By definition, privilege is an advantage or special right that someone has. Different people have different privileges based on their situation such as race, age, gender, social class, or even where you live. All of these factors plays a part in someones life. Most come from our parents but there are that we can make for ourselves. I have a few privileges myself. I have two houses that I can stay at (my mother’s house and at my father’s house), financial aid for college, an education, supportive family and friends, freedom of speech, the right to vote, growing up in a Hispanic household giving me the privilege of being bilingual, and parents who provide me with the things I need even though they are both lower-middle class-middle class and are not together so that I can focus on getting an education. Although these all seem small or what some people might not consider as privileges, they have helped me grow and continue to succeed in life. 

The reason I chose my online community is that I am apart of that community myself and never really thought about how some of the things like inside jokes or behaviors might be weird or unusual to others. The fact that I even have the privilege of having a phone and social media to access it plays a role in the reason why I chose it. Many people that are apart of this online community buy a lot of albums, merch, and concert tickets. Most don’t have a lot of money to afford good concert tickets or tickets in general since they are very very expensive (I would know, I’ve always ended up in the nosebleed section) or fan meetings. Since I am apart of this community most of the behaviors that I will be exploring aren’t new to me but since I am an insider I have to try and make outsiders understand some of the language and behaviors. Due to the fact that the fanbase is made up of different races and people from all over the world I will also be analyzing the language barrier and the difference between international fans and Korean fans.

For my fieldwork I chose a group of Satanists in a book club Facebook chat, I don’t know why I chose that group, but I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of Satanism because they don’t worship Satan rather they fight for secularism. Satanists get a bad name in the media, being seen as witches who practice magic, and yes this was the case before 2013, but they are rebranding themselves as something different. Alas, due to this initial introduction they are still seen as bad and evil because of their old practices in the dark arts, and even things such as Tarot Cards being seen as an introduction into Satanism to my Hispanic family. This new age of Satanism though is reintroducing new ideas, and even the books which are spoken about in the Facebook chat are ridiculed if they mention magic in any way since that isn’t what the group supports anymore. I have noticed many privileges in joining this chat, when I first saw the books they were speaking about I was immediately drawn to go to Barnes and Noble to buy a book, but when I went none of those books were there. Instead, shelves lined with the bible covered the religion section of the store, this is where I noticed my first privilege. While I am an atheist myself, I come from a catholic family so if I wanted to know what my family believes in and what they stand for I can simply go to the religion section, pick up one of the myriads of bibles (containing the same words with different shells; hardcover or paperback or even leather). Another thing I can do is simply say I’m an atheist, and people won’t look at me funny but when I mentioned Satanism to my friends they all wished me luck, and were surprised when I said that the group was actually full of nice people. I don’t really have any fixed positions, I’m a pretty neutral go with the flow kind of person, I like to look at both sides before making a decision so I doubt that my views will conflict with their; especially since I share some viewpoints with the group (i.e reproductive rights, atheism/non-theism). For life history and personal experience, I will be talking about how I went to church, and I live by a church, but there aren’t really many churches for Satanists to come gather as a group to discuss their opinions. This all isn’t to say that this group is struggling, they have tax-exemption from the government like all other Christian Churches so they still continue to thrive in that area.

Social privilege is defined as the advantage or immunity given to a particular group of people or an individual. Privilege can be but is not limited to a person’s class, age, education, mobility, race, religion, and gender. To a certain extent, almost everyone has some sort of privilege– some more than others. The online community I chose to focus on was the Beyhive. It’s a large online fanbase for Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

As a fan of Beyonce’s music, I could have a bias toward the Beyhive.  Growing up I had the privilege of having access to music through digital platforms from a young age. I have been a big fan of Beyoncé’s music for a very long time– additionally, as an activist, I appreciate her using her platform to speak out about issues. My opinions can influence the way I do my field research and how I observe any behaviors within the community. As a woman of color, I think that my race and identifiers will allow me to connect with other women of color in the online community. My age, however, might be an identifier that may make it harder for me to access and understand other members of the community. Since I am doing field research on a specific artist and fan base, as a fan I might find it harder to view the community as an outsider. As an artist, she has a very diverse and global fan community which brings diverse thoughts and opinions to the community.

