"Crash"

There is so much implicit and explicit racism in the world. It is so common that people don't even know that it's there unless it directly effects them. In the movie "Crash" when Sandra Bullock's character reaches for her husband's arm as she passes by two black men, she commits an implicit racial action. She doesn't outwardly express her racism but she demonstrates it through her actions. The same character shows explicit racism as she yells at her husband to have the locks of her house changed again in the morning. She verbally expressed her dislike for the Hispanic locksmith changing her locks.

I feel like this topic hits home for me. Being a minority, I feel that I have experienced this type of racism on many occasions. I've been subjected to so many explicit and implicit racist comments that I've become somewhat tolerant of them. For example, when 9/11 occurred, many people told me to my face that Muslims were terrorists and that all Middle Easter people were hiding bombs in their houses. I remember hearing this when I was in fifth grade. That had to be one of the more unbearable types of explicit racism. Some implicit types would be when I traveled for a pilgrimidge with my family. We were on our way to Saudi Arabia and my dad was stopped for "a random security check". Thankfully we arrived really early for our flight for my dad was questioned for quite a while.

I feel that it's ignorance that allows for this type of behavior. There are so many different people who are forced to deal with this type of behavior everyday. It's really sad.

"Good Hair"

In class, we talked about race and how our society effects our preferences. We tend to lean more towards European traits than African. I remember watching the Tyra show and she had Chris Rock come on. The topic of that episode was about "Good Hair" which Chris Rock did documentary on. Good hair is supposed to be flowing, shiny, smooth,  and soft. The race that tends to have this type of hair  are Asians, Latinos, and Caucasians. African Americans seem to have more course hair which is a rougher texture. Tyra talked about how society molds today's black women into thinking that their hair isn't beautiful. There was a panel of black children on the show whose parents had talked to them about "good" hair. The kids were asked to choose between an afro type hairstyle and a straight smooth hairstyle, and most of the kids chose the smooth style. This is similar to the kids choosing the white baby doll over the black one. Some of these kids had mothers who relaxed (chemically straightened) their hair. There was a girl as young as three who had her hair relaxed on a regular basis. It's because of these kids' social construction that caused them to choose as they did. Our society has always complimented white features. If a person of ethnic background demonstrated such features, then they were considered beautiful. The root definition of "good hair" comes from the time of slavery. When slaves resembled white traits, they were considered better than the slaves who didn't. This caused many blacks to desire white features, which obviously carried on to our society today. Today, we have black women purchasing weaves, which is fake hair, that appears to be as a white woman's hair texture. This causes a form of insecurity in African Americans in our society.


There seems to be a lot more to this subject than I can talk about. To understand it a little more, you can watch the Tyra Show episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeXUm8OOUA8  part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DgVijM7Z8&feature=related part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBoBR20n8S4&feature=related part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g13u0w2oP4&feature=related part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQGXmEVw-4&feature=related part 5

Have No Fear, the Doctor is Here!... but only if you can afford it

I struggled a little bit on a topic for last week. Because I had bronchitis and I'd miss a lot of school, I didn't really know how to apply my life to what I was learning in class. I ended up missing three days of class and went to the doctor. The first check-up was because of headaches, the second was because of my bronchitis, and then the third was because of the pressure my bronchitis caused in my ear and then in my nose. Each visit to the doctor required a co-payment of $25 and then the anti-biotic for my bronchitis was a little over $30. In order for me to go to the doctor, my mom had to leave work, which caused her to lose that day's pay, since she used up all her sick-leave. In total, me being ill had cost over $100.

When I came back to class, I tried to remember the last thing I learned so I could try to get back on track. I remembered the video "Being Middle Class for 30 Days" and then I immediately remembered the scene where the fiance had a bladder infection and had to go to the emergency room. It was such a struggle to go the doctor and buy medication while paying for the bill, for they had no health insurance. For me, my mom only had to pay a small walk-in fee. Also, the couple had to worry about making up for the money that they lost for not going to work. My mom comfortably left work to take me to the doctor. I realized that I am very fortunate for all that I have. I can go to the doctor for something as small as cough and not worry about whether or not I'd have money for dinner. Many other middle class families struggle to make it through life. They cannot afford certain medications let alone get checked by a doctor.

This makes me appreciate everything that I have.

