations to ensure that their employees are motivated. To some level, a great level of motivating employees obtains from valuable management practices. Hence this research will identify the strategies in order to motivate employees under economic instability conditions. Therefore choosing this topic for conducting research will help to learn and experience the practical conditions of employees in economic crises. Example for this topic is Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd is a service provider of web designing and development. Company believes in thoughts as the starting and ending of all creative work. This is a total creative workshop handling a to z things of internet and intranet solutions including ASP, PHP, ASP.NET, website and brochure design and development etc. It is situated in London, and servicing to provide complete end to end internet solutions to customers requirements. Major services provided by the company are web designing and development, graphic design and SEO services, to provide these services with the best technology based solutions, company has to maintain speed in terms of following latest technological changes with the support of their employees. A discussion on the Sumudra technologies pvt Ltd issue As discussed above, it is one of the best companies to provide best internet solutions to the customers in London and it also worries about its employees pay packages due to the fear of their productivity and sustainability in their company. Though, from the employees perspective over a 3years there was about 86% higher total return to shareholder for the companies which have maintained elevated levels of trust evaluated to those with low levels of trust (Watson Wyatt, 2002). Regional or global strategies of sustainability of employees should be chosen wisely by companies. Strategies chosen according to the regional requirements would give fruitful results to companies or to individuals (SAS, 2008). Hence, company should improve its strategies of motivation and sustainability to pace according to the new changing market conditions in order to overcome the hurdles of market situations. This research work will give valuable information on how company can improve its strategies to motiv ate its employees. Literature Review Motivation Motivation is a drive which leads people towards achieving their goals. Its a enthusiasm and determination with a kind of excitement that directs one to continue to achieve greater heights, whether it is personal or professional. Motivating oneself is a continuous requirement for constant growth. Kanfer (1990) says that it is a imaginary construct that cannot be seen or cannot be felt. People can observe the impacts that are indicative of various motivation levels. Another author Pinder (1998) resolves the direction, form, strength, and duration of work-related behavior. He argues that by observing these dimensions of behavior, one can make conclusions about the effects of motivation on employees behavior (Steve M. Jex, 2002). This is a crucial factor because in economic instability of the present market conditions its very important to have a workforce with high spirits of motivation. This is a factor which normally produces results that are incompatible to study the employee behavi or. It can also be defines as the quality of actions, initiation, persistence and it can be categorized with their comparative constructs, goals and strategies. Strategies are the techniques used to get the goals and therefore to assure the goals and motives are the direct objectives of specific sequences of employee behavior. It is all about an individual moving towards the goal to understand the thing that sends them into deed. Intrinsic and extracts are the two types of motivation. These two types help to achieve and develop skills of a particular species. Jere E. Brophy (2004) says that motivation is differed from its related parts called goals, approaches which are used to achieve aimed goals and objectives. It is used to boost people to initiate useful activity sequences. Motivation is considered as an important factor in making employees upbeat and down to business which results in increasing organizations output. Levels of motivation Motivating employees would be a challenging task for management. The decision on how dedicated and committed will be an employee towards the company will totally depend on the individual employee. Here management of Sumudra technologies need to understand that applying one strategy to all employees cannot help to motivate everyone in the organization. While looking at the levels of motivation Maslows hierarchy theory of needs has helped us to guide to recognize what to look for management with their employees. Level 1: Security and safety Employees need to be assured about their safety and security at the work place; management must provide security services and create an fear free environment. Level 2: Incentives This is a level which is known by every individual. Most of the people dont work after winning a huge amount of reward. With this perception companies try to satisfy the compensation and benefits requirements of employees. Level 3: Affiliation This level discusses about the sense of belongingness. It contains being in the know and being part of the team. This is too a variance in professional and personal values can have a great affect on the motivation of employees. Level 4: Development Employees wish to have the faith that success is taking place. They feel secure, obtain all the money they want to earn and feel part of the group. But if there are no development opportunities employees think about absconding from the organization. Level 5: Life or Work Harmony Employees may have all types of rewards which are desired by them, but they will burn out closer or later if employees dont have the sufficient time to spend it on the other things they desire for (Derik Mocke, 2010). Therefore it is advisable to be aware of these five levels of motivation of employees when management employ with their employees. Company should assess what are the needs and desires of every individual employee before applying these levels in their organization. Employ with every individual and explain them about the various levels and inquire them where employees find themselves suitable on the pyramid. Engaging with greater teams and eventually with the entire company about the levels of motivation of employee etc are some points which are to be remembered when management engages these five levels with their employees. This needs a detail discussion which will be done in the research dissertation project. As there are six more steps to high levels of motivation. Thi s needs to be discussed in detail in order to understand the intensity of motivation factor when applied on employees. Theories of motivation Motivation of human beings is a study which has been carried from past many years. But none of them were not developed to explain employee behavior at workplace or were they practical enough to apply in the working environment. The following are some theories which specially explain motivation for employees. Theories of motivation are categorized into four: Require