My Final Blog

Who am I? I am my family, I am my friends, I am music, I am sports, I am Hollister, I am school. I've realized that I am who I because of my surroundings and how they have shaped me throughout my life. Because of my family I try to be respectful, I am full of emotion and expression, I am open-minded and I try to accept people for who they are. They have and always will be the best foundation I have ever had and keep me from being ignorant or selfish. My friends, some closer than others, have showed me how to trust and not trust, how to let loose and be myself regardless of what anyone thinks, and how to be even more open-minded to new experiences and ways of living. Sociology has opened my eyes to the ignorance in media, stereotypes, status, gender, and so many other important topics. So many of us have been controlled by the media since the day we were born and we don't even realize it. We make remarks about people of certain races because it's all that we see and know in the media, which makes it very hard to break away from certain stereotypes. After watching Crash it showed me that stereotypes are not always true and they can be very painful and insulting. Views on gender are also triggered by the media. Females as well as Males have certain standards that we are trained to think will make us more attractive and appealing, because after all, it's looks that count, right? WRONG! This class has helped me break away from these pretty much impossible expectations and just be able to sit back and laugh at all the weight loss commercials. I have also experienced the pleasures of positive deviance. Serving the needy, whether it's feeding the homeless at PADS, or packaging food at FMSC, or helping out with Habitat for Humanity, it's all empowering. When you know that you are being bigger than yourself and reaching out to several communities, near or far, it's a feeling that I can't describe. I feel accomplished, thankful for what I am fortunate to have, sympathetic, proud, and so many other things, which make my experiences so rewarding. I am still the person I said I was at the beginning of the semester, but now I have much more to offer.

Stereotypes

I thought the movie crash was very clever. The different types of race and their stereotypes were very obvious, yet the portrayal of them were very unique. When the Mexican man is changing the lock at the white couples house, the white woman wants them changed again in the morning because she doesn't trust him. She thinks he is a "gang banger" because of his baggie pants and his race. Yes she was just held at gun point and her car was stolen by two black men, but that gives her no right to accuse an innocent Mexican man. We later find that he is not in a gang, but has a wife and daughter and works very hard to protect them. Another stereotype that we have is brought to our attention when we see the motives of the "china man." At first when we see the two black males hit the Asian man we feel bad. But later we see that he was harboring people in the back of his truck and was planning to human traffic and sell them. This is a surprise to us because we see Asians as by the book people who are intelligent and respectful. This just shows that we should not judge people by the color of their skin. I have definitely held my belongings a little closer if I felt uncomfortable. I think this is a little bit of instinct and a little bit of racism. However, it is not always racism, my reasoning is usually because of the way they are dressed and it is always if it is a man, black, white, Mexican, or even Asian. If a guy looks shady to me, then I will always put my guard up. When I went downtown this past Saturday, I thought about what we learned in class and tried not to be racist at all. If I saw a man of color walking by I accepted him as a person, instead of having alarming thoughts. But no matter what, I will always trust my instincts.

"It don't matta if you're black or white"

It's the worst kind, in my opinion. These week we talked about race and how people automatically try to categorize people into a certain race as if that defines who they are. When we did the ball exercise, it was almost frustrating because every time Sal would add a new ball, we would pretty much have to add a category. This relates to races in that we can't put each and every person in the categories of white, black, and brown. We cannot divide them by Caucasian, African American, Asian, or Hispanic. There are so many people with mixed races in them and people with different ethnic backgrounds, which doesn't make them a mutt or miscellaneous, it just makes them an individual human being. We also looked at a chart of people from all over the world. Each person of a different race had a racial slur that another specific race had called them. This just shows that everyone attacks each other, even when we are joking, and it's just wrong. We are all obviously supposed to be on this earth, if we weren't supposed to be, then we wouldn't be! So people just need to accept that there are people like look different than them. On the other hand, people also may have racist tendencies, without even realizing it. We learned that this is called Implicit Racism. When most people are lost, in the city, and all of the suddenly they see a large amount of black people, they suddenly lock their doors and cringe. No matter what race you are, we are trained to automatically cringe in this situation and feel safer in a white neighborhood, run down or not. This type of racism can come about even within the same minority groups. All we do is judge, assume, and stereotype because that is all we are surrounded by. That Slip of the Tongue video was so cool! I love how she told him off after the comment he made about her "make-up." It was a little confusing at times, but her point was pretty clear. She didn't want to be judged by her "ethnic make-up," because she is who she is. It was pretty inspiring.

