At first, I didn’t really do much preparation whenever I would start an assignment, I would just dive right into it but I found out that it’s easier for me to prepare for a written assignment by creating some sort of an outline to help me organize. It also helps me keep track of my assignment and what to write. Writing an introduction is the hardest part for me and it takes me a while to know exactly what to write and how to go about it. Therefore, the first thing I try to do, is to write a body paragraph then move on to the introduction. Before I begin, I need to know what I’m writing about, context wise, and look for credible sources/evidence that supports the topic. As I go through the process, I learn about the credibility of a source, how crucial it is to analyze evidence as well as citing. If I’m being really honest, I don’t notice much of a change in my writing over the course of this semester. I feel like I still have much to learn in terms of analyzing and being more concise in my writing. But I’m proud of what I have done in this class. All the writings I did made me realize my weakness and how to address/fix them. Checking for grammar and punctuation is something that I often find myself doing since I didn’t used to before. Maybe if I go through all of my written assignments, I will be able to notice a significant improvement.

“Who Are The Flat Earthers” by Richi Barua

I’d give this essay a 75% because it was well structured and contained a brief analysis of the Flat Earthers community. The author’s opinions, reactions, and assumptions were, for the most part, well incorporated. Very little grammatical error. The essay contains a few quotes from the people within the community. The topic was interesting which is why I think there could have been more information. The reason why I did not give it a higher grade is because there was not enough details and background information regarding the community such as demographics and behavior. The conclusion could have been a little bit stronger but overall it was adequate in my opinion.

The author notes that the members of the incel community tend to blame women for not being able to date. According to Beauchamp, this led to violence and mistreatment of women. What was meant to be a community for those who deemed themselves awkward when it comes to dating turned into a misogynistic community. Another pattern is of how they despise women and believing that they are shallow and only go for cute or attractive guys after dating does not work out for them. They also tend to be cruel to the women in their life and are prone to commit harassment and sexual assault. 

These patterns inform the insider experience in this community by highlighting shared opinions and activities among the incel community. They tell us that they have a low-self esteem, they think that since their relationship did not work is because the woman they were with did not find them attractive thus prompting them to despise women. The incel community managed to find people whom they can relate to and vice versa and somewhat comfort each other. But over the years, the community became a place for hatred that for the most part was directed at women from men who experienced rejection.

The author’s analysis of this community relates to a wider context that involves violence. The author managed to find out that those who were and still are part of the incel community tend to become more violent and prone to commit mass rape, sexual assault, and even kill others as seen in the Toronto incident.

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.

Elise Wu is trying to portray the life of those who have a mental illness called Factitious disorder which is when one fakes an illness or exaggerates symptoms they may have. Although she has the disorder, I notice that when she describes the community of FDers more often than not she does not include herself. Is as if she is a different entity than them. I also notice that Wu writes about the families and friends affected by those closest to them who fake their illness. She notices that the majority of the people in the website she is on, are people seeking advice on how to deal with someone with FD. She provides details on what the people are commenting and their response to one another. When Wu joins a group chat of FDers, she describes them as conversational by sharing their stories and developing friendships with one another. Through this group chat she meets different types of people such as those who confess to their therapist about their disorder and those who want to confess but do not know how to. The more she reads, she confesses that she does not feel any type of empathy for these people and worries that she doesn’t belong. She uses multiple websites as the sources for her research as well as her personal experience regarding her topic. She ends up coming out to a former doctor about her Factitious disorder. The footnotes serve as context to what she is citing in her writing.

I decided to observe and pay attention to what people do and their reactions when in the train, especially in the subway. For the most part, I would usually be on my phone and not look up until I get to my stop but this time was different. During my 45 minutes commute from college to my house, I noticed certain patterns among those in those in the same train car as me. I stood by the doors because it was slightly packed. I look up and see that most people were on their phones. Some occasionally looked up but quickly went back to the screen in their hands after realizing that their stop is yet to come. There was something about seeing a series of people in the same crouching-like position staring at the screen of their phones at the same time.

Now, there were the ones who, with their belongings on their lap somehow managed to sleep soundly. Personally, no matter how tired I am, I couldn’t possibly be able to sleep in the train. There were a couple of them with their head leaned against the seat, face facing up others facing down, hugging their bags with their eyes closed. I noticed that it was mostly middle aged men who did this while those submerged in their phones were younger.

Moving on to the homeless individuals who barge in every car to ask for money and tell their story. More often than not, they would be wearing slightly torn dirty clothes. For the most part, people would just ignore them or stare and some would occasionally give them coins. When these things happen, I notice that almost everyone makes eye contact and shake their head as if they all shared some inside joke and then there is this momentarily mutual understanding passing by. I found it fascinating how people can find things they have in common but still be disconnected from one another in a matter of seconds.

In the article, “Hustlers: The Real Story Behind the Movie”, there are multiple  shared beliefs as well as rules shared amongst the strippers of the club. For example, they drew the line at having sex with customers, seduced those who were rich and make them spend as much money as possible, and even resorted to drugging them in order to get more money. Some of the strippers would even alter their appearances in order to appeal more to the men at the clubs. Their main goal was to obtain as much money as they could. These women, as stated in the text, stopped believing in men. The background information chosen was helpful because it provided not just the interviewer but the readers a context behind why Rosie resorted to this job. The background information also helped understand Rosie’s character and give us an insight into who she is. The author of this article gives very detailed descriptions of the informants, especially regarding their physical appearance. They used vivid imagery to describe the informant’s physical appearance such as using Jessica Rabbit’s body shape as an example. The descriptions help set the scene especially when you start to think about the setting in which the interview and the actual hustling of the strippers takes place. These descriptions helped me understand what exactly was the article about. The detailed report and the structure of the article as well as the interviews is very organized and story-telling like which added to the story’s credibility.

James Baldwin’s article includes many cultural information such as the mistreatment of black people by figures of authorities which seems to be a common occurrence, the perception that black people were inferior to whites, the increase of violence happening every Sunday, amongst many other repeating rituals and behavior. A fieldworker would ask why are black people viewed as inferior, why are they being constantly beaten by authorities figures? A fieldworker would study not just the individuals but society as a whole. Why have this heinous custom been adopted by white people and why has it been stigmatized. A fieldworker would reach out to those committing hate crimes against black people and ask why do they feel the need to beat black people senselessly without a reason. A fieldworker would observe the society of Harlem and maybe even get involved assuming that they themselves aren’t part of the problem. Other sources of information that a fieldworker might use to penetrate the insider perspective would be to talk to those who are being abused by a system that was supposed to serve everyone equally. Interviewing those affected might garner an empathetic reaction from the fieldworker and an understanding of the effect of racism in society. A fieldworker would also look for ways to trace back to the root of the deep-seated racial inequality that plagues society. An important fact is that fieldworkers would be able to challenge the authorities in demanding for evidence for the crime the Harlem six were wrongly accused of.