based theories explains work motivation in terms of the level to which employees satisfy their necessary needs at the place of work. Job based theories rest the resource of motivation majorly in the content of jobs that employees execute. Cognitive procedure theories highlight the decisions and choices that employees make when they distribute their attempts. Lastly behavioral approach highlights principles of learning. These will be discussed in detail in the research dissertation. Motivation and Communication Motivation is depended on having clear goals and objectives. As motivation is personal, goal is align staffs individual constrains with the companies uses in common and units in specific. Motivation can be done through communication organizational goals correctly to the employees (John Kotter, 1995). Author says to analyze how much communication of the vision is required, and then multiply that attempt with ten. He mentions that management should not limit to the meeting rooms. Actions adjoined with words are powerful communicators of the fresh ways. Here one needs to understand that transformation effort will fail if most of the employees doesnt understand, realize, commit and try to make the effort occur. The principle behind this is utilize every possible communication channel and opportunity to motivate in order to achieve the organizational goals. Teach fresh behaviors by showing the example of the guiding coalition team to the companys employees. Communication at the workplace can acquire numerous forms and has a lasting cause on motivation of employee. If employees feel that communication from organization is valuable it can show the way to feelings of employee work satisfaction, loyalty towards the company and increase trust at the workplace. This is an area of which a detail research and review is required. This will be done in dissertation part. Process of motivating employees Some standards are required to motivate the employees to achieve the objectives (quality) and to continue improvements and growth of the organization. Achievements of an organization completely depend upon the workforce and its activities so the organization will recruit the staffs who are motivated to attain the organization goals. Motivation is a key to the performance where it depends upon the environment, motivation and ability to perform the task. Motivation can be simply defined as it is an inner mental state to prompt intensity, directions and persistence. The proposed dissertation will explain about the motivation process which operates inside the individuals (Marjaana Gunkel, 2006). From the diagram motivation occurs if the employees satisfies their personal requirements and also work expectation from the company. Usually any employee can be motivated if an organization recognizes his efforts and appreciation and hence they can feel like, they are the main part of an organization or team. This process also explains about the barriers which affect the motivation process like job related, goal related, fear of failures, suspect of management, not a challenging environment, little respect, no rewards, no responsibilities. So the manager has to motivate the employees by removing these barriers to achieve the organization goals. Employees can be motivated if proper training and counseling sessions should be conducted to improve the process under the controlled conditions (David Hoyle, 2000). Sumundra technologies are also providing the motivation process to increase the employee capabilities in order to enhance the business prospects. Here the employees should have proper communication skills because this organization majorly deals with the customers throughout the world so better understanding of the customer requirements is very important. So the staff should have good communication skills to interact with the various customers and they ought to know American and UK accent to understand the clients without any disappointments (David Hoyle, 2000). Culture and leadership Culture is defined as learning values, norms, symbols, beliefs, traditions which are common to the group of people. Sharing these qualities of a group will make people unique. According to gudykunst and ting Toomey (1988), culture is the way of different customs, different scripts of group and their lives. Whereas nature of the leadership itself is the complex and it can be defined as stepping forward to solve the problems by sheer force of will. It is the influenced relationship between the followers and the leaders who plan for real revolution and outcomes to replicate their shared purpose (Richard L. Daft, 2007). The main important task that the leaders can do is, managing and creating the culture in addition to this they (leader) also have the capability to understand the work with culture. Studying the organizational culture can be focused more on performance and behavior of an employee than the values. If the interaction or the communication between the employees and management is good then the organization culture could be created. If it not good then the culture of an organization has to be changed inside and outside of an organization. But changing the organizational culture is not an easy task and it takes more time through the relationship of individuals and interactions (Mary J. Davis, 2000). Proposed dissertation will give a detailed description about the culture and leadership definitions and with some examples. It also discusses about the organizational cultures and how will be the organization if it does not maintain proper leaderships and culture inside and outside the company, how it effects on the present economy will be discussed. Present sumundra technologies are maintaining proper culture and leadership qualities among themselves. This is a corporate culture and they are completely aware of how to behave, how to understand, how to manage the things, how to communicate, how to work in a team. Their managerial staff also recognizes what the present culture is expecting, and how to nurture and feed the current culture is. Here the corporate changes has been occurred and is successful because of its good team work and proper leadership. From this I can say that culture can effect on a strong leader. And if and only if the culture and leadership of an organization is maintained well then that particular organization can give best customer satisfaction and good customer service. Psychological contract levels and factors Rousseau, D.M. (1989) describes psychological contract as an entitys belief in mutual compulsions among this entity or person and another person or party, like employer. This faith is forecasted on the perception that an exchange of promises have been prepared to which the parties are vault. Tekleab (2003) in the book Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management suggests designing realistic job previews to comprise data on employee obligations and socialization agendas to contain information on companys obligations. Psychological contract levels and individual factors that influence data formation of the contract are discussed by many authors in their articles. Like in the same book Vos et al (2005), views at how work values