Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Final Post =(

It is funny to think that just one semester of sociology has impacted my life more than other classes at Stevenson, but it really has. I really have started looking at things with a new perspective and I am trying to change certain stereotypes I have. The person I am has not really changed, except for some of my values. I still think that the culture I grew up in really influenced the person I am today. I surround myself with people, friends and family, who I want to be with. My friends and family really make up the person I am today, and I still think that you are who your friends are. The biggest influence of my life is my family, especially my mom. She works more hours in a day than most people work in a week. She is one of the hardest working people I know, and she makes me want to become a better person and want to work for everything I have. My family's values and my friends values also influence mine to the highest extent. I did not realize that some horrible stereotypes my family and friends have, have rubbed off on me. After learning in sociology and going to the Uptown Cafe, I am really trying to change the stereotypes I have learned. Growing up in a prosperous community, I think social class has impacted our lives more than others. Before sociology, I did not really think of social class as a very important thing in America; to my surprise, it is what some people base their lives off of. I think if we stop making social class and materialistic things so important, than determining a persons social class will slowly fade away. Because of this class, I look at other social classes much differently and my view about the poor or even the extremely wealthy has changed drastically. I think people are too quickly to always put others in a certain category in America, and it is really horrible. When we watched the movie Crash, it was a little disturbing and shocking to me, because I did not realize how extreme racism still is. The movie really made me look at myself and see if I have done some of the racial tendencies some of the characters in the movie did. It is a horrible thing to say, but I have in the past and I am ashamed to say it. I really hope that I can work on not judging people based on appearances anymore. I know everyone is equal and should be treated equally, but it is hard for me to think that i still have implicit racial thoughts. Sociology has really showed me that I have to change the way I view others and the way I am viewed by others. I would never want anyone to judge me by just looking at me, and I hope that as I grow up, I will change into a better person. Because of my community service experiences and how I learned that one small act impacts others lives in a huge way, I think i will be more inclined to volunteer as I get older. In Sociology we learned that even though community service is an act that is suppose to help others, it also makes you feel better because you are helping others. I know in my life that I want to make others happy and make myself happy as well. That is why I plan on being a nurse when I am older, and helping patients in need. This is a very hard goal, but I really hope I accomplish it. I plan on being a nurse for cancer patients, and I hope that I help as much people I can even if it is in a small way. Sociology really made me change my view about how I look at the world, because it taught me that the world is not just black and white but multiple shades of gray. I hope that people will start accepting every one's differences, and then every one's values and how they view others will change as well. This class has really changed the way I view others and the way I want others to view me, and I hope I can start changing certain stereotypes I have. I really enjoyed the class and I think that this class has impacted my life more than I could say about any classes at school. =)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Crash

While watching the movie Crash in class, I really saw how everyone is related to each other some way and we all come into contact with each other at some point in our lives. It is really interesting to think that we can indirectly affect others because of our own actions and decisions we make. While watching the movie, I saw how much hate people could have just because they want to hate and blame others for something that went wrong in their life. It is really hard for people, including me, to not blame some situation or some one for something bad that could have been prevented in my life. Also, I learned that no matter how hard you fight being "racist" against some group, sometimes it does come out. It is really hard for people to accept they are racist, so they want to believe they aren't and hold it in. In someways it is worse to lie to yourself continuously that you are not what you have become. It is easy to make stereotypes, we all do it, but that is generalizing people and other peoples' mistakes. I really really liked the movie Crash, and everyone should really see it.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Race

This week in sociology we learned about race. Race is something that is just made up to classify people, but how do we classify people by just looking at them. I think that it is really interesting that we classify people based on what they look like from what we are taught as we grow up. I never really realized that I judge people and place them in certain categories, because I was always taught that that is the way things should be. I also found it interesting that if you go to other countries, they have different ways to categorize people's "race." Even though a persons characteristics do not physically change, they are stereotyped as being someone different. I wonder if people are going to make more categories of races that are starting to become more distinguished in America. There are many people, white, black, asian, etc marrying each other. How do we classify them?..are they black or asian or white? I thought it was also strange that people say if you even have a little "black blood" inside of you, you are black-evenif you do nto look black at all. When we also played that game on the computer to guess which person was black, white, asian etc., i found it really interesting that we got a lot of them wrong. People look at other people right away and assume their "race" or culture based on characteristics that they posses. I never realized race was something made up, and this lesson really opened my eyes.