Crash

In Crash it was pretty obvious Matt Dillon was bein portrayed as an extreme racist. In the movie there were extreme examples of this. For example, when he talks with the black girl named Shaneqwa he automatically feels she is incompetent and doesnt think she can help. Also, he takes advantage of a black couple and feels up the wife, asserting his "white dominance" on the black couple. Last, his racism comes from his fathers experiences. His father worked with black people and because of some affirmative action policies his father's business tanks, so he creates prejudices towards minorities because he believes it was the black workers fault for why his father's business tanked. Another person who shows a lot of racism is Sandra bullocks character. She sees two black people walk down the street, gets scared, and grabs onto her husband because shes afraid she will be attacked. Also, when her locks are getting changed she tells her husband she wants them changed again in the morning because the lockman is a hispanic gangbanger in her eyes and she obviously doesnt trust him. Sandras characters racism comes from her personality and experiences. She is a mean person all the time, and she seems to be taking her anger out on minorities, so racism is huge in her. Her and Matt dillon are similar in that they have made prejudices where they shouldnt be made, theyve had precious encounters that left them angry or scared, so they need someone to take there emotions out on.

The racism doesn't stop with those two characters. When Luda's friend is being driven home by Matt Dillon's partner he tells him he wants to write a country song. The partner laughs, he obviously is thinking how insane it is for a black person to want to write a country song. The black person is obviously a little hurt and confused as to why the cop doesn't take him serisously. He doesnt feel good and get embarassed for something he enjoys. Another example of a stereotype is when the Persian store owner thinks that the Mexican lockman purposefully didnt fix his door and then told his buddies to rob the store. The Persian freaks out and decides he is going to find and kill the mexican worker. From this, the mexican worker's only reaction was terror, sadness, and loss. He thinks the Persian has killed his daughter, and he crys out because he cant bear the loss from the percieved steroetype of the Persian.

When Terrence Howard told Luda "you embarrass me; you embarrass yourself" he means that Ludas actions are just strengthenin the prejudices created by white people. Luda is doing exactly what society says he does:crime. Its obvious terrence is trying to be the opposite of the black stereotype because he works hard so he isn't percieved as an "average" black person. His wife even yells at him because he acts to "white". Ludas cant react to terrences words because he realizes how right he is. He reailizes that he is playing into the stereotype and a reason for racism is because of his actions.

Certain people look at a single person and see their race because their perceptions and way of viewing the world has been negatively formed from the media, past experiences, and history. The media shows black people in the projects robbing and stealing, mexicans dealing drugs, and asians doing math problems. We see these things and they get imprinted in our brain. A past extreme experience can also create lifelong prejudices. This also ties into history as well. When 9/11 happened Americans were scared of anyone of Middle Eastern decent because we couldn't help but get the extreme situation of 9/11 out of our minds. We expereince something and are so scared of it we lash out at who we are scared of, because we dont want to show our fear.This impact just creates huge seperation in a society. Everyone starts to hate each other, spread rumors, and soon violence will happen. People start to hate each other. Societies are hurt so bad it will take a long time to repair the damage of unjust prejudices. For example, Sandra Bullock looks at two black people and automatically sees the black population as a whole, which to her is a population of violent criminals.

I think it is natural for humans to create perceptions about what we see in life. Its up to the indivdual to take these perceptions into real world situations. I think that somepeople react to their perceptions in racist manners. Pretty much everyone has the potential to be racist, and either through morales, experiences, and upbringing they react to their perceptions.These reactions in extreme cases are racism.