and locus of manage or control influenced data seeking during socialization. He also agrees that individual factors influence psychological contract level developments. But these factors are of limited significance when talking about psychological contract level s which intends to indentify organizational and supervisor chances to make easy positive psychological contracts (Maida Petersitzke, 2009). A 3rd group of extra-organizational factors contains wider political, economic and legal changes that in turn form observations of the psychological contract (Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner, 2005). Psychological contracts would be operationalised from a diversity of viewpoints. A prior cut on operationalization happens with the decision whether to focus or not on the aspects of the psychological contract considered to simplify across persons and settings. And a 2nd cut on the operationalization happens with the decision of whether to concentrate upon content, characteristics, evaluations. This refers to the terms and elements which have the contract (Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A., 1998). Economic Circumstances Economic conditions play a major role in motivating employees and in creating sustainability. Assessment, tax rates, revenues, municipal debt, financial assets like development charge accounts, reserve funds, complete fire protection system charges, employment and unemployment conditions, previous and present political philosophy regarding the budget up/downs, borrowing, etc, loss affect of one employer, main industry institution, barriers to rebuilding like zoning and climatic needs are some of the economic circumstances which effects the employees (Ontario, 2010). For example decreasing prices have not allowed decreasing nominal pensions in a way of prevailing monetary circumstances. So for the time being undoing the move from payment to price indexation would result in the level of pension waiting, comparative to national income, anticipated for the year 2008 was attained in 2002. This is presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004). Perceptual Process Perception or awareness is a process through which people choose, systematize, understand and react to data from the world in the region of theirs. This is the data which is collected from the 5 senses like hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling. It responds to the psychological process whereby people take data from the atmosphere and make sense of their particular worlds (Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum, 2007). Perceptual process permits management to test their present level of perceptual expertise. Perception engages several sub-processes like Stimuli, attention, translation, recognition, behavior, performance and satisfaction etc are some of the things which takes place only after giving some attention to them (Perception, 2010). Sumudra Techonologies pvt ltd has to know and understand all these procedures and processes to motivate and sustain their existing employees. Conclusions According to the discussion happened above makes clear that there are some questions which have risen out from the initial literature review: There is a minute literature which examines theories of motivation. There is also a minute literature that investigates theories and processes of motivation with respect to Sumudra technologies. There is no literature that evaluates Sumudra Technologies management in detail. There is no discussion about the surveys of relationship between motivation and communication. There is no research that scrutinizes the benefits of motivating employees by Sumudra Technologies Company. There is also no literature that revises the gap of perceptual apprehension recruitment management among management and employees concurrently. There is no discussion done on the sustainability benefits which can be earned if Sumudra technologies motivate their employees in down turn economic situations too. Therefore, this proposal proposes the following objectives for the proposed dissertation: To find out the effect of economic instability on the Sumudra Technologies employees motivation levels. To identify the advantages of motivating employees in Sumudra Technologies Pvt Ltd. To examine the sustainability aspect of employees in detail. To study the various elements of motivation theories and levels in order to fulfill the proposed aim for the dissertation. To suggest Sumudra Technologies to the way that its motivational strategies are able to manage employees effectively. Hence there is need for conducting enough research on this topic to know the sustainability and motivational levels of employees to be consistent in this company. Bibliography David Hoyle (2000), Automotive quality systems handbook, A division of reed educational and professional publishing limited, Linacre house, Jordan hill. * Derik Mocke (2010), The Five Levels of Employee Motivation, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 1st April, 2010]. Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum (2007), Organizational Behavior, Published by Cengage Learning, ISBN: 0324377126. Jere E. Brophy, (2004), motivated students to learn, published by Routledge, pp.418. John Kotter (1995), Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail, Harvard Business Review, pp. 3. Maida Petersitzke (2009), Supervisor Psychological Contracts Management, Published by Gabler Verlag, pp. 377. Marjaana Gunkel (2006), Country-compatible incentive design: a comparison of employees performance reward preferences in Germany and the USA, Published by Springer, pp. 189. Mary J. Davis (2000), TCRP synthesis, Published by Transportation Research Board, pp. 91. Neil Conway and Rob B. Briner (2005), Understanding Psychological Contracts at Work: a critical evaluation of theory and research, Published by Oxford University Press, pp. 226. Ontario (2010), Economic Circumstances, Economic considerations, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 5th April, 2010]. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2004), OECD Economic Surveys: Japan 2003, Published by OECD, pp. 224. Perception (2010), Elements of Perception, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 4th April, 2010]. Richard L. Daft (2007), The Leadership experience, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 493. Rousseau, D.M. (1989), Psychological and implied contracts in organizations, Employee Rights and Responsibilities Journal, 2, 121-139. Rousseau, D.M. and Tijoriwala, S.A. (1998), Assessing psychological contracts: Issues, alternatives, and types of measures, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19, 679-695. SAS (2008), Sustainability across Borders, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 30th March, 2010]. Steve M. Jex (2002), Organizational Psychology: a scientist-practitioner approach, Published by John Wiley and Sons, pp. 540. Watson Wyatt (2002), Weathering the Storm: A study of employee attitudes and opinions, [Internet] Available at URL: , [Accessed on 29th March, 2010. William M. Pride, Robert J. Hughes and Jack R. Kapoor (2009), Business, Published by Cengage Learning, pp. 627.

