Inequality Is [Interactive Feature]

I was pleased to stumble across the Periscopic site today because I found another interactive tool that I have used before to teach Economic Inequality. I had forgotten about this--but now I will  make sure to  use it this year. This tool was produced for the Economic Policy Institute.

Click here to link to:
Inequality Is

The interactive feature is broken down into a few sections.

1. Inequality is real. Students use an interactive feature to propose an ideal income distribution and to guess at what the US income distribution is. Once they finish, they are shown the actual distribution.
2. Inequality is Personal. Students select demographic criteria that describe themselves. They will then see how their average incomes compares to others.
3. Inequality is Expensive.  If you put in your salary,  you can compare yourself to what you WOULD have been making is productivity and compensation increased at similar rates.
4. Inequality is Created. Students watch a short video on economic inequality. 
5. Inequality is Fixable. Students can click on certain bubbles to examine suggestions for improving inequality. Through this section, they can also link to more resources and action items on each topic. They can also examine certain myths about inequality.

Throughout each section, students can select small pop out windows to get more information.

This is a really great site. My only issue is that there are a few spots where you get stuck and aren't sure which button to click to move you forward through the series of interactive videos.

Gun Murders and Stolen Years [interactive Feature]

As I was looking up information on the previous post, I came across a another interesting data visualization by Periscopic.  Many people don't realize how vast or far reaching gun violence is > this powerful visualization that could be a springboard to discussions about violence.

This link takes you to their project site: http://www.periscopic.com/#/our-work/more-than-400000-stolen-years-an-examination-of-u-s-gun-murders-in-2010


Once you are there, you can read about the project methodology. To see the visualization, click "Launch Site". Once you are there, you can look at data for either 2010 or 2013.

One you launch the site, it will take a few minutes for the animation to move through the year. Once the animation finishes

• You can click on each line --it reveals the person's name as well as some basic info.
• Click on the x-axis to see aggregate data by age (for example, you will be able to see that more 22-year olds were killed than any other age group.
• Use the filters at the bottom to compare findings by Sex, Age Group, Region, and Time [I wished race was also included]. Once you add filters, the percentage at the left are a bit more helpful than the lines. 
• Scroll down to see a section called "What This Data Reveals" to learn more about breakdowns by age, race, etc.

Here is some more background info on the project: http://www.periscopic.com/#/news/2013/02/thoughts-on-visualizing-u-s-gun-murders

One Note: I noticed that their methods page calls this "Gun Murders" and the data visualization calls this "Gun Deaths".  I don't see clear or specific information about how they classified suicides (which would be considered gun deaths but not murders) or gun deaths where homicide/suicide distinction wasn't clear.

Terrorism [Interactive Map]

This interactive map was published by the data  visualization folks at Periscopic.  This map uses information from the global terrorism database to look at terrorism events from 1970-2013.




If you click on a terrorist organization, the map will focus on the geographic regions where the incidents  occurred. You can also use the slider bars to look at certain years. This would be useful to talk about the scope and reach of terrorism - and to link that discussion to one on global inequality.

There is A LOT of information here and it can feel overwhelming but it is a useful resource for looking at the number of events as well as how many people were killed or wounded.  I would recommend spending some time with this before you used it in a classroom setting.

Sexuality, Deviance, and Sport [Videos]

When Michael Sam came out as the first gay NFL player, a series of great sociological discussion followed both inside and outside of the sport landscape.  Should Sam's homosexuality be considered deviant?  Will he be a distraction? And how does this compare to other types of deviance that NFL players are often associated with?

These humorous satirical videos might help you in your class discussions about this topic. Because there are multiple videos, I am using links instead of embedding the videos

How To Talk To Your Kids About Michael Sam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_MLi2wAfdM

Jon Stewart - Friday Night Rights: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/welua3/friday-night-rights

Colbert Report on Sam's Draft Day Kiss: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/videos/nnz78u/michael-sam-s-nfl-draft-kiss

Newcaster Dale Hansen on Celebrating Difference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olc5C4SXAYM

*Newer Link * The Daily Show's Samantha Bee presents an interesting contradiction. Locker room culture often involves butt-slapping and penis jokes...yet many players express discomfort with a gay man in the lockeroom. http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/xkrp7t/sam-s-scrub

Medals Per Capita [Interactive Data]

When I teach the Sociology of Sport, I like to spend some time on global sport.  One thing that we always discuss is the relationship between a country's wealth, population, and success. What do these things have to do with each other?

