Final Blog

               This semester has been amazing. I have learned so much and I am sad to know that it is coming to an end. However, even if the semester ends, the Sociological content will never be un-taught or not learned. Because sociology is everywhere. The fact that I am sitting in a library, typing on a laptop, is simply not just that. This action is influenced by everything that is involved in society around me. I am doing this blog because I wanted to take this class. I wanted to take this class because I am interested in the way things work in the world. I am working on this ahead of time because I am a good student, and that is influenced by my friends, my parents, the subculture of Stevenson, the American culture and perhaps even the world-ly ideal to achieve. Everything is related to society, whether we like to think so or not. It is hard to believe the number of connections that I have realized in taking this class. This class practically created a whole new and different world for me. I make up a family which makes up a community which makes up the metropolitan statistical area of Chicago, which makes up Illinois, which makes up the Midwest, which makes up the country, which makes up the continent, which makes up the world. And so on. I am connected to everything and everyone around me. I am part of a bigger idea. We are all part of a bigger idea. That being said- I can make a difference. The service experience showed that. Yes, the world is large, larger than is ever possible to imagine by the human brain, but I can make a difference in this world, by simple actions. This class has taught me that the person that I am is a person who is connected. I used to think the reason why I am the way I am was because my parents raised me like that and that it was simply naturally biological that I am different from other people. But that is simply not true. I am not solely impacted by the way in which my parents raised me and my own biological makeup. I am influenced by the people around me, media, race, gender, politics, cultures, and the way in which all of these things join together to create a force called socialization. And this will never stop, not until the end of time. Society and the pace in which society moves in is a much larger force than I think anyone can imagine. It is hard to imagine a person living completely separate from society- it is impossible. Even the feral children that we discussed in class, they were still impacted the animals they grew up around. This class has given me a wider view of the world and has allowed me to realize that I am not simply me- I am a combination of myself and all the other influences that surround me. That is who I am. I am a mix of everything that society places on me. And I do not think I can ever change that.

Week 17- Crash

This past week in sociology, we watched the movie, Crash. The storyline showed multiple different characters that were of different races and all of their stories ended up being connected to one another. They were connected by one binding force- race. As Sal said, the main character was just the idea of race and the movie depicted how racial discrimination and the concept of explicit race plays a role in our everyday lives, whether we like to think so or not. Explicit race/racism, which is the belief that ones own race is superior to others, and discrimination, which is acting upon ones own perceived notion of that particular race. In the movie, there were many examples of explicit racism, such as when the guy went into the health-insurance office and was upset over his plan and claimed that he could "find six more qualified white men" to replace an African-American woman's job. Sandra Bullock's character also was prejudiced towards the Mexican locksmith, believing that he would give the key to one of his "homies", and she then kicked him out of the house. This movie was basically the epitome of the existence of race and the toll that it takes in our society.

This movie brought up many interesting ideas that we have discussed in class. The issue of race as a social construct was a prevalent issue in the movie. Race of the characters was simply just assumes by others- there was no biological evidence that the one guy was black and the one girl was Chinese. Another idea I did not initially see was the concept of sociological imagination. This movie emphasized that we are all connected in some way and that we all play a small part in the bigger picture. By enforcing the idea of race and something that separates us, the characters in the movie thus did not nothing to try to help the end of racism, and were therefore sociologically unaware. This movie made me realize that as much as we like to think it doesn't, race does indeed play a huge role in our entire society and that we are affected by race, even if we are not racist ourself.

My service experience

Today, I went to Bernie's Book Bank in Lake Forest for about an hour, even though it was originally planned for two hours, but we were let out early. When Bary, our friend, and I got there, they had us sign in and then began to tell us the process of the book sorting and bagging. We organized the books by grades, preschool to sixth grade, and threw the books into the correct bin. Then, we loaded them onto a table where we labeled them with Bernie's Book Bank stickers, and then began putting six books into separate bags and loaded them onto carts to be brought to schools in low-income areas. The number of books that went through our hands was astounding. I probably saw about 1,000 books go through the "assembly" line, only in one hour! This was a really fun experience and I plan on going back again!

This experience taught me a lot about society and the way in which the world operates. This experience showed me that, although it is often hard to realize, especially in our materialistic American society, that there are people that are still in need of books. Books of all things. It amazes me that I grew up with about four or five book shelves in my house, went to the library all the time, and read at school, and at the same time there were kids my age who didn't even know what a book was. I was thinking this when going through some of my favorite books as a kid today and I began to think about the issues of class that we discussed in sociology and this experience emphasized that although we'd like to think America does not have class, we most definitely do and these classes are defined by wealth. Those who, say, cannot afford books are in lower classes and those who can take their kids to book stores all the time are higher class. It is heartbreaking knowing that kids grow up in such poverty that they do not even know what a book or reading is. This experience also made me realize how there are so many people who care about giving to others. Those who volunteer have good sociological imagination and understand that the world is a whole lot bigger than just them and then they must help others in order to be an active member of a society. This experience was very rewarding and allowed me to apply sociology to an actual situation. I can't wait to do it again!

Week 16- The Human Race.

This week in sociology, we discussed race as a sociological construct, as opposed to the perceived notion that race is a biologically determined. We discovered that there truly is no biological difference between these races and that different fingerprints, for example, are not common in one "race", but rather vary over a wide spectrum of people. We also determined that race changes from culture to culture, making race relative as a social construct. In Brazil, for example, they have multiple types of race that are solely determined by physical characteristics, rather than America'a way of distinguishing race by ancestry. Therefore, we decided that ones race would change from culture to culture- race is not limited to one specific definition, nor is it something that should separate us all. We are all apart of one race: the human race.

