race

In our society racism is socially constructed for us. At a young age we are influenced to think that white skin represents beauty or "good" while black or darker skin represents ugly or "not good." This is very evident from the video of the little kids we watched choosing which color dolls were the "good" ones. It was shocking to see how many kids picked the white dolls. So even at a young age we can see society constructing racist views even if it's not intentional. I wouldn't say I'm a racist, because I don't go around hating people that are black. Now to say that not everyone has racist tendencies would be a lie. I believe everyone has racist tendencies just because of our society. It is just how it is, we can see it everywhere. Another article that talked about this was an NBA article which stated that more fouls were called if the refs were of the opposite color (black and white) of the player they called the foul on. So this racist idea isn't just white people being racist toward blacks, it goes both ways. I remember I was walking downtown with a few friends and this black guy walked up to us and asked us for some change. Not one person in my group gave him money. Literally about five minutes later a white man came up to us and asked for change and a few people gave him money. Right there is racism, even if it was unintentional. My friends naturally felt safer or felt a better use for their change giving it to a white man. Sometimes we can't help but to have racist thoughts or actions, the only thing we can do is acknowledge that they are there and focus on trying to prevent it from happening as much as possible.

mingling social class

In our society we belong to some sort of class, even if we think they don't exist. In the movie we are watching we had some middle class kids go down to a bar and hang out with blue collar people. From the middle class point of view they did not see a problem hanging around there and seemed to enjoy themselves. A few of the blue color people loved having the polite middle class kids hanging around, but some felt that it was disrespectful for them "trying" to fit in. That itself is proof of the social class. Those kids belonged to a different class and some people rejected them. Now the question is was it disrespectful of those middle class kids to go to that bar? Or were those kid just having fun and being friendly. It truly is up for interpretation because the way I saw it was that they just wanted to have fun with the people in the bar. I could easily see how those people in the bar would take offense to it because they came into the bar and somewhat acted like they knew everything, and did make fun of some people. It doesn't really matter how you interpret it because its split no matter what. One time I decided to sit with some different people at lunch. I had happened to know one of the kids at the table already so I thought why not. I sat down and said hi to everyone there. The surprising part was that some of the people were friendly and some kind of gave me the cold shoulder. This is kind of the same idea of mingling between social classes, because I wasn't really friends with those kids and one random day I tried to be nice to them and it seems different. This idea of being separated by social class is everywhere and there are boundaries that are set up in our society.

Special Olympics

To start off sorry it took so long to blog about it, but my computer has been giving me fits. I did about 10 hours of community service on April 17. I helped work the Special Olympics for the bocce ball tournament. I must say on my way to this tournament I was very skeptical. It wasn't a very nice day at all, it was rainy and cold. Well I was wrong to be skeptical because it turned out to be very fun and definitely worth getting up at seven in the morning on a Sunday. The athletes that came to Bocce were very fun to work with, and they came ready to play. In fact they would easily beat me in Bocce ball any day of the week. I mean when you hear special Olympics you think of people who are different then you are, and people who don't know what there doing. These people couldn't be more different than that stigma, not only did they love to compete against each other, they all had a goal they wanted to accomplish. They reminded of myself when I compete in any competition. Sometimes when you work with people that may have some type of mental problem, someone tells you to just be nice. This wasn't even on my mind. I didn't really see much of a difference between them and myself. I acted as I normally did and they laughed along with me. Eventually we even got a fierce game of Bocce ball going and the athletes loved that we were so into the game. Maybe they are a bit different socially but if you see past that outside, you can see that they are just like everyone else. They competed, the smiled, they laughed, the yelled, and they shook hands after a game. This is the first time that I didn't have to watch what I said because I didn't want to offend anyone. I didn't need to watch what I said because it didn't even cross my mind that they were different. They came to play and they did it so well both myself(and my group) and the athletes had a great time.

I'm better!