Race and Diversity Issues at The Grammys

Race and Diversity Issues at The Grammys Diversity in The Grammys: The Absence of African-American Winners Abstract The Grammys are an award show that was created by The Recording Academy, which is a U.S. organization of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other recording professionals. The awards provide a Grammy, or originally called Gramophone Award that recognizes outstanding achievement in mainly English-language music industry. The very first Grammys held its first ceremony on May 4, 1959. The annual presentation features live performances by some of the most noticeable artists, and the presenting of the awards that have even more of a popular interest. The Grammys shares recognition of the music industry alongside other performance award shows such as the Academy Awards, the Tony Awards, and the Emmy Awards. The representation of minorities in The Grammys, mainly African-Americans has stayed at a certain level of portrayal since the Award show’s debut in 1959. The Grammys have attempted to add some diversity to them by adding more minorities to their nominations lists and giving awards to artist that deserve them. The purpose of this study is to discuss whether or not the representation of minorities is being undermined by The Grammys trying to feed into the masses and upkeep their reputation. The time span of this focus is from 2014 to 2017, but I will also include background research to further support my findings. Previous winners of Grammy awards will be quoted in order to show the disconnection from what people think a Grammy is and what actual artists see them as. In 1958, rock ‘n’ roll made a big explosion onto the scene of music, alarming a group of executives along the way. The executives were conflicted as to whether to recognize â€Å"good† music or to recognize rock ‘n’ roll for its eruption into the music industry. The higher ups took it upon themselves to set a standard in the music industry. Since the very beginning, The Grammys have been at a difference with not only rock but almost every other genre of music. From R&B to street-bred music, and rap. The first ever award for rock music was not given out until 1961. Some of the best recordings have often failed to win a Grammy in the first forty years of Grammy history. Over the years, The Grammys have been criticized by many artists and music journalists because the musicians feel that the Grammys generally award or nominate more commercialized albums rather than those that are critically successful. In 1996, when American rock band Pearl Jam won a Grammy for â€Å"Best Hard Rock Performance†, the band’s lead singer Eddie Vedder went on stage to say â€Å"I don’t know what this means. I don’t think it means anything.† (Vedder, 2008). This goes to show how little some artist think of being awarded a Grammy for their accomplishments. Glen Hansard, leader of the Irish rock group The Frames, commented in 2008 that he believes the Grammys represent nothing inside of the real world of music (Hansard, 2008). Instead, it is completely industry based. Another quotable statement that can be applied to this situation comes from lead singer of metal band â€Å"Tool†, James Keenan. He says â€Å"I think the Grammys are nothing more than some gigantic promotional machine for the music industry. They cater to a low intellect and they feed the masses. They don’t honor the arts or the artist for what he created. It’s the music business celebrating itself. That’s basically what it’s all about (Maynard, 2012). Artists such as Frank Ocean, Drake and Kanye West spoke out about skipping this year’s Grammy Awards to protest their lack of diversity amongst it’s nominees. Drake was reported saying The Grammys do not fairly represent black or younger artists. From less of a statistical side, Kanye West has received 21 Grammys but has never won one while up against a white singer. American singer and songwriter Frank Ocean did not even bother to submit his albums from the following year because to him â€Å"It [The Grammys] just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down (Ocean, 2017). Another case of a diversity issue with The Grammys concerns the likes of Macklemore. In 2014, Macklemore swept a Grammy from Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar. Rolling Stone believes the music industry went as far to recruit Kidz Bop to boost Macklemore exposure to as a plan to dethrone Hip-Hop artist of the year, Kendrick