I think race is learned through history and media. I know when I was younger there was no prejudices in my mind, i dont even think i knew what prejudice was. it wasnt in my young brain to think of a black toddler as a killer. history teaches us race through things like slavery. the media shows race by the shows and movies of black people in projects, white people being succesful, and other minorities acting accordin to ther stereotypes. i think the family can be a factor to but it varies for every family. a family of parents whithout racist thoughts will not teach a child about racism. but a white family in the times of slavery willteach their white children the stereotypes of black people.

i dont think its possible to end racism. humans will always create perceptions and stereotypes about other humans. its up to the person to take these thoughts and act on them. i always think there will be ignorant people who will look at stereotypes in there mind and act in a scared manner, taking out there problems on who they stereotype. racism comes from human's ability to percieve the world around us. i think its impossible to teach everyone to follow the same exact perceptions. just as it was portrayed in crash, even though slavery is many many years away, there is still evidence of lots of racism.

priveleges of the wealthy

after playing all these games and watching a 2 week movie i think im pretty well educated o n wealth. weatlh gives people the ability to mess up and have fun doing it. the wealthy control most aspects in life becase they are viewed as the hard working succesful people everyone should listen to if they want to have money. the wealthy have so many opportunities and ways to achieve and get what they want. they control america. everyone looks up to the wealthy not because of who they are, but becasuse of the money theyve made. i think that wealthy get togethers would suck cause no one knows each other they just know they have money and dont care who they are. my 3 main examples of priveleges of wealth are better education, material comfort, and influence. the wealthy have the ability to get the best education possible for themselves and their children, because a lot of the times enough money can influence anybody. the wealthy obviously have great material comfort, being able to afford huge houses, nice cars, vacations, plenty of food, etc. the wealthy especially have influence in america, if the wealthy are unhappy then usually things are done to make them happy. lots of decisisions are made only to improve the welfare of the wealthy, when they need nothing of the sort. the movie definetly showed that the richer people were more educated, better dressed, and had better material comfort. monoply showed that the richer u are the easier it is to play and buy whatever you want. i think something should be done to combat these priveleges but it is hard. first, education should be available to everyone no matter their economic background. next i think that we need to somehow spread the welath of the rich, only a couple percent of the population control a ton of the wealth so we need to sprread it out to the poor. next, we need our government to stop sucking up to the rich. even though they are extrmeely influential because of their money we need to stop trying to comfort those who have the best comforts, we need to focus on those who live on minimum wage salaries to support a family. i think if we make the classes closer to equal in wealth then we are going towards communism, so i think classes are "good" but not when its impossible to move around and its hard to change ur personality to a different class.

how classy

the quote, "What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what
we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that
ruin a man in one class made him eminent in another." is a pretty profound thing. This is saying that the situations and opportunities presented to a person are the reasons why someon acts a certain way, which ultimately leads us to judge the persons actions. In other words, his class dictates what he does and how we view what he has done. I think this quote is very true in our society, if you are in the poor class your opportunities are far different from someone who is rich. you act differently, you do things differently and you think differently. the example mr. smith gave us is a good one. you will look differently at an aggressive real estate agent versus an aggressive sanitation worker. theyre both good jobs, but the sanitation worker is associated more with a lower class than a real estate agent. people look at the sanitation worker differently only because his job is seen as somethin done by the poor who dont have the means to a college education and a "succesful" job. he is not judged by how he works, his personality, etc., but by his class. i think work ethic is a great example of this. take for example a hard working drug lord and a hardworking ceo. from first glance, we immediately assume the drug lord is of a lower class and is up to no good. now, the ceo is a rich, nice gentleman. but i think if you look closer a lot of the times you can see that the drug lord worked extremely hard to get to were he is, even if it is an illegal business. the ceo most likely has been pampered and praised his whole life, and has lived only in the upper upper class. because of where the drug lord came from and his circumstances a life of crime might be the only way to success. whereas a ceo usually is from a rich family without a pressing need for cash. it pretty much boils down to success. different classes have different routes to success, and as you go down in class it gets less and less respectable. i think this is all due to society. the drug lord could be a hard working businessman with no oppotunities. people are judged by what they do, and not how, or what circumstances occurred to make that life the only life possible. we look to closely at the outside of people, the clothes, cash, cars, that we forget to look at "what a man is"

