Blog #9

Race:

Article assuming darker color was stealing while persons of lighter skin werent!

My whole life, alike everyone else, I thought that race was a biological trait until this unit. Sal taught us that race is just a social construction. Although there are some characteristics that are common among groups of people from a certain area, it is not race. Society groups people into "races" that are attached to a specific idea or thought. Prejudice is having a predetermined attitude about a group of people usually based on a stereotype.  Discrimination is an action or behavior that results in unequal treatment of individuals because of his or her perceived "race." This prejudice is very unfair to those who appear to be in a certain group when there aren't actually, and to those who are placed into the groups even if they have all of the traits that would put them in it. In class, we also learned specifically about implicit and explicit racism. Implicit means that’s its hidden in our unconsciousness, we don’t know that we are even thinking it. Contrastingly, explicit means directly and consciously believing that one's own "racial" group is superior to others. For example, Sal gave us the examples in class of the man trying to steal the bike on What Would You Do? When a Caucasian man was trying to steal the bike, people even tried to help him! However, when an African American man tried to, the phone calls to the police were immediate and people tried to stop the man. In this context, it is implicit racism, because in effort to act quickly and without thinking, they just assumed the black man was committing a crime and the white man wasn’t. Their subconscious just assumed. This is the issue with our society, we have created these unfair stereotypes that don’t and shouldn’t represent a group of people. It’s the same thing with these news articles. After the flood the reporter made it seems like the person of darker skin tone was stealing while the white people were just “finding” food. They were doing the same deed, but one was considered a criminal and the other was not. In my experience I have experienced major racism, especially in middle school. People would make fun of my smaller eyes; say that I have yellow skin, that they “love” my Asian hair, that I must be really smart. Some people assumed that my parents would have Korean or Asian accents. It was all really difficult to face and deal with, but it has taught me who are truly my friend and the people who are not. Race should never matter when it comes to friendship or relationships in general. Everyone should be treated equally and someone should never feel inferior to another person based upon his or her skin color.

Final Blog!!!

Service-

My whole life, my family has made it very apparent to me that helping the less fortunate is very important. I always had a desire to do so, but never did for the right reasons. I did to get hours or to have something to feel good about, but never to change people’s lives or make a difference to someone’s day. Ever since last year however, I have been devoting my time to helping my community and I love it. So I thought the obvious next step was to take sociology, a class that teacher abut social awareness, culture, social class, racism, etc. I yearned to learn more and help more people and this class had been a success in doing so.

For my service hours I did a variety of different things:

-Give-A-Thon leader

-Feed my starving children

-Orphans of the storm

-Donated clothes, books, desk, shoes, etc.

Social class-

I loved to serve all of the organization but I had an exceptionally great timeserving Give-A-Thon. Give-A-Thon serves all of those who are in a lower social class that cannot afford gifts for their family. I sold cookies/brownies to earn money for my class and also donated my own money and then my class and I went to Target and purchased holiday gifts for a six-person family. We even had enough money left over to buy them some extra toys and a Gift card for the mom. Parents of the lower social class are struggling to earn enough to keep the heat on in the house and feed the children and to get gifts for the holiday; the parents would have to reduce the money spent on everyday necessities. I don’t think anyone should have to deal with that. The organization is funded through people who are “better off”, that don’t have the same struggles as these families. I think that these organizations generate interest from others in the community by, sadly, offering up hours, but also they begin to receive donations around thanksgiving time when people feel obligated to helping others. It reminded me of "the line" and the unit on social class and social inequality from class and I could compare examples from my life to the documentary. This charity fits into the American Dream ideology we learned in class, because it’s making it little easier a US citizen to have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosper. We saw the wealth chart in class and how unequally it is distributed within America. It makes me feel like i'm making a difference in this unfair system we have set up in Ameirca, I get to help the less fortunate feel as if they got alittle lucky this holiday season. As for most Americans being willing enough to give their wealth to help others, yes I do believe that they do. It may be for the wrong reasons such as peer pressure or desiring good karma, but most of the time people do so because they genuinely want to help others. There are a lot of selfish people in the world, but a small amount of generous people put those people in the shadows.