Lamar. Both â€Å"The Heist† and â€Å"Good Kid, M.A.A.D City† were nominated for Best Album of the Year in 2014. Both albums received positive reviews from critics, but Kendrick Lamar received a 91 on Metacritic whereas Macklemore only received a 74. Once again, both albums debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, with Macklemore selling seventy-eight thousand copies and Kendrick Lamar selling two hundred and forty-two thousand copies. By the RIAA’s standards â€Å"The Heist† was recognized as reaching Gold status, with over five hundred thousand copies sold on April 3, 2013. On August 21, 2013, â€Å"Good Kid, M.A.A.D City† was certified Platinum by shipping and selling one million copies in the United States. On December 9th, 2014, American rapper J. Cole released his third studio album â€Å"2014 Forest Hills Drive†. On this album, he has a song called â€Å"Fire Squad† where he talks about the popularity or mainstream music and white privilege. On the record, J. Cole says â€Å"History repeats itself and that’s just how it goesSame way that these rappers always bite each others flowsSame thing that my n**** Elvis dd=id with Rock ‘n’ RollJustin Timberlake, Eminem and thenMacklemoreWhile silly n**** argue over who gon’ snatch the crownLook around, my n****, white people have snatched the soundThis year I’ll prolly go to the awards dappered downWatch Iggy win a Grammy as I try to crack a smile† This song is his attempt to restore the balance in Hip-Hop as he talks about white privilege and white appropriation of the culture. More specifically the Macklemore-Kendrick Lamar Grammy snub and Iggy Azalea’s new found popularity. The longstanding exclusion of black talent from award shows such as the Oscars and the Grammys forces the age-old question: Why? Both of these organizations are handled on a voting system made up of a certain team of members. Knowing this information makes the average person interested in music or even the Grammys want to know who the real culprit is pulling all the strings. With ongoing backlash, the Grammys have attempted to straighten up their acts with â€Å"dramatic steps† to diversify its nominations and present a more accurate reflection of the industry itself. Earlier this year, at the 59th Grammy Awards there was an outcry concerning who should have won Album of the year. This outcry sparked the big debacle as to if The Grammys have an issue in diversity with the winners of their awards. The nominees list consisted of Adele, Beyoncà ©, Justin Bieber, Drake, and Sturgill Simpson. The winner of the award turned out to be Adele for her album â€Å"25†. This was a shock to everyone, including Adele herself. This rubbed some of the fans the wrong way considering this was the eighth year since a non-white artist took home the event’s biggest award. The very next day the new hashtag on Twitter was titled â€Å"#grammyssowhite†. At soon as this hashtag got out, storied were popping up questioning the diversity of the voters for the awards. In 2017, Adele winning over Beyoncà © was not the only Grammy snub. It was just the biggest one of the night. Barbadian singer Rihanna was nominated for eight awards off of the strength of her eighth album â€Å"ANTI†. â€Å"ANTI† at the time was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA, it peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent 33 weeks in the top 10.   Sadly, she walked away not winning a single one out of eight nominations. Rihanna’s biggest upset was not winning the award for Best Pop Duo/group with their smash hit â€Å"Work†, which sold more than 1.7 million copies in the United States alone. She lost out to 21 Pilots for their song â€Å"Stressed Out†. Fuse wrote an article saying that they believe The Committee for The Grammys are just continuing to use black women in pop to raise their own ratings without giving them the recognitions or respect they deserve within the mainly white categories. Works Cited (n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2017, from https://web.archive.org/web/20070123082736/http://www.nyrock.com/interviews/2002/tool_int.asp Travers, P. (2008, February 08). Grammy & The Movies. Retrieved September 08, 2017, from https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/videos/grammy-the-movies-20080208 Times, L. A. (2008, February 06). Glen Hansard, Eddie Vedder crash Grammy Awards. Retrieved September 08, 2017, from https://web.archive.org/web.20130221000127/http://theenvelope.latimes.com/columnists/contenderqa/env-en-songs6feb06%2C0%2C4879961.story History of Grammy Awards. (n.d.). Retrieved September 08, 2017, from http://www.awardsandshows.com/features/history-of-grammy-awards-247.html Llopis, G. (2017, February 21). 