Crash

The movie crash was  a great film that shows the implications of racism in today's society, even if it might sometimes go over the top with it. In class we discussed one part in particular that stood out to me: the part where the black lady is in the flipped over car and the cop who assaulted her is the only one who can save her. When that cop went in to save her, she reacted very strongly and i think that it showed that cop how much his actions could hurt people and how his blatant racism and actions were unfair, because in the end she is a person just like everyone else. The film also showed how much race plays a part in politics today, when white politicians are afraid to offend the black population because they may lose the black vote even if they are doing whats right. It also makes you wonder why Obama got elected, was it because of his skin color or because he was really qualified for the job? That's a discussion for another time. Crash was really an eye-opening movie to the world of racism and i noticed that even though i never thought i was racist, i had prejudice thoughts sometimes. And i know that i cant tel anyone to not be racist before i totally stop being racist myself.

Discrimination in Today's World

Just because we are in 2011, 43 years after the assasination of MLK Jr, does not meant hat we are free from racism. martin Luther King Jr and the cicil rights movement he led was an enormous step in creating total equality among races in todays society, but it didnt quite do enough. While no on would argue the fact that we are less racist today than 43 years ago, We still show signs of those times. People of color today are still discriminated against in jobs, and just in social stature. Jane Elliot's exercise shows people of all races what it feels like to be discriminated against. In the video we watched, on girl had to leave the room because she felt that she was persecuted,but she did not understand that this was only an exercise and that people of color or religion or any different factor that the majority have always been discriminating against. Looking at history, there are people that have been discriminated against the most: Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Native Americans are among the most discriminated against. Stopping discrimination does not need to stop "seeing color" altogether. many people of color or religion or whatever else are very proud of it and do not want it to be ignored, but accepted. I know many african americans that are proud of being black, and i accept that as a part of them. Ignoring it would be ignoring the part of them instead of accepting them as a whole. Acceptance is the key word to me, the oppressor needs to accept that they are no different as PEOPLE than blacks, or hispanics or jews.

Unfair Advantages

The Social Elite in this country have an unfair advantage when it comes to making money. Our country was founded upon the ideals that everyone has the opportunity to improve their way of life through hard work and perseverance, but now it appears that is becoming harder and harder to achieve. Even as the quality of life improves throughout all social classes, the gap is widening between the upper and lower classes. Creating a budget for a lower class family was quite difficult, but not as complicated. We did not need to to worry about all the extra amenities, but we did have to worry about making the basic ends meet: Phone bill, Car payments, Food. The upper class had to worry about what private school to send their kids too, or what new luxury cars to buy. Even with crisis like cars breaking down or losing 10% of the salary, the rich did not get affected to much. They couldn't even spend all their money fast enough to create a decline. It seemed like even with all the vacation trips and luxury cars and private schooling, the rich seemed to be making more and more money. This is what is widening the gap in America, and there doesn't seem to be a way of changing that trend.

Socio-Economics

Living on a small budget is hard. Everyone knows that, especially College kids and single young adults looking to start their career. But these individuals have the Opportunity to rise up through the social classes. Opportunity is key in America; It is one of the principles our great nation was founded upon. These opportunities do not present themselves to some people however, and it is very hard to make a better life if you cant move up in social class. These people are the poor blue-collar families that have been forgotten about, or newly immigrated families that do not have an education on-par with the education we get in America. For these people it is nearly impossible to movie up in social class. We learned that this week while playing Monopoly with individuals assigned a social class and given perks that that social class would likely experience (ex. Upper class does not need to go to jail). Moving up to overtake that upper class person was out of reach for me, and I was fortunate enough to get Lower-Upper class.  The person assigned tot he Lower-Middle class had an even tougher time and was forced onto "Welfare" quickly. This activity really opened my eyes to the gap in the distribution of money that can be seen in America today.

