The Final Blog =(

After a semester of sociology I feel that I have been able to open my mind to all kinds of people and appreciate the many things that make us up as individuals rather than as a general group. For so long, I’ve picked up on words and terms given to a general group and would then unintentionally label a person by this specific group rather than come to understand whether or not this small part of them was even voluntary or involuntary. Although I would never repeat these words aloud, they would simply come to my mind because I heard them around me constantly. Throughout this course, we have learned about being sociologically mindful of those around us, understanding the many agents of socialization that make up every aspect of us, and through this I have learned to truly appreciate every person for what they’re worth.
I haven’t changed my mind at all about the type of person I am and the type of person I hope to one day become. I still do think that what realm of society we are a part of is an agent of socialization in the type of person we are. Sadly, the media greatly affects us in what we wear, what we eat and don't eat, etc. I’m sure that if I was in the lower-middle class, I wouldn’t be as concerned with material things, instead I'd probably just be trying to get by. For this very reason, so much of me wants to just get up and leave this area and see all the world while trying to help those less fortunate than myself. We have done plenty of simulations in which we have seen how hard it is for people to make it in this country even though we present ourselves as “the land of the free,” freedom certainly has a price to pay. I have gained much more respect for the many people around me who face different struggles and hardships day to day while I have been fortunate enough to learn in a classroom setting and soon will be going off to the college of my choice.
I think that this class has put the world into perspective for me, I have come to an understanding with so much that I hadn’t before and I just hope that as I go on through life I will continue to stay sociologically mindful of the many people and situations I encounter.

"Crash"

We've been watching the film Crash in class all week and it was a really intense film that has put so much into perspective for me. Without even knowing it, we classify people by their race and generalize about them. The film showed how a number of characters of different descents were all intertwined in some way. It's funny because in life, we go through everyday without truly knowing the many people around us but inadvertently size them up simply by looking at their faces among the sea of many faces.
I finally started to hear myself make comments or look at people and realize that I do it too, I size people up way too quickly. The movie was very powerful, every moment was important because it justified the next one, you never got too close to any one character because they all made a significant difference.
I was moved by the main character being racism, as Sal likes to say. I think that's why the audience can never truly get to know one specific character, because they are all of equal importance, they all connect in the way that we do in everyday life. Sure, the plot may not be realistic, but every day people are being discrminated against and being wrongfully judged.
I gained from this movie insight on myself and how I can potentially better myself as a person. I just hope to change my own view of that stereotypical perspective we all have of one another, break that barrier, and be open to everybody and their differences.

Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

Race Relations

Here in America, we classify everybody by skin color, by "race." But what is it really? Upon reading Mixed Blood, I came to terms with the fact hat depending on where one lives, they may be a different "race" entirely. "Race" is not biological, it is a classification depending on where exactly a person is at the moment.
In America for example, race is based on one's skin color, not including their hair, their eyes, their nose, their lips, just solely their skin color. Why is that? Why is it that I'm white and your black and he's Asian and she's Hispanic? What if my mom was Hispanic, my dad was Black, my grandpa was Phillipino, well hey now they have a new term for that too, multiracial. So many prejudices have been made based on "race," so many judgments have been made based on a social classification. How do we end this? How do we put a stop to limiting the way we view other humans, just that, humans. No white, no black, no Asian, no Hispanic, no nothing, just human. We all have vast differences and are so similar that rather than judging one another in a negative manner for something as simple as our skin color, we should just come to understand what's underneath it all.

digging a hole too deep...

As we played Monopoly in class through the class structure found present in the U.S. I realized that it is very hard for somebody to be able to climb up that structural ladder especially when at the way bottom of the totem pole. I was a lower class blue collar worker and I ended up with not very much more than I started up with. We've been trained to think that in America, the land of the free, we can do anything and become somebody. However, I now realize why the poor struggle so much, tend to abuse drugs, and get in trouble with the law, because the hole they find themselves is too deep to find a way out of.
Morgan Spurlock's 30 days episode about poverty in the U.S. had also given me insight into just how difficult the impoverished have it. As much as people may try to dig themselves out, the lack of health insurance, the minimal flow of money coming in, and other such things prevent them from moving up in class because they can barely get by.

