Post #9: Race

Hi. Justin here again, and today I'd like to talk a little about race. Now, I have known based on school teachings that race is a social construction, and I never really thought that much about race. However, the race unit in class really opened my eyes to some of the plights of minorities. Obviously, I'm a white man, and the concept of White Privilege established by Peggy McIntosh made me think much more about the little advantages I have had in life simply because of my skin color. From media marketing to the way I am treated at the store, I realize now how much better white people are treated in American society. I suppose that some people are too ignorant to realize that many minorities are quite qualified or even overqualified for positions of entitlement. Another source that really made me think about race was the movie White Like Me. The narrator, Tim Wise, offered a new way of thinking for me. His explanations of how the US has really not progressed despite having a black president really made me consider if racism was really dead. As evidenced by the map shown in class, there are still so many hate groups today that it is impossible to think that the days of the KKK and Pro-Nazis are gone. The race unit, while not affecting me that much as a person, really made me think about how minorities are treated in the US, and how I could help to be a better person towards them. Now that the curriculum in sociology has almost come to an end, I have to say that I really enjoyed all of the units, but this one especially!!

Post #8: Social Class/Deviance

Hello hello! It's Justin back here again, and today I wanted to talk a little bit about deviance, but mainly about social class and how it affects the American public. Very quickly, to sum up deviance, one must also realize that culture is relative. While something done in one culture, such as eating bugs, may be seen as weird and unnatural, in another culture it may be a normal part of life. I think that people judge others all the time for how they act, unless they live up to what their own standards of normalcy are. If people could learn to judge with a little bit more of a filter, then maybe deviance could start to become the norm. However, today I mainly want to discuss the effects of social class and the wealth gap. This is a subject that hits close to home for me. I live in a house where there has been no long-term employment by my parents for over 3 years. I see how tight money can get. When you go to use the internet but it doesn't work because Comcast hasn't been paid, or when you have to loan your dad a couple of bucks for breakfast in the morning, that is when I think about social class the most. This situation was really brought home for me in the movie The Line. In the film, one of the men shown has a situation that is almost exactly parallel to my current family situation, and he now lives on welfare and food stamps. While we are not on welfare, and nowhere close to it, the man's plight really opened my eyes to the widespread poverty within the US. I thought that my family situation was bad, and in many ways it is, but I realized that it could always be worse. The writing Saints and Roughnecks, about two different classes of students within a high school, also made me think about how income can affect one's personality, choices, and education. I realized while reading the passage that I could think of many parallels to my own high school. That is something that, in the long run, is not very comforting. I said in a previous post that socialization had been my favorite unit in class. I take that back now, because the social class/deviance unit really became the most influential and important unit to me.

Post #7: Gender

Hello out there. It's Justin back again, and I've been thinking a lot about gender for the past couple of weeks ever since we started the new unit in sociology. To me, gender is a lot more than just outside looks or behaviors. I think that gender should be seen as more of a choice of lifestyle. When I think of gender, my mind goes immediately to a person I work with, who happens to be gay. While some people may be uncomfortable with this, I find her to be one of the nicest girls that I work with. This just shows an example of how some people may not be totally secure with their own gender, which in turn influences other people about their gender. Another problem that was shown through sociology was the influence that the media plays on gender in America, both male and female. The video Killing Us Softly really showed me how much pressure is put upon girls to look and dress a certain way. Being a man, this really gave me a new perspective on what it is like for the women to go through their daily lives. We also saw the video Tough Guise, which opened my eyes to how much I as a guy am influenced by what I see in the media. I do play some violent video games and watch shows with mature content, but I never realized how much I am influenced by my surroundings to engage in that kind of media, but when I watched the video, I came to terms with how much of my media comes from a predetermined stereotype. This unit in general really opened my eyes to the plight of how some people face their gender, whether they be male, female, gay, straight, etc. I found it to be not only powerful, but also made me think more about how I go about my own life.

Post #6: Socialization

Good afternoon. It's Justin again, and today I wanted to talk a little bit about the topic of socialization. My definition of socialization is how individuals learn through interaction with other individuals. As seen within some of the class work, there are certain aspects, or agents of socialization, that can influence how these people react. When these agents are missing, it may have drastic effects. I think the example in class that stood out the most to me was the video on Danielle. Danielle was a girl who was kept locked in a closet for her entire childhood, and had little to no interaction with other humans. As a result, she was found at 7 years old, but had the mind of an infant. It is cases like these that make me realize how important it is to be social, especially at a young age. I think of my own childhood. When I was growing up, my parents made sure I always had plenty of things to do and activities to keep my mind busy. I never really thought about it before, but, seeing kids like Danielle made me realize how crucial that type of play and interaction was. There must be a separation between nature and nurture. While I agree that it is important to allow one's nature to influence them, there must also be an outside sense of nurturing as well. This has been my favorite unit so far in sociology class, and hopefully there can be more to come!!

Post #5: American Culture

Hi, Justin back here again. Today I'm going to talk to you about my views on American culture. I have always felt that culture in the US is so unique because it is a blend of so many beliefs. In class, we watched the movie Tuesdays With Morrie. It was a movie that taught me a lot about the different ways Americans are influenced by their culture. A big part of the movie is about dying. To me, death has always been sort of a taboo topic in America. People don't like to talk about it, experience it, or be around it. However, as Nigel Barley says in his book Dancing On The Grave, death is a natural part of everyone's life, and should be treated as such. The movie made me think a lot about when my grandfather died back in 2008. I was very upset, even though we had never had that good of a relationship. Even though we didn't connect in many ways, I still mourned greatly after his passing. I think that says something about the gravity of death upon American culture. Another large part of American culture is love, and how love is seen upon the face of the US. For example, it is hard to turn on the television without finding a romance or soap opera. I feel like the American media dramatizes love to a great extent. As we learned through sociological class readings and Tuesdays With Morrie, love is a huge factor in how we live our everyday lives and how we view one another. This week's lesson on American culture really opened my eyes to how different everyday values can be imposed in one's life.