Minimum Wage

After watching that movie where the guy from "Super Size Me", and his wife live on minimum wage for 30 days really made me think. They could barely get buy, and they didn't even have any kids to take care of or anything. But when it came to medical issues, down-time, and overall health, they were cut short. It made me even more appreciative of what I am able to have in my life and how many luxuries I usually take for granted. In the movie after they had been well into the experience, I could see how worn out they were. They were saying that your home is a sanctuary. It is somewhere you go to relieve yourself of the stresses of your day. However, it is pretty impossible to have a stress free, relaxing moment when you are constantly worrying about paying your bills, and how you're going to eat, and get to work, or anything that is really just a brush off the shoulder for us. We buy our expensive coffee, our specific water, our designer clothes, and so many other things because that is what society teaches us is acceptable. But when you are just barely getting by because you need to survive on minimum wage, none of that matters. The focus is working to pay for the bills, food, water, and transportation to and from work in order to pay for these essentials. Yesterday when Corinne and I were at our community service, we were talking with this women about how ridiculous people are these days. For example, Corinne brought up how one of her friends was complaining about "Aquafina" water. She was saying that it doesn't taste good, and that she prefers "Dasani". Also, that she would NEVER drink out of the drinking fountains at school because of how gross they are. That is so snobby! There are people who are forced to drink out of dirt filled rivers and she can't decide which brand of water she likes best. I have to admit, I used to stray pretty far from the perspective of things, but i'm learning.

Poverty

After watching the video about Tammy and her son, I realized how hard it is to get out of poverty after it is all that you know. I believe that her son's actions can eventually give him higher status one day. If he really does try hard in school and sports he has the potential to get a scholarship at college and get a higher education that his mom has. If he has the drive to want to be successful and not always been known as the "white trash" kid, then I think he can achieve that. It's sad though how he is ashamed of his mom and the way he lives. People look down on him and his family because of their lack of money, which is rediculous. If you are born into a family without any money it is hard to start from scratch and work your way up from the bottom. But I just think he is so concious of the way he lives and it bothers him so much to the point where it pushes him to progress and make something of himself. I wouldn't know what to tell people like this accept to keep trying hard to work and get an education. They are in a deep hole that is very hard to get out of, but I do think it is possible.

Deviance, Drugs, & Prison

Even though I only saw the second half of the movie we watched in class I really liked it. It must take a lot of courage as a grown man to voluntarily be locked up in a prison for roughly 30 days. It was great how there were so many men at the rehabilitation center really trying to turn their lives around and steer away from the drug world. However, at the end we saw that a couple of the guys he met had ended up getting thrown back in jail shortly after they left the East Prison. It was sad to see how easily people can get dragged back into the drug world. They are good people but they grow up in bad environments and getting involved with drugs is all that they know. It ends up just creating problem after problem once they become addicted. They are usually lower class so it is hard for them to even acquire the amount they need to keep from withdrawal. Then they begin to steel and then maybe use violence and it is all one big ripple affect. As bad as drug users choices may be, people should all be punished equally in my opinion. You can't give someone who lives in the projects bigger consequences than a person living in Naperville, this may sound childish but it's just not fair! Also, it is confusing to people when deviance laws regarding drug use vary in different locations. Such as partial use of Marijuana is acceptable in some parts of Colorado and it is legal in Amsterdam. This makes people think well if its okay to use it in those places then I might as well be able to use it here. In this case they would be deviant here, but not in Colorado or Amsterdam. The justice system is wack.

Deviance Is In

I do think this applies to kids at our school. Going to Mexico for spring break is a very good example. The kids who's parents have the money to let them stay at a resort in Mexico over spring break suddenly are not breaking the law when they drink because the legal drinking age is 18. However, if the kids who are stuck here over spring break decide they want to drink too, they have that chance of getting in serious trouble because they would be under the legal drinking age. In this case, the kids who have the money can beat around the bush and legally be able to do what others are not able to do. But it is not all about drinking of course. That is just a good example of deviance at our school. Most kids at our school are saints because they are deviant but they know their way around the consequences. On the other hand, there I do realize there is such a thing as positive deviance, of which I got to learn first hand. When I performed my random act of kindness in the city and gave a street musician a dollar, it made me feel almost proud of myself. Normally I would just walk by fast and ignore them and just go on with my day. But when I saw that others were doing just that, I felt bad and thought it would be worth it, and it was. Sure it wasn't that of the ordinary, but for me, it was. I decided not to generalize people who are in need of something as simple as a dollar. Even though we tend to see a dollar as almost worthless, he was overjoyed! He was also pleased that people had actually stopped to acknowledge him. I think we should make these random acts of kindness, a little less random.