You Are What You Make...

In class this week, we discussed social class and watched a film about the many classes that make up our society as a whole. Although we may not pick and choose our friends based on what class they are in, what jobs their parents hold, and in what way they dress, we have subconsciously become a product of the class we are in. When in a certain class, one has the mindset of what kind of job they will hold in the future, whether or not college is or is not an option, perhaps even when the next getaway to Paris will be. In each crevice of society is somebody and that person will belong to one class or another.
The determinant, at least I believe it is, is the money one is making and the work they're doing to get this money. There is no breaking a barrier in classes because although we want to look to everybody as an equal, we set certain standards for ourselves that we then believe everybody else should abide by. However, everybody may be in a different financial situation, in a different "class" then ourselves, and they can't go about making the same goals as we do, because maybe their goal is just to get by.
Some of us are just lucky to be able to make big plans in this life, some of us are lucky enough to get a vacation in sometime during the year, but some of us are just trying to get through it all, one meager meal at a time.
So when you look all around you, where do you fall in? Where do your best friends fit in? Where do we all fit in?

the revolving door

This past week in class, we've been watching an episode about the US prison system and how so many people find themselves back behind bars once they've gone through them once. Sadly, the upper-middle class can find its way out of these situations, but the poor keep comin' back for more. I'm sure it's not the life they would choose for themselves or a lifestyle they would endure but I see it in a couple ways.
Some agents of socialization could be where they were raised and the life they had always known, because you and I both know that if we were living in the South Side of Chicago, we probably wouldn't consider going to college, costing our families 40 grand a year because that kind of money wouldn't even be available to us. What our day to day struggle would be there is much different than it is here.
In a sense, I feel like some of these people fall back into patterns of prison life because it's consistent; they get a bed to sleep in every night and food to eat three times a day. I don't necessarily agree with the US prison system, in fact I find it very unfair and after having read Courtroom 302, I have lessened respect for authority because of their reign in power. Before people are even convicted of a crime, they already tell them they have no chance at winning their case. I think in this respect too, people fall into the "revolving door" of prison. When constantly beat down and told that you will never amount to anything, a person begins to listen and sometimes they go down the wrong path.
It's too bad that the rehabilitation program that was shown in the Virginia prison isn't as prominent elsewhere, and I think that it would be useful if some of these "convicts" were shown a way out and taught that there is something more that they can do with their lives. Unfortunately American society has a long way to go in advancing its prison system and its enforcement in general.

Deviance in our Society

We read an article about two different groups of boys in the same school; one being the Saints and the other, the Roughnecks. Both of the groups did the same sorts of illegal activities, be it drinking under-age, pulling pranks, and other such things. While one group was able to get away from town because they had more money to spend and their own cars to drive, the other was constantly in the town's view. It was the Roughnecks that were considered as such because everybody considered them the lower-class kids with bad habits and the kids who were going nowhere; they weren't all-star athletes and honors students. But while these boys did the same things as the Saints, because those boys were the all-star athletes and honors students, they were able to get away with their illegal activities. So why is this? Why is it that when one has good credentials and enough money, they can get away with just about anything? But when doomed to fail, one little slip up has everyone talking?
I've seen it among us Patriots as well, with the right amount of sweet gestures, smiles, cash, and decent grades, it seems like there's kids who can get away with it all. But if everyone knows you're headed down the road to nowhere, anything "bad" you do will be used against you. How do we fix this cycle of deviance? How can we as a society look past class and race to see that no matter who commits the crime, it's the same crime? Why is it that some can get away with it while others cannot?