         I’m very privileged to have two parents in my home. To have a free education which a lot of people don’t have in my home country. Living in New York City is a privilege I’m thankful for, its diversity has taught me a lot. It’s a privilege to have been born in a country that was not torn up by war. When it comes to myself, I’m privileged to not have to struggle with my identity much. Things like my sexual orientation, culture and economic class have never been a problem in my life. To live in the U.S which allows me to practice my religion freely, speak, and not be limited by my gender is a huge blessing.
For my online community, I chose an Instagram page called “Shaderoom”. I chose this page because it interested me how it uplifts black people, their business and their struggles but also can destroy people with the things they post. Although this page was meant to be gossip/ celebrity news it shines a light on the black community it’s positives and negatives. It has built a strong community of very opinionated followers. The comment sections to this page is a window into the minds of their loyal followers.
Although I’ve lived in America for most of my life, I come from a west African Country where the values and culture are very different. And with this page, they usually cater to their content for African American culture and struggles, and I feel like my biases from my birth culture will carry over into the research of this page.
Even though African Americans came from Africa, the time we’ve been forced to spend apart has drastically changed our cultures and values. In a way, it feels very strange to study culture that’s very close to home racially but very different in everything else.

Asadullah Bin Amir 

Prof. Shamecca Harris 

English 

Blog Post #4 

03/25/20 

Every human is born into a specific situation, which tends to determine their output on certain life. For example, being born into a rich well settled family you are provided everything that you ask for since you come out the womb therefore the word struggle has no relevance in your life but for someone born into a middle class family, watching your parents struggle daily in order to make ends meet, you tend to have a higher value for smaller things in life. In my case, I can’t say I don’t value things or take things for granted but it would also be wrong of me to say that my parents haven’t provided me with everything I’ve laid my eyes on. In my specific field of research in the NBA community, I feel privilege plays a pivotal role. As the NBA does not discriminate against any minority, it allows everybody to access almost every event, emphasis on every. NBA has a thing called league pass, this allows people who pay for it to access every game that is ever played, but some people can not afford this, I personally have paid for league pass every year since I was 8, therefore I have a better perspective on the community than the ones that aren’t able to watch. I choose the community of basketball, because of my passion for the game. I believe that I have an exponential knowledge in the matter and that makes me an insider and an outsider for the sake of this research. I think the fact that I am an insider may affect my position on this debate. The subjective positions that I drag into this research is favoritism to certain players and an inside perspective on certain matters.

 Privileges are and can be entitlements that direct your position in society. Due to your race, age, and gender you might be favored for a job position, group, or community. I believe that most of our privileges come from our parents but of course you can change that theory by working and focusing on yourself. By focusing on yourself privileges such as scholarships, business deals, or job opportunities will arise. 

In my case most of my privileges come from my parents. Being born into a middle class family and not having to worry about paying for school is great! They also pay for the rent to my apartment and my food/clothing, so I never have anything to worry about except school.  So far these privileges make me look like a spoiled human being but that’s not true… or i hope it isn’t true. Still they are the major benefactors in my life. Don’t get me wrong I do work on myself as well, to create my own privileges. When I got my first job the reason I got it was because I am bilingual and brought racial diversity to the kitchen (I worked in a restaurant).  

In analyzing my own privileges and the ones my parents gave me I am unsure how it will affect my field research. The main reason I chose my online community was because of how much time I have on my hands which in result is due to my parents. My online community is based on a specific artist and her fan-base. With all the time I have I am able to listen to all of the artists music. Also due to my fixed position I relate and am a part of the online community. This is due to the community having a large number of  minorities. In researching the community I plan on carrying with me the personal experiences that make me a minority and what it does for others. I will have strong willed opinions for certain aspects but hopefully I can push those aside to observe the larger picture. 

I recently watched a movie on Netflix about the Flat Earth society, and became interested with their beliefs. I chose this community because I wanted to learn more about the communities rationale and why they believe they are right and the vast majority of the world is wrong.

Looking back I notice that they are nor many differing positions between people in the community and myself stemming outside of race and age. A fixed position that may affect what I notice is living in a large city. Living in NYC, you would expect to come across a poster or a random person shouting in the streets that the Earth is flat since NYC is very diverse. However, I personally never experienced that. As a result, I just assume that the earth is not flat. Another fixed position is being a college student. Many of my professor and peers dismiss the thought that the Earth is flat because it is considered common knowledge. Thus, I believe being a college student and living in a city are fixed positions toward my research.

