Reflection # 5 - When Status Does Harm

Reflection #5 - When Status Does Harm
In FlipGrid: Two minute response and include at least three concepts from the chapter.

Due Saturday, March 2nd at 11:59pm.
Two or more comments on your peers' work by Monday, March 4th

Now that you have read Chapter 4 and 5 to discover the power of social connections...

I'd like you to explore how the statuses we have can shape our lives in powerful ways - including doing harm to us. I have selected four films from PBS' "Frontline" series that illustrate how a person's status can expose them to trauma or direct them to behave in self-destructive ways. In each case, the damage is not so much about the person but the system they are in and how their social surroundings direct behavior based on a status.

Choose one of the following four films and watch it in its entirety. Then, compose a two minute response in FlipGrid on how the film illustrates the connection between status, role, and social behavior.

Please note: while you will need to summarize the film (to explain it to those who watch other films) this is not just a "virtual book report." Your whole reflection should not be limited to telling us what happened. Instead, try to connect the film to ideas from your reading.

 Successful responses will include examples that connect the film to terms from the chapter such as: status symbols, conformity, role strain, role conflict, groupthink, in-group and out-group, reference group, role exit, master status, etc.

Your choices for films are...

Football High: Corporate sponsorships, nationally televised games, minute-by-minute coverage on sports websites -- for players, parents and coaches, high school football has never been bigger. But is enough being done to ensure players' safety as the intensity of the sport grows? In Football High, FRONTLINE investigates the new face of high school football.

• How does the "role" of being a football influence the decision making of parents and children?
• What does the social structure of high school football demand of its participants?

Watch "Football High"

Flint's Deadly Water:  A FRONTLINE documentary, drawing from a two-year investigation, uncovers the extent of a deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak during the Flint water crisis — and how officials failed to stop it. 

• What statuses contribute to individuals being exposed to additional risk of dangerous drinking water?
• Why was the health of residents in this city undervalued by state and local government officials?

Watch "Flint's Deadly Water"

COVID's Hidden Toll: FRONTLINE examines how the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers. The documentary follows the coronavirus pandemic’s invisible victims, including crucial farm and meat-packing workers who lack protections and have been getting sick.

• How does the intersection of being "undocumented" and "essential workers" create a special vulnerability among those interviewed?
•  How does a gap in access to healthcare for some impact the health of the whole community?

Watch "COVID's Hidden Toll"

Sex Trafficking in America: This film tells the unimaginable stories of young women coerced into 
prostitution – and follows one police unit that’s committed to rooting out sexual exploitation.

• How does being young and female expose individuals to potential threats?
• When a person passes through the justice system, how does this status effect them? 

Watch "Sex Trafficking in America"

I'd also like to hear what you thought about whichever film you choose. Did watching the film change the way you think about this particular population?

Best wishes,

~MC

All images courtesy of PBS' Frontline series: http://www.pbs.org/frontline