3 Uncomfortable Truths From The Grammys About Diversity And Inclusion. Retrieved September 08, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2017/02/21/3-uncomfortable-truths-from-the-grammys-about-diversity-and-inclusion/#1cba45f939c7 Geslani, M., Kaye, B., Colburn, R., Fu, E., Farley, D., Young, A., . . . Weiss, D. (2017, January 30). Kanye West, Frank Ocean, Drake to protest Grammy Awards over lack of diversity. Retrieved September 09, 2017, from https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/01/kanye-west-frank-ocean-drake-to-protest-grammy-awards-over-lack-of-diversity/ Cepeda, R. (2015, February 05). Do the Grammys Have a Race Problem? Retrieved September 10, 2017, from https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/do-the-grammys-have-a-race-problem-20150205 GRAMMYs 2017: Rihanna & ‘ANTI’ Suffered the Biggest Snubs of the Night. (2017, February 13.). Retrieved September 10, 2017, from http://www.fuse.tv/2017/02/rihanna -anti-grammys-2017-snubs

T-Totals Investigation :: Papers

T-Totals Investigation Introduction If you look at the 9x9 grid with the T-shape, you can see that the total of the numbers added together is 37 because it is1+2+3+11+21 which equals 37. This is what we call the T-total (37) And T-number is the number at the bottom of the T-shape which in this case is 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 My tasks The tasks I have been set are: 1) Investigate the relationship between the T-total and the T-number. 2) Use grid of different sizes. Translate the T-shape to different position. Investigate relationships between the T-total, the T-numbers and the grid size. 3) Use grids of different sizes again. Try other transformation and combinations of transformations. Investigate relationship between the T-total, the T-numbers, the grid size and the transformations. Standard T-shapes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Understanding the Benefits of Ethnic Divide Essay -- Racial Ethnic Rac

Understanding the Benefits of Ethnic Divide Does society truly stand to gain from what some might call a breaking of racial and ethnic barriers? When we as a society propose the overly-voiced concepts of 'embracing racial equality' and the 'dissolving of stereotypical values' in an effort to support societal efficiency, do we consider that perhaps these revolutionary ideals will hurt more than help us in the long run? The average individual, in an effort to function properly in the society to which he or she belongs, will follow that which society generally accepts as politically correct, as normal. The downside to this is the possibility of a society's ignorance to the greater picture or, rather, the future effects on economy and the civilization towards which we hold such value. It is obvious, especially in light of certain economic and undying cultural facts, that this adamant dream of bringing together the varying mismatched groups of the world population is not only futile -- when considering that it is in our nature as human beings to define and rationalize our surroundings by recognizing the natural differences in what we see -- but is also illogical with respect to the imposing threat this societal revolution imposes on the capitalist system to which we all owe our lives. The settling of racial and ethnic indifferences is commonly seen as a problem handled effectively by government inventions. Affirmative action, established in 1965 by US president Lyndon Johnson, is a system designed to overcome societal discrimination of the past by forcing privileges into the hands of minorities (Brunner, par. 1). These privileges translate into unquestioned college enrollment, job opportunities, and additional resources. Hera... ...5 Jan. 2001 . Anonymous. Free Palestine. 1999. 30 Sep. 2002 . Bollyn, Christopher. ?The Real Cost of US Support for Israel.? Axis of Logic. 20 Sep. 2003. . Stauffer, Thomas R. ?The Cost of Conflict in the Middle East, 1956-2002: What the U.S. Has Spent.? Middle East Policy Council. Spring 2003 . Anonymous. ?The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Basic Facts: Arab Countries versus Israel.? Israel Science and Technology. 15 Nov. 2003 . Province, Jonathan. ?World?s Richest Countries.? cylist.com. 2003. .

