Crash- Implicit & Explicit Racism

This week in sociology, we watched a movie called Crash. Crash presented the extreme cases of racism that people encounter on so many occasions. I enjoyed this movie a lot, because it really opened up my eyes about racism, and how it affects everyone. What I liked most about Crash, was that it wasn't just black and white people. It had a diverse cast from many different minorities like Hispanic, Mexican, Asian, and Persian. which gave a really good perspective of race from different points of views. In the movie, there were many examples of both implicit and explicit racism. implicit racism is based on judgments, it is from your brain. You don't realize that you're racist because it is in the subconscious part of your brain, and it's not intentional. Explicit racism is extreme racism, where you know and realize that you are racist, and it is your intention to be that. In the movie, one example of explicit racism was when the Persian family's store was broken into, and it had racist remarks to 9/11 and Arabians, when they were not even Arabian. One example of implicit racism was when sandra bullock kept telling her husband to change the locks, when she saw the locksmith was Mexican. In my opinion, I think that explicit racism is worse because the person's intention is to be racist, its not an accident. As much as I wouldn't like to, I think that I could be implicitly racist, and I think that everyone in some ways or another is. It's very easy to pass quick judgment on someone just because of what race they are or what race they look like. We can't help that because society has taught us these things. I think the best thing you can do is to realize that you are being racist and try to prevent it from happening.

Race

I never realized that race has always been a social construct. Biologically, race does not exist. There are no biological traits that can identify with "races". The first time that I actually learned that race was a social construct was in my US History class. When I was asked, "what does race mean", I would always respond with the obvious response. I would say that race is the group that you belong to based on your biological features. However, that is wrong, since race has no connection to your biological makeup. What I learned about race in sociology, was that your race can easily change depending on where you are. Like what Sal said, you might be one race in this country, but if you fly over to another area, like Brazil, you would be considered a different race. So, even though race is not real in regards to biology, I still wonder why people are so obsessed about it. I myself have always wondered what race I am. Technically, people would say that I am Asian, but I feel like I am not like other Asians, I have a different skin tone, and different features, so what really am I? I have ultimately realized that it does not matter what race I am, because race does not define me, and race can change. Watching the video in class today about the Brown vs. Board of Education and the dolls, broke my heart. It was so sad to see these little girls, who were probably only about 8 or 9 years old, think so badly of themselves, and put white people above them. That really proves how much people still obsess over race and hopefully, one day it will change, and people will not be put down because of their races.

Social Class:Monopoly

This week we've been discussing poverty, and social class. In order to represent the concept of social class and its role in our society,  we played monopoly. While playing this, each player had to roll to see what class they'd be in. This is kind of in a way like how it happens in real life.  Like Sal said, you don't get to pick your class. You get it by luck, or by being born into it. When I rolled, I ended up in the upper middle class. While playing, instead of getting 200,000 dollars everytime you pass go, you only get what your income is. As I was playing,  I started to realize that the higher class players had a huge advantage to win the game. They were able to start buying properties right away since they had the money. Then, everytime someone would land on the property,  people of the lower classes had a hard time paying.  As the game went om, eventually, all the money I had was slowly decreasing and I lost all of it and was put on welfare. Once I was put on welfare, I realized that I was stuck. I think that this was an important lesson because it taught us how certain people of certain classes have a huge advantage of getting more and more money, while people at the bottom get nothing,  and they are stuck there, holding onto whatever they can. This unit has really me alot. Many people could ignorantly say that people in poverty put themselves in poverty and don't try. However, people are literally stuck at the bottom, and its extremely difficult to make it up a class. This unit really opened up my eyes about things Ive never had to think about. Even though it was just a game, I realized that people that are actually in a situation where they are on welfare feel hopeless. I didn't even want to try anymore to try to win the game or make more money because I knew that it was just not possible with the rules.

Social Class

This week in class, we discussed social class. We learned that social class plays a very significant and huge role in shaping who we are, and the things we do or don't do. We looked at specific graphs and data. One thing we looked at was how family income and wealth affects our lives. Our family's wealth and income determine things like where we'll live, what kind of houses we buy, the people we hang out with, the quality of education we receive and other things. While we were looking at the different graphs, one thing I realized was kind of shocking. A very tiny percentage of people in the entire country owns most of the countries wealth. The rest of the people fall in the middle, which is the middle class. Then, at the way bottom is the lower class, which is a really large percentage. This showed how there's a huge gap in the distribution of wealth in our country.  The coin wager activity that we did, did an excellent job of showing how wealth is distributed and how certain people have advantages to earn more money. I have never thought about these things. I realized that the way I'm shaped, is largely determined by my family's wealth and income. These things affect who I create relationships with, how I do in school and where I go to school. I think the most important role that is affected by social class is education. Many people say that it is easy to go to college, find a great job, and make "new money". However, many people have certain advantages which may make it harder for others. People often blame people in poverty by saying that they choose to be there, however, you need some advantage in the beginning to start your life. For example, you need money to make it to college and earn a degree, and it takes a lot of investing. I realize that I am lucky for the education that I get. It was only luck that I was born into a financially stable family, and I am lucky enough to get the chance to get to college.