In America it's the ideology that everyone is equal, and that no matter what your background is or who you are you can achieve. Although this is true to some extend America is very much a country based on class and rank. For example a family's income is huge when it comes to social status and education. Mainly a family with higher income tends to have a better education. This seems almost obvious because with more money, the better education you can receive. In class we saw a graph showing the average income of a family directly affecting a child's ACT scores. Once again the higher the income the better the test score. This is not to say you can't break free from what you grew up doing, that is what makes America a bit different then other countries. The idea is even though we think we are so free in America, there is a class system, and it does effect the type of life you could possibly live. The top one percent of America are those celebrities that our media cares about. This is a great example because they are very wealthy and they get a lot of attention, everything they do is on T.V. To compare that, is your life on T.V. everyday? In America our celebrities are basically royalty. I don't have much experience being a celebrity, but one time I was at a football game and it was just a regular day. It just so happens that a famous celebrity was sitting in the front row somewhere. Just because of that persons status the stadium kept showing that person on the big screen. I don't know about anyone else but the big screen never shows me on purpose over and over again.

You look Deviant

Deviance is all about perception. One act could be interpreted in different ways depending on the perception of the person, and the people who see it. As we read Saints and roughnecks we could easily see that the same crimes committed were treated differently because of the perception of who committed it. Even at my school this is obvious. Obviously this is just an example and not necessarily what exactly happens but the idea of it does. We have two kids in the same class, one who is barely passing the class, and the other who is doing just fine. When the kid who is barely passing doesn't show up to class the teacher will clearly be angry and may even hint at what a bad kid that is. While if the kid who is passing easily misses class the teacher won't even notice or care. In reality the kids both ditched class yet one kid was discriminated against because of the perception about him. One time it was about three in the morning and I was with a group of kids. We walked into Ihop to get some food. At the same time there was this group of other kids who dressed in a much different manner than us, that also walked in. When both groups walked out there was a police officer in the parking lot. We acted casual because we just got some food. The officer perceived the other group of kids to be deviant and went over to talk to them while letting my group leave. Neither group did anything wrong and still the officer thought that because they dressed more poorly than we did that they had to be trouble. It shows that perception is everything when it comes to determining deviance.

I feel Deviant

It's amazing how much our society influences us, we are brought up in America a certain way. We learned earlier that there are social norms in our society. If we take this one step further those norms also decide what is considered deviant. Deviant doesn't automatically mean a bad thing, as we discussed there are two types of deviance positive and negative. Negative can be described as something looked down upon in society such as driving while using a cell phone. This is a strange situation because before it was acceptable to drive while talking on your phone. An example of positive deviance would be doing something to help another person that you do not normally do, like buying a lunch for someone else. To sum deviance up, it is something that is not normally done, good or bad, and sometimes it is even looked down upon. I will admit I have been guilty of some negative deviant behavior. Occasionally if I'm expecting a call from someone while driving I will answer my phone. In today's world this is unacceptable and people that see you do it sometimes give you looks or go as far as to yell at you while driving past. Who knows how long this phase of deviance will last because deviance is not absolute and it does change depending on the time period.

Manliness or violence?

In the American culture a man has to be strong. Strong can mean a lot of things but in this case it means being tough, emotionless, and being strong physically. As kids we grow up learning how to "be a man" and that molds who we are as people. As teenagers and young adults this idea of having to be strong shows up frequently. If we don't have a lot of muscle or if we don't play sports society looks down upon those people as being weak or not masculine. With boys being stigma as weak and more feminine it can sometimes take away our sense of pride. Society marks the tough boys to be true men and the weaker ones to be pathetic. We take that to heart, so if you shun someone because they aren't a varsity athlete, or would rather play chess than to play basketball it really affects the minds of kids. This correlates with school violence. Kids who feel picked on because they are not "tough' lash out. In the more severe cases they will even hurt fellow students just so they can feel strong. For example the shootings at colleges, the kids are able to hold a gun in their hands and hurt other people. This is a type of strength and they are able to wield it. So in killing some students they are simply following the social construction of being a tough guy. For me I was always pushed to play sports as a kid. The sport didn't really matter but as long as I was playing people respected that. Also when I was a kid and I got hurt my dad would always tell me to rub some dirt in it and stop crying. This is exactly what we are brought up to be like, just be tough and you will be a true tough man, and Anything less and we feel like failures and rejects.