punishable deviance

in my sociological mind punishable deviance is a socieatel thing. because what if our socity was one that focused on selling drugs to make profit? in that society it wold be normal to sell crack or heroine, and it would be looked on a lot differently. i think in any society therer will always be punishable deviance it just depends on the society. in everything someone ends up doing something wrong, but is it really wrong? society tells us its wrong but who really knows whats wrong and right? im goin a little off topic haha. back to wat i was saying, in every type of society there has to be and will be punishable deviance, theres no way to get around that. i think after seeing morgan spurlocks movie that our form of dealing with punishable deviance is not right at all. we need to help peopl reform there way of life to fit in with the rest of the world. keepin a bunch of men in a room, never letting them see fresh air and rarely seeing family and loved ones is a horrible way to deal with this deviance. criminals keep on getting sent back to the pen becaus we dont teach them how to live with the society, instead of against it. our current "reform" system tells us as sociologists that we really dont care about criminals. theyre the lowest of low and so we shouldny have to take the extra step to help them succesfully function in society. i think that bc of this we almost think of criminals as less than human, theyre deviant abnormal people who dont belong with us, but instead belong behind locked doors. the people that are usually arrested are the poor and minorities. they dont have the opportunity so they resort to illegal methods to get by in life. theyre trying to live the only way they can, and were denying that from them. also a lot of ppl sent to jail have been there before, so even tho we send them to prison to "reform" them, they are right back in a short time. once in jail, inmates are left alone with other inmates. by keeping them all together and in small spaces, we think that tehy will have time to rethink what they have done and therefore change there ways. but this doesnt happen. the best success in keepin peeople out of prison would be doin things like the second jail morgan visited. in my opninion that is a much better, healthier, and more effective way of helping these deviant individuals to get back on society's "right track".

adolesence

1. well lets start out with clothing. i definetly think how you dress is affected by the environment around u an wat you like. i think the music ou listen to, activities u participate in and things u enjoy influence how you dress. i think sports is a mixture of nature an nurture. the nature part is if ur tall, better reflexes, better eyesight, just gettin lucky wat attributes u have. the nurture part of it is if u love a sport so much but physically u dont have tha best attributes u can work really hard and practice a lot to becom really good. i think professions is nurture becaus how do ur genes help u figure out what job u do for the rest of ur life, if u wan to be an accontant u take accountant courses and get a job. nature would be in this on;ly becaus if ur not that good at math it will be harder for u to be a succesful accountant. i think that overall ur life is balanced by both of these thing and they compliment each other to shape u into who u ar an wat u like.
2. adolescent social status is so importan to teenagers becaus thats all thery have. we dont have enough rights or privileges to make anythin else important. so we have to base everythin on how "cool" someone is becaus we have no other way to figure out the "top dogs" which i think every society thinks they need to have.
3. in this age socializatio n of children is dominated by tv and other generations had to actually go outside and create games and activities to pass time an not b bored. some concerns wit this new generation is tht kids arnt goin outside and interactin with other kids, so they have bad social skills. also kids are losin there creative abilities becaus they can rely on the tv to entertain thems instead of themselves. i think these ar valid concerns bc children aren able to learn necessary social skills for later in life.
4. gender socialization is pretty obvious in our world. its obvious when a toy is made for a guy becaus of what ideas and values it promotes. for example a pink stuffed animal is considerd a girl toy becaus it promotes girl values, like emotional, passive, sensitive, and friendly. a football is considered a boy toy becaus the vaues it promotes are teamwork, bravery, athleticism, and competitive.i think these toys are a big impact becaus its almost tellin kids wat values they should live by and how they should act. id say the impact is huge, a lot of the guy values i learned from a young age an these values will be with me my whole life.

adolescence

the adolescent stage in life is always a weird and annoying one. most people are adults in almost every way, except for the rights and privileges we are given. for example, i could maybe pass off as a 20 year old (21 if i dont shave) and i can even sometimes act that age (if i want to lol). but i am still denied opportunities that i feel belittle me and make me feel a lot younger than i really am. its almost like the unit we had on infantilization, i'm being treated like a child when in many aspects im an adult. i think the definition of adolescense is not really set in stone. does adolescence end at 21? if so i feel like we are adolescent for way to long. i think adolescense should be determined by the way people act and how "mature" teenagers are. in my mind, why should i act like an adult if it will get me nothing? no matter how alike i act to a 25 year old i will not have the same privileges until i turn 21 or 18 or 25. so i think society is making kids stay "adolescent" for a lot longer than necessary. its like stunting our growth but in a societal way. the age limit of certain things is always hated by teenagers. we get a taste of adulthood by being able to drive and to work, but everything else is denied to us. ill start acting my age once i get the rights corresponding to my age, maturity, and responsibility. i think there should be an age level for certain things, but for other things like curfew it should not be 18. i guess im just an oppresed adolescent who is stuck with the minimal amount of rights i have, and i dont like it at all.