Emily Dickinson Poetry

American poet of exclusion, whose writing consists of passionate and emotional eccentric meanings with much complexity. Her poems interpret her relationship with society, where she struggles to maintain her independence and needs to isolate from society to maintain this. Dickinson use of structure, syntax and rhyme are complex and do not conform to the norms of poetic structure, which Is a parallel to Email's peculiar lifestyle. Dickinson poem ‘A prison gets to be a friend' explores her complicated understanding of limitation and freedom, reflecting her self-imposed isolation, wrought a male persona.A prison symbolizes confinement however, this limitation provides freedom for Dickinson persona which Is depicted In the opening line of the poem. The narrator explains her contentment with isolation when she says that a prison â€Å"gets to be a friend†. This use of personification establishes the idea that the persona feels comfortable in their confinement, as if it were a friend. This signifies how Emily enjoys seclusion and has chosen a prison to be her refuge. In the following stanza, Emily shows appreciation of her confinement through, â€Å"the appointed Beam† which symbolizes something that provides the persona with support and structure.She uses symbolism of food in the second stanza when she writes â€Å"It deals us- stated as our food† to represent how the persona not only hungers, but depends on the self- imposed isolation. Dickinson uses juxtaposition to explain the seclusion of a prison by saying â€Å"so miserable a sound-at first- nor ever now-so sweet', describing a prison as both miserable and sweet. This implies that although isolation may seem miserable at first, the privacy and exclusion will eventually grow on you and you begin to appreciate It.The reoccurring metaphor of a prison being the persona's room is explored when she says ‘A geometric Joy', which suggests that the square shape of a room and its limited circuit brings contentment and comfort to the persona. In the fourth and fifth stanza, the Idea that the prison and the key are an Illusion Is acknowledged when Emily uses the word ‘Phantasm' proving to the audience that in actuality Dickinson has created this way of life and is satisfied with the privacy it provides. In the final stanza, Dickinson imply that freedom can only be redeemed after life when she writes ‘Too wide for any Night but Heaven'.This suggests that you can't experience freedom until after life. And until then the persona's self created prison is the only sense of freedom they can gain. With the use of language and structure used through Emily poetry her understanding of life Is clearly depicted as unique, as Dickinson recognizes the way in which she finds contentment Is of a depressing nature In comparison to the way others gain happiness. From this poem the audience may come to the conclusion that the persona's view on confinement is an expression o f Dickinson understanding of freedom and limitation throughout life.The poem ‘l had been hungry should be read metaphorically. As standing for the speakers desire for what she lacks and what others possess. Emily reflects on her 1 OFF one, Emily writes † I had been hungry all the years† displaying through the use of a sustained metaphor of ‘hunger' that Emily had been lacking something all her life. This statement is written in past tense implying to the reader that Dickinson has now found or come to a conclusion about her desire for what she believed she was lacking.Dickinson is using the word ‘curious' to describe the wine, which represents re connection with people and their way of life which to her is difficult to understand where as to most it would be normal. Emily lack of indulgence in human connection is depicted in the second stanza when she couples the word ‘hungry with the word ‘home' displaying that to Dickinson it was normal not to have that emotional connection. In stanza two, Emily uses the window to symbolism the barrier between the persona and the world they want to inhabit, insinuating that Emily does not belong.In the following stanza, Dickinson uses Juxtaposition of a crumb to bread to highlight how different her world and the real world are. This is also a metaphor to represent her life and how she doesn't believe she has experienced the fullness of life's potential experiences yet. Stanza four begins with ‘plenty hurt me' as a metaphor for the negative impact that was created by these new experiences her persona had faced. Emily writing ‘myself felt ill and odd' outlines that once passion and love were obtained she couldn't cope with having it and felt uncomfortable.What she believed she desired she later discovered it was not what she wanted and was too much for her to handle. This made Emily feel alienated and spliced which is further implied when she says in the fourth stanza Ã¢â‚¬Ë œ as a berry of a mountain bush transplanted to the road'. This simile expresses to the reader that although Emily chose this lifestyle for herself she understood it was not following the norms of society and made her a person of difference resulting in the experience of alienation and displacement.Throughout this poem Emily sustained metaphor of hunger allowed the audience to realize, by stanza 5, that she is defined by hunger when she says ‘ so I found that hunger was a way, which she clearly chose. The last nine ‘entering takes away is a paradox which explains how experiencing the different ways of life has changed her and made her more confident in her purposely excluded way of living. Dickinson understand of disappointment in life is explored through the belief that we may often covet something which, once we receive it, disappoints us.This is what happened to Emily once she obtained passion and romance she realized it doesn't create fulfillment, however her unusual lifestyle is what brings the most satisfaction to her. Emily Dickinson conveys her understanding of immortality that is achieved through he written word in her poem â€Å"A word dropped careless on a page†. Dickinson use of syntax on the word ‘careless' in the first sentence puts emphasis the affect of the incorrect grammar of one word. This can reflect to a humans life and the choices they make, although being a small mistake it could have a large impact.Emily follows this with imagery of words being ‘dropped' on a page to hold a metaphor for a human life and display how fragile a life can be, and how the way in which that life is lived could encourage good or bad situations. In the first stanza the use of the word perpetual is laced ironically as it is followed by an abrupt stop. This enjambment highlights the choices can have an impact that will last forever. The second stanza is started with visual imagery of disease â€Å"infection†.This illness is a sustained metaphor within the poem, as she defines the infection as ‘malaria', which will not disappear Just like the written word will not disappear. The existence of the written word is exaggerated with the characteristics of being immortal, in the second stanza and the use of a hyperbola enforces a long existence to words when Emily writes † A distance of centuries†. Therefore, Emily understanding of immortality is greatly influenced by the written word and how she considers that perhaps her writing may have an impact after she is gone.These poems with themes of immortality, disappointment and freedom complement each other to help portray how Dickinson represents complex ideas of understanding life through her poetry. Although most may see a lack of human connection as a sad, unsatisfying lifestyle, we as her audience must accept that this is Emily Dickinson chosen path for her unique way of gaining contentment, dealing with society and maintaining her independe nce.