I love me some TV

In todays world so many people own televisions. Televisions have become almost a necessity among Americans. People watch T.V. so much every single day. How can we not? It is so entertaining! It is able to take the edge off! unfortunately from the experiment of watching someone watch T.V. it is easy to see the reaction of T.V. people are constantly moving and nothing is going on in their heads(most of the time). T.V. uses technical events to make people interested, because the T.V. itself is just a boring screen with nothing on it. We spend so many hours a day almost trapped by it. In fact some people have the T.V. on at home when they are not even watching it. This is almost an emotional attachment to T.V., just like being attached to a family member. Yet it is hard to blame people for acting like the T.V. is a person or just needing to watch T.V. We are basically trained to watch T.V. since we were children. All of the colors and the noise sticks with us and we become attached to watching television. I know for me I love watching T.V. what is better then coming home from a long day than sitting down and letting other things take my mind over? I used to watch T.V. non-stop. Everyday I would come home sit down and turn on my favorite shows. I have changed since then and I do limit how much I watch T.V. a day because I can do something a bit more meaningful than stair at technical events on a black screen.

Nurture and nature

We don't usually think about how we know things. In fact the idea that we didn't know how to chew, how to walk, or how to talk did not come naturally to us. As people we need both Nurture and Nature for us to grow as people. Nature are all of our instincts that we are born with, but nurture is something that is learned. Most people probably take things we do everyday for granted. Could you imagine not being able to walk right, not being able to talk, or even no being able to use a bathroom? These are all things that we learn at a young age and that is why we are able to do them today, and that is why those daily routines are second nature to us. As we learned in class we need to be nurtured to reach our full potential. We saw this video of a girl who was locked in a room for years. She was never able to be nurtured. She was never able to learn things that we take for granted. Because of this she can't walk normally and can't even eat solid foods. Another person affected by this nurture idea was a boy who lived with a dog. He grew up nurtured by that dog and because of this he actually thought he was a dog, and acted like a dog. As humans we need both Nurture and Nature to grow, both are equally important and as seen by those two kids if you are not nurtured in a positive environment you can't obtain your full potential. My experience with nurture and nature is learning how to walk. According to my parents I would watch them so much and try to copy  their movements. slowly I learned how to walk, and ever since I have used it to the fullest. Even today I have taken my original nurture of learning to walk and used to to play sports such as track.

death taboo

In our society death is a topic that many people are afraid of talking about. It is almost as if it is a taboo to talk about it. You walk into a room and it could be a very pleasant mood, and one mention of the word death and the mood could instantly drop.  The question is why are we afraid of it? Death is a natural event that everyone must go through, so what makes it so hard to talk about? One thing that makes people fear death is that we are a materialistic culture, and when we die we lose everything we have. We can infer that some reasons we are afraid of death is because we lose all those objects that we put so much value into it. Another reason that could possibly tie into our fear of death is that it is the most unknown thing we know of. There are no answers to it, and it works in mysterious ways. We constantly seek answers to everything, so our materialism is one way we express our knowledge. The more you have the more knowledge you could possibly have. How could we have something that gives us insight to death? We are afraid of death because we are afraid of the unknown, because we need material items to validate us, and help explain the meanings to ideas. I remember a time when I was at a funeral for one of my relatives. Even though death was standing in front of everyone no one said anything about it. As the naive child I mentioned the taboo, and instantly my parents told me to be quiet. At the time I didn't understand. What was the big deal? He had already passed on and the word still had its affect on everyone there.

crossing the street

In the United States crossing the street seems like second nature to us. We wait until the white sign flashes the person walking and we cross, or we just go across when no cars are coming. If you travel to a different country things might not be the same. In some countries you need to walk at a steady pace across the street whenever you want and have the cars avoid you. Or you have to navigate through traffic without getting hit. This is an unbelievably strange thing to imagine, especially growing up and being molded to strict rules with crossing the street. It's hard to imagine it because we as Americans have been trained to be "organized" in crossing the road, while to us the way they do things in other countries is pure chaos. To those other people in those countries this is the normal thing to do though. They see no problem with it, as if it was natural. I could not imagine doing anything like this, regularly, it just seems like to much chaos for it to be safe. One time, though, I was fooling around with a friend and we crossed the street while playing leap frog. Now this may not be the same thing as what people do in other countries but if you compare the chaos of crossing with all those cars to playing a game in the street it is sort of similar.

