Wednesday, December 19. 2018

Today's schedule is BADC

B Block Criminology - Yesterday we looked at Social Structure Theories and tried to see if the explanation of crime by the Crips fit within any of those theories (social disorganization, strain, and or cultural deviance). Remember the narrator in the documentary indicated that the Crips came out of an area that had poor schools, housing and an unemployment rate three times the national rate. Also Raymond 'Dhanifu' Cook said that they were "like bandits coming from the poor sections (of LA) to the more affluent sections (of LA) to requisition their material to bring it back to the neighbourhood" and 'Crippin' meant "are you ready to rob, plunder, pillage"? This kind of fits within the Social Structure theories. There are three major arguments among Social Process Theories that focus on how people learn to commit crime (Social Learning), how society fails to control deviancy and criminality (Social Control), and the impact of criminal labels on individuals subsequent behavior (Social Reaction). Today we'll finish the National Geographic "Inside the Bloods and Crips" show and to end the class I'll have you work on yesterday's question along with today's question:

1. Have you ever perceived anomie if so what and why? What causes anomie? Is there more than one cause of strain?
2. Have you ever been given a negative label, and, if so, did it cause you social harm? How did you lose the label, or did it become a permanent marker that still troubles you today?

Next, speaking of anomie and strain, we'll look at the "Bling Ring". From Nancy Jo Sales article The Suspects Wore Louboutins

The most audacious burglary gang in recent Hollywood history–accused of stealing more than $3 million in clothing and jewelry from Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and other stars–appears to be a bunch of club-hopping Valley kids, motivated by vanity and celebrity-worship

and from the article  "Before You See the Bling Ring, Watch the Crazy Reality Show That Helped Inspire It" by Lindsey Weber  and Kyle Buchanan

Pretty Wild, which aired in 2010 (and was produced, oddly enough, by Chelsea Handler), was intended to follow 19-year-old Alexis Neiers as she lived a glamorous party-girl life on the fringe of the Hollywood club circuit. But then real life intervened: In the very first episode, Neiers is arrested for crimes connected to the Bling Ring, the gang of larcenous teens who stole from celebrities like Paris Hilton and Orlando Bloom...Suddenly, the manufactured reality of these Kardashian-emulating lifestyle shows begins to rub up against the very definite reality of a teenager's descent into criminality

and James Franco wrote on Vice

These kids were raised in a culture in which attention equals power, regardless of the value of that attention and the actions that captured it. We have long showered the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan with such power. The Bling Ringers are only flowing in line with what they’ve been taught, or learned through osmosis depending on your point of view. It’s not what magazines and websites say about the celebrities that the Bling Ringers listen to; it’s the fact that they’re saying stuff about them at all.

Of course Dateline had an episode titled "Secrets of the Bling Ring"

The on line reaction was less than favourable

ABC got in on the act and did a bit on "Inside Hollywood's Bling Ring"

And of course TMZ and E! News were all over the story

By the way...2013 saw the release of Sofia Coppola's movie version of this story called "The Bling Ring"

Then in 2014 Vice profiled Alexis Neiers about he "struggles with addiction, her criminal involvement in the real-life Bling Ring (the inspiration for Sophia Coppola's 2013 film of the same name), and her former Playboy Bunny mother, as well as her new role as a sober mother, attempting to help her ex-boyfriend find a way out of his own crippling heroin and crack addiction".

This sets us up for tomorrow's Law & Order Los Angeles episode "Hollywood".

A & D Blocks Human Geography - Today we're back in the library for our recipe activity. Don't forget you need to:

1. Select a recipe that is associated with a particular culture, ethnic, nation, or other type of region. The best candidate is one of your favorite family recipes that has been passed down through the generations. 
2. Write the individual ingredients for the recipe in detail (as if from scratch). If you don’t have a copy of the recipe you will need to interview a person that does by phone or e-mail. 
3. Research on the Internet where the ingredients were originally domesticated. If there are certain ingredients that have not been domesticated, find their natural habitat (shrimp, cranberries, etc.). Research the domestication of animals (cows, chickens, etc.).
4. Create a map showing the diffusion of the ingredients into your recipe region. Print a blank world map of the Internet.
5. Write two paragraphs on how our region’s food has been influenced by diffusion/ migration (the Old Silk Road or Columbian Exchange). Discuss the climate and land use of the region where your ethnic dish is from.

You will also have a chance to do your test review. You wrote your test last week and I'll give you back your graded papers today. You have the chance to earn additional marks on the test. What you need to do is on the test review handout I give you, choose up to 4 multiple selection questions that you got wrong on the test and on your page put each question you did not get correct and reflect.