Never Quite Good Enough

Just a couple weeks ago, we had talked about how men and women differ; men being masculine through toughness and women vicariously living through magazines and TV ads, trying to perfect their images to those unrealistic ones they see all around them.
While in Mexico this past week, these differences were so much more prominent to me. As all of us girls would sit along the beach or watch a show, how skinny or in what shape a girl was in was something we couldn't help talking about. We would look at our own selves and compare to those of the dancers in the shows or the other girls on the beach and yes, even to those in a magazine, always finding a way in which to "fix" ourselves. It's as if nobody was ever truly happy and content with every aspect of themselves. There is always something more we could do, one more work out we could get in, one less thing to eat, in order to perfect a certain image that we have been programmed to endure. And then there were the boys, how do they prove that they're tough? From what I saw in the past week, I think it's through the number of girls they can get with and the amount of drinks they can sustain. It's always a competition of who can get more and be more and do more.
Why is it that in our society we haven't been brought up to just be happy with how we are? We have instead been programmed to feel a certain way based on how we look and what we do? The media gets a kick out of all of this, and what do we do, we just eat it allllll up.

"Beers and Weirs"

In this week's Freaks & Geeks episode, we laughed along as we watched Lindsey's kegger take place. Mom and dad go out of town "trusting her" to do the right thing and of course once out of sight and out of mind her new cool friends get her to throw a party. Her brother and his friends fear the thought of kids drinking at the Weir household after having watched an awakening drinking and driving assembly at school that very day. They purchase a keg with fake beer and everyone becomes seemingly "trashed." Lindsey comes to find Daniel and his ex-girlfriend making out in her room and her mood changes from that all-time high to the emotional "drunk." Everyone quickly disperses after Neil calls the cops to help Lindsey get the house in shape before mom and dad get home.
We discussed agents of socialization after watching this episode, how everything and everybody around us influence the many decisions we make. In Lindsey's case, mom and dad's trust in her and the social pressure of being cool in front of her new friends, influenced her decision in having a party.
How many times in your own life do you do something because you know it will look better perhaps not in your own eyes but in the eyes of those you're looking to impress? Doing that extra little something at work that you probably wouldn't do if you knew your boss wasn't watching? Acting a certain way, saying something you wouldn't catch yourself saying or doing if it wasn't for the cute guy you were crushing on? Trying something you wouldn't ever let yourself try just to become accepted by a social group?
We're constantly in situations where those around us influence us. I can't say I've never been that person, in fact I've probably been in all of those situations and in some of them have acted against my own better judgment.
Although this episode was downright hilarious, it sent the message that we do in fact base many of our decisions on our agents of socialization.

Morrie's views on Nurture

After having watched Tuesdays with Morrie, I realized that as independent as some of us may think we are (me included), we still need those basic things that an infant does; love, affection, and nurturing.

As a little kid, whenever I had a nightmare I would run to my parents room and squeeze between mom and dad for comfort because I needed somebody to hold me in order to help me get rid of my fears. As we get older however, even Morrie tells us, we tend to stray away from this holding and touching because we feel that we are "better than that," "independent." But all through life that we need that affection and that love from others in order to help us keep going.

By interacting with others we are able to grow and prosper into a full human being. We learn our language through others, we learn to give and receive love through others. This is shown in Morrie's growing relationship between him and Mitch. We see that their close interaction not only brought them to a much more intimate level but they really fed off of each other through the information they gave and received.

Us and Them

This week in sociology, we discussed the cultural norms in America versus those norms in another country. A simple "a-okay" to a friend could mean "you're an a**hole" in Italy. All countries may hold different values and have different meanings for various things but it is important to keep sociological mindfulness for everyone.
For example, when Sal talked about the traditional Japanese bathroom and his reaction, I'm not so sure I would have reacted any differently. Of course at first I would have found it weird but I thought it was great that he kept his mind open and realized that this material object says something about the Japanese culture and there is reason for the way they have their bathroom set up.
My family is from Russia and it is stereotypical that Russians are "drinkers" and whenever I tell my friends that my parents are out, they assume that they're out partying and drinking. This may not always be the case but it is seen as a cultural norm of the Russian culture.
Through understanding about cultural norms in Sals' perspective and then being able to relate it back to my own cultural background, I've understood that sociological mindfulness should be something we hold close because in order to appreciate all the differences among us, we have to keep our minds open to everything!