Medals Per Capita is a great resource for this discussion.  You can use the list of the left to look at medals by population and GDP. You can look at just one Olympics or at many.




You could also easily use this as a discussion springboard in any lecture on Global Inequalities. Very cool site!

Wealth Inequality in America [Video]

Wealth Inequality in the United States has grown so extreme that students can have a hard time grasping the huge numbers and the meaning behind them.  This video uses infographics to present those numbers in a way that makes sense to students > making this video a powerful tool for explaining a difficult concept.

Income Inequality - Comparing the US to Other Nations [Interactive Feature]

The Upshot from the NY Times put together a great data visualization that illustrates the concept of rising economic inequality.

The American Middle Class is No Longer the World's Richest.

To find the data viz, click on the link and scroll about midway through the article. There is a graphic called "Americans Incomes are Losing Their Edge, Except at the Top".

The purple lines highlight changes in income in the US.  Each of the gray lines represents another country; hovering your mouse over the gray lines will highlight a comparison country.

The graph clearly shows that while incomes have risen across the board, the patterns of income growth in the US look very different than the patterns in other nations.

Poverty and Meeting Basic Needs [Interactive Feature] [Activity]

Like many sociology professors, I find that students enter the classroom with a wide variety of lived experiences. Depending on these lived experiences, many students are unaware of the cost of basic needs. This is especially true for middle and upper class students who have never earned their own incomes, contributed to the family income, or volunteered in low-income communities.

The National Center for Children in Poverty published a Basic Needs Budget Calculator

Students can select a location (not all counties in all states are represented) and certain family characteristics. They will then be able to see the basic needs budget of the family.   The example below shows the budget of a single-parent family with 2 children in Atlantic County, NJ.  The budget clearly shows that supporting this basic budget would require $24/hr.

Basic Needs Budget: Atlantic City/Atlantic County, NJ (2010) Single-parent family with 2 children, ages 3 and 6
	Annual	Monthly
Rent and utilities	$13,212	$1,101
Food	$6,559	$547
Child care (center-based)	$15,719	$1,310
Health insurance premiums (employer-based)	$3,135	$261
Out-of-pocket medical	$516	$43
Transportation	$780	$65
Other necessities	$4,745	$395
Debt	$0	$0
Payroll taxes	$3,818	$318
Income taxes (includes credits) [show detail]	$1,423	$119

TOTAL	$49,906	$4,159
Hourly wage needed: $24 Percent of the federal poverty level: 273%

Have you students look up local areas near your universities or near their hometowns to start a discussion on poverty, minimum wage,  rising economic inequality, and/or families in poverty. They can also alter their budgets by adding and subtracting in different categories. (For example, once you see that rent is 1,000 a month,  you can have them search for apartments in that price range on Craigslist, Zillow, etc.  Could they find a smaller apartment in a different area? How would that change their budget?)
.

Poverty and Food Stamps [Videos]

When teaching students about poverty and income inequality, I usually spend some time talking about the SNAP program, otherwise called Food Stamps.  Here are a few short videos that might help you lead a discussion on Food Stamps.

One way to reduce need on the SNAP Program is to raise wages.  Many students often worry that raising employee wages will be passed along to consumers. This video compares the prices that consumers pay--either in taxes or in prices for goods.



Other issues that often come up in discussions on food stamps (and any discussions on poverty and social welfare) are the ideas of deserving and. undeserving poor and abuse of the system.  What should people on Food Stamps use them to purchase? Is seafood healthy..or luxurious? Or does it depend on who is buying it?

Jon Stewart addresses this in a series of videos called "What Not to Eat". Stewart pokes fun at the inconsistent messages that poor people receive about Food Stamps.  [I am only posting the link to the first video, but once you watch it, you should be able to find "What Not to Eat Part 2"]

[If you are looking for a Full-Length film on this topic, try "A Place at the Table". Students have reacted very positively to this film. Following the film ,I asked them to try to eat on a Food Stamps budget for one week. It was a powerful exercise, though I should mentioned that this worked best in a classroom full of part-time adult students who were also working full time. In other words, they were responsible for their meals rather than receiving them from the dining Hall)

Poverty by Race, 1980-2010 [Interactive Map]

The Urban Institute's Metro Trends produced a map that allows students to see how the racial makeup of citizens in poverty has changed over time.



