Who am I now? Final Blog...

Who am I? Who am I now that I have gone through a semester of sociology? I think that answer has changed drastically since the beginning of the semester. Before sociology, I didn't think about myself living in a world bigger than Buffalo Grove. I didn't think there were influences on my life other than myself, my friends and family.

First of all, a lot of my thoughts and feelings were very sheltered before this class. I knew somewhat about other cultures, poverty, and social class, but I know more about it now. There was one part of the class that really changed me. After sociology opened my eyes to the millions of people who live in poverty everyday, I realized how lucky I am to have a house, an education and almost all the resources I need for success around me. When we watched the video in class about Tammy, who walks to work everyday just to support her family living in a trailer home, I was shocked. I never even fathomed the idea of living like that, but now, sociology has allowed me to realize that there is a lot of poverty in this world. The community service project allowed me to help these impoverished people, and I hope to continue with helping people in need.

Also, I now realize that there are more influences on my life, including society. For example, race is a social construction. It is not something you're born with. We categorize people into blacks, whites, Asians, Mexicans... any minority. Then, with this lens on, we see these people differently depending on their race. This has affected me because I have stereotyped according to race before. Now, after sociology, I realize what I'm doing, and I have tried to stop. Also, sociology has allowed me to realize that I have a sociological imagination. I can see the world on a bigger level. I can see the bigger picture of influences on groups of people. I'm now able to understand how society makes people think certain ways, including me.

Overall, I think very differently about my life now. I believe that I am a better person in the way that I now think more about others on a daily basis and not just myself. I'm also more aware of the influences on my life and me. In the future, because I'm aware of these influences, I will be able to change them if needed. I am now a stronger person because of that. Sociology has made me think very differently about my life and me.

Crash...

In class, we are watching the movie Crash. Even though I have seen this movie before, I have been able to watch it with a new perspective. Now, when I am watching, I have been looking for different examples of and how people act about racism. I have noticed 2 major things. First, I saw how people acted differently around people of different races. For example, Sandra Bullock's character is very comfortable around her white husband, but she has to put her arm around her husband's when she is by black men. She felt differently and had to act differently, subconsciously, around different races. Also, I noticed different forms of both explicit and implicit racism. There were a ton of examples of explicit or overt racism. Many times, a character would get angry because they were dealing with a person of a different race. There was also examples of implicit or hidden racism. In the movie, a lot of the racial tension came from stereotypes and misunderstandings. When the lock guy can't fix the door, the store owner gets mad at him. That whole scene is a big misunderstanding because of stereotypes. The store owner assumes the lock guy is a thief because of his race, so he accuses him of cheating him. Then, later, the whole "shooting" could've been avoided. I think that education about other races and their cultures can eliminate a lot of the racism. If people know about other races besides their own, maybe they will create less stereotypes of races because they are more educated.

The Race Spectrum...

Yesterday, we did an activity where we had to categorize different balls. Even though I think I have done this activity before, it was still very difficult. I chose to categorize by size, but it was hard to differentiate between small and medium or medium and large. It was difficult to draw the line somewhere. By categorizing the balls, we stereotyped them, like we also do for races. I clumped together all of the large balls, even if they had other differences like color, shape or use. This activity made me realize that all the people in the world don't fit into strict categories of races. It is more of a spectrum. For example, there can be someone who is half "white" and half "black", so they don't fit into the "white" category, or the "black" one. We also learned that race isn't biological, it's social. Race isn't something you are born into, it's something that society uses to categorize or group human beings. These groupings allow society to put certain characteristics with certain races, causing stereotypes, when the characteristic doesn't fit the mold of the race. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to break down these social constructions of race, but in the future, I will try to stereotype less by race.

Monopoly & the "American Dream"...