Understanding Language

Most of the time we do not second guess anything that we say or do. Everything that we see or do has been taught to us since a young age. Little did we know the way we do things in the U.S. is not how other countries do things. When we try to say something there is a pre-set idea of our own language and how to interpret it. In other places in the world they may not have our set of language "rules." For example in the U.S. giving the sign of "ok" with your hands means just that, but in other countries it could mean an obscenity. We don't usually second guess how our language could possibly be different, because we are so used to it. We have been taught what to do for so long that anything else seems unusual to us. I'm sure that this holds true for people in other countries who see what we do here. This holds true for me. When I see someone walking and they do something out of the ordinary like sing very loudly, or skip, or even fall I always kind of look at that person with confusion. It is just something out of the ordinary, and that is how other cultures view people that do things in a "strange" way. Because they are not used to it, it seems strange and that is how our mental languages are different from other cultures.

just a generalization

As we learned it is human nature to generalize and create categories. Not that creating categories or using generalizations is wrong, it's just the way we do things when we are in certain situations. The problem with these generalizations is that we tend not to second guess the way we perceive things. Therefore our generalizations are less accurate then we would like to believe. To learn how to use our generalizations in a different way we need to be able to step back from the category and realize that not every person in our generalization will fit into it. When someone doesn't fit into a category we created that is called a stereotype. Stereotyping is the flaw with generalizations because, for example, if someone said that all Caucasians had mini vans that is our generalization. For the sake of the argument lets say that for the most part that is true, but if you went up to a Caucasian person and didn't know who they were and assumed they had a mini van that would be a stereotype. What if the person doesn't have a mini van? This is the flaw with how humans generalize. It may make us intelligent but at the same time it redirects our perspective and makes us less accurate in our assumptions. Everyone is guilty of doing this. One time I had a substitute teacher for one of my classes. I have categorized that all substitute teachers don't know what there doing and it will be an easy day. Unfortunately I stereotyped the sub because that person had a degree in the subject we were learning and made us do a lot of work. I generalized that all substitute teachers were there just to pass on the time,but little did I know she also taught the subject. Even though we make these categories as a way of intelligent thinking, we are at fault because our perceptions are thrown off at the individuals that don't fit the category.

clix

Surprisingly this concept of being part of a group is no surprise. The idea that we discriminate or have allegiances to a group is a surprise. I may have been aware of certain groups I was apart of, but never really second guessed it. When we watched the experiment of the teacher and the kids, it actually became obvious of how we segregate and discriminate people. When I'm in school there are certain people I hang out with and certain people I don't. It's just that simple, you can't be friends with everyone. With the groups you hang out with you tend to be nicer, more comfortable, and more loyal. With your "in-group" you feel a sense of belonging and trust. Now in the other groups you don't have this sense of belonging or trust. Because of this lack of trust you tend to give them the "cold shoulder" or simply ignore or make fun of them. In school these groups people are a part of are "clicks." basically I am much more comfortable with my own click and when I am forced to interact with another person from another click for a little while a very likely outcome could be mocking them or just not being nice to them. It's not that we have anything against that person, it's just we don't have any allegiance to them and we really don't know the person, so we decide that it is o.k. to discriminate against that person because they are not part of your own group. Also the reason we become loyal to our group is because usually there are similarity's that make us closer. For example one group may like Kid Cudi, while another group enjoy Lil Wayne. These are the types of similarity's that can bind people together. You are able to form an allegiance with people who share your same intentions and interests, and if someone who does not believe in the same things you do, can be judged and disliked.