Cash Money Heroes

In class we learned about social class and how many families are mislabeled. Growing in a moderately wealthy neighborhood, I've to some point understood that my family was a bit wealthier than other families across America. I knew we weren't "rich" but I was also fully aware that we weren't "poor". We're middle class. When I went to work on Wednesday I had to sub in at a neighboring theater, Rivertree, in Vernon Hills. Everyone who has been to that theater is aware that it is gross and smelly. This was a major turn off for me when I went in for work hesitantly and in an uninterested manner. Once I got there, there was a regular staff member working concessions. He looked at me and asked me if I was in high school. When I told him I go to Stevenson he immediately asked me if I "was rich". At first, I was taken aback from the question. I was thinking to myself "who asks someone that kind of a question". Then I thought of the movie that we watched in class If I said yes I'm rich, he would think I was some upper-class snob, which I'm not, and if I said I was poor then he would think I'm lower class and poor, which I'm also not. I ended up saying I don't know what I am, which was kind of awkward. He then asked me what kind of cars I drive. It was very strange. I felt like he had this inferiority complex because he is from Mundelein and I'm from Linconlshire.  It was really strange. Then when I made a comment about how gross the theater was, he looked at me and said, oh it's because you're too good for this right? It was so AWKWARD. He didn't know me and he was passing this judgement on me.

So awkward.

All Locked Up

I have seen shows such as "Law and Order" that depict situations where criminals are locked up. There aren't situations where on the show there is help provided to the inmate. It's as if once they're locked up, they're left to rot away. Many Americans are locked up for reasons that aren't murder and other extreme felonies but for reasons that reflect on laps of judgement. There is little help provided to those criminals. In a way, it is as if our society has put up a social standard upon the men who go to jail, denying them any opportunity to better themselves and their name. It's sad.

Drugs

It seems as though drugs have become a major factor within societies, urban and suburban. When drugs are discussed, they are assumed to be linked to more deviant societies. These deviant societies create a new name for drugs. For example, nicotine, one of the most dangerous drugs out there, is seen as less deviant as marijuana, a non-addictive drug. Nicotine is sold to 18 year-olds all over the US. Although it is such a bad drug, our society  makes it out to be less than what it is. When something else is used (some other type of drug) our society seems to be deviant. As a society, we classify which drugs are okay and which aren't. Sometimes, we don't even take into account the severity of the drug that we are classifying.

"Bad Boy Soup"

We read an article about how authority has an effect upon the future of individuals. The way the authoritative figures behave has a direct impact upon the growth of teenagers. When boys act out and then receive positive feedback from either their teachers or local law enforces, they not only do more crimes, but they also assume that they can get away with it. This tends to happen with boys who are white. For minorities, teachers and cops are said to treat them poorly from the beginning, causing them to resent their society. It seems like societies prefer white teens over minorities, even when they commit equally bad crimes. I've recognized this trend when I watch movies like "Coach Carter" and "Freedom Writers". Those movies portray black kids in a society that resents them. It's almost as though their society sets them up for failure. Because of that, they tend to not have a future ahead of them.

Deviant Me

In class, we were talking about doing things that are socially deviant, like talking on a blue-tooth in public. There are so many people who talk on their phones, but things get confusing once people use their blue-tooths. We don't know whether that person is talking to us, themselves, or someone on their phone. This reminds me of an MTV show called "Boiling Points". In the episode, the cashier was wearing a blue-tooth while she was helping her customers. The purpose of the show is to annoy people for a time limit and if they last they receive $100. So this cashier would be talking to her customer but then switch over to her blue-tooth conversation. She was behaving deviantly. We assume that it's weird or even rude to have a blue-tooth for we assume that the conversation that the person is having is directed towards us. It makes us feel awkward and out of place.

In a way, I've experienced this awkward feeling. On my phone, I have ear-buds that have a built in microphone so that I can be listening to music on my phone and when I get a phone call I can just talk and the microphone will catch my voice. One time I was on the bus and my mom called me. I answered the call and started talking normally, not holding up my phone or even the wires. I looked like I was talking to myself. People are around me thought I was socially deviant. I did something that was away from the norm of my society.

Maybe in the future, we'll be more accustomed to blue-tooth use, and so the people who use them won't seem so socially deviant.

Rude Boy

Being older than my brother has caused me to see the developmental changes in gender behaviors. Every time my brother comes home with a problem that he had at school, it would involve some sort of "fighting". My sisters and I never understood why he seemed so aggressive, for we never had such problems and we all went to the same school and had basically the same teachers. Then, after learning about how boys have this inner problem of "being a man" and not being a "sissy" I began to understand. Boys like my brother are faced with "manhood" defying issues everyday. For girls, it doesn't seem that big of a deal, but for guys it is.

I've learned that I need to be supportive of my brother as well as towards every other guy in my life, be it a friend, a cousin, etc. Today, guys need a little help.

Gender Babies

I was unaware of the fact that even babies start establishing gender roles. It's not that they are taught who to like but rather how to behave. As soon a baby is born, they're wrapped up in a gender influencing color. Girls are wrapped in a pink blanket and boys are in a blue. From then on, parents start treating their kids according what they believe their gender should be like. Mother's tend to be more attached to their daughters and more distant with their sons, which cause them to behave differently as toddlers. By the age of 1 or 2, girls are more attached to their mothers and boys are more adventurous and independent. This fits along with their gender roles where girls are dependent and boys are independent.

