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Sociological Concepts In Whistling Vivaldi By Claude Lee

955 Words4 Pages

We are all sold the American dream. We are told that if we pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, we can make our dreams happen. Not to say that is not possible, but no one mentions that broader sociological concepts will shape many, if not every, aspect of our lives along the way. No one explains that there will be people who cross the street when they see you, no one teaches you how to deal with the added pressure of being the only person that looks like you do in your classroom or office, and no one explains to you that you will live in a different world and receive vastly different treatment depending on what you look like. Fortunately, because of Claude Steele’s work in Whistling Vivaldi, we are introduced to concepts such as identity …show more content…

After all, there are ways in which stereotype threat can be alleviated. In the academic setting specifically, two of the more interesting solutions would be to expand narratives and framing aspects of academic settings in certain ways. For example, researchers Joshua, Carrie, and Catherine worked to dissuade belief in the “fixed” theory of intelligence by providing research that contradicted said narrative. Another effective way to reduce stereotype threat would be to word things very specifically. Throughout the reading it is stated that by simply changing the phrasing used in academic settings, stereotype threat could be significantly reduced. Revisiting the example of women in math, we clearly saw that adding the seemingly insignificant words, “…this particular test” significantly improved the performance of women under stereotype threat facing challenging mathematical calculations. Overall, although we cannot run from our social identities, there are things that we can do as a society to ensure everyone actually reaches their potential. Recognizing the influences of identity contingencies, identity threats, and stereotype threats, expanding our own narratives, and carefully crafting academic environments are only a handful of things that can be done to bring us all closer to the sales pitch of the American dream being a

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