Untouchable

               In the novel Untouchable, the character named Bakha fails to realize that colonization is promoting racial formation by depicting the British in a positive ideological view. In other words, the fact that Bakha is depicting the British life in a positive way helps form racial formation by idealizing them. Throughout the novel, Bakha is depicted as a character who embraces British customs such as clothing or types of sports. This not only shows colonization but shows how Bakha feels it is a paradigm to be a well respected British men. Although Bakha tries to colonize you can still see how the British government still accepts caste systems which means no matter how much Bakha tries to be valued more he will always be considered one of the lowest caste systems. An example of colonization is when Bakha is described as wearing clothes of British men instead of the traditional clothing worn in India. Bakha also enjoys sports such as hockey which is an English sport. Bakha seems to portray British as a paradigm in which people strive to obtain a leisurely life such as the British men. This promotion of the British fails to show how this same government suppress people like Bakha by endorsing the caste system by being included in the legal system. As Gandhi said, "The British Government sought to pursue a policy of divide and rule"(Untouchable 145). What Gandhi means is that the British government knows in order to rule over India they need to make sure India is divided by a major conflict which would be the caste system. Gandhi continues to describe and tries to question the motives of the British. I agree with Gandhi many British colonizers especially are mostly in India for profit. The British Colonizers realize the idea of divide and rule helps obtain power and is profitable for them. The policy of divide and rule is something used by many Governments in order to suppress a society. This same form of policy was used in Africa and was shown in a movie called Hotel Rwanda.  The Germans and Belgians used divide and rule by separating Tutsi and Hutu. They put the minority Tutsi in a higher position of power. This shows how colonialism many times helps racial formation be accepted and can provide a more lenient foundation in where divide and rule can be applied.

Cluster connection

The clusters have helped me a lot in making it easier to learn key terms such as race, ethnicity, and cultures. For example in English class I was able to learn the basics about racial formation because of Omi and Winant. I was then able to use these basics in order to better emphasize topics such as poverty in sociology by focusing on how these racial formations cause many minorities to be poverty stricken. I felt I didn't have to be like a light switch having to shut off the next topic in order to pertain to the next class. Many times, when i when i took classes that weren't intertwined with one another I had to switch to another set of ideas and sometimes different vocabulary. Since many ideas in the cluster were connected it was easier for me to learn and be able to associate them to one another. Thanks to this cluster I was able to learn how to associate certain ideas to one another.The classes have even changed the way I view race. I never realized how race and ethnicity can be defined very differently depending on social structures. Also, I never realized on how ethnicity is still a big issue I was one of those people who thought racial discrimination wasn't alive but   now I realized racial discrimination has just taken a different form. Many of these social classes continue to have Caucasians as the higher class. Minorities know their still being treated lowly but all have this idea that might be exception and be able to beat the system. The system in where we depend on cash assistance and minimum wage jobs to survive.

Social Media

When looking into social media you can see it can be a strong form of being able to connect with others. Social medias such as twitter, facebook, and blogger are great examples. These social medias gives people the right to express themselves freely and see other peoples thoughts and opinions. Many organization try to use to these forms of media in order to bring self awareness of many important topics such as racism, cultures, and social problems needed to be dealt with in society today. Some great twitter accounts that deal with race and culture are @Prisonwatchint, @followbamn, @lobojost, @shamnix, and @ZMTRUST. I think these types of social media helps make a difference to important topics need to be faced today.


Prisonwatchint deals with social issues concerning the prison system and human rights. They tweet and put links that show the extremities many prisoners have to deal with and also in what ways are the government taking advantage by limiting some of their human rights. Prisonwatchint tweeted about the conditions prisoners are being kept such as sleeeping arrangements and about innocent inmates being put on death rows. Prisonwatchint tweets saying "Are California Prisons Punishing Inmates Based On Race." This shows how racism coincides in prison. Imagine having to already deal with having limited social interations with others and then having to be treated even more unfairly because of your race. FollowBamn deals with affirmative action, and immigration rights. Lobojost tweets about housing systems, and racism. Shamnix and Zm trust both deal with social issues. All of these twitter accounts relate to race and culture by showing fellow twitters how race is still being used to show the value of life by incorporating it into prison systems, immigration rights and civil rights.       

Anti-Islamic Hate Crimes

When it comes to anti-Islamic hate crimes one must wonder has it better or has it worsened? To answer this question we need to examine collect and observe if there has been any changes. In the graph shown it correlates with a certain major incident in the year 2001. In 2001, there seems to be a huge increase of anti-Islamic hate crimes. Perhaps, the reason for this major spike in 2001 was one of the most major terrorist attack in United States which was the the attack on the twin towers. Since the twin towers incident the amount of anti-Islamic hate crime increased by more then 10 times more then the previous year. People are easily riled up when something major such as the twin towers incident happens they worry just about their safety and can even start stereotyping or generalizing based on race. This might be the reason why their was such an increase especially in 2001. People become oblivious to the fact that there are innocent people who end up suffering because of these anti-Islamic attacks. The only problem I have with this data is they don't really have particular details on where its taking place whether its in the United States or another country.