Click Here to View the Map

The map uses different color dots to represent ethnic groups. Moving the slider bar across the map allows you to see how the diversity of an area and the poverty rates have changed over time.

Can You Survive Poverty? [Interactive Game]

The Urban Ministries of Durham, NC produced an interactive online game called "Spent"



Play the Game Here

Spent is a simulation that takes students through a month in the life of someone who is living in poverty.  When you play the game, you are asked to find a job and are then asked to face a series of tough decisions as you make you way through a month on your salary.

I asked my student to play this game and it was one of the most effective lessons of the semester.  Many felt that the game was very powerful and even expressed being "Stressed" while playing the game. Some quit and played over.   I would highly recommend trying to incorporate this game in any discussion of poverty or minimum wage.

Urbanization - A Global Trend [Interactive Map]

This interactive map from the BBC shows the rise of urban centers from 1955 to 2015 (projected).

BBC Maps

You can use the slider bars to watch how the world has changed and to see interactive charts and figures.

Are the Winter Olympics for the Rich? [Interactive Graphic]

This Washington Post Graphic helps students to visualize the relationship between a nation's income and the number of medals that they nation wins. I like to use this to get students talking about winners and losers in sports? Is the winner always the most talented? Or maybe just someone who had more training, better equipment, etc.

Are Winter Olympics For the Rich?

Global Corruption [interactive map]

Transparency International has several tools that you can use to teach your students about political corruption.

One of the best places to start is with this interactive map.

You can also look at the data using the table below the map.and take a brief quiz to test your knowledge about political corruption. [My students always love taking these 'no stakes' sort of trivia quizzes in the classroom]

Comparing Countries [Data]

Whenever I discuss global inequality, I like to have students go online and compare nations. By finding the data themselves, they seem to invest more in the differences than if I simply gave them a chart.

Here are three great sites that you can use to help students compare nations.

CIA World Factbook

NationMaster

World Bank

#firstworldproblems [video]

When we are teaching global inequality, it is often helpful to put things in perspective.

First World Problems does just that.  People from developing nations read the tweets of people from developed nations--showcasing the disparities between what we really think of as problems.

>

This particular video is part of a campaign from Water is Life, but many similar videos and memes exist on the web.

Describing Black and White Athletes

Deadpsin put together an interesting interactive feature that looked at how the media describe white and black NFL prospects.

Deadspin Word Analysis

While the sample size is a bit small, this exercise is still a great way to start a discussion on how the media often uses words like "hard work" and "leadership" to discuss white players while often using "natural athleticism" to talk about black players.

I posted two examples below. See if you can have your students think of more examples.

Incarceration in America [Video]

Some of my students found and shared this video with me.



 This short animated video gives an overview of incarceration in America.  Using statistics and narrative, the video gives the basics and should be enough to get your class started on a discussion on the Criminal Justice System.  A major issue that I have with this video is that the narrator doesn't touch upon race/ethnicity issues - but you might be also able to use this as a talking point in your course.

How Privileged Are You? [Interactive Quiz]

This Buzzfeed Quiz is very similar to McIntosh's White Privilege Checklist, thought it is much more extensive as it asks students questions about race, gender, sexuality, social class,religion, and mental/physical health and ability.

Buzzfeed Privilege Link

After completing the checklist, students get a score.  My students loved completing Buzzfeed quizzes, and so I plan to assign this quiz  to them as homework in preparation for our talks about social inequality.

Racial Profiling [Video]

When we talk about race, we often teach students about the invisibility of white privilege.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show's Jessica Williams explains WHY racial profiling works...only she is talking about stopping and frisking white businessmen on Wall Street.

Can You Pass a US Citizenship Test? [Interactive Quiz]

Buzzfeed is popular with students and while most quizzes measure such things as "Which celebrity should you be?" and "Which Tree Are you?", this one actually measures something that could help in your teaching.

Could you Pass the US Citizenship Test?
Buzzfeed Citizenship Test

I plan to use this in my immigration class when we talk about citizenship and naturalization. I will assign it to students and ask them to bring in their score.