Agents of Socialization

i am like my family in a few ways. first, both of my parents are really hard workers, which i feel like thye have passed onto me. when i put my mind to something, i work my butt off to be the best i possibly can be. and sorry mr. smith school usualy doesnt fall into that category. next, i am a really fun loving person, i joke around all the time and i dont take anyhing to serisously or let myself get stressed out, which is exactly how my parents are, chill and all. my parents said that i first started to show a different personality when i was in 6th grade, because thts when i started to "go crazy" as they said. i had so much energy and no place to use it so i ran around the house and was always playing and being active, whcih they incouraged and i thank them for helpin me love physical activities. i respect the jobs my parents do, but as ive said before i dont want to go to an office everyday and follow the same routine day in and day out. id have to really love my job, somethin i feel both my parents do. i think that if you are influenced enough that there is always a chance that a little part of you can be changed, but i think that it wouldnt be a monumental change, jst some small tweakin in ur lifestyle. besides my family i'd have to say im heavily influenced by my friends and sports. my friends is an obvious one, how they talk, act, dress, is pushed on me everyday because i always see them. sometimes if my friend says a certain word or phrase or something and if ive hung out wiht them enough, ill start saying it to. im just used to hearing it. also, i have been influenced into sports because of my friends. my "career" of mma started when my good friend told me about how awesome wrestling was, so i took what he said and decided to try it out, which was the first step towards my passion for physical combat. sports also has shaped who i am. the idea of a team sport has been pushed onto me since forever. i now think as a part of a group, and i try and see an outcome to a situation that will benefit the group better, not just me. i also learned lifelessons in dedication, hardwork, and a never quit state of mind. i can take these lessons from sports to shape who i am, and to use them in everyday activities throughout my life

unit 2 culture blog

1. in my life i would have to say a defining example of "water" is the community of buffalo grove and its attitdue to schooling. living in bg, it is shoved on u at a young age that the key to success and only way to be happy is doing good in high school, going to college next year, getting a good job, and starting a family. i feel that everyone is being told this, so its nothin new or exciting, its just how life is here in bg. i dont think this is necessarily a bad "water", but when peopl ask others where they are going next year and they say, oh im working and not goin to college, we stare at them and think, wow theyre not going anywhere. its not because were mean, its because weve been taught that and have grown up thinkin that.

2. i ride the "water" surrounding me. i am going to be like 98% of the school and go to college. no surprises there. its hard to swim out of the water, and i give kudos to those that succeed by working straght out of high school without a college education. im applying to 5 big 10 schools, and so in this example i fit the "stereotype" of bg, a kid going to a big school with a dream of success and a family down the road. i realize how much im influenced. i really do think its weird that some kids dont go to college after high school. ive just been brought up in a way thtt says college=job=success=money

3. the american values i embrace are physical fitness and individual personality. i'm a workoutaholic and i believe that everyone has teh right to be themselves all the time no matter what anyone says. i think i can adjust self-fulfillment and concern for the environment. i want to fulfill tasks that will make me feel good inside, that dont just benefit me but maybe a group of people or the environment. i want these two ideas to go hand in hand if possible. i "creatively" adjust values by making them my own. i would like to be able to tweak culturally influencing values into ones that arent based on individuals like i feel most values are. i want american values to better everyone, the poverty in the world, global warming, peace, all that good stuff. pretty much i would like to be able to make people less individualistic and instead think as a group and a world community.