This week was yet another insightful week in sociology. I learned things that I already knew about race, but this week I realized how dramatic sociological construction of reality really is on one's own perception of reality. In the American culture, we are faced with the task to try to overcome racism, especially due to our eventful past involving racism. However, I realized that we are all under the misconception that racial differences is a huge problem in our society. However, I believe that if we enforced more ideas on how race is simply sociological, there would be less emphasis on racial discrimination, as well as less differences between races. I do think the idea of race is ultimately timeless, no matter how hard we try, but I do believe that as a united society, we should be able to overcome some of the obstacles that race brings.

Week 15

This week in sociology we learned about social class and levels of poverty in America. This week was very eye opening because it taught us that as much as we like to think America does not have a social class, we definitely do, but it just is not defined, like it is in some Indian and other cultures. We have a social class that is not noticeable unless suddenly in a city and you travel through each realm/section of the city and you see a stark contrast between the types of people and companies found in different areas of cities. The sad thing about poverty in America is that once you are born into poverty, it is a huge struggle to get out of poverty, especially since the upper class owns most of the money in America and they keep getting richer as the poor get poorer.

I am very lucky to have been born into a middle class family and town. I often take that for granted by carelessly spending money and not appreciating what I am given. The town my grandma lives in, however, has a lot of people that could be considered blue-collar working class and I can clearly sense that from the way they act and live. It is also interesting to see the cultural and value differences between classes, such as the working class valuing less materialistic things and non-tangible items, whereas the higher classes may value more materialistic things and value money over other things. Social class in America is actually a very noticeable thing if you become sociologically mindful and notice things around you.

Week 14- Jail and justice

These past two days, we have been discussing jail and the injustices prisoners must deal with due to their "deviant" actions that brought them to jail. We watched Morgan Spurlock's show, 30 Days in Jail, which was a short documentary that filmed Spurlock in jail for a full thirty days with other criminals, mainly those penalized with drug convictions This show showed many different perspectives of jail, such as the normal cells with a large common area in the middle, a solitary confinement cell, and a nicer jail that led outside and offered programs to get over drug addictions. One thing understood from all these perspectives, however, was that you are trapped. You go into jail, are completely stripped of your rights and are trapped in a large room for days upon days. It is an awful thought to think that so many people in jail made one mistake that ultimately messed up their whole life unless they find some way to repair the damage they've done. However, as seen with George and Travis, two of Spurlock's cell mates, they had the intentions of leaving jail and repairing their life, finding a job and fixing things, but were then sent back to prison only a short while after they were initially released. The Virginia jail's west side, which had a program for drug and alcohol addicts could be beneficial if the inmates stayed in the program beginning to end or if all prisoners, especially in the US even had the opportunity to go to programs like that and it is a shame that many 'criminals' do not have the opportunity to receive the help they need.

This perspective of jail taught me great insight about society and the criminal//jail industry in general. One main thing I got from this is another emphasis on nurture and how those around you deeply affect you and how your life turns out. For example, if my parents were drug or alcohol addicts, I would most likely have a better chance of being involved in those things as well, because I would be constantly surrounded by it. George, for example, said that when he got out of jail, he was going to stop hanging with the wrong people, (ultimately those who would pressure him into falling back into the vicious cycle of jail-release-jail again), but I bet that he did not escape those negative influences, and therefore was sent back to jail. This was a very sociological topic discussed and it really opened my eyes to the ideas of justice and how deeply others affect you.

Week 13- Saints and Roughnecks

This week in class, we daicsussed social deviance and how social classes affect our levels of deviance. One main article we read was about a small town that included two distinct high school groups- the Saints and the Roughnecks. The Saints were the ones involved in school activities and sports, had more money and appeared to be the good kids. The Roughnecks, however, were seen as the "badass" kids who were always messing around and had no motivation. However, both of these groups were involved in many crimes, and arguably the Saints did worse things than the Roughnecks. Despite similar actions from the two groups, the Saints were able to avoid police and get out of conflicts they were stuck in due to their perceived reputation of being good kids just messing around. The Roughnecks, however, always got in trouble with the cops and the community disapproved of them and saw then as deviant. The article discussed how the Saints went on to lead successful lives and got careers and educations. The Roughnecks, however, being trapped in their identity created by the society, were dropouts, low class people by the time they left high school and moves on in life. This article showed how society's perception of certain groups affects other groups and the individual group itself and was really interesting in showing how time and place affects one deviance and their actions.

At Stevenson, there are Saints and Roughnecks, but I saw them as doing different actions than the kids in the article. I compared the Saints in the article to the kids in school who appear to be good kids, involved in sports and activities, but do not pay much attention to school, but fake it in front of teachers in order to make the grade. Basically, they walk the walk ad talk the talk and this perceived notion gives teachers the sense that they really are good students, but unreality, they only do what's absolutely necessary to make the good kids. The Roughnecks, however, in Stevenson are the kids who everyone knows don't care about school- they ditch class, disrupt class and never get their homework done. Although they may be smart and just don't stay motivated, teachers and peers still have the perception that they are "slackers" and therefore punish them more or do not give them the same help that they would give one of the "Saints", given the situation. In our Stevenson subculture, the kids who appear to be slackers are seen as deviant and go against the norms of Stevenson, such as excelling in school and participating in class. I believe every society has Saints and Roughnecks and the perceived reputations of these groups change based on what the society thinks is deviant or not.