Borscht for dinner, anyone?

We learn more and more about sociological mindfulnesss but just recently we learned about how to do so when looking upon another culture as well. Many people tend to be ethnocentric due to culture shock when they come upon something they aren't familiar with. We must understand however, that not everybody will do things in a way our particular culture may consider "the right way."

As I am the first generation in my family from Russia, I am accustomed to certain Russian foods. When I was younger, I used to be so embarrased to bring my lunch to school because my mom would put in foods that American kids wouldn't be familiar with. At a young age we are taught to do things a certain way; eat cereal with a spoon, fries with our hands, and bring steak to our mouth with just the fork, and so on. As I've grown, I've come to appreciate my heritage and the culture is as much a part of me as American culture is.

I think that because my family comes from an entirely different background, I have a broader understanding of the world and haven't been closed in by one culture specifically. I'm thankful that I've learned through my growth from embarrasement to appreciation. It's important to be able to see past the "gross, weird, not right" ways other cultures may do things, and come to understand why they do things a certain way and what about their culture has shaped them to do these things.

A Bronx Tale

Even though I wasn't able to see all of A Bronx Tale, the social construction of reality in this movie was present from the very beginning. The unwritten laws and rules all pertain to the gang that Collogero finds himself so intrigued with. Sonny and his gang have a presence about them and everybody knows not to "mess with them." The adults know that these men are dangerous and do everything they can to keep their children off the streets. In Collogero's case, as soon as he gets off his father's bus his mother greets him at the window and motions for him to come upstairs right away.
I think the racist attitudes are also due to the community's social construction. This is seen as the bus of African-American children rolls by Collogero's stoop, a few of his friends chase after them screaming derogatory terms. This social construction was produced by the era that they are living in. This was a time when African-Americans and anglo-Americans had terrible relations.
In our own community, there are unwritten laws and rules that many of us follow because we believe that this is what we should be doing and there are no questions about it. For example, living in a middle-class community and going to a highly-acclaimed high school, many of us believe that we must go to college to continue our education. In our social construction of reality, this is the next step. If we were living in a different part of the state, country, world perhaps, this social construction may be very very different. At this age, some people may be going straight to work, starting a family, joining the military, etc.
Unlike Collogero's social construction of reality, in our community we don't have gangs to look out for and have been taught to be open-minded individuals who don't see the world in black and white. Of course these things still exist elsewhere, but in our community there is a bit of a different social construction of reality than in the south side of Chicago per say.

Who Influences You?

In class the other day we created a molecule of the various groups we are a part of, whether or not our membership within the groups is voluntary or involuntary, and other components involving our being a part of all of these groups that in turn make up who we are as individuals. Following this activity we were to read an article about how we tend to generalize people upon the assumptions we have made through past experiences and the stereotypes that we have created in our minds as a result of this.
Through the first activity I was able to see in people something that is a huge component of their lives and of themselves while it ranks of much lower importance to me. I stood up when family was called and talked about the significance I bear in my little sister's life because she looks up to me as her role model and unconditionally loves me no matter how rude I can be to her. Other students howerever, stood up to explain how sports, ethnicity, religion, friends, and so many others, were one of the most important aspects of their lives.
Through the stereotypes we make, it is difficult to appreciate all of the components that make up every person as an individual. By keeping a sociological mindfulness however, hopefully we can learn to understand that each person is made up of so many components that differ greatly from the person standing right next to them. These activites have already made me open up to understand why people may dress a certain way, talk a certain way, carry themselves a certain way, all because I now am starting to understand that every person is so much more complex than we take them for.
There's a part of me that really wishes this course was required for everybody because I think this world would be so much more at peace if everyone looked at each other as an individual rather than labeled them with a specific group that makes up one part of them. Until you understand how important this group is to the individual and whether or not they are a voluntary member of the group, this label is simply a generalization and maybe even a stereotype that you've ingrained in your mind.