infantilization

infantilization is a common thin happenin in our world. it is defined as kinda "dumbing" down consumers to make it easier to sell products. in commercials producrs infantilize adults, then adults make child like decisions when they buy stuff. in my world school is the big thin tht makes me feel like a child. bathroom passes? in high school? were 17 years old and we have to do things that 10 yr olds gotta do..thts wack. i think the micro levl would be a classroom, were we are like kids and th teach is the paren was has an hour to watch his or her kids. at the macro level i think were being hurt. we will go into the outside world nd think tht we are gon be babyed and helped thru college and life, but really were not. so i def think were gettin harmed in all this.

i think big c belongs to a ton of groups. hes first a male and a human. he's italian and a member of the bronx. he's in sonnys gang, and hes also like a son to sonny. hes part of the younger section of the gang, and the older. i think hes both in sonnys crew by affiliation with sonny, but he is definetly more of just a group with sonny. hes also a part of the black group, more specifically his relationship with the black girl (dont remember her name haha). also he's american, a young adult, and somewhat poor. he was (key word was) a member of new york yankees lovers, but because of sonny that died. he's in a schooling group, but hes also in a group for living and thinking on the street (he's got two educations, school and the streets). i think c's master status is a bronx kid. i think this because it kind of encompasses everything he is into one group. everything can be traced back to where he lives, he is shaped by his surroundings. it seems like a general thing, but to me i think it sums up really well who he is and who/what made him who he is. sure his dad and sonny have had huge impacts (just an example), but if not for the bronx, he wouldnt be at all like he is. he is almost forced into the kind of person he is just by where he lives. wow. thats pretty mind boggling haha. lastly tho, i think his master status will change in the future, cause i honestly dont think he'd live in the bronx all his life...well ya never know... but ya now that all thats done i just want to make a pretty crazy reference to the movie bronx tale, theres a song by Jedi Mind Tricks (rap group) called The Darkest Throne (no idea why) on the album Legacy of Blood, and for the whole 45 seconds is the clip from when c as a kid is confessing his sins to the priest...you can imagine my reaction to this when first hearing it haha

gangstas

on tuesday we read a pretty cool article about an indian college student at U of C who was studying the best major, sociology. he decided to talk to a professor an got enlisted in doing a study about the projects and the african american communitie living around them. after finding a gang tht wouldnt kill him he started asking multiple choice questions which didnt work. he was told by the gang leader T.J. that he had to live and interact with who he was studying to really understand what their life is like and how they live it. i thought this was a really interesting story. i do think though that the author should at least credit this pretty stellar novel to the gang leader T.J. if not for T.J. taking him under his wing and showing him how to be a world renown sociologists...then well none of this would have happened. i'm not saying he should be payed for it (maybe a small portion of the profit for thanks), i'm saying he should be credited. also in class mr. smith talked about annotations, and frankly i hate annotations and feel like they hurt rather than help me. im on of those gifted individualx who can read somethin and be able to retain most of the info. im pretty jovial that i wont have to annotate for 7th period ever again

friday's class

so it's a normal friday at stevenson. of course, im super excited as always for wat sociology class will offer today. me and leah were even talking on how we wait all day for 7th period. anyways, we started out by getting 16 volunteers to be placed into 16 different roles. obviously me and haynes picked the married, football player and cheerleader/pregnant wife couple (i was the wife). then we went back into the room and were told that of the 16 we needed to somehow get down to 9, as that was the number for survival. so, we argued and ppl were thrown off. haynes decided he was just a nobody football player so he jumped off. i followed shortly after because, as everyone knows, without haynes im nothin (i took the baby with me as well lol). after the final 9 were chosen they were asked to tell the story of how they lost 7 ppl. they all lied, which i thought was funny because they werent being charged so they could have told the truth. all in all i thought it was a fun activity and made me like sociology class that much more

who i am

I'm pretty much a laid back guy, stress free all that. i'm a hard worker, if i dedicate myself to somethin im gettin it done. I love extreme sports, skating, snowboarding all that. fyi lisa smells. I am also really into boxing, wrestling, martial arts, ya know. I'd have to say im really influenced by how i was brought up. My family is pretty laid back so im never stressed at home. After family goes the culture that I live in, lots of things i love to do i discovered when a friend told me about it. My goals are to live a normal life abnormally. Sure I wanna go to college and graduate but I don wanna live my life in an office filing papers and typing on a computer all day. lisa still smells