Socialization-

When I donated clothing, it was a unique experience. Typically I would go to Salvation Army or Goodwill to give my unwanted clothes, but this time was odd, but special. My family and I were getting our house redone resulting in the aid of movers. In the process of cleaning the house, there were a lot of things that I no longer wanted. I left it all in garage, planning to take it to the store later on the day. However, as the movers were leaving, they saw my things and nervously asked if I was giving them way. Obviously I was, so I told them yes. They tried their best to speak so I could understand them. With hand motions, a few Spanish words here and there, he told me that they would really appreciate my old things and that they had kids at home without proper winter clothes or books to read. I didn’t even think for a second before I said they should feel free to take anything that they needed. They took everything. It was crazy to see that we were in a everyday situation and that our social statuses were so far apart. It made me think back to the graph in class, that displayed the wealth distribution and differences in America. As they say “One man’s trash, is another man’s treasure”. It didn’t matter that they couldn’t speak fluent English, I noticed his immediate effort to try and get my old clothes for his daughters and son and there was no way I could say no. It was eye opening to see that someone I was interacting with needed clothes for his family and there was no way I would’ve known if he hadn’t reached out.

Sociological Imagination:

This may be a bit of a stretch, but the dogs and cats that I helped were affected with sociological mindfulness. They were animals that people no longer wanted. Obviously things larger than their personal choices shaped their circumstances, because if it were up to them, they would choose to stand by their owners.  The animals were shaped by when and where they lived. They could’ve been in a home with a loving family that was moving, maybe with a family who had a baby, or maybe they were the pets of someone who was abusive. All of their lives were impacted buy the homes and families they were living with/in. The idea of the sociological imagination was developed by C. Wright Mills who said that having a sociological imagination helps one to see the connection between history and biography. I experienced sociological mindfulness when I realized that a couple hours providing love to some of these animals is all they needed and that my presence could make a huge difference in one of their days/ lives. Mindfulness is a  concept that describes an awareness in world at this moment here and now.  It implies being tuned in to the present moment.  Sociological mindfulness therefore, is being tuned into to both the way in which the present moment is influenced by society and also being tuned into how we are a player in shaping the present moment. As for social construction of reality, individual’s feelings could be influenced by some of people’s negative or positive views of society. Someone could be pro-animal shelter dogs and cats; because they are saving a life, or someone could be anti-animal shelter, because they believe that shelter animals are dirty or unwanted for a reason.

Conclusion-

This class was very inflectional on me and I learned things that I would have never known otherwise. I even used some of our topics in my ACT essay J. Thank you for everything Sal!!

Blog #8

Social Class: 
In history class we always talk about countries that have obvious and intense social class differences such as India (caste system). However, the discussion of the United States doesn't come into play, unless it is a conversation about slavery. Unless you are part of this "poverty-struck" group, not many people seem to know/believe that it exists. The United States population has one of the greatest gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Approximately 1% possesses 40% of the nation’s wealth; the bottom 80% own 7%. It's unbelievable to me that the US system can lead one person to debating on what color their 5th car should be, while others go to bed on an empty stomach. 

In " The Line", it was shocking to see someone who had been stricken by poverty and that they were living in a city near mine. They seemed as if they had their life together, a nice sized house, a car, but no. Not everything is, as it may seem. At first, he couldn't face going to the food pantry. He was embarrassed and could not face the fact that he had to get his food off other's donations. It makes me grateful, but worried at the same time, because I am obviously better off than him, but devastation could happen to my family any day. I was aware of this kind of poverty, but when I first think of poor, I imagine the south side, violence, and the other side of poverty they showed in the film. They were in a similar financial situation, but they were unfortunately faced with violence and drugs. It opened my eyes up, because people can be in a similar situation, in a different setting and that people are very good at hiding their wealth or lack of it. 

Nickel and a Dimed:

Barbara decided to test out how it was living a life earring minimum wage. She had to start from the bottom (although having much more education and skills); she started where everyone else did. She had to apply for application constantly and to her surprise, she never got a call back. It was shocking to her, because she thought that the people hiring would've noticed her intellect. It didn't matter to them. As she began to work, she noticed a similar pattern between all of her coworkers; they all (unshockingly) had very harsh living conditions. The privacy, money, integrity, that many had to give up to find somewhere to sleep is so saddening. 

