Its a Wrap

Sociology was a class that challenged me yet at the same time opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas, terms, and ways of thinking. I started off the semester a little confused trying to learn and figure out the way you need to think in this class. When I say that I mean that starting off in this class I learned that the world is not "the world" we know. Our world is beyond ourself and our personal experiences. A lot of times people judge and base their opinions not only on facts but on the way they were raised, the way they grew up, or on any personal opinions on certain subjects. Learning that the world was far beyond just " You & I" there is a whole world out there was something I was getting used to. In this class you needed to use your sociological perspective and your sociological imagination because that was a key skill to have. I think for me that was the biggest lesson of all and I will carry that lesson for the rest of my life throughout my life.

Sociology was a class that made me feel like I was able to go around the world and learn about the way people live without actually having to do so.  I got a better understanding of why people act the way they do and I learned not to be so ignorant. Im not going to lie before this class I used to be just like many people we know, and I would judge others as much as I didn't like it, it came natural to me as a human. I remember asking myself why certain people would act, dress, or even raise their kids a certain way. After taking this class I realized that the social and cultural norms for one may be different for another. Norms were something that definitely differed from culture to culture and played a big role in sociology. What may be normal to people in America can totally differ in South Korea or Africa, so therefore sometimes we cannot judge because people were raised a certain way and that is why we need to use our sociological imagination.

My favorite part of all during this whole semester was when we talked about the video called "Killing Me Sofly"  I felt like I really connected to this video and thats what helped me really understand it because it is so relevant in todays society. The pressure for people to want to be socialized or to fit in is all of what todays society is about. Young girls trying to look like what is called "beauty" and boys trying to fit a certain image of being "manly" or "tough". Often times I find myself fall into this trap of trying to "fit in" by wearing the most modern clothes or doing my hair a certain way, buying the newest phone out. I really liked how this video made comparisons to how society views women a certain way and how men expect women to look. This video was a great example of how THE MEDIA SOCIALIZES US!! I think this video was a great lesson to men and women and everyone should watch it. That was one of the major ideas in Sociology because the media is everything! From depicting class to depicting beauty, the media is the biggest outlet for false interpretation of things and that is why people grow up to think things are a certain way or should be a certain way. The media socializes people to think these things.

One of the big ideas in sociology was Class and Life Chances. I always grew up thinking I was middle class just because of the fact that I felt that I wasn't poor and I always lived a pretty comfortable life. After being in this class I realized that I wasn't in fact middle class. It wasn't till my mother lost her job that I had realized we were working class and had always been working class. We always did survive based on the earnings my family earned from there jobs. We did not own any property, had no money invested in stocks or businesses, nobody had a college degree and so then I started to come to realize we were in fact working to lower class. I never knew so many things came into consideration when determining what class one is in.

This semester has been an extremely enjoyable semester for me. Although it was hard and challenging Professor Applewhite and the classmates in my class made everyday fun and interesting and there was never a day where I didn't learn something new. This goes to show you Professor. Applewhite did an excellent job teaching the class because I will take many things with me in my life, things I didn't know about before. Its a wrap, good luck in the future to all! :)

Article 2-Race and Discrimination

Reading this article I must admit I wasn't surprised. The world is still filled with hate and racism as well as discrimination that I found nothing suprising when I saw that people are more likely to stay away from neighborhoods that are largely populated with African American. Apparently according to the article many whites say usually areas populated with a lot of African Americans have poor schools, and higher crime rates now this can be true in most cases but not in all. The article had stated that many people just use the schools as an excuse not to move into those neighborhoods and I have to admit I agree! I don't think its only poor schools, and high crime rate that hold them back from living in those areas I think it just has to do with whites not wanting to intergrate with African Americans. This is just one of the many reasons why life chances plays a strong role in your life in allowing you to succeed, and better yourself something you cannot change such as race can play a big role in the opportunities you get in life.

Hunger For More-Ch 9.

Everyone in society these days has the hunger for more. The strive for success and wanting the best for themselves and  their families. Not everyone has an equal opportunity to do so which is unfortunate. Our struggles to move classes and deal with our life chances sets us back. In chapter 9 Weber talked about our life chances which is the likelihood a person has of obtaining valued economic and cultural resources. Life chances can be education or the lack of it,  experience we have which can increase our likelihood of getting a certain job, all of these come into play when we are trying to be successful. Not everyone has the chances to move up a class and usually hardly ever to people move from the lower class to the capitalist or upper class. People think because people are poor it was their fault or they didn't work hard enough as the article "Media Magic Making Class Invisible "stated. Even in the video People like Us it shows you how the rich judge the poor and how the poor judge the rich and the stereotypes that come into play. Its amazing how the media portrays the poor as being as oppose to the rich. Many times the media ignores the poor and doesn't even acknowledge them. When the media does show the poor they often show the poor as being African-American and they show them living in the projects. In chapter 9 it was shown that statistics showed that most poor people in the United States in 2009 were white which equaled to 68.5%. I believe not all poor people are poor because they are lazy or they have no drive it may be true for some people in some cases but in most cases it is mainly because they don't have the resources to do so. Some people can't afford a college education or may not have the certain connections they need to get a specific job. This article definitely made me realize to keep my eye on the prize and get that degree! There may be a lot of things holding me back as far as my life chances and the class I was born into but I plan on changing that and doing the best I can for my family and I.