double snowday

I'm not sure if I've ever had two days in a row off of school. No joke I was extremely surprised, most likely along with everyone else. They predicted a bunch of snow, and guess what they were right. One thing they neglected to mention, at least to my knowledge, was the drifting of the snow. Anyway what I'm trying to say is that this was one monster of a snow storm. This storm was able to do something that has not been done it a while. After the snowing part of the storm was over everything stopped. Many places were closed down and it seemed as if the city just stopped for the entire day. The snow was just so massive that it seemed to be able to pull people together. I woke up went outside to somehow shovel my driveway, when a few of my neighbors came over to help me out. I'm not sure about most neighbors but when it usually snows we tend to do our own property and then go inside to where it is warm. This storm was able to unite neighbors together, because it seemed that we were all in the same situation. For that one day we all were united together and came together to help each other out when we needed it. Once my neighbors helped me finish my driveway, I went to my neighbors driveway and helped them complete their driveway. So it seems that when things get tough the people around us are able to come together and put aside what they want to do and help others.

outliers

This week in sociology we discussed the excerpt "outliers" basically the idea of outliers was about how our social groups such as who we are close to or where we live have an affect on us as people. It is hard not to agree with this because we are around those people or things for so long that some ideas must rub off on us and shape who we are. For example in "outliers" there was a lower level of people with heart disease. A man named Wolf was curious about that situation. The explanation was that the environment those people lived in somehow made them healthier. Not because they lived healthier lives because they lived just as unhealthy as everyone else. Something they did have was a connection with everyone in the town. That connection those people had made them have less risk of having heart problems. This idea is about people being affected by their social groups. In this example the town all those people lived in acted as their social group and because of there happiness and peace they had less of a risk. There was nothing medically that Wolf could find with the village, so he shifted his idea towards the idea that the people were healthier because of the the values and ideals of the isolated village. For me one example of being affected by my social groups is when I hang out with my friends. When we all hang out there are certain things we do and certain things we don't do. After a while those ideas of we do and what we don't do rub off and even when I'm not with my friends sometimes I won't do certain things because I those ideas have been instilled in me. Now I'm no trying to say everything we do has an affect, but to just understand that because I hang out with a certain group I am affected because of what we do.

A Loud Silence

The first day of sociology instead of Sal being in front of the class he sat in the back and didn't say word. For me it was a weird experience but not because no one was talking, it was because everyone in the class was doing the same thing. Everyone in the class basically just looked around and didn't know what to do. It was almost as if the other kids were talking all at once but nothing was being said. If you could hear what they were all thinking it would have been extremely loud and would drown out the silence. Usually when you start a class the teacher stands in front and instructs the class on what to do. We have been almost manipulated to that type of "normal" idea of how the class should work. The only reason that the weird experienced happened when everyone was looking around not sure what to do was because for us that was outside of what we are used to doing. For me this same idea was incorporated a few years ago. I was on a bowling team and instead of my coaching giving us advice on how well we should play or what we should do, he just sat there and said "take it all in, and have fun with it." At first we were all confused because it was not what we were used to hearing from our coach especially when a big match was about to begin. That same idea is what Sal did in class, but if you think about it, what he did was only weird to all of us because we really haven't experienced it before.

Who am I?

Who am I? That's a very good question. I have yet to figure out an answer for that. I have many characteristics, but does that really define who I am or just how I act. Some people say actions define who you are but who is really sure? I feel that I am a loyal friend, overall a good person, and love sports. Well instead of just stating what most people would say about themselves I could go a bit deeper. I'm usually filled with tons of self doubt, always thinking, always processing, and in many ways am far beyond many other people  in the idea that i can use common sense and regular thinking to succeed in any situation. I would like to say that I am able to "read" people, and by that I mean I am able to figure out what people are thinking or how they really feel about something. Its very frustrating to be one of few who understand those difficult ideas, or maybe that's just an outlook of it and I'm wrong, but who really knows.

I would have to say the biggest influences on my life are my parents because I've been around them for 18 years, so it be very tough not to take things they have taught me. Also another big influence on me was one of my friends who is two years older than I am, and he was the type of person to lead others and if he wanted to do something he did it. He was able to make decisions and then go through with them which is something that he taught me.

Goals and purposes are like most people, go to college, get a good job, family...etc. But there is something more that I want.  Maybe it's the way I think about life and what it's really about but I want more then just the regular life, to achieve that I don't know how, but it is a goal.