Comparing Health Care [Interactive Graphic]

This interactive graphic from the Commonwealth Fund is a good way to compare differences between health care policies in different states and nations.

Using the state tool, you can select a variety of indicators and see how your state compares  to others.

What Would Happen If Health Care In Your State Improved?

As you slide the bar left and right, a second graphic shows how changing the policies might influence health care for people across the state.


Using the international tool, students can compare health care policies and indicators across 11 nations.
Comparing National Health Care Systems

This graphic would probably be best for more advanced classes, such as Sociology of Health and Medicine.

Female Athletes and the Media [Video]

We generally try to stick to shorter clips on this site, but I happened across this 60 minute film that I thought some would find useful > especially since it is available free on the web.

Media Coverage of Women in Sports

The film was produced by the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport,  and the University of Minnesota, and Twin Cities Public Television.

Sexual Assaults on College Campuses [Video]

Talking about sexual assault is always difficult. Some people want to steer clear of humor, but if you need something to break the ice, try this video that aired on the Daily Show.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

While sexual assault is no laughing matter, the video exposes the extreme differences in the way that men and women are taught to avoid and/or deal with sexual assaults on college campuses. (A point which is always hard for students to see). I think it is great tool to use if you want to launch a discussion on why preventing assault is everyone's problem

Gender in Music Videos - Role Reversal! [Videos]

One on my favorite music videos (and catchy tunes!) of 2014 was Ingrid Michaelson's Girls Chase Boys.



This video is great because it shakes up gender by placing men in the roles that are usually occupied by women in music videos.  What makes the video even better is that Michaelson mocks the Robert Palmer's Simply Irresistible from the 80's. You can use these videos to talk about how the media can reinforce and play with gender.

Gender and Oogling Butts [Video]

This video always gives students a few laughs, but also generates the space to talk about how men and women think about and understand looking at others' bodies.

In the video, a male prankster dresses in yoga pants and pretends to retrieve items from his trunk (of his car!!!).  In the yoga pants, his self proclaimed cute butt is perceived as feminine by most passers by.  The fun -and the talking points--come from observing the passer by reactions.  Many men are all too happy to look at the butt when they think it belongs to a women, but freak out when they realize that they have looked at man.  The male reactions can also be an interesting talking point for discussions of homophobia and violence.

Gender Wage Gap [Interactive Graphic]

This 2010 data visualization from the NY Times is very useful for demonstrating the wage gap.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/01/business/20090301_WageGap.html?src=tp&_r=1&

Clicking on each dot gives information about the differences between men and women in that field. I usually ask students to play around with this interactive before they come to class so that they have some basis for talking about the wage gap - but it is also very useful to use in class. Student love asking me to click on certain dots or suggesting certain fields to see the discrepancy.  The visual  helps them understand just how widespread the problem is.

Gender in Olympic Sports [Interactive Graphic]

The Washington Post put together a neat interactive graphic that shows how Winter Olympic Sports have evolved over time.  The graphic does a nice job of visual showing the difference between men and women over time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/sports/2014-olympics/history/

If you click on each event, you can see a bit more detail. For example, when I clicked on Bobsled, I could see that the women's event was only added in 2002 and that women still are not allowed to compete in Four-Person sled competitions.

Use this interactive as a springboard to talk about differences between men's and women's sports.

Gender-Diverse Cultures Map [Interactive Map]

Gender-Diverse Cultures Map

This PBS website provides both an interactive map as well as a video ("Two Spirits") about gender diversity in Navajo culture.  The website states:

"On nearly every continent, and for all of recorded history, thriving cultures have recognized, revered, and integrated more than two genders. Terms such as transgender and gay are strictly new constructs that assume three things: that there are only two sexes (male/female), as many as two sexualities (gay/straight), and only two genders (man/woman).

"Yet hundreds of distinct societies around the globe have their own long-established traditions for third, fourth, fifth, or more genders. Fred Martinez, for example, was not a boy who wanted to be a girl, but both a boy and a girl — an identity his Navajo culture recognized and revered as nádleehí. Most Western societies have no direct correlation for this Native “two-spirit” tradition, nor for the many other communities without strict either/or conceptions of sex, sexuality, and gender. Worldwide, the sheer variety of gender expression is almost limitless. Take a tour and learn how other cultures see gender diversity."

Link to map