Changed

This past week in Sociology class we had a classmate and a guest speaker present a PowerPoint and give speeches and take questions. The topic was Homosexuality and Transgendered/Transsexual issues in today's world and how it effects high school students. Before the presentation my opinion on this issue was a little bit of uncertainty and i didn't really like the thought of a transgendered person. Walking out of class, i knew that my vies would be forever changed on the topic, and for the better. I realized that the reason i didn't like the idea of transgendered people and transsexual people was because i really didn't know anything about it. After hearing the presentation and hearing about all the stuff that homosexuals, male or female, and transgendered people have to go through i realized how unfair and mistreated, and really just how misunderstood they are. The are people who cant help but feeling the way they feel and they should be treated the same as anyone else, they are no different. Another point that was made was about how hurtful the word Faggot, and the casual use of the word Gay can be to people who actually are homosexual. In schools throughout the US the word faggot and gay are used so casually to describe people and things, and kids grow up thinking this is OK. I know...I was one of those kids. I have taken it upon myself never to use the word Faggot, and only use the word Gay when using it as the literal sense and never as a demeaning word. I wish that everyone could hear the stories of my classmate and her boyfriend that seriously changed my view on this topic forever. The quicker that people can get educated on this topic the better because i feel that most people don't know what to think because they are so misinformed. All, i guess, i can ask is that people reserve their judgements of Gay and Transgendered people until they become informed of what these people go through every day and how they feel.

Gender vs. Sex

Asking someone what gender they are and asking what sex they are are going to elicit the same response: Male or Female. The definitions of the two may mean the same thing but deeper down they are completely different. One of my classmates this week defined sex as "between the legs. i think thats a perfect description for it, while at the same time it doesn't fit gender completely. When we think about gender and what it can imply, it goes deeper than just intimate body parts, it goes into how we treat each other differently. Even from birth we separate males from females; males get blue things, females pink. This difference is only one in a long chain of differences between males and females. Males play with GI Joe's while girls play with Barbies just because. Raising kids up with this distinct view that genders are different can lead to discrimination later in life, I believe. I say that we let kids choose for themselves what toys they want to play with, and if a girl wants a GI Joe instead of the latest Hannah Montana doll, then so be it.

The Chinese Stereotype vs American Parenting

This week in sociology class, we were assigned a reading about how Chinese parenting techniques differ from the "western" parenting techniques. This Chinese mother made numerous points about how strict Chinese parent are compared to American parents. Chinese children would never get less than an A, they would never be less that #1 in every class, they could not have sleepovers and were required to play the piano and violin, etc.  I am sorry, but really? The child cannot even have sleepovers? The Chinese parenting model may be quite successful fro creating math wizzes and other Chinese nerd stereotypes but it doesn't seem like it succeeds in giving the child happiness. Academic performance,its states in the article, is a measure of how successful parents are. What these parents don't realize is that academics aren't everything. Kids need social skills as well. How many times are there those extremely quiet Asian kids who sit in class, never saying a word, and midway through 2nd semester the teacher calls on them and the reaction is 'who is that kid?'. I have seen it happen numerous times, and I'm not trying to be racist but a large percentage of the time it is Chinese kids who have not developed adequate social skills. These social skills are crucial to being successful in life, but even more important, being happy.

Afraid of the Inevitable

Americans are afraid of death. We don't even use the word "died" when someone close to us dies. We insist on using phrases that get the point across without really saying anything, like "passed away" or even "kick the bucket". We, people, created these phrases to try and protect us from the harsh reality that we will all die at one point. Talking about death openly is usually not considered to be a good conversation starter or topic, as people don't like talking about it. Death is even used to put fear into people, for example, the picture of the skull and crossbones on packs of cigarettes that has the caption "smoking kills you". We are frightening our population with death, and not just on cigarette packs. This fear of death could be linked to our materialism, as perhaps we try to fill our lives with as many things as possible because we never know what day will be our last. But that, is a topic for another blog post.

