Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

I’m here prepping a lecture on racial/ethnic stratification for my class on social stratification when I read about a case of racial profiling in Tampa in my textbook. Apparently Reginald Pitts, a human resources manager for GAF Materials Corporation, was harassed and accused of trying to forge a check at a Wal-Mart. Pitts had phoned in an order for gift cards for GAF employees for the holidays. Everything was going fine until he arrived at the Wal-Mart. That’s when the store managers realized he was black… Two hours and a near arrest later, Pitts stormed out of the store and GAF now buys its gift cards from Target. Apparently the store managers hadn’t held up several previous customers that same day doing the exact same thing… But those earlier customers were white.

This happened in 2005. I arrived in 2007.

This is like the Cincinnati Riots of 2001 that happened in the spring. I arrived in August of 2001. How come I’m never around when stuff like this happens? I ask because I’m wondering where I’m going to move next. If you happen to see some horrific example of racism in the next few years, let me know so I have an idea of where the winds of fate are blowing.

(I’m not being serious, of course… Racism is a pretty common occurrence and I’m sure I could find an example wherever I am.)

This is a great illustration of the continued pervasiveness of racism in America for any sociologists out there looking for a good example. Oh, and if you have an ax to grind with Wal-Mart, this is a double whammy!

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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Lonely Sea
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I’ve been wanting to write this for a while but am just now getting around to it. When we moved to Cincinnati we bought a very modest condo in a working class condominium complex. We liked the area and even though we didn’t know most of our neighbors, we were mostly content. At least, that was true initially. Over time little things about the complex started to add up and turn into big things. One of the things that really got on our nerves over time was the fact that there was a manager of the complex who made a lot of money for basically doing nothing. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe my graduate school work experience as slave labor (20 to 25 hours per week at roughly $10k per year - though that doesn’t factor in my tuition), but I know I worked a lot more hours per week than the manager of our complex did and she made $18,000 per year. Here’s a scan of the yearly budget as evidence:

In addition to the purely gratuitous wages of the complex manager, there were a lot of other things that eventually really upset us. For instance, on the rare occasion that it snowed enough to be an issue with driving, the complex would plow the main parking areas, but not the back lots, which is where our assigned parking was. I shoveled most of our back lot twice while we lived there - spending almost the entire day each time. The complex also had the power to levy sudden, emergency fees whenever it felt like it and you had to pay them or else. This happened about three times while we were there, and we can only imagine the hardship it must have caused to some people in the complex who lived on fixed incomes. Finally, the complex had a pool and club house. The pool was a decent size, but a bit old and regularly needed repairs. Additionally, it was seldom used during the summer but cost thousands of dollars in upkeep. Given all of the financial problems of the complex, Debi suggested that they not open the pool one year to save money. This was met with a stunned silence and then an outcry, “How dare you suggest…” As for the club house, while it was supposed to be a common area, it was basically treated as an addition to the club manager’s condo. This was most evident in the fact that it was not smoke free (the complex manager smoked) and always smelled heavily of stale tobacco. To hold an event there you had to pay a fee, even if you lived in the complex. I never really understood that either.

Never having owned a condo before (nor really knowing many people who do), we were really disappointed with the whole experience. Maybe others have had better experiences living in condos, and I certainly hope that is true, but our experience soured us to owning a condo ever again… (Of course, with the housing market currently tanking, we’re beginning to wonder if we wouldn’t just be better off renting the rest of our lives.)

On a brighter note, we are now officially Floridians (okay, that’s probably only true in the technical sense - not sure when we’ll start feeling like we are “from” Florida): we have Florida Driver’s Licenses. We had to get them in order to get the strange “Homeowner’s Exemption” here in Florida (which is a tax break for people who actually live here year round). I was a little sad to see this beauty go:

Also, we received a copy of a photo taken at our University’s holiday party. One of the perks, I guess, of working at a smaller university (that probably also has a little more free cash than most public universities) is that there is a yearly holiday party. It’s a rather posh affair with chocolate fountains, decadent food, live music, and even an open bar (which we will, unfortunately, never really take advantage of). Anyway, we liked our picture from the event:

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Now playing: Dave Matthews Band - Jimi Thing
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A student of mine recently asked me my opinion on a movie making the circuits online called “Zeitgeist, The Movie“. He was smart enough to recognize that most of it is conspiracy theory (the movie mostly focuses on 9/11 conspiracies, which are crap, and banking conspiracies, which are also crap), but was interested in the religion components. I watched just the religion segment so I could give him some feedback. Here are my thoughts on that segment of the video:

I just watched the movie you suggested. It is accurate in some ways and speculative in others. I recognize a lot of the connections between Jesus and the other historical deities from a book I read by Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth), who documented many of these similarities. Thus, I’m fairly certain based on his work that the similarities between ancient deities are accurate.

I’m less familiar, however, with the idea of the cross (crux) and three kings (orion’s belt). A cursory examination seems to indicate that this interpretation is probably not accurate. The Crux was, until the 16th Century, considered part of Centaurus. No one prior to that would have called that constellation “the cross.” Whether or not you accept the historicity of Jesus, the stories claiming he was crucified on a cross pre-date the naming of the Crux constellation by well over 1,000 years (beginning somewhere around 100 to 150 CE). In short, even though the sun may be in the area of the Crux during that time of year, ancient writers didn’t consider the crux a separate constellation and would not have made this connection.

Also, there is book among the list of references that I have read that I know is complete bullshit (by an author named Acharya S; Joseph Campbell is also referenced). The motives and accuracy of anyone referencing that author are always going to be suspect to me given how horrendously inaccurate that book was (my review is available upon request). The author was not and is not a reputable scholar but a conspiracy theorist.

In short, I’d say what you have is a mixture of accurate statements, half-truths, speculation, and contortions. Maybe 50% of that video on religion is accurate; the balance is speculative, conspiracy-theory driven drivel. It’s entertaining and seems compelling, but it’s not accurate.

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Now playing: John Lennon - I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier
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