Barbara in the end, earned $1,040, but had to use $517 on necessities. She had lost 40 pounds, never went shopping except for slacks needed for work, and she never bought any medications.

It was an obviously difficult transition and period of living. After this experience, Barbara applauds single mothers and former welfare repents for being able to survive. 

Blog #7

Masculinity vs. Femininity

 In our culture there is a polarization of what it means to be female and male AND lesbian or gay. Society pushes individuals into stiff and narrow boxes, leaving no room for fluidity and freedom.

We learned in class of the social construction of reality that women are almost always over sexualized and how men had very limited ways of being masculine

Women:

In advertisements, women are always underdressed, skinny, surrounded by men, timid, subordinate, etc. They make women appear to be weak and incapable protecting themselves from others. In result of these ads and society’s skewed views, women become very insecure about themselves making it almost impossible to see their bodies in a positive light. The video from class that was most influential on me was the one called #likeagirl from the brand Always. They touch upon the facts that in society, when people say to do something “like a girl”; they all do so in a very feminine way. Certainty the severe incapability to throw a ball or run isn’t a trait of most girls today, but since society has really feminized and degraded women, that’s the way that most people tend to think. However, when it came to asking a younger girl who doesn’t care what society thinks, she shows with all her might and runs with all the energy she has. When the others were told of how they had acted before, they were shocked and regretful at how they had let society affect them.

Men:

As for men, many people do not think that they are attacked by society or inconvenienced in anyway by society, but in reality, they are.  Society makes it very hard for man to feel masculine. If a man shows any part of his feminine side they are called “ fag, gay, sissy, pussy, wimp, mama’s boy, etc.” Men have to be violent and muscular to avoid being called names by others. They have to be constantly appearing tough and show no emotion. This is obviously very difficult given that they are human and need to express emotional just like anyone else. We were shown many examples in the video “Tough Guise” by Jackson Katz. There were clips of violent movies, fights among men, etc, displaying how relevant this issue really is in society.

Neither or Both:

As for the people who are neither male nor female, their struggles seem to be the most difficult, because of how closed-minded society is. A majority of us are unaware that fluid genders like this exist. Many people don’t recognize the struggles many people go through to simply go to the bathroom. Which one are they supposed to choose when they aren’t male or female? There is almost 1 to no universities, businesses, schools, or restaurants that account for these “gender types”. No gender bathrooms are a start, but society doesn’t recognize the importance of acknowledging the struggles of these people that don’t identify with male or female.

Personal connection:

My personal connection to this subject and unit that we learned about is ne of my friends that struggles with an eating disorder, because of her self-consciousness and idea that people were always judging her and her body. It broke my heart to see how insecure she felt and how she had to hurt her body to make it “acceptable” to society.

Service Blog

I went to both Feed My Starving Children (2x) and Orphans of the storm for some of my service hours. I chose to do FMSC, because I really care about Third world countries and doing whatever I can to help others that are in need. I find it so saddening that these children are facing famine and don’t have proper medicine, clothing, or homes to live in. However, they always seem to be grinning ear to ear just because they have a phenomenal community surrounding them. At the location we packed rice, protein, soy, and vegetables. They told us that it had to be these specific ingredients because they were the cheapest for the most products and that practically anywhere in the world; they know hot to cook it, just by observing that rice is apart of the ingredients. I have done this community service in the past and decide to do it again because it was enjoyable and obviously have a great impact on others. As for orphans of the storm, I was surprised because volunteers have to be trained and apply to actually work there and take care of the animals, however I still went and I was able to feed and send time with the animals. This is important to humans too because animals change the lives of people. They have such a great and most of the time positive impact on others. Therefore, taking care of animals is taking care of something that potentially can completely improve and change a person's life. I also donated all my clothes, books, furniture to my mover because he told me that his children didnt have any of the things that I was going to throw out anyways. I was crazy to see how "one persons trash is another persons treasure" His eyes lit up when I told him  that he could take anything he needed, it was amazing to see. Also, I was a give a thon leader which provided gifts for children during this holiday season who's families couldn't afford the gifts. 

Giving clothes away: 1 1/2 hrs Give-a-thon: 4 hrs  FMSC: 5 hours (with driving time)
Orphans Of the storm: 1hr 45min