It's strange that this is how many parents are. I realize that when my sister was born, my dad would always call her "my little princess" and then when my brother was born he would call him "my brave young man".  It wasn't as though my dad was trying to fit my siblings into a gender mold intentionally, but that's what he was doing.

Weird.

From Strollers to Workplaces

From the very beginning, we've all met our own "social agent". Agents of socializations are found within families, daycares, jobs, schools, or any other organized group. These agents contribute to the way we think as we grow up. They influence our take on gender roles as well as our likes and dislikes. As for gender roles, our parents act as agents as soon as our infancy. It is common for the father to either hold the child while the mother pushes the the empty stroller or to push the stroller himself while the baby is in it. I never realized that that was a gender role gesture. It demonstrates the security that the father is trying to provide for the family. It implies that the dad is the one who leads the family. When I was younger, this is how it was. I remember my parent behaving in this manner on numerous occasions. As for likes and dislikes, educational institutions such as daycares and basic schools provide kids with a set of rules in regards to their gender. For example, boys tend to have more affiliation with violence, even at a young age. It is very common for a 3 or 4 year-old boy to talk about fighting than to talk about something more neutral and less violent. The same goes for girls but it's more that they have softer likes and dislikes; they have the common "ew bugs are gross" and "gross blood". These types of influences are present in daycares which affect children as young as 3.

Who would have known?

Let's Do Nothing!!!

On Tuesday, I attempted to do nothing. That had to be one of the most difficult tasks that I have ever had to do. When I was standing there, my mind was racing, thinking about things that I had to do later that period, later that day, let alone later that week. It was impossible for me to do nothing. This made me think about what we talked about in class. American culture consists of constant activity and planning that once we're presented a situation where we can just do nothing, we're unable to do so for we have been molded into a non-stop working generation. Countries around the world take advantage of their time to do nothing for it's in their culture to take life slow and easy. American culture craves for efficiency which relates back to the "Bemused in America" article where even the food sold is made to be efficient. The cheese is prepackaged and everything is made to save just a little bit more time. In Europe, to get shredded cheese, one would have to buy a block of cheese and shred it themselves. That's obviously not how it is here in America.

Isn't that just fascinating?

Who Am I?

For me, hearing "where are you from" and "where were you born" are normal everyday questions I receive from people that I meet for the first time. Because I am not white people automatically assume that I'm not American or a natural born American. Because I've had to explain my ethnicity, where my heritage is from, as compared to my nationality, where I was born, I've grown accustomed to identifying myself with a Turkish, Afghan, and Indian background. I always felt that I wasn't American rather just someone with a lot of culture living in America. That all changed when I went to Turkey. The moment I stepped off my plane, I realized how American I was. I was aware of my technological attachments, my American vernacular, as well as my American manners and customs. When I had to meet someone new, I automatically reached my hand out to shake theres. Apparently, that's not what they do in Turkey. They' seemed to be more timid and shy about shaking hands. That experience made me realize that I might not have the "ideal" American culture but rather bits and pieces of it as well as some of my ancestors culture and traditions.

It's a real eye opener.

Flush Flush Flush

So for the past few days in class, we've been talking about... toilets! Although it seems as though it doesn't have anything to do with sociology, it has a great influence and reflection upon cultures and their norms. We talked about how cultures do not have a "norm" for a culture is just there. There cannot be anything normal about a culture. There isn't a circumstance that presents itself in a way where we can judge another culture and say whether it is normal or not. For example, the Japanese toilets, they have the toilet itself in a separate room from the shower and the tub because to them they feel having all three in the same room is disgusting. We think that this is abnormal but to them, our bathroom set-up is abnormal. Whose normal is the true normal? That's the idea, there is no normal. Cultures and ideas just exist naturally. There is no right and wrong in a culture.

I learned this idea the hard way when I went on my pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia three years ago. The traditional Saudi Arabian toilet, or the hole in the ground, was something very new to me. I wasn't used to such a form. I felt that that style was not normal at all. I would always look for a western style toilet every time I had to use the washroom. Because I refused to believe that the Saudi Arabian toilet was a "normal" toilet, I made my vacation less enjoyable. I didn't have cultural awareness and I thought there was this normal style of living, like my own style of living. I was wrong.

Saarah M.