In class, when we played Monopoly by the rules of America's class structure, I got lucky and rolled the highest number, so I was the upper-upper class. I had a plethora of money to buy whatever I wanted, and I also started with two expensive properties and the railroad. I can clearly see how it is hard to move in classes for the upper and lower class because no matter how careless I was with my money, I was constantly getting paid by the others landing on my properties and with my high income. The lower class people in my group had a very difficult time avoiding bankruptcy let alone moving up in class. One person got stuck in jail, and because they were lower class, they had to miss 2 turns before they could even pay to get out of jail. This mirrors the U.S. class structure so well because it's almost impossible to move classes, unless you are in the middle. No one in my group moved up or down, but some other groups had middle people moving up one class. This is all very interesting because sometimes you think, if lower class people want a better life, all they have to do is start working hard, and they will move up in class. But that's not the case. Most lower class people do work hard, but it's nearly impossible to move up because they are only making minimum wage, living in poor areas, and have no health care or insurance. My family has moved up in class since the past generation. My grandparents on one side were around lower-middle class -- they made an okay living but never could take vacations or live in luxury. But, my dad moved up in social class to upper-middle by going to college and becoming a CPA. Now, we are able to live a nicer life because of a higher income. In the future, I see myself staying in the upper-middle class where my parents are.

Social Class Interactions...

The movie that we are watching in class is very interesting. Learning about all the different social classes and hearing real stories from real people from all different economic backgrounds can be really surprising, but it's important that we understand this to have a more cultured view of the world. One thing that I noticed that really made me sad was how they were talking about how the different social classes don't mix. For example, poor black people don't talk to rich white people. It is not socially acceptable in a way. I do think that we separate ourselves based on class. In the lunchroom, the kids that I sit with are white and upper-middle class. Right next to our table, is a group of black kids. We separate ourselves naturally because we think we would have more in common with people who are in our same social class. But the thing is, that isn't necessarily true! We don't know if we have anything in common with people from other social classes because we don't spend the time to get to know them to find that out. This "social norm" of grouping with people from your own social class spreads to our children and our grandchildren, and now everyone is acting this way. Also, the movie mentioned that lower class people feel invisible. Even though they might feel this way, I think it goes both ways. Yes, upper class people exclude lower class people, but lower class people also exclude themselves from other classes. This happens again because social classes separate themselves into similar groups. Now that I'm aware of this, I hope to try to learn more about other social classes to be more educated.

Deviance & Drugs...

Today in class, we did an activity classifying drugs. We had to decide if they should be over the counter, prescription, a felony or a worse crime. But, we didn't know what the drugs were. The interesting thing was that I classified alcohol as a felony because of its affects on people even though alcohol is legal to adults ages 21 and over. We later discussed how drugs and drug laws are relative. For example, some drugs can result in trouble with the law while other are readily available at drugstores even though a lot of the drugs have similar effects and tolerance. Also, many times, it depends on the person who is being convicted of drug abuse. If upper middle class white people are caught with drugs, they are more likely to be able to pay for bail and receive sympathy from police. On the other hand, blacks in poorer areas are less likely to have money to pay for bail and are more likely to be treated very horribly. This relativity of drugs and drug laws mirrors the relativity of deviance. If an upper middle class white person is being "deviant" according to society, they might not be judged as quickly or as bad as a poorer minority. Money is also a big factor in deviance. People with more money are more likely to be able to avoid deviance or get out of it. I hope that in the future, these judgmental views of people and social deviance can be avoided or at least seen fairly among all types of people. Now that I realize this, I will try to do that.

Social Deviance...

In class, we are talking about social deviance, or straying from society's "norms". This can be positive, like buying someone else lunch one day, or they can be negative, like dropping out of school. We watched an episode of Seinfeld, where many social norms were broken. We looked for and then discussed what they were, how people reacted to them being broken, and how they felt when they broke them. For example, Jerry is caught by a girl, who he went on a date with, picking his nose. He broke a social norm by picking his nose in public. She won't return his calls because she is uncomfortable with the fact that he didn't act "normal" in terms of society. Jerry is upset because he really wasn't breaking a social norm, he was just perceived as breaking one. There is a difference in the perception of deviance and the actual deviance. In the Saints and Roughnecks article, the town thought the Saints were good boys and the Roughnecks were delinquent, but in reality, they both did the same deviant acts. The only reason the community thought the Roughnecks were worse was because they were in a lower class than the Saints. People tend to react the same to a real deviance of a social norm and a perceived deviance because we are uncomfortable and uneasy with the thought of unconformity and differences. Now that I'm aware of this, I will be more likely not to judge people so quickly if they are breaking a social norm. It's okay to break one, it actually can be good. We are so stuck on conforming and acting how society tells us to, that we are too worried to go against that and break a social norm. But in reality, it can be good for you and people around you to break one, in a positive way.