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.