Schwalbe, Williamson, and Us

After having read the Schwalbe article on opening up our minds sociologically I realized that even though I thought I had done so before, there are so many things that I still have to work on. I thought it was perfect timing to read the article because when checking my e-mail today, Yahoo news proved to me that not everybody is ready to be open about things. In fact, I was appalled when I saw that British Bishop Richard Williamson denied that the Holocaust had ever happened. Before being admitted into the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope had made sure he changed this view but it was still ridiculous to me to think that him and countless others are so unwilling to believe the horrific truth.
I think that in society as a whole, we fail to account for our mistakes. We fight war after war but never learn from any of them because we make one mistake after another. We try to "forget" or "deny" something that has happened because it is too horrible for us to actually believe that we as humans are capable of doing such miserable things.
The U.S. has done this too, I can't just blame Bishop Richard Williamson for his denial. The U.S. has denied for years that we sent away the Japanese into camps similar to Hitler's. Athough we didn't kill these people, we made sure that society knew how unwelcome they were.
This article opened up my eyes to see that the world really isn't ready to be sociologically open and it's terrifying. By denying our faults, we will never perfect our ways. Instead, we'll be walking in circles forever.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_jews;_ylt=Ajd02.7ZkrmcSTIl_I7QLoR0bBAF

Silences, How Awkward...

Sometimes I think that a silence is necessary to help one think through what they are about to say, where they're going, or who they want to become. Sometimes silence helps us to gather our feelings instead of making rash decisions and sometimes its just needed after a long, exhausting day.
But there are always those moments, when you're driving in a car with somebody that you don't have much in common with and you feel that maybe you can find interests with them as a way to "fill the air with noise." There are moments when you just let out all of your emotions and whoever you told doesn't react how you expected, and there again, is an awkward moment. You think to yourself, should I have said anything at all? Should I have kept it inside? Why did I even expect something out of nothing? Those moments with a family member that you have no interest in speaking to and those moments when you run into somebody you haven't seen in a long time but never had such close relations with are just a few examples of when a silence can truly become awkward.
Silence is what you make of it. It is what we all need sometimes; that quiet piece of mind. Yet sometimes it drives you mad because you wish you could understand what someone is thinking but you just can't gather the right words to say.

Who am I?

I am an independent and motivated person, although I'm usually never afraid to ask for help. I'm influenced very much by my surroundings. Unfortunately, we live in a society where our socioeconomic status can get the best of us. However, I also live in a loving home, with parents who have supported me through everything I've chosen to do. I think that because they have immigrated from Russia and had to begin a new life here, their success has kept me appreciative of everything I have. I wish I could say that nothing I've ever gotten I've taken for granted but I most certainly have, again because I think that when growing up in a certain realm of society, one is brought to believe that life consists of certain things. As I've grown up though, I have seen that that's not the type of person I want to become; materialistic and ignorant of my surroundings. I've taken to reading at least a few news articles daily and although I don't have time for a book all too often, I still try to get through some reading in my day.
My parents are my heroes for everything they've done in starting a life here and making a way for my sister and I. I think that because of them, I try so hard at everything I do. Nothing just comes to those who wait, I think a person is responsible for building their own success. My goals are to become successful one day, through a fulfilling career and later traveling the world and helping those who have it so much worse off than many of us do. I'm not so sure I'm brave enough to be able to see how so much of the world lives, but I think that by even trying to help somebody out there, I'll have a broader world view. I could only hope that I get out of this bubble as fast as possible, I feel like too many people are ignorant and it's sad to say that I'm one of the many. I want to become more and with my life just beginning, hopefully I'll stick to my goals and pursue them.