Midnight Grocery Store Runs in America

We are known throughout the world as being materialistic, greedy, and obsessed with the here-and-now. This isn't too far off the mark, but i would argue that sometimes, all that isn't a bad thing. No one would argue against the point that the United States of America is the most powerful country in the world, and e got their through our culture of wanting to succeed. This is very different from other powerful cultures throughout the world, for example, Germany. The article "Bemused in America" explains the story of how one German man traveling in the US comes across many of our countries values, and the shock it gave him. Our grocery stores are open 24/7. Why? Because when we want something, we want it now and do not want to have to wait for the next day. This is completely different from Germany's 8pm closing law, and this particular German man seemed a little jealous. This is the freedom that we give to our citizens, to be able to get that quart of mint-chocolate ice cream at 2am, but we also pay a price; the world views us as obsessed with instant gratification, while simultaneously feeling jealous of our freedom.

How We Live

This week in sociology, we saw pictures of families from countries around the world outside their homes with their most prized possessions. I have traveled a lot in my life so far, Ive been to China, Japan, France, Israel, and I am going to Italy during spring break. I saw a lot on those trips but these pictures reminded me of what we take for granted. Some of these families slept on the ground, and one family even needed a soldier to help guard their possessions for the picture. The differences of these families really showed the technological gap between the United States, and other "western" countries, with the underdeveloped world. The difference in values and beliefs are very evident. I found that lesson to be very enlightening and I think that everyone should try to educate themselves to the culture and lifestyles of other around the world.

(Blog #5)

Passing Judgement

Everyday we meet new people, and the first thing we do is "size them up". That's become the acceptable term to use to describe judging people by their looks. This social interaction before any dialog occurs can change any future relationship between those people. Think about it the next time you meet someone. One of my best friends throughout my high school career, who is also in my sociology class, is one of those people that when you meet them your probably like...whoa..what is that guy wearing. I got to know him though, and it turned out that we would develop an extremely close friendship. He has decided to do whatever he wants and not care about what anyone else thinks. I could only wish to have his confidence, and I look up to him for that, as it has slowly given me increased confidence in myself. So that "sizing someone up" that people tend to do all too much in this society has, in my opinion, really gotten out of hand. What kind of shoes someone wears, or what brand clothes they wear do not define who they are as a person, and maybe We, as a society, need to stop passing judgment.

Leaping to Conclusions

Your given 2 lines of text that describe someone. Your then forced to make a decision about that persons fate, do they live or die? Is that person worth keeping even if they may hinder your own survival odds? Since there is only those 2 lines of description, assumptions are made extremely quickly. would you choose to save a Nobel Prize Winner over a pregnant cheerleader? There is one example of an hard decision. but here's an easier one: do you exile a Draft evader / drug dealer or a college student? That decision ight seem easy right off the bat, as the assumption is made that the drug dealer/draft-dodger is a bad person. What we need to think about is maybe that "bad" person may not have had the opportunities given to him that the college student has. Maybe he will turn his life around and become a great scientist. This society needs to stop jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst about people. all these "maybe's" and the drug dealer turned scientist may be far-fetched, but you never know what can happen. Next time you realize you are making assumptions about someone, take a step back, and think about it, and take the time to give them a chance. What your assuming might be completely wrong if you just got to know the person.

Intro

Let me begin this blog by telling you a bit about myself. My life isn’t very difficult to unravel, as I am a very focused person who is working towards one goal: to become an Officer in the United States Marine Corps, and I will do whatever it takes to get there. The Marine Corps is a huge part of my life, and I train with the Marine Recruiters and other potential marines like myself at least once a week.  Besides the Marines and college stuff (to me they are one and the same – I'm applying for an NROTC Marine Option scholarship as well as to the United States Naval Academy), the other influences in my life are my friends, family, and my girlfriend. If you combine those four, you have 100% of my free time accounted for. I am what you could call the typical suburban teenager, besides the whole military thing. I have gotten an education for a top-notch school (I will leave it at that), and I am going to college, and -surprise - I have an iPhone.