Quantitative Research and Black Males Essay

On the run: Wanted men in a Philadelphia Ghetto. American Sociological Association, 74(3), 339-357. After reading the article, it was clear that it was written to give insight on what really happens in black neighborhoods and how daily lives are affected. Goffman’s (2009) purpose is to show that, â€Å"Although recent increases in imprisonment are concentrated in poor Black communities, we know little about how daily life within these neighborhoods is affected† (p. 39). Additionally, there are no research questions directly stated, but are implied throughout the article as to how exactly prejudice and racism towards the black communities can affect a black person’s life and to those around him. The major independent variable in the analysis is that over the years, young black males with little or no education have been imprisoned at least once in their life. The number of people being incarcerated keeps growing. The dependent variable ,or effect, of this cause is how being incarcerated even just once, can affect their daily lives in getting employment and always being on the run because of fear of being incarcerated again. The article did show theoretical frameworks as part of the literature review which focused on young uneducated black males. This article focused on the failure of young black men’s color, on how they could get arrested just by being seen as a black male. Other research and/or studies would focus on the â€Å"ghetto,† not just as a black male ghetto, but possibly people from other origins who live in ghettos such as Latino gang members. Goffman (2009) focuses only on black male gender theory. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the article. For quantitative methods, a percentage of black males being imprisoned were shown. As evidence, Pettit and Western (2004) stated, â€Å"30 percent of those with only high school diplomas have been to prison, and 60 percent of those who did not finish high school have prison records by their mid-30s,† (p. 39). Wildeman (2009) also stated, â€Å"One in four Black children born in 1990 had a father imprisoned,† (p. 339). For the qualitative method, Goffman (2009) used descriptive events and places that she was actually involved and observed in. The research design made the article more understanding and interesting by giving us a clear picture of how pe rcent numbers grew for black males being incarcerated and how the outcome of it affected their daily lives. In order to obtain information for the article, Goffman (2009) would actually spend time hanging out with young male men who had a record of being incarcerated and living in a bad neighborhood where cop surveillance had increased. Goffman (2009) would be, â€Å"spending most of my waking hours hanging out on Chuck’s back porch steps, or along the alley way between his block and Mike’s block,† and â€Å"for the next four years I spent two and six days a week on 6th street and roughly one day a week visiting members of the group in jail and prison,† (p. 42). The data collection Goffman (2009) obtained consisted of observations and actually taking field notes with the young men’s consent, although she would not directly ask questions. Goffman (2009) used quotes of what people would say by, â€Å"typing it down directly onto a laptop or by using a cell phone text message,† (p. 342). She also interviewed lawyers, police officers, probation officer s and a judge to get more research information for the article. Goffman (2009) analyzed the data she obtained by observing actual events that went on in Black communities and placing them in the article very descriptively. They were systematically described by the events being in order and giving readers a clear view of imagining what exactly was happening. As a result of all the evidence put together, Goffman (2009) found out that because black males had been incarcerated they were the main target of being incarcerated again because of their color, due to this fact they live in fear of going back to jail and are always on the run. They cannot keep a decent life and those around them such as family, friends, and girlfriends use the fact that they can be incarcerated again to their advantage to get money, keep them â€Å"in check†, and to get payback if they’ve been done wrong by them. Goffman (2009) also stated that, â€Å"Young men also turn their wanted status into a resource by using it to account for shortcomings or failures that may have occurred anyway,† (p. 354). These findings are accurately and adequately described so that readers can evaluate the claims and have a good picture of how their lives are affected. The research findings matter to me in a sense that I now have a much broader understanding on what black males go through in the type of neighborhoods that they live in. I was able to see how prejudice and racism also play a big role in young black male men being the target of being incarcerated. The issue in American society that may have shaped this article and research is racism because due to a male’s color they are automatically suspected of doing something wrong and whether or not they’ve done something wrong at the time they are taken to jail. Very much creditability should be given to the research and findings of this article because it helps us see the side of the story we did not know about. The research is solid and very useful because it helps us understand how and why young male black men live in fear and can’t lead a normal life without actually being caught by authorities. Goffman’s (2009) article helps provide a new outlook on how lives are in fact affected in Black neighborhoods.