Drugs and Deviance

This week in class, we did an activity connecting deviance to drugs. For this activity we had to decide if a certain type of drug is legal, prescription, illegal, or a felony. This was fun and interesting. While trying to figure out what group each drug would be a part of, most of us were just trying to figure out what the drug was. I think most people did this because certain drugs already had certain labels on them based on what they knew. What struck me the most during this was that caffeine got an unexpected rating. Some groups thought it should have been illegal or prescription. This was so weird to see. This is something that some people consume daily in typical beverages like coffee, sodas, and even chocolate. It's weird to think that caffeine was grouped as something illegal when it can be found so easily. I drink coffee and pop often and I never thought about what kind of label it has. Everyone would say that it is safe and legal just because everyone knows that from its name and reputation. Another one that was intriguing to find out about was the nicotine. Nicotine was rated as a felony or illegal. Its odd because even though it has such horrible effects, its still legal, and people don't consider it such a big problem. I think the biggest thing I learned from this activity was that certain drugs have labels that are only taken from where the location is and when it is. Other states would probably classify these drugs more differently than we did.

The Saints and The Roughnecks

This week in class we read an article called The Saints and The Roughnecks. The Saints were white, middle-class, suburban teenagers. Everybody in their school, including teachers, viewed them as good guys, and they were always given extra chances. The Saints would often ditch school, drink, and pull pranks. The Roughnecks were a little bit different. The Roughnecks were not so rich, and they came from a small neighborhood. The Roughnecks also committed some of the same things that the Saints did. Despite the fact that these 2 groups committed similar crimes, they were given different punishments. For example, if one the Saints did bad on a test, he would get a second chance since he'd was viewed as a good kid who is really capable of doing better. The Saints would also get off easy from the police than the Roughnecks did. What intrigued me about the article was that not only were the boys' deviance influencing the way people viewed them now, but it also influenced their futures. As people expected, most of the Saints went on to college after high school, and they got really good jobs. Most of The Roughnecks ended up not going to college and not getting so great careers. This article proves that your appearance and background, can influence people's perception of you. This reminded me of one my friends who had gotten pulled over for speeding. When my friend got pulled over, the officer knew who she was in school. He knew that she was a good kid, who was involved, and did a lot of community service. Since the officer knew she was a good kid, he let her go. It really proves that in society people's appearances, backgrounds, and social classes play a big role in how people view them.

Community Service #3

4/11/12 Wednesday 4-8pm This was my 3rd day volunteering at Condell Hospital. I worked with Barb today. Today, alot of interesting things happened. They weren't good things, they were serious. When I first arrived at the hospital, things were a bit slow at the beginning, but today the hospital was busier than ever. One patient had over 30 different visitors. This patient had been severely injured in a motorcycle accident. Since I've been working here for a few days, im used to what I have to do. When visitors come in to see a patient in, for example, the ICU, I treat them as any other visitor coming to see another patient. But to them, they have a completely different outlook on that. Their thinking would be that its someone extremely important to them. I feel like working at a hospital's front desk makes it harder to realize what visitors are really there for. To me it feels like its just a job, and it probably feels like that for the doctors and the people that actually work there. I feel like I learned that I need to be more aware that its not just a job, there are people that are injured and ill everyday and it's serious. While sitting at the desk, a man came in. This man had been through a lot. He was telling us that he had just lost his wife to breast cancer a few days ago.  When working at the front desk, people really open up to you about their situations. His wife passed away at the hospital and he wanted to know if her body was still there to arrange for her funeral. When he was telling us this, it was so sad I had tears in my eyes. Hearing things like this makes this job feel more personal and it feels like less of a job when you are talking to someone and helping them. When my shift was over, I went home thinking how lucky I am that my family members are healthy and safe, and I was grateful for that. I love volunteering at the hospital, and i plan on continuing my work there.