"A Bronx Tale"

We watched a movie in class that had a social construction and micro/macro dynamic theme. These ideas were portrayed within the town. "C" had to put up with all this racist behavior from his parents, friends, and neighbors. He ended up falling in love with a black girl which undoubtedly caused him strife. He worried about what his friends thought as well as what his dad thought about him dating someone who wasn't Italian let alone white. "C" didn't want to be like his friends or his dad, for he knew they lived racist life. When he got into that fight with Jane, he ended up calling her the "N" word. Although it was something awful, "C" didn't mean for there to be any pain behind it. He grew up in a neighborhood where that word is a part of their vernacular. All his friends used that word in their daily vocabulary. That word is very normal for him. For Jane and her brother, it was rude, racist, and very hurtful. This plays into his social construction. His setting and lifestyle molded him into thinking the way he did. As accepting as he wanted to be, he still had these ties back to racism due to how he was raised.

This situation is not new to me at all. I know people who are in the same situation as "C". They have these racist parents yet they're trying to live an accepting, non-prejudice, non-judgmental life. When I went out with these people, they would comment on a certain race, not to be racist, but to share their observation, and sometimes their comments would have a racist or prejudice undertone. I knew these people fairly well and so I knew that it wasn't just them being secretly racist. I knew it was because of their house-life and their up-bringing (their social construction) that made them think the way they did. Although I try to understand where it comes from, I still feel awkward when I have to hear it.

You Must Walk the Plank!

We did this activity in class where we kicked people off our imaginary boat. We had sixteen people on the boat and we needed to get rid of nine in order to keep the boat above water. As we did this we started judging and evaluating people and what they had to offer. That brought forth our sociological mindset of how Americans value what a person has to offer rather than their qualifications. For example, we kicked off the poet as well as the elderly because they didn't offer the boat any physical assistance. If we had Indian or Chinese values and thinking, we would have kept them because they were educated or because they were elderly so they must be respected. I experienced this in my life through my fencing team. When we have fencing tournaments, we argue over who has the most strength and agility. We don't bother to discuss who has the best idea on defeating the opposing teams. What we look for is the person who can best perform that strategic idea rather than who can come up with it. It's pretty strange when I think about it.

Saarah M.

What to Think

This week we learned about social construction and how each and every one of us are influenced by it. Social construction is what society creates for us and which causes us to feel certain ways. What we did was spit in a glass. When my classmate did so, I was so grossed out. I felt that that was the most nastiest thing ever! Once Sal told us that we are being molded and influenced into thinking certain things are alright while other things are wrong, it made me think of my peer helper's club. In peer helpers, we learn about the stereotypical view people have on others. One of the views was that if a guy hangs out with a lot of girls, it means he's a homosexual and if a girl hangs out with a bunch of guys it means she's overly sexually active. I realized that we feel that way because of our society. I thought of my friend's French exchange student and how she had a bunch of guy friends; she wasn't labeled as a slutty girl. It's because of our society and its harsh mold that causes us to think the way we do.

I never knew how strong society's impact is on us.

A sociological mind... at Work

In class we learned about being sociologically mindful. In order to be sociologically mindful, you need to consider all the outside factors that influence why or why not something worked out for you. By doing so, you are able to understand why you, yourself, might not be necessarily the soul reason upon why you did not receive something. Basically, you need to look at the bigger picture.

As I was trying to come up with a reason on how this applies to my life I had a quite astonishing experience with a co-worker. As we were talking about personal beliefs and such, he told me how upset he was over the fact that he was rejected from his bank when asking for a lone for college. He tried to explain the reasons why the rejection took place by pointing out all the flaws within himself as well as his family. Immediately, I noticed that he wasn't being sociologically mindful. He failed to see the outside factors such as the failing economy as well as all the tens of thousands of others applying for college loans. He blamed himself and his family saying  that "his parents' credit score is bad" and that "he should have worked harder in high school for a scholarship". I tried to respond to he predicament with a sociological spin which greatly helped his situation. It helped him better understand society as a whole as well as himself. He stopped beating down on himself for something that he basically had no control over.

Saarah M

MEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Hello!

My name is Saarah and I'm 17 years old soon to be 18. I'm a senior at Stevenson. The clubs that I am apart of at Stevenson are Diversity Council, Peer Helpers, and Varsity Fencing. I spend a lot of time in school! When I am not in school, I work part-time at Vernon Hill's ShowPlace 8. (a movie theatre) It's a fun job. The only bad thing would have to be the crazy hours that I get on random Sunday night. Those aren't fun... at all.

My family consists of my two sisters, an older and a younger, my little brother and my mom. We live in Prairie View unincorporated Lincolnshire. We've lived there for about thirteen years or so. Before, we used to live in Wheeling. My family decided to move when my brother was born. My parents realized that the house was just way too small.

For fun I like to have barbecues. I really enjoy having friends over. It's nice to relax and let loose. Every year for about two years I've hosted a BBQ at my house right after Spring Fling. It's always a blast. My guests brings guests so it's always very exciting. I absolutely love to grill. I find it easy and fun. My friends joke around, saying that I'm a grilling ninja. I kind of believe it.

Yeah, I guess that's me!