Community Service (3 HOURS)

Hi, it's Justin again, and today I'm here to tell you about my experience helping out for my local PADS shelter! I'm Jewish, and as some may know, the Jewish people celebrated the holiday of Purim this past weekend. A large part of Purim is about not only stomping out evil, but also giving back. My temple decided to hold a large Purim celebration and give back to the community by packing lunches for our local PADS shelter, a location for the homeless to come and be safe. Our temple helped to pack over 50 sack lunches for the homeless, baked five large casseroles, and provided drinks and sides for a whole day's meal. After all the food was packed, I loaded it into my car and drove it to the shelter's current location in a Presbyterian church. This also helped me to appreciate another religion by seeing how their church functioned. I really enjoyed giving back to my community, and being able to help the homeless made me enjoy it even more!

(Provided 3 hours of community service)

The food at the shelter

The lunches readed to be transported

My Rabbi and I

Post #4: God Grew Tired Of Us

Hey again! In sociology today we wrapped up the movie God Grew Tired Of Us. It summarised the events of a few African men as they travel to America to escape their own war torn nation. Watching the men learn about culture in the United States, it made me think a lot about what my ancestor's lives might have been like. One of the main characters notes that they had never used electricity before. I liken this to the experience that my great-grandparents might have had when they came to the United States for the first time. Not only were there physical differences such as these, learning about society must have been very difficult. Watching the movie really made me think of how my great-grandparents must have reacted when they reached the US. The movie also reminded me of Stefan Schirmer's 'Bemused in America', and article in which a German journalist reports on his adventures in the United States. The experience of the African men must have been quite similar to Schirmer's experience. The Africans had to learn how to use modern technology, speak our language, and overall function in society. I can imagine this as being very difficult. Both God Grew Tired Of Us and Schirmer's report show how culture can provide significant boundaries for visitors and people who are unfamiliar with the functionality of society.

Post #3-Bronx Tale

Justin back again. We just finished watching the movie 'Bronx Tale' in class, and I really enjoyed it! It seemed like a movie that really showed about the differences within communities, and how people are individually effected. Within the movie, both macro and micro sociology can be seen. Macro, which looks at human society on a large, grand scale, can be seen as the Bronx itself. The main character, C, lives within the Bronx, and as a whole, there can be no question that the area in which he lives influences his life. Similar to how the interviewer in 'Gang Leader For A Day' was influenced directly by his neighborhood, C seems to be directly influenced by his as well. Another point I found interesting was that micro sociology, the study of individual in-groups, can also be seen within the film. Although everyone in the movie lives under the large blanket of the Bronx, there are many smaller groups as well. There are the gangsters, the street peddlers, the working class, and more. There are also segregated racial areas within the Bronx. Blacks live in one area, Mexicans another, Italians another, etc. I think that this movie really shows the concept of micro and macro sociology extremely well, and gives people who watch it a sense of just how much people can be influenced by their environment. It reminds me of when I went to New Orleans this past Winter Break. Although everyone lived in the city, the unique people of the French Quarter seemed to live a little differently than those in the Garden District, and so on. 'Bronx Tale' really reminded me of my trip, and hopefully I will be able to have more memorable experiences in class!

Another Thought

To me, sociological imagination and mindfulness seem to appear at two opposite points in life. The imagination part, that ability to realize that your world effects you, is seemingly like being aware of all of the changes that can occur in one's life, similar to the reading about the Italian village. Just the other day, my uncle, who lives in Texas, was telling me that his neighbor's kids had been dumbfounded by the sight of a dusting of snow on their lawn. I tried to imagine how I would react to seeing snow for the first time, but I found myself unable to describe the feeling. Perhaps it is because my world is so used to seeing snow, especially with the chilly winter we've had. At the same time, I was able to connect this event to sociological mindfulness, just like Schwabe tried to do. Perhaps the way that those children reacted to the snow influenced others around their community to act the same way. At the same time, it is important to realize that every action one takes effects not only their own lives, but the lives of those around them. This concept really popped into my mind when I talked to my uncle. Maybe it is a coincidence that I heard the story just in time to write this post!!

My Blog

Hey, I'm Justin and I'm a junior in high school. I try to always live life to the most, even though I'm not exactly super-exciting, though I try to make my life fun. I'm an only child, though my dog and cat are pretty much my siblings. My passion is hockey. I love everything about it, and the game. I work with my school's varsity hockey team, helping out with the equipment, taking care of the player's needs and working with the coaches. If I could play, I would, but since I can't skate, it kind of makes it hard for me. Being able to do this makes my life happy, since I really do not like my high school. To be honest, I've never really liked school. Every day, I think about the new experiences I'll be having in a year and a half in college. I really want to go to Michigan State and study broadcasting or sports journalism, and I can't wait to visit the school!! Overall, I hope that this class can really make my remaining time in high school interesting and take away some of the stress. Since I'm usually a pretty quiet guy, I hope that I can express myself well through this blog!