Moreover, some personal experiences that I have entering my research is remembering the first time I viewed the Apollo 8 flight. During the flight, a picture was taken of Earth in space, and it looked pretty round to me. Another personal experience are the Moon landings that happened nearly sixty years ago. Many of the landings provided photos of Earth from the Moon, and the Earth also was round proving that it is a globe.

Thus, coming into my research, I am now knowledgeable of my privileges of living in a city and being a college student and experiences relating to the topic. Hopefully, I can set those key experiences aside and hopefully obtain information about the Flat Earth Society.

Syed Shataj Hosain

Writing For Social Science

Professor Shamecca A. Harris

Discussion Post # 4

25th March, 2020.

Privilege is a special right, benefit and immunity granted only to a person or to a group of people. Every single person in the world is born with a privilege that helps them to build a life. Practicing my own religion, education, health, race/ ethnicity is the privilege that I’m born with. However, owning good clothes, eating good food, using a phone or living in a house is a privilege that I got through my family because they can afford to give me those things. Food is a very important privilege that every human should get. My family feeds me food because they can afford it and that is my privilege to get it. I have the right to practice my religion freely whether I live in America or not. It is my birth privilege.

Age, nationality, gender, skin color, race or ethnicity, education opportunities, freedom of religion or of speech or freedom to travel, socioeconomic status these privileges can affect my fieldwork research because even if we have the privilege for those but we cannot always apply these in our life. Speaking my own language freely is also a basic human right. So, I get the privilege to practice my own language without any judgement. However, sometimes in public places I cannot speak my own language because they think I might be saying something about them or criticizing. Gender equality is also a big issue all over the world because people think male can do things that females cannot. So, that might affect my research because people might not take me seriously just because I’m a female. I chose facebook for my online community. The reason I chose facebook is because it is an online community all over the world where different kinds of people put different opinions and judgements. I see most of the people over social media like facebook do not respect each other’s opinions. It is easier to say things in social media then in person. So people get bullied a lot on social media. So recently I posted a status on facebook saying “Stay home, save lives”. My status is regarding the ongoing virus. So some of my friends agreed with me and others were blaming chinese people for the virus instead of being sympathetic towards the sick people. This made me think, not everyone has the same mentality as mine.

I have the privilege of having a roof over my head, an education, and receive financial aid for my college tuition, a job that allows me to buy whatever I want, etc. These privileges might affect my field research by being biased regarding my opinion of the online community I will observe. But also the lack of other privileges will also possibly affect my field research due to the demographic of my subjects which is way different than mine. The fact that I believe that there should be gun control will affect what I see/notice because the online community I will be studying believes in the complete which will influence my opinions and reactions to their interactions. When I was looking into gun girl’s fan base, they were mostly white and middle aged people who seem to be middle class in the southern region of the US. I, on the other hand, couldn’t be more different than them. For starters, I’m black or Afro-Latin to be specific. Their skin tone alone provides them with more privileges than I could ever get as well as their social-economic status.  My research will include life history facts and events related to the easy access of guns in America and it might also include some personal experiences. I’m planning to look into how their privileges shape their opinion on why they believe that everyone should have access to guns especially due to the last couple of years’ spike in shootings all in the US.

I choose this particular online community because I am a part of it. I have on occasion thought that certain behaviors could be considered weird to outsiders, so I thought becoming an outsider for a moment would be interesting. I have also criticized aspects of the community so to be able to formally analyze it will be fun, I think. My gender would make me notice any misogyny that those in the community may display. I would also not be able to relate or understand what the other genders may be experiencing. I believe my age will allow me to see how other ages are treated versus those around my age. Although people don’t often discuss class outright, my class would make me empathize with those at or below my level and not with those above me. My educational level will affect how I interpret information that is spread in the community. I don’t believe my nationality would have any effect on my field research because it is never really touched upon by the community. My race would not allow me to know what other races in the community may be facing. The fact that I have been a part of the community for a few years will be carried into my research. I will have personal biases on certain topics because I have been in the community. However, I don’t see my life experience having such a large affect. Other than shaping me into the person I am today, I don’t believe my life history being very present in my observations.